Page 56 of From the Darkness

She thought she felt the deep, throbbing sound that she’d heard the first time she’d come running in here. But now it seemed far away, and she couldn’t be sure she wasn’t making it up.

With her heart pounding, she waited for the whirlwind of pine needles. But the air was still and heavy.

“Troy, I know you’re there,” she said. “I can feel you watching me.”

Only the chirping of an unseen bird answered her.

“What are you—a coward?” she asked. “You take me to your bed and make love to me—if you want to call that making love—and then you can’t deal with the rest of a relationship?”

She had deliberately challenged him, but he chose to ignore the goading words.

“So, all you want is for me to get out of here—and take Dinah,” she said. “What am I supposed to do, steal Graves’ keys?”

There was a small flicker in the air, a small whirlwind of pine needles and dust rising from the ground about twenty-five feet from her. She held her breath, waiting for more. Waiting to see Troy’s image, the way she had before.

“And where would you suggest I look?”

An image came to her then, an image of a small building hidden in the shrubbery on the far side of the driveway from the house. She’d seen it from one of the windows, but she hadn’t known that it had anything to do with Graves. Well, actually, it might not. She might simply have dredged up an answer when she expected something from Troy.

But she couldn’t dispel the notion that it was he who had put the image in her mind.

“Thanks,” she said, her gaze trained on the swirl of forest matter, her hand reaching out as though she could grab the eddying dust.

The wind puffed once more, sending pine needles into a spiral that flew several feet into the air, then settled quickly as though it had never been there.

She tried to ignore her disappointment. The grove was silent and still.

“All right. I’ll play it your way,” she said.For now, she silently added. Turning she started back toward the house, angling so that she would reach the spot where she imagined the shed was standing.

She slowed her steps as she came near the building, seeing a light shining through the window. Feeling like a sneak thief, she was creeping closer to have a look in one of the windows, when the door opened, and the man himself came out.

Convenient!

Or maybe Troy had given him a little push. With his special powers.

She waited for several minutes, torn between going inside and fear that the handyman would reappear. But he didn’t come back, and she decided that perhaps he had gone to breakfast. But her urgency was too great to keep standing here. “Watch my back,” she said to Troy as she stepped up to the door.

It was unlocked, and she hurried inside, then took a furtive look around. The room was neat; she’d say that much for the man. Hand tools were arranged on pegboards or in drawers. Power tools were on shelves. Two heavy-duty power cords were neatly coiled on hooks. And the broad wooden worktable was uncluttered. Sitting in the middle of it was a DVD player.

Drawn to it, she opened the top and looked down at a disk. Rod Stewart’s Greatest Hits.

If he was working with Helen, he could have played it to spook her. She shook her head, surprised at how far her thinking had changed. Of course, there was another equally plausible explanation. Graves had heard the music and had been spooked—then brought the tape down here to see what was on it.

She closed the top again, turned down the volume and pressed the play button. The music was what she’d heard, all right.

She listened to only a snatch, then turned it off, remembering that she had come here looking for car keys. They weren’t any place obvious, she decided as she inspected the various hooks on the pegboard, then began opening drawers.

Probably this was a waste of time. Probably Graves kept the keys in his pocket. But he must have a spare. Troy had as good as told her they were here. Unless she was making up the whole silent communication.

She was just closing a drawer when she heard footsteps hurrying along the path outside.

Oh God, Graves was coming back.

Chapter Thirteen

Bree had asked Troy to watch her back. Now she thought how useless that request had been. She was on her own, and she had only seconds to decide what to do. Wildly she looked around, seeing that there was nowhere to hide in the small room, except in the closet.

She’d been caught snooping around too many times already. The idea of standing here to confront whoever was outside gave her a sick feeling. Quickly she pulled the closet door open and found that it didn’t lead to a closet at all—but another entrance on the opposite side of the building.

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