Gayle Wilson – Flashback (страница 8)

“He?” She had finally grasped the significant part of what Underwood had just said.

“She’s terrified… It doesn’t seem like a woman could produce that level of fear.”

“But if she’s alone and in the dark—”

“It’s more than that. It’s him.”

It would be, of course. As she and Dean had speculated that first morning, whoever had taken Raine hadn’t done it for money.

You’re acting as if this guy knows what he’s talking about. As if he really is tuned into that little girl’s terror.

“If I were you, I wouldn’t say something like that to anyone in town.”

He turned, his eyes hard. “I did what I was told to do and look where it got me. Believe me, I’m not likely to talk up my ‘insanity’ around town. You ready?”

Should she consider his determination not to leave her alone up here a vestige of his upbringing or something more sinister? Except she hadn’t gotten that vibe from him. After the initial spurt of fear, she hadn’t been afraid to be alone with him. She wasn’t now.

And there was nothing else to examine up here. Another dead end. Another in a long, frustrating series of them. “I’m ready.”

She had expected him to let her lead the way, but he started down the trail, leaving her to follow. As she did, she realized that she wouldn’t have been comfortable with him trailing behind her through the growing darkness. And he had known that.

Just as he’d known why she was out here? Hell, maybe he was psychic.

Or maybe you’ve gone way too many hours without sleep.

They didn’t speak again until they reached her cruiser. She opened the door and then hesitated. In the gathering twilight, he had watched her every move.

She met his eyes, deciding that, since she’d come this far, she might as well go all the way. In for a penny…

“You think she’s still alive?”

He didn’t answer for a long heartbeat, his eyes focusing on something up the slope behind her. When he looked at her again, he shook his head. “I don’t have any reason to believe she isn’t.”

“Then…?”

“I can’t tell you anything else. Maybe if there’s another one…”

She nodded as if that made sense. Maybe it did. At least as much as any other avenue they’d pursued. She’d already bent, ready to slip into the driver’s seat, when he spoke again.

“Thanks.”

“For what?”

“For coming out here. For going that far.”

“You’d be surprised how far I’d go to find Raine Nolan.”

“Because it’s your job?”

My duty…

“That’s part of it.” That and the memory of another little girl no one had found.

“And the rest?”

“Like you said. She’s terrified.” Alone and in the dark with a madman. “Unless somebody finds her…”

Eden left the sentence unfinished. They both knew the reality. A reality most of the people working on this case had already conceded. That she hadn’t, she realized, had as much to do with this man than with any claim she might make about duty.

“If you do…have another one, I mean…” Again her words trailed.

Underwood nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I will.”

He was still standing on the edge of the dirt road when she had turned the car and headed back down it. In the darkness his silhouette seemed to merge with the woods behind him. She slowed, pushing the button that would lower the window on the passenger side.

“Where’s your car?”

“Truck. There’s a turnoff a few feet back.” He gestured with his head in the direction she’d just come.

Her eyes lifted to the rearview mirror. She hadn’t seen another road, but then she’d only been looking for a place wide enough to turn the patrol car. Obviously, he knew this area better than she did. Well enough to know where to conceal his truck.

She dismissed that flicker of doubt, remembering the sincerity in his voice when he’d talked about Raine. “It’s going to be dark soon.”

There didn’t seem to be any reason for him to stay out here, but he didn’t appear to be headed to his truck. Was it possible he was feeling the effects of that climb?

Impulsively, she acted on that thought. “If you want to get in, I can back up to wherever you’re parked.”

His eyes lifted to briefly consider the road behind her before they came back to meet hers. “I may look around. Since I’m here. I didn’t see this area on any of the search grids.”

She hadn’t either, so that part made sense. Except what did he think he was going to be able to see in the dark?

“It’s gonna be hard to see up here pretty soon,” she reminded him with a smile.

The one he gave in response emphasized the shape of his mouth, its bottom lip fuller than she’d noticed before. She was shocked at the flutter of desire in her lower body.

“I like the dark.”

The unease generated by that statement negated the attraction she’d just felt. And it wasn’t as easy to dismiss as had been his familiarity with this locale. After all, Dean said he’d spent summers here growing up.

“Okay, then. Just be careful. I don’t think we have the manpower to mount another search and rescue.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” He touched the roof of the car as if in dismissal and then turned to walk toward the path they’d just descended.

Eden eased her foot off the brake, directing her car down the narrow track. When she raised her eyes again to the rearview mirror, Jake Underwood had already disappeared into the forest.

Chapter Five

The peal of the phone pulled her out of a sleep so deep she was drugged by it. It took a moment for her to realize what the sound was. Another to find the receiver in the pitch-darkness of her bedroom.

“Hello?”

“You probably ought to come on in to the office.” Dean’s voice lacked its customary thread of good humor.

“They found her.”

“No. Sorry. Nothing like that.”

“Then what?”

“Folks are stirred up about the Underwood thing. I just think you might want to be here.”

The Underwood thing. Despite the events of last night, it took a second for her to realize what her deputy chief was talking about.

“How the hell did they find out?”

“It’s Waverly, Eden. How do you think?”

Calling her by her first name was a sign of Dean’s agitation. He hadn’t done that since the day her daddy had pinned the chief’s badge on her uniform shirt.

“If somebody in the department talked, they’re done. I don’t care who it is.”

“Yeah, well, you can fire ’em later. Right now, you need to get your butt out of bed and come down here.”

“They’re at the station?” She glanced at the alarm clock, surprised to find it was only a little past nine—less than an hour after she’d fallen into bed. No wonder she felt drugged.

“Demanding we bring him in. When we don’t, it’s gonna get ugly.”

“Damn it. When I get my hands on whoever—”