Nicholas D"Angelo was standing there. He had come around the corner of the store without her hearing him. He walked toward the porch, his feet barely touching the ground, his shoulders hunched. He stopped a few feet from the porch and stared at her.
She took a step toward him. Just then Rory came out on the porch.
"I know you," Nicholas said to him.
Rory moved around Anna. "He doesn"t look good," he whispered to Anna.
"Uh huh. You"re the writer." Nicholas shuffled his feet and turned to Anna. "And you"re the lady who owns the general store. Um, I was wondering if maybe you could help me." He seemed distant and dull. An ugly bruise around one eye gave him a lopsided racc.o.o.n appearance.
"What happened to you?" Rory didn"t remember bruises on the boy"s face when they"d seen him yesterday.
"Uh, well. I haven"t seen my parents since they left with some people at lunch." Nicholas stopped. He looked at the ground, then back at them, and there were tears in his eyes.
"Oh no," Anna said. "What happened?" She exchanged a glance with Rory. Were the boy"s parents a part of the horrendous ceremony out in the clearing earlier? She moved toward Nicholas. "Come here and tell us what happened."
Nicholas came up the porch and Anna led him inside, making him sit in a chair next to Jimmy. Nicholas appeared to have gotten out of bed, pulled on dirty clothes, and left the house without taking time to wash or comb his hair. "My parents were supposed to go into Boulder to get things ready so we could leave." He looked uncomfortable with all the attention.
"Why were they leaving?" Anna asked.
Nicholas bit his lip. "My father didn"t want to stay around after everything that"s happened, but..." He wiped an arm across his face and winced when he touched his cheek.
"It"s okay." She sensed he was about to break down, and her motherly instincts took over. She laid a hand on his arm and made sympathetic noises. "Take your time." Even as she waited, she knew what was coming. And by the tense look on Rory"s face, she could tell he knew the same thing.
"But some men came and talked to them. I watched from the kitchen window. My parents left, and they were walking to the car when some men stopped them. They talked, and my parents went with them." Nicholas met her gaze. "I haven"t seen them since."
"When was that?" Rory asked.
Nicholas looked up at him. "At lunch. They haven"t come back."
"It"s still early," Anna said, although she didn"t believe his parents were safe.
"I don"t think they"re coming back. They"re just going to leave me here." He paused. "Some of the other neighbors took off, too. Just bolted as fast as they could."
"First Virgil and Gretchen Evans, and now others." Anna leaned against the counter. She heard a hiss escape from Rory.
Nicholas stared at his tennis shoes. "My dad"s a jerk, you know." His voice cracked. "I hate him sometimes. But I didn"t really think he"d just leave me. And my mom. Would she just go with him? Doesn"t she care about me?"
The question hung heavily in the air. Anna looked up at Rory. He didn"t know what to say either.
"They"ll turn up later," Anna said. "They probably got delayed in Boulder."
He scrunched up his face. "I don"t want to go back to the cabin."
Myrtle came out from the back room. "Then you can stay here with us until your parents get back." Her matter-of-fact tone eased the pressure in the room. "You look hungry. Am I right?"
Nicholas nodded. "I"m starved."
"Come in here, then." She beckoned him over. "We"ll get you stuffed while we wait for your folks. All right?" Anna prodded him, and Nicholas stood up and followed Myrtle down an aisle with chips and cookies. "You"ve got a whole selection of junk food, how about that?" Myrtle kept him near her, chattering at him to keep him distracted.
"Whatever it is, it got his parents," Anna said. The statement rang hollow. Emotion was beyond her at the moment. Rory didn"t reply.
Anna watched Nicholas tear into a box of cookies. His friend had vanished, his parents were gone. He seemed so fragile, so wounded, and so alone. The seriousness of their situation crashed down upon her. Whatever was going on, they were in big trouble.
"We should get going." Anna jumped at the sound of Rory"s voice.
She went to the counter. "Okay. I"ve got a couple of things to show Myrtle, in case anyone comes in."
"It won"t matter," Nicholas said softly, his mouth stuffed with cookies.
"What?" Everyone looked at him. He swallowed hard, avoiding their eyes.
"What won"t matter?" Rory asked.
"No one"s here." The reedy quality of his voice showed he was scared. "The Hulls, my parents. I"ve seen some other families leave town, too. And some are just gone."
His words were the painful reality that no one wanted to address.
"You"ve seen others leave?" Myrtle spoke up.
Nicholas shrugged. "Some yesterday. One of the cabins near mine had lights on all night, like they were planning on coming back." He blinked hard. "They, it"s..."
"What?" asked Rory.
"Nothin"," Nicholas muttered.
"What happened to you the other night?" Rory persisted.
"I, uh, I don"t want to talk about it." Nicholas clammed up.
Rory put a hand on Nicholas" shoulder. "It must"ve been horrible." The boy dropped his head, staring hard at the floor. "Maybe you could tell us about it later?"
Nicholas nodded, but still didn"t look at any of them. "They"re not coming back, though," he murmured.
"Good Lord." Nausea washed over Anna. "What is going on here?" Her throat tightened. Something was out there, and it was taking people. She focused somewhere on the ceiling, toward the heavens, and prayed. But would it help if there really was an evil that lurked out in the woods?
"We"d better go." Rory"s voice interrupted Anna"s silent prayer. She nodded, still not sure she really believed any of this. But there was no going back now. And the longer they waited to go, and the more she mulled about it, the more scared she became of what they might find out in the woods.
Rory went to the door and looked out. "Quiet as a ghost town."
Anna joined him. "It"s so hot, I"m bringing some water. Do you have the gun?"
He held up the Colt. "Hope we don"t need it."
"Now all we need are silver bullets," she tried for humor, hoping to chase her own apprehension away. It didn"t work.
