Touch of Rain

by Teyla Branton

  Inclar was dead, but that didn’t mean I was in immediate danger. No one was hunting me, or they would have found me already, alerted by my wild, panicked flight through the forest. I took out my two-way radio.

  “Ethan,” I said urgently into it. “Ethan, are you there? Hurry, pick up.”

  Three agonizing seconds passed before the comforting burst of static that signaled his response. “Autumn? What’s wrong?”

  “Inclar. He’s dead. I just found him.”

  He made a noise of disbelief. “What killed him?”

  “I don’t know. I stumbled over him on the way back. He’s just lying here in the woods. I didn’t wait around to check how he died. We have to get to Rome and call the police.” Detective Martin, to be exact. He’d mock me for not trusting him, but I was willing to endure that and more to get out of here.

  “What about my sister? I don’t want her hurt if there’s a confrontation.”

  “I’m sure the police will be careful. Think of it this way—with Inclar dead, they’ll turn this place upside down in search of her.”

  He should be happy about that. As for me, I felt a keen disappointment that Gabe and possibly Korin were running a scam after all. The people I’d met tonight were so happy and content with their simple lives. Everything would change for them now.

  There was a long pause. Too long for my shot nerves. “Ethan?” I whispered frantically, imagining Harmony Farms lookouts taking him into custody. I scooted closer to the huge tree I’d run into, feeling the ancient comfort that was completely oblivious to my short-lived human struggles.

  “I’m here. Don’t worry.” He sounded a bit out of breath. “Just checking the tracking monitor. I can give you directions to my location using the earrings. But what about Jake? Are you bringing him too? Or are we leaving him there?”

  Jake. In my terror, I’d completely forgotten him.

  “I’ll go back for him, and then we’ll meet you.”

  “Are you sure? He shouldn’t be in too much danger if—”

  “I’m not leaving him!” I ground out. “He’s only here because of me.”

  “Okay. Okay.” Another static-filled pause before he said, “Autumn, you have to be even more careful now. You can’t rouse their suspicions. If there’s been one murder, there might be others. You have to be careful.”

  My irritation faded.

  Static. “What I’m saying is, if you go back for Jake, you might have to stay the night.” Ethan’s voice was calm, but it did nothing to stay the frightened pounding in my chest.

  I wanted to protest, but he was right about the need for caution. I’d been away from the dance far too long as it was, and with these new, higher stakes, I couldn’t risk being caught and questioned. “We’ll be careful. If we see it won’t work tonight, we’ll stay.”

  “So I’ll wait to hear from you, either way.” His voice was loud again, too loud.

  I reached for the volume, but before I could twist the knob, a hand fell on my shoulder. I jerked my face upward, trying to see who had me, a scream rising in my throat.

  “Shhh, it’s just me. Ethan.”

  Choking down the scream, I twisted my body to better see his face. “You idiot!” I hissed.

  “Sorry.” He made a sympathetic noise as he released the hold on my shoulder, drawing me to my feet and encircling me with one arm. He felt warm and inviting. Unlike me, he was dressed warmly in jeans and a sweatshirt jacket. By the illumination of the flashlight he carried, I could see his face was flushed from his quick jaunt through the trees.

  I leaned against him, soaking in his warmth and his presence. “You shouldn’t be here. They’ll recognize you.”

  “When I saw on the tracking monitor how close you’d come to the fence, I thought it was worth the risk. I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “You’re like ice.” He clicked off his flashlight and pulled me closer, rubbing his hand up and down my arms to warm me. I wondered what I would do if he tried to kiss me. We hadn’t known each other long, however handsome he was, and I’d never seen him in his own environment. I didn’t know if he had friends, or if he liked the outdoors. I didn’t even know how he felt about preservatives or microwaves.

  Besides, there was a dead body sharing our forest. That thought put a decided damper on things. That and my feelings for Jake.

  I took a tiny step back, breaking contact. My trembling from the cold had stopped. In fact, warmth was now rushing through my veins at his closeness.

