Page 88 of Unforgotten

“But how, Jay?” Lott pressed. “You know those trails as well as I do. They aren’t wide.”

At last he got it. “They aren’t wide at all. Most of them can barely be called a trail. They’re little more than a narrow line of dirt in between a bunch of trampled foliage.”

Looking pleased that Jay was finally with him, he added, “Think about it. Pulling one woman along this section is hard enough. But how would he have gotten the both of them willingly?”

“They didn’t go willingly. That’s the point. They were abducted. They weren’t willing.”

Lott’s voice grew louder. More impatient. “Even if hehad a gun, he couldn’t point it at both of them at the same time. If they were on the sidewalk or something, I could see it being possible. But think about the way those old hickory trees grow around Cripple Creek.”

At last he caught on. “You’re right. Either he had a gun aimed at only one of them ... or he had the girls tied together.”

“And I can’t see either girl attempting to escape if the other was trapped. Though they’d probably try to convince the other to go,” Lott murmured. “I could see Bethanne telling Candace to run while they’re trying to cross the creek.”

“No, it would be Candace who was in his grip,” Jay said. “If it’s Candace’s stalker, he would keep her no matter what.”

Lott nodded. “Candace feels the same way about Bethanne as the rest of us in the family do. Even though she’s come a long way, we all think of her as fragile. Helpless.”

“Even though she’s not.”

“It don’t matter if she’s as strong as an ox now. We still think of her as weak. Candace would encourage Bethanne to escape—unless—”

“Unless she was tied to Candace,” Jay finished. “That must be what happened. He had them secured together in some way. Then he pulled them both along.”

Looking back out into the woods, Lott froze.

“What do you see?”

“Nothing new. I was just thinking about that broken bridge on Cripple Creek. Do you recall what’s on the other side of it?”

“Yeah. That abandoned shack.”

“It blends in, but I went in there once. Did you?”

“Nee. I ... I’d heard it was haunted. I was too scared when I was little and then didn’t care about it when I was older.”

“I walked by there sometime last summer. I was withMelonie. She asked me about it, and so we peeked in.” His voice growing excited, Lott said, “Jay, that could be it! When Melonie asked me about the shack, I realized that it had been there so long I hardly even saw it.”

“You’re right. I’ve taken it for granted. Like it was an oak or something.”

“It’s secure in there, Jay.” Lott pressed a hand on the tree trunk behind him. “It looked to have a fairly new lock on it. Mel thought that was weird, given that it used to be a deer blind back in the day. I told her that we would likely never know why someone would put a lock on it.”

“Unless they had a reason to keep someone out. Or keep someone in.” Feeling as if the Lord was guiding them, Jay stepped forward. “Let’s go.”

“Wait. Do you think we should tell the cops or something?”

“Nee. We don’t have the time to waste. And if we call, they’re going to tell us to stay put or ask us a bunch of questions.”

“That’s probably true, but we’ve got to tell someone. I’ll call my parents and tell them. Then at least someone knows. In case something happens.”

“Like we get shot?”

“Yeah. Like we get shot. Hurry.” As Lott made the call, Jay all of a sudden thought of Seth Zimmerman. He’d always thought that he’d never be like Seth. That no amount of anger or fear could convince him to knowingly hurt another person.

Now he realized that he’d been completely naïve. If their hunch was right and some guy was holding Candace and Bethanne in that old hunting shack, well, he was going to do whatever he could to save them.

Whatever it took.

Even if someone looking at it from the outside might believe it was very, very wrong.

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