by Laura Wolfe
Kaitlyn slid a chip to another square on the board, then looked at me. “Really? You’re going to hike all the way over there again? Even if there is a phone in the office, it’s probably disconnected.”
“It’s worth a try.”
Kaitlyn glanced at her phone. “It’s 11:35 a.m. already, almost lunchtime. I’ll put together some food for us first. I brought bagels and cream cheese, plus some sliced turkey. I also have potato chips and apples. We should let Sam rest until I get it ready.”
Charlotte contemplated her next move as Kaitlyn tried to remember the name of a hotel in Wausau where she’d stayed for a friend’s wedding eight years earlier but couldn’t come up with it. Without any phone reception or an internet connection, we couldn’t look anything up.
“We’ll figure it out when we get there,” I finally said. “After this experience, I’ll take any hotel that has two rooms available.”
Kaitlyn turned toward the woods. “Sorry to ask, but do you want to head back to Travis’s house again?”
Charlotte slid her chair back. “Yeah. I’ll try again.”
“Thanks. I’ll go inside and get the food together.”
“I’ll help you with lunch.”
My movements were slow as I stood. Charlotte hiked over the incline, her feet dragging with each step. Her orange shirt gradually disappeared into the horizon like the setting sun. I stared down the empty path. A better person would have insisted on going with her, but I couldn’t stomach seeing Travis again. I wouldn’t be able to hide my disgust, which could put us all in danger. We’d wasted the morning, and we hadn’t contacted anyone about the tires.
“C’mon.” Kaitlyn waved me toward the cabin.
I followed her across the deck and through the door to the kitchen, where she rummaged through grocery bags and removed a package of artisan bagels. I retrieved apples and a container of cream cheese from the fridge. I washed the fruit in the sink and set the apples in a large bowl I’d found in the cupboard.
“Hey.”
Jenna’s voice made me jump. I didn’t realize she’d woken up. She stood in the doorway, towering over me.
“Can I help?”
“Maybe get some paper plates.” I dried one more dripping apple with a paper towel and placed it in the bowl. Jenna nodded and searched through the bags as I slipped past her.
“I’m going to check on Sam.” The stairs creaked beneath my feet as I climbed toward the landing. The door to Sam’s room was half open. I inched forward, worried about scaring her if she’d fallen asleep. I pulled the door open wider, expecting to find her resting her head on the pillow. Instead, my stomach flipped. Her bed was empty.
I felt dizzy, panic surging through me. Still, I hoped there was an innocent explanation. Maybe Sam had switched to the other bedroom. I poked my head inside the room across the hall, finding it empty. Then I checked the bedroom where Charlotte and I slept. She wasn’t in there either.
“Sam?” I said, in case she was in the bathroom. But as I moved to the hallway, I could see the bathroom door was open, and no one was inside. My feet tripped over each other as I descended the staircase. Kaitlyn and Jenna had moved out to the porch with the food.
“Sam isn’t here.”
Jenna stared at me. “What do you mean?”
My eyes landed on Kaitlyn. “Didn’t you say she went inside to rest?”
“Yeah. That’s what I thought, but…”
“But what?”
“Now that I think about it, I didn’t see her go inside. Or maybe she went inside and came back out through the other door. I’m not sure.” Kaitlyn waved toward the boxes of board games. “Charlotte and I were focused on our game.”
Jenna’s forehead wrinkled. “So, maybe she walked somewhere else to look for a phone signal?”
“Sam wouldn’t head back to that camp on her own, would she?” I asked as a chill erupted across my skin.
“She’s been gone a long time.” Jenna peered toward the lake, her lips parting.
I searched the trees for any sign of movement. “Maybe Sam found reception and made a work call? Or called home to talk to Thomas?” But even as I said the words, I knew they weren’t true. Sam was conscientious of others. She would never leave us waiting like this on purpose, especially not for this long. I couldn’t believe how dumb we’d been, sitting here chatting, playing games, and making lunch while our friend was out in the woods somewhere. We’d left our dark-skinned friend to wander across the path of the neo-Nazi who lived next door.
My heartbeat accelerated. “We need to find her. Right now.”