  “I guess you need to get back to find Jake,” Ethan said.

  “Yeah.”

  “I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise.”

  If it had been Jake or anyone else, I would have retorted that I could take care of myself, but it felt good having Ethan worry about me. “And I’ll do my best to find Marcie.”

  He frowned. “They own three hundred acres. What if they’ve stashed her somewhere no one will ever look?”

  I thought of the key Inclar had given me. “It’s possible, but we know she was here, so we won’t let the police give up until they’ve gone over every foot of ground.”

  “I wish you could have looked around more, that’s all. Before the police alert them to our suspicions. But I guess that’s out now, if you and Jake manage to sneak away tonight.”

  “The police should surprise them. They won’t have time to cover much.”

  He nodded, but I could see the misery in his eyes. “Just keep in mind what I said about getting caught.”

  I shuddered at the possibility. “If we don’t contact you in two hours, maybe you should go to Rome and talk to the police without us.”

  “It’s a tiny place. They may not have a police station or the personnel to conduct a raid.”

  “You’ll have phone service. You can get things in motion and then come back to wait for us to sneak out.”

  He considered this for a time. “You know, even if you can get out tonight, maybe it would be safer if I went for the police now and you waited until they arrive in force before you try to leave.”

  He wanted me to stay? In my mind the suggestion was tantamount to betrayal. Inclar was dead, but before he died, he might have told someone he’d given me the key—the key that made me sick and woozy with the images imprinted on it. If he had, I’d be in danger. The cold of the night seeped into my heart.

  “Wait a minute,” I protested, giving him an icy glare. “Weren’t you the one worried about Marcie getting hurt in a police shootout? I don’t want to be in the middle of something like that, either, especially if they somehow suspect that I’m involved with Inclar.”

  “And you were the one who said the police would be careful,” Ethan countered. “Besides, I’d tell them you were inside to make sure they didn’t do anything stupid. If I went into town right now or as far as it takes for my phone to work, instead of waiting to see if you guys can sneak out, the police would be able to get here that much sooner and you wouldn’t have to risk getting caught.”

  I said nothing as I pondered the idea. Was keeping Jake and me inside a way for Ethan to ensure that the police wouldn’t burn everyone out or shoot people on sight, thus protecting Marcie? Or did he really believe I’d be safer waiting? Every instinct urged me to run fast and far from both the farm and Inclar’s lifeless body, but the more I thought about it, the more logical Ethan’s plan sounded.

  “Believe me,” Ethan said into the silence that had fallen between us, “I’d rather take you with me right now, but since you won’t leave Jake, staying and playing the part might be safer than if you try to sneak away tonight. Your danger of getting caught is too great. One man’s dead, so we know they aren’t joking around. Whatever they’re hiding is big enough to murder for. They’ll be stepping up their fence patrols, I bet. It won’t be as easy for you to get out as it was for me to get in.”

  Despite my sense of betrayal, what he said made sense. With Inclar dead, there was no telling what the comm
une might do to protect their secrets. The smart thing to do would be to go with Ethan now, but I wouldn’t leave Jake behind. Already I had an itchy feeling as though I needed to hurry back to him, to make sure he was all right.

  This meant the shock of seeing Inclar’s body was fading. Funny how you adjust to such things. I’d been close to a lot of dead bodies in my lifetime, what with Winter and Summer having died and also their friends’ propensity for home funerals. Inclar’s remains had frightened me more than any other corpse, even Winter’s, which had been in the river for a week and whose flesh had been swollen and rotting. Maybe it was the location. Inclar’s aloneness. The unsolved mystery of what had happened to Marcie and Victoria. Yet somehow I had already moved on.

  “Okay,” I said with a sigh. “We’ll wait until the police come—but you have to get them here as quickly as possible.”

  “I will. Meanwhile, keep your eyes open and radio immediately if you need me. I hope I won’t be out of range more than an hour or so while I’m contacting them.” He leaned his face close to mine. “Be careful,” he whispered.

