A vacation would help. Getting him away from work to somewhere he was allowed to relax rather than moping around about not being able to do his job. They hadn’t ever taken a holiday together. She hoped to be able to get his physical and mental health on track before December, so it would be easier to get him through to Christmas, when his anxiety and depression would start to return to their normal levels.
And it wouldn’t hurt Kenzie, either. She had been through the same antiviral protocol as Zachary and, although it had been easier on her system, she still found herself tiring more easily than usual, dealing with brain fog, and just being generally out of sorts. She wanted to be one hundred percent when she went back to her job at the Medical Examiner’s Office. Or at least, as close as she could get to it.
4
Zachary started to move around as they were making their way up a winding mountain road. At first, Kenzie thought he was awake, but he started to moan and mutter under his breath, and she realized that he was dreaming. He must have been really tired to not only be able to sleep in the car, which she had never seen him do, but to actually be in a deep enough sleep to dream while he was there.
He moved his head back and forth. Kenzie said his name a few times to try to rouse him gently, before the dreams turned into nightmares. She should have known it was already too late.
“Zachary. Zach. Wake up.” She shook his arm. Then she put her hand back on the wheel. She didn’t want to risk an accident because she was trying to wake him up.
He grunted and made a gesture of pushing something away in his sleep, but there was nothing there for him to push away.
“No. No,” Zachary insisted.
“Zachary. It’s okay. You can wake up.”
“No!”
Kenzie tried shaking him once more when she was on a straight portion of the road. He startled suddenly and went rigid, hands out protectively in front of him. It would have been funny if Kenzie didn’t know how terrifying his dreams could be.
“It’s okay,” she told him. “Just a dream. You’re safe.”
Zachary blinked a few times and looked at her. He looked around him, looked out the window, looked at the interior of the car. Maybe wondering why she was driving instead of him.
He blew his breath out in a puff and took a few deep breaths to try to calm himself. He rubbed his eyes and relaxed back into his seat.
“I fell asleep.”
“Yeah. Have a look at the scenery, this is gorgeous.”
He looked out the window again. “It is,” he agreed.
The Vermont autumn was spectacular. She knew Zachary didn’t like snow and Christmas card scenes, but the beautiful reds and oranges of the leaves were stunning. As a photographer, he had to appreciate them.
“Did you bring a camera with you? You might want to take some pictures while we’re out here.”
“I have my phone. Other gear is in my bag in the trunk.”
“Good. I hadn’t even thought about you being able to do photography while we’re up here. That will be a nice break, won’t it?”
Though she had seen a little of his artistic photography, he was mostly confined to surveillance photos while he was working. He hadn’t had much time to do any hobby shooting lately. That was one thing they could plan to do together. Kenzie wouldn’t mind going for some scenic walks, both at the resort and when they got back home. It would be a nice way to unwind together.
“Yeah,” Zachary agreed. He sat up and watched out the window with more interest. “Are we getting close?”
“I think we’re about ten or fifteen minutes out.”
Kenzie was glad they were at the end of the road trip. It had seemed like an easy drive when she had mapped it out, but she hadn’t been taking their lack of energy into account. Zachary was wiped out, and Kenzie was nearly as bad, yawning and fighting a fatigue headache.
“What were you dreaming about?” she asked, trying to keep a conversation going, which would help to keep her awake and alert.
Zachary didn’t answer right away. He kept looking out the window, acting as if he hadn’t heard her. Eventually, he glanced over at her and, seeing she was still waiting for an answer from him, shrugged.
“I dunno. Just something.”
Not his usual nightmare, then, of the house fire he had been trapped in as a ten-year-old. The last straw that had broken his family up. Zachary was the only one injured in the fire. A fire that he had accidentally set with Christmas candles and decorations. Which explained why he still hated Christmas even now, decades later. It had been traumatic and a defining point in his life. He could never leave it behind, even when he slept.
“You don’t remember what it was?”
Another shrug. And another evasive answer. “Not really.”
Kenzie was silent, thinking it over. She had been wondering lately how often he dreamed about Bridget, his ex-wife, and the twins she was expecting. He had told her about a few dreams, mostly when he had first found out that she was pregnant. After that, he had stopped talking about it. But the babies would arrive any day now, and it had to be on his mind. Another reason Kenzie wanted to get Zachary out of town and focused on something else. He didn’t need to be worrying about his ex and her babies on top of everything else.
And she suspected that he had been doing more than just worrying about Bridget, a suspicion that gave her a sinking, heavy feeling in her gut every time she considered it. He had previously monitored Bridget’s comings and goings, putting a GPS tracker on her car so that he would know where she was at all times. He had managed to shake himself free from that compulsion, under threat of stalking charges, by a med change and returning to therapy.
But Kenzie feared that he was back up to his old tricks. When he wasn’t home when she expected him or when he was vague about where he had been or what he had been doing, she couldn’t help wondering.
