by Dan Padavona
Paige shook her head. She fiddled with the bracelet, spinning it around her wrist.
“I’m just scared. That’s all.”
Thomas sat back.
“Three girls form a bond that lasts through high school. One goes missing, and the other two refuse to speak to each other again.”
“But I—”
Thomas held up a hand.
“Yet you both hold on to your friendship bracelets, as if they’re lifelines. Something happened during school that drove you and Justine apart, and I sense it got Skye killed. What aren’t you telling me, Paige?”
She stood and swung her purse over her shoulder.
“Why am I on trial? I have nothing to hide. My friend is missing. Search for her instead of interrogating me.”
“Sit down.”
“I came here on my volition. You can’t force me to stay.”
“Paige, I’m trying to help you. Please.” She tossed her purse on the neighboring chair and sat. “Now, let’s go back to high school. I remember what it was like to be a teenager. Insecurities, peer pressure. We all made decisions we regret. Was there a boy you competed over with Skye and Justine?”
“I wouldn’t steal a boy from my friends.”
“Okay. How about a classmate the three of you had a run in with?”
“I told you. Everyone loved Skye.”
“But did everyone love you?”
She examined her hands.
“You make me sound conceited.”
“I’m simply asking who your enemies are. Someone bullied me during school. It’s not unusual.”
“There was no bullying at Wolf Lake High. We were a better school than that.”
Thomas shrugged his shoulders.
“Then I’m uncertain what you want from me. You claim you have no enemies, and nobody would want to hurt you or your friends. Yet you believe someone murdered Skye, and that person took Justine.”
Paige clasped her hands together.
“It’s possible the intruder who broke into my house is the same person who kidnapped Justine and murdered Skye. I want protection. Can’t you place a deputy in front of my house until you apprehend this psychopath?”
“We don’t have enough deputies. I can’t watch your home twenty-four hours per day.”
“You can’t, or you won’t?”
“Tell you what. I’ll call the state police barracks. They might have enough officers to stake out your neighborhood. But I can’t make any promises.”
The woman collected her belongings and strode to the door where she glared at Thomas before leaving.
“If you can’t protect us, Sheriff, our blood will be on your hands.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Friday, August 13th
5:25 p.m.
“Yes, Mr. Middleton. I’m happy we resolved your dispute.”
Chelsey held the phone away from her ear as Carl Middleton barked through the speaker. The man should have been satisfied she’d proved fraud in the Herb Reid case. But a jerk like Carl Middleton was never content. Now he wanted to sue Herb Reid.
“I’m sorry, but that’s a legal matter. You have the video footage. I can’t tell you how to proceed, but I feel you should take the win and call it a day.”
The curse words flying out of the phone made Chelsey wince.
After Middleton finished screaming and hung up, she lowered her head and rubbed her aching neck. Bending her neck made the cuts on her chest flare with red agony. She unclasped her necklace and pushed it into her desk drawer.
Two missed calls awaited Chelsey on her phone. The first had come from a nurse at the incompetent doctor’s office, the idiot who diagnosed her heart condition as anxiety. The nurse wanted Chelsey to schedule a followup appointment. Like hell she would waste another dollar on that doctor. The second call was Raven’s. Chelsey set the phone on her desk and tapped the voice-mail icon, playing the message through her speaker.
“Hey, Chelsey. Just checking in on you.”
I don’t need you to check on me, Chelsey thought with a scowl.
“I need to run an errand in Syracuse this afternoon, then I’ll drop by the office.” Raven paused and composed her words. “There’s something we need to discuss. Don’t worry. I’m not lecturing you. I’m your friend, and all I want is to help.” Raven’s footsteps scuffed the sidewalk as she walked through the city. “I love you, Chelsey. Never forget it. If you’re in trouble, you can talk to me.”
Chelsey hit the delete icon. The last thing she needed was Raven mothering her. Raven had enough skeletons in her own closet—her drug-addicted mother, her gangster brother. Who was Raven to judge Chelsey?