  His lips brushed mine, warm and compelling, but the moment was over almost before it started. Mostly my fault because I started thinking about Jake and wondering if he was worried about me. As far as kisses went it was rather boring. I’d bet even Detective Martin could do better. Maybe Ethan was as grossed out about sharing the forest with Inclar’s body as I was.

  I could still hear the music faintly, but it was hard to tell where it came from. I gave Ethan a wry smile. “If you’ll just point me in the right direction, I’ll be on my way. The music is coming from over there—I think.”

  Ethan gave a low chuckle. “I’ll take you closer. Until we can see the lights at least. As long as you’re around people and they don’t know you found Inclar, you’ll be fine.”

  “Even if they knew I found him, it’s not connected to me.” Unless he’d told them he’d given me the key, of course. Even if Inclar had talked about the key in connection with a woman he’d met, they might think him crazy enough not to worry about pursuing it.

  “Let’s hurry,” I added. The itch to find Jake had become a growing hole, deep and wide and gaping. I leaned over to pick up the towel-wrapped light.

  Ethan glanced at it curiously. “What’s with the towel?”

  I shivered a little, remembering Harmony’s fear. “A memory of Inclar is imprinted on the flashlight. That’s how I knew he was here—before I found him. I don’t want to feel it again.”

  “Ah. I see.” He shrugged off his jacket and placed it around my shoulders before switching on his own flashlight. The setting was dim, not something that would call attention to us, but helped immensely to illuminate our path through the brush. He took my hand, and we moved in silence toward the music.

  “How accurate is your timing of imprints?” he whispered after a moment. “Are you sure Inclar was alive last night?”

  “Pretty sure. Besides, he didn’t look like he’d been there long.”

  “Was he stiff? That could pinpoint the time of death a little.”

  “I didn’t exactly touch him. Well, I did step on him. I don’t think he felt stiff, but I can’t be sure.”

  Ethan nodded. “So he was killed sometime after the imprint and before you found him. That doesn’t narrow it down much.”

  “A coroner should be able to pinpoint it better.”

  “I wonder who killed him.” This he said idly, not really expecting a reply.

  I answered anyway. “My bet is on Gabe. He could have done it last night or early this morning before he left for Portland.”

  “And leave him in the woods all day for someone to find?”

  “He could have wounded Inclar and locked him up. Maybe he got loose and died trying to leave.”

  “I guess.” Ethan’s face was lit up momentarily by a patch of moonlight, and his features were drawn and anxious. I liked knowing that he wasn’t as calm as he seemed.

  At the same time we both noticed a faint light coming in our direction. Or sort of in our direction. A bit off to the right. “You go ahead,” Ethan whispered, snapping off his light. “Maybe they’re looking for you. I’ll stay here behind this tree. Shout if you need me.”

  If it was the killer, he meant, but we both avoided saying that. I moved on ahead, more carefully now without the light. My feet were frozen, but at least I still had Ethan’s jacket.

  Oops. Ethan’s jacket. Too late to give it back. I wondered what excuse I could give for somehow ending up with a man’s jacket in the middle of the woods.

  My body tensed as the light in front of me grew larger. A lantern, I saw now, swinging from someone’s hand. I squinted, trying to make out the person carrying it.

  Please don’t be the killer, I thought.

  “Autumn? Is that you?” Someone rushing toward me, and in the next second I was being hugged to Jake’s chest so tightly I couldn’t breathe. He must have been looking for me for some time and with ample concern, because worry was imprinted on his jacket. Faintly, but enough for me to feel uncomfortable so close to him. I drew away, as he held up the lantern, looking me over. His forehead was deeply furrowed, and his locs were in disarray, as though tree branches had pulled at them during his search.

  His smile died as he took note of the sweatshirt jacket I wore. “You were out here with Ethan, weren’t you?”

  “He came to make sure I was all right.”

  Anger flared in his eyes. “Why would you risk being discovered? People noticed you were missing. What happened to contacting him tomorrow night?”