5
There was a sign pointing right for The Lodge, the resort they were booked at. Kenzie slowed and looked for the turnoff, eventually finding a narrow gravel road that led into the trees. She slowed some more and turned onto it. As they bounced and crunched through the gravel, Kenzie was glad that they were in Zachary’s car instead of hers. She hadn’t even thought of gravel roads and what they could do to her paint job. And as she thought about it, there were probably other dangers too. Not just birds leaving evidence of their presence, but the possibility of goats or horses licking or munching it. Or stray shotgun pellets slicing holes through the panels. Tractors and machinery rolling right over it as if it weren’t even there.
Of course, none of that was going to happen. But she was glad she didn’t have to worry about it.
Kenzie hoped that no one would come down the road in the other direction. She wasn’t sure there was space for two cars to pass each other. Especially if one of them were a truck or jeep, or some kind of farm machinery.
They made it to the end of the road without incident. Kenzie looked around at the painted fences, the pretty farmhouse, and the cottages nestled down the hill among the trees.
“Well, this is it.”
Zachary opened his door and stepped out of the car. He looked around. “This is it?”
“Yes. You don’t need to sound so disappointed.”
“No... I’m not. I just thought... I don’t know. I pictured a hotel, a town, stores, and maybe a lake...”
“There is a lake. But it’s a resort, it’s away from other settlements so that people can come here to regenerate without all of the interruptions of city life. Just... nice and quiet. Relaxing.”
Kenzie got out of the car. Zachary started to pace restlessly. Kenzie had told him all about the Lodge, but little of it appeared to have actually stuck. Or he had heard the words but not understood that she was being literal about how isolated they would be. It was a retreat. Somewhere for them to just be themselves and not have to worry about work. Or exes having babies. Or viruses.
“Try to relax,” she advised. “You’re goi
ng to love it.”
“It’s fine,” Zachary said quickly. But it was clearly going to take some time for him to adjust to the place. “We should... find out where our room is.”
“Yes,” Kenzie agreed. “Let’s go into the main office and find out.”
She gestured to the farmhouse. Zachary looked around, checking to see if there were, perhaps, a more obvious office, more modern or hotel-ish. But there wasn’t. They walked up to the house together. Kenzie knocked on the door and entered.
It was quaint. Charming. It was not a city hotel. Zachary looked around, and looked back at Kenzie.
“Isn’t it great?” she enthused. “You should take some pictures. I bet there are lots of good subjects here.”
A man came out of one of the back rooms to greet them.
He was an older gentleman, well past retirement age. Probably the original owner of the farmhouse. Or maybe the son of the original owner. He smiled at them pleasantly but, having done so, his mouth fell back into a creased, unhappy-looking state. He had a head of gray hair and was thin, though not as thin as Zachary.
“Welcome to the Lodge,” he told them in a gravelly voice that attested to many years of cigarettes or scotch. Or both. “I hope you will enjoy your stay with us.”
Kenzie nodded. She stepped forward and put her hand out toward him. “It’s nice to be here. You have a lovely place. I’m Kenzie, and this is Zachary. I guess we should get checked in and find out where our cabin is...?”
He returned the handshake, but it wasn’t really a grip and a shake. He just barely touched her and then let go. One of those men who didn’t think ladies should shake hands or take the initiative, she supposed.
“Stuart Dewey,” he said shortly. “Why don’t you come over here to our registration table,” he invited. “I have your reservation here already, printed out, you just need to sign it. Fill in your license plate number. I think that’s everything. We already have your credit card on file.”
Kenzie nodded and followed him to a small writing table. He showed her the printouts, which were identical to the ones Kenzie had printed out for herself, and had her sign a form.
“There’s no smoking in the rooms. If you want to smoke, you have to do it in a safe area. Not out in the woods with all of the dry leaves. There is a sort of a compound behind the groups of cabins. You can smoke there, if you are so inclined.”
“We don’t smoke,” Kenzie assured him.
“Good. Darn place is as try as tinder this year. Whole thing could go up in a blaze.”
Kenzie’s gaze immediately went to Zachary. He had been hanging back, letting her handle everything, and hadn’t moved from the space he had occupied since stepping in the door. His hands went out blindly to steady himself against the wall. Kenzie could see sweat on his face, and his skin turned a shocking white.
“Excuse me. Just a sec,” Kenzie told Dewey.
She went over to Zachary and took him by the hand. “Come sit down. You’re all right. Tell me five things you can see,” she suggested, beginning an anchoring exercise.
Zachary’s legs moved automatically when she tugged him over to an inviting couch. But his mind was far away.
“Five things, Zachary,” Kenzie said, keeping her voice slow and reassuring.
He collapsed into the sofa. “The... books,” he said faintly, looking at the bookshelves that lined one wall, filled with Readers’ Digest Condensed Books. “The light. The... windows.”
“That’s three things. Give me a couple more.”
Zachary’s head turned. His face relaxed slightly. “The stairs. Something green.”
The “something green” was some sort of macramé wall hanging. Kenzie wasn’t any more sure than Zachary what it was supposed to be.
“Five things you hear?”
“Your voice. Mine.”
“I think that’s cheating. What else?” Kenzie strained her ears to listen and identify sounds around them.