"We need the Lone Ranger for that." He threw her a grim smile, tucked the pistol in his waistband, opened the door, then turned back. "Don"t go anywhere, all right?" He stared at Nicholas, who had begged to come along. "We need you here."
Nicholas shrugged. "Okay." His look of disappointment didn"t hide his fear.
"Keep watch over us old folks," Myrtle said. Nicholas nodded, not completely appeased.
"Myrtle, if anything happens, call the sheriff"s office," Rory said. "Tell Clinton what"s going on. And keep the revolver close by."
"How long will you be gone?" she asked.
He frowned. "Not long, I hope. Just till we find some evidence for all this." They all knew what he meant.
"Then what?" Nicholas spoke the question they"d all been avoiding.
"We"ll worry about that later," Myrtle said. "How about you help me clean up around here. It"ll keep us busy." Nicholas scowled but went to help.
Anna was about to head out the door when Jimmy stopped her. "You be careful," he said. He kissed her on the cheek. "I"ll be praying for you."
She blinked back the tears, then took a step back and gazed into her father"s somber eyes. "Dad, I"m sorry. I should"ve listened to you."
He waved at her in a shushing motion. "It"s all behind us."
"No. I"ve " she choked on her words. "I"ve been terrible, blaming you for what happened to Paul. I never should"ve done that."
He drew her to him, hugging her with more strength than she thought he possessed. "I know. It"s okay now. Everything is going to be all right. Believe me, it will."
Anna pulled away. "I love you, Dad."
"Me, too," Jimmy whispered in her ear. Then he stepped back and cleared his throat. "I"ll be praying," he repeated as he shuffled back toward his chair by the counter. "The Good Book says we always have that," he called over his shoulder, his voice surprisingly strong.
Myrtle, who was standing near the door, overheard him. "Oh my gosh!" she said. "What about what Jimmy said earlier today?" She thumped her forehead with her palm. "I can"t believe we forgot all about that."
"What?" Rory looked first to Myrtle, then to Anna.
Anna quickly related what Jimmy had said about a voice telling him to go across the lake and find the chronicle.
"What chronicle?" Rory asked.
Both women shrugged.
"You think the voice Jimmy heard has anything to do with this?" Myrtle said.
Rory pursed his lips. "I don"t know. But I don"t think we should take the time for that right now. A lot"s been happening, and maybe he"s just confused."
"I know. But he seemed so certain."
"He means well, but we don"t have time for that right now," Anna agreed with Rory.
"You"re right." Myrtle raised her hands and shooed at them. "Go on, do what you have to. I"ll watch Jimmy." Anna held back. "We"ll be fine," Myrtle a.s.sured her.
Anna forced herself to follow Rory out the door. "Are you ready?" she asked briskly, wiping tears from her cheeks. She dreaded leaving the others here, especially her dad, but knew it was better this way.
"As ready as I"ll ever be."
She stepped off the porch and joined Rory. The heat immediately enveloped them in suffocating waves.
"Be careful," Myrtle called from the door as they headed up the road.
They walked in silence for a while, pa.s.sing a couple of trucks parked on the side of the road. Anna hoped they wouldn"t run into anyone she knew. She didn"t think she could lie her way out of what they were doing right now, and she sure didn"t want to tell anyone the truth, because the truth would"ve sounded like a lie.
She directed Rory up through the trees. They climbed the hillside, then down the valley. They soon neared Ed"s cabin. Rory bent down and directed her to do the same. She had to shield her eyes against the glare of sunlight that glinted from the tin on the outside. They watched the cabin for a few minutes, but no one came or went from it. It appeared completely abandoned. She glanced around. The woods were gripped with an absence of sound.
"Let"s go," he whispered. They cautiously headed out of the shelter of the trees and approached. Anna"s legs began to tremble against her will.
"What is that smell?" he said as they drew within a few feet of the door.
She gagged and covered her nose. She felt tension settle in her shoulders. "It"s terrible."
Rory nodded as he pushed the door open. He took a couple of steps into the cabin, then poked his head back out. "It"s empty." He went on in and she followed.
It smelled worse than the nastiest locker room she"d ever been in, a mix of body odor and the putrid smell of a dead animal. Or worse, she thought.
"What the " Rory had a hand over his nose and was breathing out of his mouth. He quickly surveyed the place, nearly retching as he came out of the bathroom.
"What?" she asked, a rock in her throat. She swallowed hard.
"Smells like c.r.a.p." He took in a couple of deep breaths. "No one"s here."
And no bodies, either, she thought gratefully. "Wouldn"t we find something, you know..."
"Like what?"
"I"m just trying to help figure this out." She didn"t like the shrillness she heard in her voice.
"It"s not that simple. We need to find Ed, Joan, or one of the others. We"ll know something then."
He searched the room anyway, but came up empty-handed. "Let"s go to the clearing."
They went back out, Rory carefully shutting the door behind them. His pace was quick and determined. Anna had a difficult time keeping up with his long strides. The total absence of sound struck her as strange, as if the woodland creatures were shying away from danger. It was unnerving.
They went around behind Ed"s cabin and started into the woods.
"Wait! What"s that?" Rory suddenly pointed.
A body lay on the ground ahead of them. Rory edged up to it with Anna close behind him.
"It"s one of the deputies," Anna said, her voice choking.
Rory bent down and looked at the body. The deputy was lying on his back, his neck twisted at an unnatural angle. His mouth was curled into a grimace, and his eyes stared into s.p.a.ce. Rory placed a finger on the man"s wrist, checking for a pulse, even though he knew the deputy was dead.
"This is insane," Rory said. He stood up and looked at Anna. "What"re we going to tell Sheriff Truitt?"
She opened her mouth, but nothing came out.