The First Victim (2 page)

Emily whizzed past the sign that said Welcome to Pike County. She was getting closer. Her gut churned like the water at Bushkill Falls, “the Niagara of Pennsylvania,” which she’d passed earlier. She was almost home.

The sun was setting as she approached the outskirts of her hometown. The winding, narrow roads that she’d once known so well were now unfamiliar. An impending sense of doom weighed heavier on her with each mile marker she passed, making it impossible to concentrate on driving.

Only her love for her sister could make her return to this place that frightened her so. Otherwise she’d happily live the rest of her life without ever setting foot in this town again. Every bend in the road taunted her with a history she’d rather forget.

She was so consumed by thoughts of the past that she barely registered the flashing eyes right in front of her. At the last possible instant, she stomped on the brakes, jerking the steering wheel hard in order to avoid hitting the deer frozen in the middle of the road.

Not for the first time that day, her stomach lurched and everything seemed to be happening in slow motion. The brakes and tires of her hybrid compact car struggled to halt her inevitable slide off the road. Tires squealing in protest, the car careened wildly onto the gravel shoulder, bounced through a shallow drainage ditch and crashed through a bank of trees, ultimately smashing into the sturdy trunk of an oak. The airbag deployed, smacking her in the face, knocking the breath out of her.

It took her a moment to realize that the vehicle had stopped moving. As soon as she did, Emily batted away the airbag and groped for the door latch, desperate to get out. Opening the door was not enough to free her. She was still pinned in place.

Panicked, she imagined it was
his
hands holding her down, trapping her. She could hear his voice whispering, “Shhh, Baby Doll.” She could smell his breath, laden with the sickeningly sweet scent of a cherry lollipop. It made her retch.

The action jerked her forward, and she realized that it was her seat belt that held her in place, not him. He wasn’t here. It was just her mind playing a twisted trick on her.

She fumbled to release the seat belt, and then tumbled out of the car.

Her legs, rubbery from shock, refused to support her and she fell to her knees. She scrambled on all fours over a bed of hard acorns and crackling fallen leaves, out of the menacing shadows of the trees. Distancing herself from the car, she climbed back toward the street she’d skidded off.

“You should have just hit the damn deer,” she berated herself. When she reached the roadside, she saw the cause of her predicament blithely nibbling on grass. “Next time, Bambi.”

Still too shaky to stand, she sat on the shoulder glaring at the skid marks her tires had left. “I shouldn’t be here. This is all Bailey’s fault.” Pulling her legs up to her chest, she grabbed her ankles and buried her head into her knees, curling up like a timid turtle on the side of the road.

For Laurie’s sake, despite her reservations about returning to Lakeside Acres, she had done her best to keep her promise to Bailey.

It had taken Emily ninety minutes to get everything organized and to hold an impromptu meeting with the staff, outlining their duties while she was gone. An hour after that she had packed her bag, gotten her car from the lot and was headed home.

Then the damn deer appeared.

Darkness was falling fast now. Having regained a semblance of equilibrium, Emily slowly got to her feet. Nerves jangling and thoughts scattered, she stood at the side of the deserted road, unsure of what to do. Pursing her lips, she exhaled slowly, emptying her lungs, before taking a deep breath. The trick a therapist had taught her long ago helped to regulate her breathing. She immediately felt calmer. As her body settled down, her thoughts followed suit, and logic returned.

She’d call for a tow truck and wouldn’t have to wait long for help to arrive. Fishing into the front pocket of her jeans, she pulled out her cell phone. The light that flickered from it as she turned it on made the woods seem less dark.

The comfort was short-lived as a low battery warning flashed once and the phone went dark and dead in her hand. “Dammit!”

She was constantly forgetting to charge the stupid thing and Marisol had warned her on more than one occasion that her absentmindedness would catch up with her. It had tonight.

She had no choice but to walk the rest of the way into town. Normally, Emily, a seasoned marathon runner, could easily cover the mile or so into Lakeside Acres in mere minutes. But not tonight. Even walking, the uneven road surface and a complete lack of streetlights meant that she’d be lucky to make it without wrenching an ankle.