She shoved her rolling chair back as she stood. The chair collided with Raven’s desk and jiggled the mouse, activating the computer screen. Chelsey walked away and stopped. A digital map of the state park filled the screen, a green dot pulling her attention. She examined the satellite image of the terrain surrounding Lucifer Falls.
Chelsey moved the mouse before the screen saver reactivated. Studying the image, she let her arms fall to her sides. The green locater on the map marked where the sheriff’s department unearthed bones beside the creek.
Why was Raven investigating the Jane Doe murder behind Chelsey’s back?
* * *
Charcoal grills sent mouthwatering scents through the state park as Darren cut down the ridge trail. It was dinner time, and everyone at the camp had sat down to enjoy a meal except him. After placing the trail cameras earlier, he’d obsessed over them. Were they working? Three times he tested the cameras and walked through their fields of vision, then checked the footage on the computer in his office. There had to be a way to send the pictures to his phone. But he hadn’t figured out the app. Raven would know what to do.
He checked his reception and dialed her number, pleased when she answered. A motor growled in the background. Raven was driving with the windows down.
“Hey, babe. Where are you?”
“I’m coming out of Syracuse now,” she said. She raised the window and squelched the noise, making it easier for Darren to hear her. “I picked up two security cameras in the city. They’re top of the line models. Scout should be excited. Once we set them up, we can monitor the guest house on our phones.”
“Good work. I’m starting to dig this Nancy Drew, Scooby Doo mystery busting team. Speaking of cameras, I haven’t figured out the app for my trail cameras.”
She snickered.
“And you need my help.”
“Yep.”
“Ranger Holt, are you concocting reasons for me to visit you on a Friday night?”
“I’m rather helpless with technology. I need a strong, smart woman to set me straight. And do other things.”
“Meow. Give me an hour. I haven’t checked on Mom since breakfast, and I want to drop the cameras off with LeVar.”
“All right, I appreciate the help. How’s Chelsey today?”
Raven cussed.
“I completely forgot to stop by the office. Add that to my to-do list.”
“Is everything okay?”
“Something is up with Chelsey, but I can’t talk. I’m behind a dump truck, so this isn’t the best time to discuss what’s going on. We’ll talk later.”
“I’ll be here.”
He ended the call and stared at the phone. Something was going on. He’d heard the worry in Raven’s voice when he mentioned Chelsey.
Waving away a curious bumblebee, Darren cut through the trees. Birdsong played through the forest, and the late afternoon light created a picket fence pattern through the trees. He was half a mile from camp when movement in the forest caught his eye. Darren pulled up and stood behind a thick maple tree. A hundred feet away, a shadow shifted in the woods. Hikers weren’t allowed off trail. The forest held hidden dangers—dead falls, bramble, even the occasional bear. But he wasn’t a stickler for the rules, provided the hiker complied after he asked the person to return to the trail.
What
bothered Darren most was this person didn’t seem like a hiker. Instead, the stranger moved from tree to tree, concealing himself. Darren checked the GPS on his phone. As he suspected, the unknown figure hid near a drop off that plummeted fifty feet into Wolf Lake. One wrong move, and the soft forest ground might give way.
Darren slipped out from behind the maple tree and jogged toward an oak, staying light on his feet to avoid spooking the stranger. He was close enough to see a man peering through binoculars toward the lake. What was he looking at? Darren waited until he was certain the man hadn’t spotted him before he crept closer. It was eighty degrees in the shade, and the man wore a hooded sweatshirt with the string drawn tight to conceal his face.
As Darren climbed over a log, his foot came down on a fallen branch and snapped it in half. The man’s head shot up. Before Darren cursed his carelessness, the man took off running up the hill. Darren cut across the forest, tree limbs whipping his face as he fought to keep up. He was in good shape, fitter than he’d been as a Syracuse police officer. But his quarry seemed to take two steps for every one Darren took, the stranger pulling away.