  Ethan stepped into the light of Jake’s lantern. “That was before she found a dead body.”

  “What?” Jake scowled at him before turning back to me.

  “It was Inclar,” I said. “I learned that he’d been here, and I radioed Ethan so he could tell the police, but on the way back to the houses, I stumbled over Inclar’s body in the trees.”

  “You’re sure it was Inclar?”

  I nodded. As I envisioned the corpse, the shakiness in my stomach returned. I knew the memory of that sightless eye rolled up in Inclar’s motionless head would cause me many sleepless nights.

  “How did you find out that he was here? Who told—” Jake broke off as he spied the way I held Harmony’s useless red flashlight in the towel. He understood at once what it meant because he set down his lantern and gently took it from me, hand towel and all, placing it in the pocket of his jacket. “That bad, huh?”

  Ethan looked thoughtfully from one of us to the other, and I felt a rush of irritation at Jake for knowing me so well. “Thanks,” I muttered with ill grace.

  I shrugged off Ethan’s jacket and passed it to him. “You’d better get going,” I told him. To Jake, I added, “He’s driving into town to notify the police about Inclar.”

  “Isn’t that going to throw off our plans?” Jake said. “I mean, if the police show up?”

  “A man is dead!” I reminded him. “We have to report it. They might cover it up if we don’t. In fact, now that you’re here, we should both go with Ethan. The police will have to look into it now.”

  Jake’s body tensed. “You’re right. You should definitely go with Ethan. But I can’t leave yet. I’m going to look around, starting tonight when everyone’s sleeping. That’s what I came for.”

  I gave him a stubborn glare. “I thought you came because of me.”

  “Well, that too. But now there’s another reason.” He hesitated a heartbeat before adding, “I saw her.”

  Ethan’s face became animated. “My sister?”

  “No, a girl who looks like Victoria Fullmer. If it is her, she’s gained a lot of weight, and she’s a bit out of it. Vacant, dreamy. She was with a few other women who brought food out to the tables. I didn’t have the chance to talk to her.”

  “Then we can’t leave yet,” I decided. “And no”—I held up a hand to silence the words I knew Jake would speak—“I’m not leaving without you. That’s final.
”

  I waited for Ethan to insist on everyone leaving, but he only nodded. “Okay, but be careful.” He looked at Jake. “Can you find your way back?”

  “No problem.”

  “As long as you keep an eye on each other, you should be okay.”

  Jake nodded. “We’ll be fine.”

  We all seemed to be adjusting to the fact that there was a dead body in the forest not far from us, some adjusting better than others. Of course, I was the only one who had actually seen the corpse, so it was only natural that I’d feel the most creeped out.

  Ethan reached over and squeezed my shoulder. “I’ll see you soon.” It was a promise, no doubt an attempt to make his intentions toward me clear to Jake.

  “Okay,” I said. Jake’s face was impassive.

  “Bye,” Ethan muttered and turned away. I watched as the darkness swallowed him.

  “Show me where the body is.” Jake retrieved his lantern.

  I made a face. “I’m not sure I can find it again. It was somewhere past the bathrooms near the end of that side house. But farther out in the woods. I think.”

  “If I get you close, do you think you could find the place?”

  “Maybe.”

  Jake slipped off his jacket and pulled it over my bare arms, ignoring my feeble protests. I relented because already his worry had faded from his jacket. Most clothing imprints are like that—fleeting. If the jacket hadn’t been leather and Jake’s emotion so strong, it probably wouldn’t have held the imprint in the first place.

  “We’ll have to hurry,” Jake said. “Korin will be looking for us.”

  “You told him I was gone?”

  “No, but I heard him ask a woman where you were, and she said she’d left you out here with a flashlight. Of course I couldn’t tell them about your lack of a sense of direction.”

  “The light broke.”

  He nodded. “When you dropped it because of the imprint. I figured that much. Anyway, since I was going to the outhouse myself, I volunteered to look for you.”