She glanced back at the deer, still grazing without a care in the world. “I should have let you die.” The animal appeared unmoved by her empty threat as though he knew exactly how helpless she was at the moment.

A branch snapped in the darkness, the sound echoing in this isolated place. She whirled around, but there was nothing to see, just thickening shadows. She shivered. “It’s freezing out here.”

That was a lie, but it was easier to say those words aloud than to admit to herself how afraid she was. She knew better than anyone the dangers that lurked in the woods around Lakeside Acres. She wasn’t just scared. She was terrified.

When she was a kid, Emily hadn’t thought twice about traveling these roads on foot. She’d walked into town for sleepovers at her best friend Ginny’s, run halfway around the lake to fish off Bailey’s dock and strolled out to the McKinnon’s place on countless summer nights to catch fireflies and roast marshmallows. Back then she’d only had to worry about getting stung by bees when she picked the raspberries that grew wild on the side of the street, or getting sprayed by a skunk she’d caught off guard. The sweet fruit was always worth the risk, and she’d learned at a young age to let the skunks know she was coming by singing as she walked.

Now of course she knew that beasts more dangerous than bees and skunks lurked in these woods, ready to leap from the shadows and shatter a life.

Remembering her self-defense training, she faked a self-confident posture and looked around. Not that it did much good. Every class she’d ever taken had given tips on what to do in an empty parking lot or city street. None had ever covered what to do if she found herself stuck on a desolate country road. All of the self-defense products she normally carried—pepper spray, a personal alarm, even her keys—were still in the car. If her car had crashed anywhere else, she wouldn’t have hesitated to go back for them, but here, in Lakeside Acres, she couldn’t overcome her fear that
he
was there waiting for her. Instead, she stuck to the solid pavement.

Scooping up a large rock and a sturdy branch, she armed herself before shuffling toward town singing, without much conviction, “Oh What a Beautiful Morning.”

She didn’t get very far before she heard an automobile approaching from behind. Stumbling off the road, she hid behind the thick trunk of an oak tree, its rough bark scraping her palm as she leaned into it. The hammering of her heart almost drowned out the sound of the car as it pulled closer.

“Drive past. Drive past. Drive past.” Tightening her grip on the stone and stick, she whispered the wish, painfully aware of how vulnerable and alone she was.

The car’s headlights slashed through the night, reaching for her. She held her breath, as though that would make her invisible.

Suddenly the car slammed to a stop just past the spot where her car had gone off the road. A tall man, his face silhouetted in the darkness, leaped out of the front passenger seat. Almost instantly the thin ray of a flashlight cut through the trees, landing on her car.

She didn’t dare move, afraid that any sound she made would alert him to her presence. As though he somehow sensed she was there, the shadowy figure swung toward her, the beam of light arcing through the darkness like an arrow aimed at a bull’s-eye.

A jolt of fright turned her legs to mush, rooting her to the spot. He was so big. There was no way she could outrun him. Not here. Not now. Not again. She began to tremble uncontrollably as the familiar panic seeped into her, chilling her blood.

“Em? Em, is that you?”

Running, he crashed through the night, coming right at her.

She raised her primitive weapons. Shouting in an authoritative tone honed by years of self-defense classes, she ordered, “Go away! Get away from me!”

To her surprise, he stopped in his tracks. Had she really managed to scare him off? A surge of hope warmed and strengthened her.

Chuckling, he started moving toward her again.

“Go away! I mean it!”

“Or what, Em? You’re going to split my skull open? You already did that when we were ten.”

It took her another long second to make sense of what was happening. The man closing the gap between them was no stranger looking to hurt her. It was Bailey.

Suddenly exhausted, she dropped the rock and branch to the ground.

“Are you hurt, Em?” He swept the flashlight’s beam over her.

Blinking against the light, she held up a hand to shield her eyes as she shook her head, too overcome to speak. She wasn’t sure if she was more relieved or embarrassed. What a fool she must look like, cowering in the darkness. She blinked back tears.

“Sure you’re okay?”