“Hey! Come back here!”
Darren leaped through bramble, the thorns tearing red streaks into his flesh. He knew shortcuts that would take him to any of the park’s trails. But the man was too agile and fast. Near the campgrounds, Darren leaned against a tree and caught his breath. He’d lost sight of the stranger.
Wiping the sweat off his brow, he batted away a swarm of gnats and backtracked to where he’d first seen the unknown man. Maybe he’d dropped an item that would help Darren identify him. Darren’s gut told him this was the state park thief. But a chill rolled down his back when he considered an alternative—he’d chased the killer who murdered the young woman beside the creek. Darn his incompetence with technology. Had he properly set up the trail camera application, he could have checked his phone. It was possible the man appeared on multiple cameras in the woods. If the stranger visited the grave site below Lucifer Falls, he’d have evidence this was the killer.
Darren edged down the ridge, walking sideways so his shoes didn’t slip on the loose soil. Blues from the lake siphoned through the woods, as though an endless sky lay beyond the forest. He spotted the group of trees where he’d first seen the man. Darren knelt down and squinted at the footprints. This was where the man stared through his binoculars. Darren snapped a photograph with his phone. Then he stood in the man’s tracks and parted the saplings. Darren flinched when he followed the man’s sight line.
The stranger had been staring across the water at Thomas’s house.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Friday, August 13th
7:15 p.m.
Water dripped, the darkness bleeding.
Justine jolted awake. The manacles snared her wrists and dragged her back to the wall. Stretched to the point of popping out of joint, her shoulders screamed. She’d hung forward, unconscious, with the chains yanking her arms back while she dozed. She didn’t know her location or the day. But the fading light creeping around the window told her it was almost sunset. Soundproofing foam covered the rest of the window, and a reinforced door at the top of the basement staircase locked her in this black hell.
A tray of food lay at her feet. She’d refused the man’s food since he abducted her from the parking lot and tossed her in the cellar. Now her stomach ached with acidic hunger, and she wished for anything to quell the stomach pangs. Her eyes dropped to the tray—a baked potato and a chicken thigh that smelled of vinegar and pepper. Reaching out with her foot, she dragged the tray closer, unsure how she’d retrieve the meal with her arms chained. Something scurried through her food. She pulled her feet back and retched when a cockroach the size of her thumb skittered across the chicken and beneath the washing machine.
A shiver rolled through her body. The basement gloom would only thicken after sunset. Soon the basement would become a black abyss, and she wouldn’t see the roaches and spiders coming for her.
Justine wondered about her abductor. He’d hung within the shadows so she didn’t recognize him. Why take her? Was she just a random victim in the wrong place at the wrong time, or had he followed her through the store, patiently waiting until she ventured into the fog? This was fate’s way of torturing her for her wrongdoings. Karma coming around to snatch her in its needle-fang jaws.
She’d asked for this. Not by returning to Wolf Lake, but by her inaction when Paige bullied Dawn and drove the poor girl to commit suicide. Justine could have stopped the madness. At the very least, she should have turned her back on Paige, as Skye had done months before. How ironic that Skye paid the price for their sins, when she was the only one brave enough to tell Paige she was out of control. Even then, it was already too late. Dawn hung herself in her bedroom, while her classmates looked forward to their final schooldays and applied to universities. It should have been the happiest times of their lives.
Exhaustion and a malnourished body dragged her toward an unconscious state. It was silent above the ceiling. No footfalls scuffling across the floor. Perhaps her kidnapper had abandoned her to starve and die in this nowhere world. A whoosh drew her eyes to the far wall as the water heater turned on. A moment later, water poured through the pipes as the shower ran somewhere in the house. She wasn’t alone, after all.
Be strong, Justine.
