Kay pulled onto the road and sped back the way we’d come. In a couple of minutes we entered the housing tract. Jack’s feet were planted on the console again, and his long ear brushed my arm as he leaned into the turn.
“I have no idea how to get to the old road that leads to that barn,” I told her.
“At least we’re not on foot this time,” she said, and turned right. “And it's not raining.” She turned right again, followed the curve of the street around to the left, then took the next right. The road to the barn was just ahead, leading into a stand of trees.
“I can't believe it was that simple,” I said.
“I figured it had to be on the western edge of the tract. Maybe we can drive it. How muddy was it earlier?” Kay asked.
I peered at the track, trying to remember how squishy it had been. “I don’t know,” I said. “I was too busy being wet myself to pay attention to the ground.”
“Let’s try. If it's too soft for the car we’ll walk.”
She shifted into low gear and turned onto the old road. We’d gone about three hundred yards when the back wheels whined in a spin and the car fishtailed.
“Oops. Let me back up and we’ll walk from here.” She eased the car back to firmer ground. “Okay, let’s go.”
“Will your car be okay? What if someone needs to drive through?”
Kay paused in the act of opening the car door to turn and look at me. “Lou, look at this road, if you want to call it that. I'm not real concerned about traffic here.”
She was right, of course. I swung open the car door and levered myself out onto the still wet ground. “Okay, it's this way. I have no idea how far.”
She pressed the button on her car remote to lock the doors, slung her purse over her shoulder, and struck off at a good pace, paying no attention to the wet grass that slapped at her legs. I've never understood how someone who is three inches shorter than me can walk so fast.
Jack and I followed. After a few steps I paused to free him from the leash. I stuffed it into my fanny pack as I hurried to catch up with Kay.
Just as finding the track to the barn had been a matter of two or three turns, it seemed to take no time at all to come into view of the barn itself. As we approached, the clouds parted and a ray of sunlight turned the building to gleaming silver. Kay paused to look at it. “It’s certainly picturesque,” she commented. “I wonder who owns it. Too bad it's so out of the way, you could really do something with a building like that.”
I remembered how scary that barn had been while I was hiding behind some hay bales from a big man with a gun. Or a shiny belt. “I could really do something with my car, too,” I said firmly, and kept going past her. She sped up and passed me. Jack bounced between us.
Kay approached the lower level of the barn and reached for the door. Suddenly Jack threw his head back and sniffed the air. He gave one loud bay and charged around the right side of the building. “Jack!” I hissed. “Come back!” I hurried after him, scrambling to climb the hill the barn was built into. When I rounded the corner to the back of the barn, Jack was at the door, sniffing and digging at the ground in front of it.
“What’s up, Jack?” I said. I couldn’t see anything different from earlier that day. Jack put his nose to the crack where the door met the frame and inhaled deeply, then pushed at the door with a paw.
I hesitated. “What if—” but before I could think of a what-if Kay had shouldered past me and pulled the door open. Jack was inside in a flash. Kay and I paused just inside the door for our eyes to adjust to the relative darkness. But Jack went straight for the pile of hay bales where we had hidden and nosed something sticking out from behind them.
A foot.
A foot in a canvas high top basketball shoe.
A black canvas high top basketball shoe.
Chapter Sixteen
I couldn’t have moved if I'd been poked with an electric cattle prod. My brain was seized with terror. I saw that foot and everything else faded into blackness.
Jack was not similarly afflicted. He let out one eerie, high pitched, strangled cry, his whole body thrashed into a wag, and he disappeared behind the hay bales where the body lay.
The shoe moved, rolling over from toe down to toe up. A groan. Major rustling of hay. Jack uttered a long howling moan.
“Help, I’m being attacked by a tongue,” came Bob’s voice.
Kay flew across the rough boards of the floor. I discovered I could breathe again, and even move. I hurried after her.
Bob looked up from his cocoon of hay bales and grinned. The navy sweater was gone; otherwise he wore last night’s clothes. His face, ears, and neck were being thoroughly scrubbed by Jack’s long pink tongue. I leaned over and grabbed Jack’s collar and pulled him backwards, then held on as he bucked and wiggled to get back to Bob.
Kay reached down and offered her hand to Bob, who took it and pulled himself upright.
“Ladies,” he said by way of greeting, nodding and brushing off wisps of hay. He looked very tired and rumpled and altogether wonderful. I let go of Jack’s collar and threw my arms around him. Immediately his long arms wrapped around me, and we clung to each other, my face buried against his flannel shirt.
We were blasted apart by Jack.
“Whoa, Jack,” Bob said. “Easy, boy.” He knelt and began to scratch Jack down the spine.
I opened my mouth to say something—I have no idea what—but Kay was faster. “Bob,” she exclaimed, “where the hell have you been? How did you get here? How long have you been here? What is going on? Lou has been worried sick about you!”
He looked up at me over the wiggling dog. “This is the damnedest mess,” he said, “and I don’t want to get you involved in it. You saw me get carted off from the store last night?”
I nodded. “In a gray Mercedes like the one sitting out on the road a few yards from your driveway.”
“What?” Bob stood up. Jack sat down on his foot.
“Yeah, we saw it just now,” Kay said, conveniently forgetting that she hadn’t seen it at all until I pointed it out. “That’s why we came through the woods, we’re sneaking up on your house to get Lou’s car back.”
He crossed to the door and peered out. “Your car, Louisa?” he said. He gave me a quick look over his shoulder before resuming his inspection of the woods.
“I went to your house early this morning to see if you were there, and while I was inside I looked out and a man was searching my car. Jack was scared so we took off through the woods and made our way to Kay’s store. Now we’re coming to get my car back.”
Bob turned back to look at us. “I need to find out what’s going on at my house.” His voice was crisp with command. “Kay, you take Louisa and Jack back to your car and I’ll—“
“No way, buster,” she broke in. “We’re not leaving you to disappear again. Louisa and I are coming with you.”
“You can’t—” He stopped. The identical stony expressions on our faces said clearly that we would not be left behind. “Okay, okay, we’ll all go,” he said, throwing his hands in the air. Then he grinned at us. “Come on, we’d better hurry.”
Chapter Seventeen
The three of us—and Jack—peered cautiously out of the barn door, scanning the surrounding woods for any lurking bad guys. Bob slipped out and held the door for Kay and me. He closed the door quietly and headed off at a quick pace with Kay and Jack right behind him. I brought up the rear. He must have spent some time in these woods, because he went straight to a path that let us proceed without being mauled by the surrounding vegetation. He moved swiftly and silently. No barbed wire got in the way.
Of course they both walked faster than me, getting further and further ahead. I felt my tension grow with each step. Why hadn't I insisted we call the police when we found the gray Mercedes? I should have just ignored being called ‘lady’ in a sarcastic tone. Captain Johnson’s annoying professional opinion shouldn’t have stopped me, nor Kay’s desire to outmaneuver an ex-boyfriend.