Page 28 of In Her Fears
Jenna nodded, her gaze fixed on the road ahead."I can feel it," she said quietly."Ever since that dream...It's like I've been one step behind something terrible."
The forest grew thicker around them, the towering pines pressing close to the narrow road.In her exhausted state, Jenna found the scenery taking on an almost dreamlike quality—the sunlight filtering through branches in wavering patterns, the endless repetition of tree trunks sliding past like bars of a cage.
“Two miles ahead,” Jake reported, checking the GPS.“Looks like the road ends at a small parking area.We’ll probably have to go on foot from there.”
Jenna couldn’t shake the image from her dream—blood spreading across blank canvases, the woman’s words echoing in her mind: “Find him, before he makes another masterpiece.”Surely she’d been trying to warn her about Alexis, about this exact moment, but Jenna had been too slow to understand, too late to act.
The convoy slowed as the road narrowed further, finally emerging into a small clearing that served as a primitive parking area.Several vehicles were already there—a Forest Service truck, an unmarked car, and a sedan that likely belonged to the hiker who had made the grim discovery.
Billy Schmidt stood beside his truck, his weathered face grave beneath the brim of his ranger hat.As Jenna climbed out of the car, he approached with quick strides.
“Sheriff,” he greeted her, his handshake firm.“Thanks for getting here so fast.”
“What’s the situation, Billy?”Jenna asked, professional focus temporarily overriding her exhaustion.
“The body’s about a quarter mile in,” Billy explained, gesturing toward a narrow trail that disappeared into the treeline.“Old hunting lodge that’s been abandoned since the early 2000s.Hiker found her this morning, called it in right away.”
More vehicles pulled into the clearing—additional officers, followed by the coroner’s van.Jenna spotted Dr.Stark emerging from the passenger side.
“Melissa,” Jenna called, waiting for the coroner to join them.“Thanks for coming out so quickly.”
“Of course,” Melissa replied.“Billy gave me a brief description over the phone.Sounds like we’re looking at a homicide.”
Billy nodded.“Two of my guys are securing the scene.The hiker—a man named Grant Mosher—is pretty shaken up.Tim Weber’s with him now.He said he recognized the victim but didn’t know her name.That’s all we’ve gotten from him.”
“Let’s go,” Jenna said, already moving toward the trail.
Their small group followed Billy into the forest, the path barely wide enough for two to walk abreast.The morning air was cool beneath the canopy, carrying the scent of pine and damp earth.Under different circumstances, Jenna might have found it peaceful.
“The lodge was built in the 1930s,” Billy explained as they walked.“Used to be the hub for hunting parties before this became protected land.Been sitting empty for some twenty years now.”
“Visited often?”Jake asked.
"Occasionally, by hikers, teenagers looking for a place to drink," Billy replied."Forest Service checks it periodically, but it's off the main trails.Last inspection was about three months ago."
The path curved around a stand of younger trees, and suddenly the hunting lodge came into view in a small clearing.It was a solid structure of weathered logs with a steep-pitched roof, the kind of rustic building that had once represented frontier craftsmanship but now stood as a relic of another era.
Two ranger vehicles were parked at the edge of the clearing.Pete Lessing, one of Billy’s deputies, stood guard at the entrance to the lodge.A few yards away, another forest service deputy, Tim Webber, sat on a fallen log beside a man in hiking clothes who had his head in his hands.
"That's Mosher," Billy said, nodding toward the hiker, who regularly uses these trails.Nice guy, insurance adjuster in Trentville.Comes out here every Wednesday morning."
Jenna nodded.She vaguely recognized the name but hadn’t ever spoken with Mosher personally.“I’ll talk to him in a bit,” she said, her attention focused on the lodge.“Let’s see what we’re dealing with first.”
Pete nodded grimly as they approached.“It’s bad in there, Sheriff.Nothing disturbed, as far as we can tell.Everything’s just how Mosher found it.”
“Thanks, Pete,” Jenna said, steeling herself.
The old wooden door creaked as Billy pushed it open.A wave of cool, stale air washed over them, carrying the musty scent of abandonment.As they stepped inside, Jenna’s eyes took a moment to adjust to the dimness after the bright morning outside.
The main room stretched before them, illuminated by shafts of light penetrating through gaps in the boarded windows and holes in the roof.Dust motes danced in those beams, creating an almost ethereal atmosphere that contrasted sharply with the horror at the center of the room.
A woman hung from the massive central beam, suspended by her wrists, bound tightly above her head.Her toes barely cleared the rough wooden floor.She wore a pale blue sundress, the fabric swaying slightly in the disturbed air from their entrance.Her dark hair cascaded down, partially obscuring her face, but Jenna didn't need to see her features to know who it was.
“We haven’t been able to identify her yet,” Billy said, his voice hushed in the stillness of the lodge.“No ID on the body or in the immediate area.”
Jenna stepped forward, conscious of each board creaking beneath her weight.The sound seemed to echo in the cavernous space, bouncing off the stone fireplace and log walls.Dr.Stark moved with her, medical bag in hand, already assessing the scene with professional detachment.
As they drew closer, Jenna could see the bindings around the victim’s wrists—not rope as she had initially thought, but what appeared to be thin wire, cutting cruelly into the skin.The woman’s head was bowed forward, her face now visible beneath the curtain of dark hair.
