Page 71 of Final Escape
If Noah’s pictures had been a silent cry for help, then she needed to gently talk to him and make sure his father and aunt knew about the burdens he was carrying.
And if indeed Noah had been a witness to his mother’s death, that could be the key to helping Logan straighten out his past troubles and fully, once and for all, clear his name. It was the least she could do before she had to leave town for good, in search of a job. And there was no better time than now.
With Logan off guiding a group of fly fisherman at several remote, hike-in streams for the day and Penny taking rafters down the river until five o’clock—the best day they’d had in a long while—she couldn’t leave until after six.
Logan hadn’t yet returned and Penny was still chatting with some customers out on the riverbank when six o’clock rolled around. Carrie debated, then called the nonemergency number at the sheriff’s department. The office secretary said the sheriff was out, but Carrie could leave a message for the deputy covering that area.
She hesitated, then left a brief message on voice mail.
After writing a note for Logan and Penny, she left it on the office desk.
On the way out of town she mulled over what she could say to Linda. “Your nephew is in danger” probably sounded too over-the-top. Unbelievable.
As wary as the woman had been, telling her, “You’ve got to come to the police station with me so Noah can make a statement” would probably send Linda running straight for the hills with Noah in tow.
And what about the child? If he had to talk to the sheriff—or even a jury—would reliving his mother’s death be too traumatic, too difficult for him to face? Could she even think of putting him in that position?
Following her previous set of directions, Carrie turned off the highway and followed a narrow curving road way up into the hills until it turned to gravel...then a turnoff onto an even more narrow, deeply rutted track.
It was dark back here, with the evening sun resting on the tips of the mountains to the west and its soft rays barely filtering through the heavy canopy of pines.
She passed several empty rustic cabins, the doors half-open and windows staring out at her like black, empty eyes. She shivered, wondering why Linda and her brother would want to live in such a remote location. Privacy was wonderful, in a well-kept place, but the abandoned cabins were eerie.
The trees opened up into a clearing, where the last cabin stood. She pulled to a stop. Started to get out, then hesitated, as a sense of foreboding began prickling at the back of her neck.
Last time, there were lights in the windows. The door was firmly shut.
Linda’s car was still parked in front. But now the cabin was dark, its front door wide-open. She looked around the clearing for any signs of motion.
Nothing moved except for the breeze tossing the branches.
Had Linda and Noah’s father taken him and left in some other vehicle?
Or was the woman hiding, at the sound of an approaching car?
Or maybe it was all more innocuous than that. Maybe they were all out hiking, and still making their way home. Or maybe they were in a back room watching a movie on a DVD, and had lost track of time. Far more likely scenarios than anything Carrie could dream up just because the place seemed so dark, so terribly lonely without anyone around.
“Linda?” she called out. “Noah?”
No one answered.
She took a steadying breath, gathered her courage with a brief prayer, and started for the front door. “Linda—are you here?”
The silence was deafening as she tentatively reached up to knock on the door frame.“Linda?”
The long shadows of sunset crawled across the clearing, casting the weathered cabin in dim light. Was that something moving in the darkness over there—a wolf or a coyote? A man, furtively moving through the darkness?
Her heart hammering in her chest, she turned to hurry back to her waiting vehicle.
And then she heard it.
A thin cry...like that of a dying rabbit.
Her imagination—or real?
Shaking, she turned around to scan the cabin, the surrounding brush. Maybe it had just been the wind, keening through the trees.
Maybe it was someone wanting to lure her back.