“Outside... voices. Horses.” Zachary thought about it. “Birds.”
His color was starting to return as he pulled himself out of the flashback. “Good. How are you feeling?”
He put his hand over his heart, which was pounding hard and fast. Kenzie had her fingers over his pulse and was paying attention to the pace.
“Out of breath.”
“Yeah. But you can breathe freely. And it will be back to normal soon.”
“Okay.”
Kenzie released his wrist, rubbed his shoulder for a few seconds, then went back to the registration table.
“What’s wrong with him?” Dewey asked, a little too loudly. Zachary would be able to hear him clearly.
“Nothing is wrong with him. He had a bad experience with a fire. It’s best not to talk about it.”
The man eyed Zachary for a moment, then turned his attention back to the registration process. “License plate here. Initial here and here. There is a damage deposit of five hundred dollars. You get that back if everything is clean and undamaged at the end of your stay here. If the room smells of smoke or you have... remodeled... you lose your deposit on top of the rental fee. Understood?”
Kenzie nodded and initialed the spots he indicated. “Zachary, what’s your license plate number?”
He recited it for her, his voice steady. Kenzie wrote it into the space provided.
“There is dinner at the house every day at six,” Dewey advised. “There are no restaurants within an hour’s drive. Every Thursday in November is Thanksgiving dinner. It’s all included in the package you paid for.”
Kenzie nodded.
“Here is a brochure setting out the various events that will be taking place over the next week,” he handed her a flyer printed on an inkjet printer. “We have bonfires,” a covert glance at Zachary, “Don’t suppose you’ll be going to those. Hayrides. Fireworks. Live entertainment at nine.”
“It sounds like it’s going to be great. I’m really looking forward to it.”
He nodded dourly. “If you go walking, stick to the trails. They will bring you back here. If you get turned around, just keep taking right turns. There are wild animals. Most of them are not out during the daylight. I’d advise you to stay out of the woods at night. They’re more afraid of you than you are of them, but don’t be stupid and try to feed them or get your picture taken with them.”
“I don’t plan to!”
“No one ever plans to get mauled,” he snapped. “But people are still all-fired eager to get themselves et. The Lodge isn’t liable if one of you goes off into the forest molesting the wildlife.”
Kenzie tried to keep a serious expression, nodding her agreement. “No sir. We’ll be careful.”
“Good. Welcome again to the Lodge. I’ll see you at supper.” He handed her a key with a large plastic square with the number five on it. “Out the door, down the hill, and to the right. You can’t miss it.”
“Thank you.”
Kenzie went over to where Zachary was still sitting on the sofa. The owner disappeared back into a back room. Kenzie thought he was probably going to the kitchen. She looked down at Zachary.
“Good to go?”
“Yeah.” Zachary stood up. He stayed still for a moment, getting his legs back. Then they walked together toward the door.
6
He didn’t say anything at first. When they left the house, he took one look back over his shoulder. He raised an eyebrow at Kenzie.
“Molesting the animals?”
Kenzie snickered. “Bothering them. Trying to get too close. Throwing sticks at them or trying to get them to eat out of your hand.”
“Why would anyone want to do that?”
“Some people see wildlife and lose their minds. They want to show everyone back home how brave they are, or how cute the animals are. So they do something stupid.”
“If I ever get the idea of taking a selfie with a bear, please just shoot me and get it over with.”
Kenzie grinned. She looked around. The road continue
d down to the individual cabins, so they didn’t have to walk their luggage all the way there.
“You’d better be careful what you say. You are the one with problems with impulse control.”
Zachary nodded, letting out a low chuckle. It sounded forced, but she was glad that he was at least trying to enjoy himself.
“Still. I’ve never had an impulse to cuddle with a wild animal.”
“That’s good. I don’t want to wake up one morning and find out that you’ve wandered off with Yogi.”
They got back into the car, Kenzie in the driver’s seat, and she coasted down to the parking pad in front of cabin five.
“Well, here we are. Let’s take the bags in.”
She popped the trunk and they each took out the bags they had put into the trunk back at the house and carried them to the cabin. Kenzie put hers down to unlock the door and push it open. Zachary grabbed her bags as well as his own and stepped in.
Kenzie took a look around. She had looked at all the pictures on the website, so she had a good idea of what to expect. The cabin felt larger than it had looked in the picture. Not a cramped little place like her great-grandparents might have built with ventilation cracks between the logs, but a spacious, well-sealed modern building. She flipped the switch beside the door and the lights went on. Not that they needed them in the middle of the day, but it was nice to know that they worked.
“Electricity,” Zachary observed. “I was worried for a few minutes.”
“They have all the amenities. Electricity. Indoor plumbing.” Kenzie grinned at him. “Including a hot tub.”
He considered this thoughtfully. “Would that be a hot tub big enough for two people?”
“I believe it seats eight.”
Zachary nodded slowly, smiling. “We’ll have to test it out.”
“I agree.”
He looked around again. “Heated. Forced air.”
“Yes.” No need for them to light a fire in the fireplace. They would be comfy cozy without the need for an open flame.
Dosed to Death Page 2
