Page 110 of Tell Me (Savannah 3)

He pulled into the lot and was getting out of his car when the text from Nikki came in.

“Working late. Looks like we may have picked up another stalker. Seriously. Effie Savoy. Will fill you in later. Meet at home and maybe eat Chinese?”

He read the text twice and didn’t get it. He knew that Effie was a woman Nikki worked with and that there was some friction between them, but a stalker?

As he climbed out of the car, he had his phone in hand to call her when he nearly ran into a wild-eyed June Hatchett.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded.

“I’m sorry.”

“Going to my church! Bothering my brother! Asking all kinds of ridiculous questions!”

“Mrs. O’Henry, slow down,” he suggested.

“I am sick and tired of all the harassment my family has endured. Reporters. Police. Curious people driving past our house and up our lane! It has got to stop!” Eyes rolling until the whites showed, she said, “I want to talk to your supervisor.”

“She’s gone for the day.”

“Well, there has to be someone on duty!” She was raving, her face drained of color, her body shivering with her outrage. “Why don’t you come into the station and we’ll talk this out,” Reed suggested as, from the corner of his eye, he sa

w Morrisette pull into the lot.

“Fine,” June agreed. “But don’t try to placate me, Detective. I know my rights, and religious freedom is guaranteed by the Constitution of these United States.”

“That it is, Mrs. O’Henry,” he agreed as Morrisette parked and started toward the door. “That it is.”

Nikki had never used the stun gun that Reed had insisted she carry. In fact, she always left it at home, near the bed, but tonight she took the time to find it and make certain it was working.

Just in case.

Then she drove as fast as she dared to the dilapidated home her great-great-grandfather had constructed more than a century earlier. The night was clear, a moon rising, the breath of winter chilling her bones as the beams of her headlights splashed against the trees and underbrush surrounding the cabin. The lake was much as it had been the last time she’d driven here, white caps swelling on the dark, restless water, reeds and marsh grass bending in the wind.

This is nuts, her inner governor told her, but she blocked her mind to that glimmer of sanity.

The gate to the property was open, and that gave her pause. How had Effie figured that one out? Was it left unlocked the other night after she’d had her car towed?

Setting her jaw, she drove forward, through the open gate.

Are you sure you can do this? Tread on Amity’s grave all over again?

Her jaw was so tight it ached, and fear crept up her spine, but she was determined to ignore it.

The coward who’d placed a snake in her car wasn’t going to stop her. And besides, Effie would be here. As irritating and deceitful as she was, Nikki didn’t think she was physically dangerous.

So where was her car?

Bracing herself, fighting her inner demons, she told herself the ramshackle cabin was not evil, that just because an unthinkable horror had occurred within its crumbling walls, there was no reason to be afraid.

Get on with it, then, if this is what you’re bound and determined to do.

Armed with a large flashlight, her cell phone, and the stun gun, she climbed out of the car and this time had the presence of mind to lock the door before making her way through the mud and patchy grass to the front door, which also was open.

Before heading inside, she ducked her head against the wind and walked to the back of the cabin. Parked close to the building was a BMW, the same make and model that had tried to run Nikki over. It was Effie’s, she realized as she tried the handle. It was locked tight, and she turned from it to look at the cabin. No one around, no flashlight glowing from inside.

So Effie was more dangerous than Nikki had thought.

Still, she wasn’t a murderer.

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