“Oh my God,” Kaitlyn said under her breath. “What if something happened to her?”
Footsteps sounded in the distance, and I stretched my neck to see whose they were. Charlotte appeared from around the bend. She was alone, huffing along the path. A sheen of sweat glistened from her forehead as she neared and shook her head.
“So, Travis’s truck was there this time, but he still wasn’t home. I knocked on the door for about five minutes straight. He must have gone on a walk or left with someone else.” Charlotte’s breath was labored as she eyed the food on the table. “Thanks for getting the food together. All this walking back and forth is tiring.”
Jenna’s lips pulled back as she peered in the direction of Travis’s house. “Charlotte, we can’t find Sam.”
Charlotte rubbed the back of her hand across her forehead as she looked toward the cabin. “Sam went inside to take a nap like an hour ago. Remember?”
I pressed my heels into the floor of the deck, struggling to anchor myself to something. “She’s not in there.”
Kaitlyn narrowed her eyes at Charlotte. “Did we see her go inside?”
“I think so. I mean, now that you mention it, I don’t remember exactly.” Charlotte’s pale skin had turned the color of sour milk.
“We were wondering if Sam hiked off in a different direction to try to find cell reception.”
Charlotte nodded. “Maybe she did. She was anxious about not being able to call Thomas.”
Jenna squared her shoulders at us. “You guys should go look for her. I’ll wait here in case she returns.” She raised her ankle. “I don’t want to slow you down.”
“Okay,” we said in unison.
“Let’s follow the path toward the camp. I bet that’s where she went.” I locked eyes with the others. Kaitlyn nodded. Charlotte bowed her head. I turned and jogged toward the narrow dirt trail we’d traveled the day before. Kaitlyn and Charlotte flanked me.
“Sam!” we yelled as we trotted along the path. Kaitlyn was in front of me now. Charlotte’s heavy breathing followed behind. My heart pounded in my ears as I stumbled forward in a frenzy. I worried another panic attack might be imminent. I focused on the trees and the sound of our footsteps as I pulled in air through my nose.
“Sam!” Kaitlyn screamed again. She looked back at me, worried. “What if that creep did something to her?”
I caught up to her and placed my hands on my hips, remembering the way Travis’s hateful eyes had leered at my friend. Sam was the strongest person I knew. She could fend for herself. I’d seen her in action. Still, Travis had a gun, and the woods were remote.
“We can’t panic,” I said between jagged breaths. “Sam probably took a wrong turn and is making her way back to us. Or maybe she found someone to replace the tires. She wouldn’t have been able to call us. Even if she found reception, we still don’t have it.”
The other two nodded but didn’t say anything. Even to my own ears, the explanation sounded like wishful thinking. Still, it was crucial to stay positive. We skittered along the trail, eyes searching between the trees as we walked. I scoured the woods for any sign of our friend. Only birds and squirrels flitted near the deserted path.
“Sam! Are you out there?” I tried once more, hearing no response.
As we rounded a bend in the path, a flash of pink on the ground caught my eye, standing out against the earthy tones of the forest. My fe
et stuck in place. It wasn’t any shade of pink; it was the color of rose petals, identical to the shirt Sam had been wearing this morning.
“Oh no!” Rows of tree trunks obscured my view. I couldn’t see her face, but a rose shirt and two denim-covered legs lay motionless on the ground.
Kaitlyn froze and looked back at me, her mouth falling open. Charlotte stepped next to my shoulder and gasped. I shook my head in a moment of terrifying realization. The three of us raced toward our friend.
Chapter Fourteen
I sprinted toward Sam, my body quaking. Kaitlyn tripped on a branch and fell. I gripped her elbow and helped her up before we continued weaving through the trees.
“Sam!” Charlotte yelled.
The body’s face came into focus as I neared. Just as I feared, the figure dressed in jeans and a rose-pink T-shirt was Sam. She lay sprawled on the ground. I only stopped when my toes were an inch from her splayed-out arm. Sam’s shiny black hair fell past her shoulders and onto the moss. She could have been a doll, so perfect and still. My knees buckled, and I collapsed to the ground, gripping her cold fingers. Sam’s unfocused eyes stared out, distant and vacant. I peered up at Kaitlyn’s downturned mouth and Charlotte’s bloodshot eyes. Charlotte shoved next to me and felt Sam’s neck for a pulse, followed by a slight shake of her head.