The words floated inside her head as she hallucinated Skye speaking to her. It wasn’t the first time she’d imagined her friend in the same room. Since the weekend Skye disappeared, Justine heard the girl talking from the shadows when Justine teetered on the edge of sleep. Skye came to her in dreams and told her she was alive, that someday they’d be together again. Justine could show her faith and keep Skye’s memory alive by wearing the friendship bracelet. Donning the bracelet brought Justine closer to her lost friend. It wasn’t a tribute to Paige.
Her head bobbed and dropped to her chest. The manacles stretched her arms taut as she pitched forward. Numb, she no longer experienced pain.
As her eyelids fluttered, a shadow disturbed the darkness. She blinked, suddenly awake and aware of her surroundings. Beyond the water heater, a foot scraped against the concrete floor.
Then she saw the eyes staring at her from the darkness. Twin moons of psychosis, leering at Justine.
She screamed. And no one heard.
* * *
The sun set over Wolf Lake State Park and stole the security of daylight. Raven’s nerves frayed with trepidation as she parked her Nissan Rogue at the visitor’s center and crossed the campground toward Darren’s cabin. Campers roasted marshmallows on sticks and made S’Mores. Somewhere, soft music filtered out of a radio.
Her eyes darted from one shadow to the next as she hustled toward the safety of the light. Darren opened the door before she knocked. He’d seen her coming.
“Sorry I took so long,” she said, falling into his embrace.
He rubbed her back.
“You’re like a powder keg ready to blow. What’s going on?”
“It’s more of the same. Anytime I’m alone, especially after dark, I freak out.”
“Well, you’re safe now.”
He bolted the door and drew the curtain over the window. The homey cabin was Raven’s sanctuary, and her heart stopped thrumming when the light caressed her skin and washed away the coming darkness. Darren led her to the couch. A small television sat atop his dresser, perfect for when he streamed movies. He didn’t have cable or satellite. That was fine by Raven. Nothing but bad news played on those channels.
“I have leftover pizza in the fridge. By the time I tested the trail cameras, I was too tired to cook. So I stopped at Donatello’s and grabbed a sheet.”
“Maybe later,” she said, leaning her head back. “How do the cameras work?”
“Great, but I still haven’t caught our thief.”
Raven, who’d drifted into a relaxed semiconscious state, snapped her eyes open.
“The thief came back?”
“Possibly,” Darren said as he opened the refrigerator. He tossed her an iced tea and popped the top on a soda can. “While I was checking the cameras, I caught someone sneaking around the woods.”
“It wasn’t a hiker?”
“I don’t think so. The guy took off running when he spotted me.”
“Any idea who it was?”
“No. He wore a hooded sweatshirt, so I couldn’t see his face. Whoever he is, he’s as fast as the wind. Even taking all my secret shortcuts, I couldn’t keep up with him.”
“Damn. Then again, you’re slow. I’d beat your cute butt in a race any day.”
Darren slid beside her and set his soda on the floor.
“I don’t doubt it. But I feel you’re just fixated on my cute butt.”
She slugged his shoulder.
“So the cameras didn’t catch the thief?”
Darren sighed.
“I’m afraid not. The guy avoided the cameras, almost like he knew where they were.” His forehead creased. “I wonder if he watched me setting them.”
“Which means he followed you through the forest. That’s unsettling.”
“Just a tad. Now I regret not buying more cameras. I should record the cabins and catch him in the act.”
“I’ll grab another set in Syracuse tomorrow.”
“I can go. You don’t have to drive all the way to the city on my account.”
“It’s no problem. Besides, this is my case. The offer stands, if you’re interested.”
His eyes lit.
“Oh, I forgot. The guy left footprints all over the forest, so I snapped a photograph.” Darren swiped through his phone and found the shoe print. “I took these near the drop off into the lake. The creep had binoculars.”
“What was he looking at?”
“If I wasn’t crazy, I’d say he was spying on Thomas’s house.”
