Black Hills
She looked at the time, surprised to find it was nearly three.
She’d asked Matt to hold off on Baby and the other cougars until she could help out. Baby hated dental hygiene day. So she’d check Matt first, she decided.
As she rose, Lena tapped on her doorjamb.
“I’m sorry to bother you, Lil. It’s just . . . Baby’s acting up.”
“He probably knows he’s about to get put under and have his teeth cleaned.”
“Maybe, but . . . There was this guy, and he was weird, and that’s when Baby started up. Eric went over to check him out at the center. But I just got this bad feeling and wanted to tell you.”
“What kind of weird?” Lil asked and was already on her way out of the office.
“Creepy weird—to me. He was saying stuff like we caged the animals like prisoners.”
“We get that sometimes. What did he look like?”
“Long hair, beard. Baseball cap, denim jacket. He had fresh scratches on his face. He kept smiling, but, well, it just made my skin crawl.”
“It’s okay. I’ll head over to the center, just in case. Do me a favor? Tell Matt I’m handling this, and I’ll be over to help with Baby and the others as soon as I’m done.”
“Sure. It was probably nothing. It’s just he hit the red zone on my Creep-O-Meter.”
They parted ways, with Lil veering toward the center. Her phone rang, and absently, she pulled it out of her pocket. Seeing her mother’s number, she clicked on. “Hey, Mom, can I call you back? I need to—”
“She can’t talk right now either.”
A chill arrowed down her spine. When her fingers trembled, she gripped the phone tighter. “Hello, Ethan.”
“Funny, that’s what she said. Like mother, like daughter.”
A terrible fear had her shivering, as if she’d plunged into an icy river. But she fought to keep her tone calm and even. Steady, she thought, stay steady with him as you would with anything feral. “I want to talk to her.”
“You want to stop where you are. You take another step back toward the office, I’ll cut off one of her fingers.”
She stopped dead.
“Good girl. Remember, I can see you. You’re wearing a red shirt, and you’re looking east. A wrong move, she loses a finger. Understood?”
“Yes.”
“Start walking toward your own cabin, around the back. If anyone comes up to you, calls to you, wave them off. You’re busy.”
“All right. But how do I know you didn’t just steal my mother’s phone? You have to give me more than that, Ethan. Let me talk to her.”
“I said she can’t talk right now. But you keep walking. I left you something on your back porch. Right up on the table. Yeah, that’s right. Run.”
She bolted, rounded the cabin, sprinted up the short steps. Everything inside her stopped, heart, lungs, brain, for one terrible instant. Then she made herself pick up the small plastic bag.
Inside was a hank of her mother’s hair, and her wedding ring. Blood smeared the gold band.
“I figure you recognize those, so you know I’m not bullshitting you.”
She gave in to her shaking legs and lowered to the porch. “Let me talk to her. You let me talk to her, goddamn you.”
“No.”
“How do I know she’s still alive?”
“You don’t, but I can guarantee she won’t be in two hours if you don’t find her. Head due west. I left you a trail. If you follow it, you’ll find her. If not . . . If you tell anyone, try to get help, she dies. Toss the phone into the yard. Start now.”
He could see her, she thought, but she had the porch rails and pickets for partial cover. She curled into a ball, angling her body toward the house. “Please don’t hurt her. Don’t hurt my mother. Please, please, I’ll do whatever you say, whatever you ask. Just don’t—”
She pushed end, cut off the call. “Please God,” she whispered, and punched Coop’s number. She rocked, made her shoulders shake, let the tears come. “Answer, answer, answer.” She squeezed her eyes shut when it switched to voice mail. “He has my mother. I’m heading west from the back of my cabin. He can see me, and I only have seconds. He gave me two hours to find her. I’ll leave you a trail. Come after me. God. Come after me.”
She clicked off, pushed to her feet. She turned to face west, hoped Ethan could see the tears, the fear. And she threw the phone away. Then ran.
She picked up the trail right away. Trampled brush, broken twigs, prints in soft ground. He didn’t want her to go astray, she thought. He might be
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