“Oh my God! Sam!” My heart reached into my throat. A wave of nausea shot through me at the confirmation that Sam was dead. Everything felt wrong, especially my heaving body collapsing over Sam’s lifeless one. “Oh no…” A thousand bombs exploded inside me as my chest caved and black spots swam before my eyes. The years of our friendship rushed over me—the tiny room we’d shared in the dorm, our long walks traversing the city sidewalks, our quest to find the perfect vanilla latte, our secret jokes, and our late nights spent studying in the library, or confiding our sorrows and our dreams in my cramped bedroom. “No, no, no.”
Charlotte stood and kicked at the ground, her eyes searching the woods. “How did this…? Where did she…? Why would anyone…?” She couldn’t complete a thought. Charlotte stumbled toward the trail but tripped over a fallen branch. Her face contorted. Instead of standing up, she curled into a fetal position and sobbed.
Kaitlyn wobbled in circles, using the trunk of a tree to keep herself upright. “NO!” Her drawn-out scream sounded more like a noise from a wild animal than a human.
“What happened?” I wanted to blame Sam’s death on natural causes—a heart attack or a stroke. But fear blazed through me. A primal instinct deep within me knew something evil had taken place.
Kaitlyn tipped her chin toward the sky. “Help us! Someone, help us!” she screamed. There was no response. Kaitlyn fell onto her hands and knees as she struggled to catch her breath.
When I finally blinked away the terror, I leaned down and focused on an aberration on Sam’s neck. Above the pretty lace collar of her shirt, there was a mark—a thin line of bluish-red bruising. Travis’s twitchy eyes and crooked smile flashed in my mind.
“Look at her neck.” My dry mouth felt filled with cobwebs. The others didn’t hear me. I swallowed and tried again. “Look at her neck.”
Tears streamed down Charlotte’s cheeks as she uncurled herself and crawled over. “What is that?”
Kaitlyn lurched forward as her hands clutched her temples. “Did that bastard strangle her?” She shook her head. “Why would he strangle her when he carries a gun around all the time?”
I huffed a breath from my parched throat, a thousand scenarios swimming through my mind. “Maybe he didn’t want us to hear the gunshot. Then we’d know it was him.”
“I’m going to kill him.” Kaitlyn kicked the nearest tree.
A vein pulsed down the center of Charlotte’s forehead.
I wrung my hands and rocked side to side. “We need to call the police. We need to call 911 right now!”
“With what phone?” Charlotte bit her lip like she was trying not to cry again.
Kaitlyn stared in the opposite direction. “We could break into Travis’s house. You said he wasn’t there. Right, Charlotte?”
“Travis wasn’t at his house because he was here, murdering Sam.” I waved my hand toward our dead friend as another surge of hot emotion clogged my throat.
Charlotte clutched her head. “Kaitlyn, you want to break into the house of the guy who just murdered our friend? Yeah. That’s really smart.”
Kaitlyn scowled, her berry-stained lips turning thin and ugly. “Fuck you, Charlotte. None of this would have happened if it wasn’t for you being so cheap. You couldn’t spend an extra $200 dollars to stay somewhere decent?” She narrowed her jeweled eyes at Charlotte. “Well, this is what happens. This is the result. Great job.”
Charlotte blinked rapidly. She covered her face with her hands, her shoulders shaking.
Kaitlyn lunged forward. “What were you doing in the woods, anyway?”
“Huh?” Charlotte dropped her hands from her face, her mouth hanging open.
“I saw something orange through the trees when I went down to the lake earlier. It was your shirt, wasn’t it? What were you doing?”
“Nothing. I didn’t do anything. I mean, I wandered around earlier looking for phone reception like everyone else, but I don’t think I was even near here.” Charlotte backed into a tree like cornered prey.