“There was a deer. I lost control of my car and…” She trailed off before she added
and I lost my mind.

“Okay. No harm done. We’ll give you a ride. I’ll send a tow truck out tomorrow.” There was something off in Bailey’s voice, like he was holding something back. It was the same tone he’d used when they were kids and he had a secret to share. She recognized the tenor, even though the pitch had deepened and gotten huskier with age. Part of her wanted to ask what was bothering him, but the other part of her was unwilling. She told herself she no longer cared about Bailey O’Neil’s problems. It was better to believe that lie, than to engage in some sort of intimate sharing. She may have loved him when they were kids, and part of her still loved him, but she’d realized long ago they could never have a future together.

Holding out his hand, he offered, “Come on, I’ll get you in my car and then get your stuff.”

She eyed his outstretched palm warily before tentatively taking it in her own. He felt warm and solid. For the first time since the phone call, she felt grounded. He led her back onto the road and toward the waiting automobile.

As she drew nearer she realized it was a squad car. A quick glance at Bailey revealed that he wasn’t in his deputy’s uniform, which meant that he was off duty.

“I’ve got to make a quick stop, but then I’ll take you straight to the hospital.”

Emily snatched her hand out of his as though she’d just been burned. “I don’t want to go to the hospital.”

She knew she was in for a fight from the familiar way he put his hands on his hips as he turned to face her. Lifting her chin defiantly, she had to do her best to disguise her shock when she saw Bailey’s face illuminated in the harsh glare of the headlight. He looked tired and beaten. He hadn’t looked this old two years ago when she’d seen him at her mother’s funeral. For a brief moment she wondered what had happened to him.

“Don’t be like this, Em. Not tonight.”

“Don’t be like what, Bailey? Difficult?”

Bailey’s only response was to sigh.

“Where’s Laurie?” she asked, reminding him of the reason she’d come home.

“I wasn’t sure when you’d get here, so we just dropped her off at her friend Anna’s house. Do you want to go there instead?”

She hesitated. While part of her was eager to see her little sister, she also knew she was too shaken up to offer the girl much comfort. She needed to get her head straight so that she could be the support Laurie needed.

“I want to go to The Garden Gate.”

“But—”

She wasn’t about to discuss why she didn’t want to see her sister or father. She knew she was being abrasive but it was necessary to get her point across. “I want to go to The Gate.”

Bailey, never one to accept defeat easily, tried again. “Laurie gave me the keys to your home.”

“It’s not
my
home!” Emily shouted.

Raising his hands in surrender, Bailey stalked toward the car. “Fine. Have it your way. The Garden Gate.” Tearing open the rear door of the squad car, he motioned for her to climb inside. She scrambled in, sliding across the seat.

Addressing the driver, he said, “Williams, this is Emily Wright. I’m going to get her stuff out of her car and then we’re taking her to The Garden Gate.”

“Yessir.”

Bailey slammed Emily’s door shut and marched in the direction of her car, leaving her alone with the young man behind the wheel. Metal mesh, like bars on a cage, separated them. Realizing she was locked in a cage, the uneasiness that had been banished when Bailey had taken her hand, flooded back through her.

She was trapped. Again. Her throat constricted as though all of the air had been sucked out of the car. Panic rising, she reached for the door handle, but couldn’t find one.

She had to get out. Get free. Get air. She looked out the window, searching for a glimpse of Bailey, but he was nowhere in sight.

“I imagine you had quite a scare,” the driver said.

His voice disrupted the flow of her mounting hysteria, jolting her out of the frantic imaginings that were overriding her self-control.
Calm, cool and collected,
she reminded herself. Her breathing and heartbeat slowed in response and while she could still feel the adrenaline pumping through her, she was once again able to rein in her frightened thoughts and emotions.

“My guess is a woman alone would find these dark woods to be frightening.” The man Bailey had called Williams continued, never taking his gaze off her. “But you’ve got nothing to worry about. Lakeside Acres is a safe community.”

Forcing herself to speak around the knot of apprehension that had lodged in her throat, she said, “Have you lived in Lakeside Acres long?”