Page 26 of Sour Layer

Chapter 14

Before I could even scream, the guy glanced over his shoulder then returned his gaze to me. He sneered, eyes flat and dull with anger and hate. “You’re as good as dead.”

I glanced around the small room, looking for anything to use as a weapon. There was nothing. Only a few opened cans of foods that the girls must have been eating from.

When I looked up again, the man was gone, and Clark stood above.

“What the hell are you doing contaminating the crime scene?”

“I know what happened and who’s responsible,” I said, climbing up the steps. “He’s here. He was just standing where you are. There must be tracks. Go get him.”

“Who was it?” he asked.

“Mr. Lynnfield.” My hand slipped, and Clark reached for me. It was only then that I realized my mistake. My glove was shoved into my pocket, and Clark wasn’t wearing any.

There was no apology on his face. He didn’t recoil. He only held me stronger.

The sound of his voice grew distant as I closed my eyes and prepared to witness Clark’s death.

Nothing. Not a single bullet, no slice of a blade, no attack, period. I slowly opened my eyes and slipped my hand free and continued climbing out of the hole.

“You okay?” Worry was etched in his voice even as he was slowly looking over the tree line.

“I’m fine, but Lynnfield is getting away.”

“I thought you said he was dead,” Clark said.

“That’s what I felt, but I can’t deny what I saw with my own eyes,” I answered.

Brandon came jogging through the trees. The deputy had on a thick jacket and was carrying more than his sidearm. He had a shotgun.

“Go back to the house where the others are. We’re going to follow the tracks.”

“We are?” Brandon asked.

“We are,” Clark confirmed.

Clark’s gaze was trying to read mine. The question of how he was going to die lay between us unanswered and unasked. Tensions were high, and a killer was hiding in the woods, but he would eventually ask. People who knew what I could do always did. How was I going to explain why I couldn’t read him, when I could read everyone else?

I left him standing there and followed the footprints back toward the house. I passed men and women wearing the Canfield insignia on their crime scene jackets. They’d been quick to arrive, and if I had to guess, Clara had something to do with that as well.

I broke through the tree line to find the lights on in the house and cars parked all over the driveway and in front of the house. The ambulance still had its lights flashing. Clara was leaning against the back-porch railing with Walker watching as I approached. Clara smiled, and Walker grumbled. I wouldn’t be winning an award for most likable Bennett.

“You must be freezing,” Clara said, turning to head inside the Lynnfield home.

“I was dismissed,” I said as I followed her inside the house. “With Clark and Brandon out there hunting Lynnfield, there are police here that can protect the girls, right?”

“There is enough muscle here that these girls are safe. But Lynnfield?” Clara asked, pouring me a cup of coffee and then doctoring it just as I would before handing it to me. “You saw him?”

“Yes, but it’s the damndest thing. When I touched his picture, he was dead. I was sure of it.”

“How do you know?” Clara asked, pouring herself a cup of coffee.

“When someone is dead, I can feel it, and I only see shadows and darkness. Which was what I saw when I touched his picture.”

“Maybe he is dead. Maybe the man in that picture is really gone.” Clara said, sipping her coffee as she turned. “What do you suppose this means?”

“I’m not sure yet.” I shrugged and sipped the coffee, appreciating the heat warming up my throat and my hands as I cupped the mug. “Well, I’ll be on the first flight out tomorrow, so I won’t be in Clark’s way. The last thing he needs is to be distracted by me.”

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