My heart splintered inside my hollow chest. I held up my hands, stepping between them. The therapist in me needed to take control and prevent the group from falling apart. “Kaitlyn. Stop! You’re out of line and not helping.” Kaitlyn’s angry words shocked me, but I knew she didn’t mean them. People reacted to trauma in a variety of ways. Kaitlyn was merely displacing the blame she probably thought she deserved and shifting it to someone else. It was a common defense mechanism experienced by people who’d suffered a loss. I pulled a slow breath into my lungs, struggling for air. “Charlotte isn’t responsible for this. I was over here earlier too. So was Jenna. We need to stick together. We’re not breaking into Travis’s house. We need to leave.” The ground seemed to tilt beneath my feet, but I steadied myself. “Right now. Before he comes back.” I turned toward the trail, ready to sprint as far away as possible. “Let’s run to the camp. We can break into the office and call the police. I should have done that yesterday.”
“What about Sam?” Kaitlyn’s eyes had latched on to our friend’s lifeless body. “We can’t just leave her here.”
Charlotte sniffled and motioned in the direction of the cabin. “And Jenna’s waiting for us. We can’t abandon her.”
Terror ripped through me at the thought of Jenna sitting alone on the porch, her swollen ankle propped on a chair. My agitated state had jumbled my thoughts. Somehow, I’d forgotten all about Jenna. She wouldn’t be expecting a surprise attack from Travis. She wouldn’t be able to run from him. A wall of fear surrounded me. “Oh my God. She’s all alone. What if Travis targets her next?”
“We’ll have to come back later for Sam.” Charlotte covered her mouth.
Kaitlyn’s bony fingers grabbed my arm and squeezed. “We need to get back to Jenna.”
We screamed Jenna’s name as we raced toward her. My legs were shaky and unsteady beneath me, and a cramp stabbed at my side as I ran. I nearly collapsed with relief when I spotted Jenna lounging on the deck with her ankle propped up on a chair. She craned her neck toward us and set down a can of lemonade.
“What’s going on?” My oblivious friend tilted her head and blinked.
A barrier broke inside me and a series of sobs flooded out. “We found Sam. He killed her,” I cried between gulps of air.
“What? Why would you say that?” Jenna’s eyes hardened as she looked at Charlotte and Kaitlyn who were both crying.
We climbed the stairs and surrounded Jenna. Kaitlyn placed her hand on Jenna’s shoulder and sniffled. “It’s true. Travis strangled Sam. She’s dead. We need to get out of here.”
“How? When?” Jenna buried her face in her hands. She stood up slowly, then sat down a
gain, as if she didn’t know what to do with her body.
Charlotte pointed toward the path. “Travis left her in the woods. There’s a mark on her neck.”
I gritted my teeth. “That piece of shit murdered Sam.”
“Oh my God. Are you serious?”
Charlotte released a whimper.
“What is happening?” The muscles in Jenna’s jaw pulsed as she slid back her chair, standing again. She picked up her can of lemonade and threw it at a tree. “What the fuck is wrong with this world?” she screamed, each word louder than the next. “WHAT THE FU—”
The fine hairs on my neck bristled, and I jumped toward her, cupping my hand around her mouth. “Quiet.” My teeth clenched as I whispered the order into her ear, worried her screams were calling Travis directly toward us. Jenna’s eyeballs bulged above my fingers, but her mouth closed. I lowered my hand. I pictured Sam lying in the woods. “We have to go back and get Sam. We can’t leave her out there.”
Jenna’s breath seized as she pinched the bridge of her nose. “I want to go get her too, but maybe we shouldn’t mess with the evidence. She’s part of a crime scene now.”
“What if Travis does something with the body when we leave.” Charlotte paced back and forth, tugging at her braid. “We might never find her again.”
We hovered in silence. Any move we made seemed to be the wrong one, as if booby traps loomed in every direction.
I raised my chin. “What if we wrapped Sam in a blanket and carried her to the minivan? We can hide her in the back and try to drive out again.” My eyes flickered in the direction of the stranded vehicle. “It might work if a few of us push from the back. Once we get out of here, the police can tell us what to do.”
Charlotte paced behind me. “Megan’s right. Sam’s family deserves to have her body returned.”
“Oh, her poor boys,” Kaitlyn said, fresh tears pooling in her eyes. “And Thomas. They’ll be devastated.”
