Page 39 of Killing Time

Then again….

We’d only gotten small peeks through the curtains, nothing detailed. What if Ruby really had been in the cabin and had left behind some small piece of evidence to prove Jasper had hidden her there before moving her somewhere else, like a hair ribbon or a handkerchief or a tube of lipstick? Maybe that scenario didn’t seem terribly plausible, but at the same time, I’d feel awful if we found out later that she really had been there and we’d taken off before finding proof the cabin had been her prison, if only for a short while.

“All right,” I said. “Let’s do it.”

10

KNOW HIM FROM ADAM

Even though ithad been his idea to go inside the cabin, Seth was starting to have a few second thoughts. It was one thing to stand here with the structure sheltering them from view, in a place where it would be easy enough to blink Devynn and himself away with no one ever knowing they’d been there, but actually going in felt like crossing some sort of line.

Then again, he’d kick himself if they missed a piece of vital evidence just because he was too chicken to follow up on his original suggestion.

He put his arms around her waist — once again wishing he could lean in and kiss her, and knowing at the same time that they were here on business and couldn’t allow themselves to be distracted — and sent them into the bedroom they’d been peering at just a moment earlier. It wasn’t very large, maybe ten feet by ten feet at the absolute most, and held a narrow white iron bedstead, a plain bedside table, and a small wardrobe. Probably when the cabin had first been built, there would have been a table with a washbasin and a mirror, but he had to assume the cabin had indoor plumbing by this point.

Devynn immediately began poking around, even going on her hands and knees on the rag rug so she could peer underneath the bed.

“I doubt Ruby is under there,” he remarked, and Devynn pushed herself back up to a standing position even as she sent him a sour glance.

“Obviously,” she replied. “I was looking to see if anyone had dropped something, if there was some kind of evidence that might be useful. But there isn’t even a dust bunny under there.”

Seth had already noted how tidy the room looked, so he wasn’t too surprised by that piece of information. “Well, let’s look at the other bedrooms.”

Those proved just to be as empty as the first one, with not even a spare jacket or sweater in the wardrobes and dressers to show anyone had ever been here at all. He supposed that wasn’t so strange; Devynn had told him the cabin was shared amongst the various Wilcox family members, and they’d probably do their best to make sure the place was clean and ready for the next group planning to stay there.

“I wish I had that magical gift where you can touch things and see visions,” she said, standing in the middle of the living room with her hands on her hips, expression mightily annoyed. “Then I could lay hands on a lamp or something and get some real information.”

“Psychometry?” he said, and she nodded, now looking a little surprised. “My cousin Bertha had it, but she passed a few years ago,” he added by way of explanation.

“I don’t think anyone in the Wilcox clan in my time has it,” Devynn said. She went over to the fireplace, which was a massive stone structure that took up most of one wall, and peered inside.

Was she hoping to find Ruby wedged in there, like a female version of Santa Claus?

No, Devynn was just being thorough.

All that effort didn’t seem to be doing either of them much good, though. Dutifully, Seth followed her into the kitchen, which again, was just as clean as the rest of the cabin, the dishes put away, the butcher-block counters wiped down and clear of even a single crumb.

“We’re not going to find anything,” he said, doing his best to keep his tone gentle. Devynn already looked disappointed enough, and he wasn’t about to give her grief for wasting their time like this. At least now they knew Ruby had most likely never been here at all, and with that unfortunate fact confirmed, they needed to get back to the hotel. “I — ”

He broke off there, his disbelieving ears not wanting to acknowledge what he thought he’d just heard.

Was that a car coming up the narrow dirt lane that led onto the property?

Devynn must have heard the same thing, because she all but ran to the nearest window and peered outside.

“Someone’s coming,” she said. “Big green car.”

All right, at least it wasn’t Jasper. Or maybe it was. A man with his kind of wealth could certainly afford to own more than one car.

Either way, they weren’t going to stick around to find out who was driving.

Time to get the hell out of here.

“Devynn,” he said, his voice urgent.

She didn’t even pause to ask what he wanted. No, she came right to him and put her arms around his waist, hanging on tight.

He fixed the image of their hotel room in his mind — thank the Goddess at least they were able to share here in 1947, rather than being relegated to separate spaces the way they’d been in 1884 — and willed them away from the Wilcox cabin.

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