Chapter 10
Giovanni parked the car at the end of a narrow road that bled into the woods, and I glanced out my window, noticing the afternoon light filtering in through a canopy of pines.
Beyond the trees, the faint outline of an old trail wound through the brush.
It was part of the path I’d followed earlier with Talia.
“You sure this is the spot?” Giovanni asked, squinting toward the trees.
“I think so,” I said, stepping out of the car. “If what Foley told me is right, the cabin should be somewhere around here.”
We started walking, and after a while, I wasn’t so sure Foley had given me the right directions, but then I saw the cabin sitting in a small clearing, its roof bowed inward at the center, the wood darkened with moss.
One of its shutters was missing. The other was hanging on by a thread.
The more I looked at it, the more the whole structure looked like it had exhaled and given up.
Giovanni turned toward me, giving a low whistle. “This place looks like it’s about to collapse.”
“I hope it doesn’t, not until we get the chance to look around.”
“I’d feel a whole lot better if you let me check it out first.”
He phrased it as a statement rather than an option I was being given, so I held back as he stepped onto the porch, testing the boards before putting his weight down.
Turning toward me, he said, “It’s sturdier than it looks.”
I nodded and followed him inside, noting the air was cold and stale, carrying the scent of rot and something else I couldn’t place. Light filtered in through a gap in the roof, spilling over a broken table and a scattering of debris on the floor.
“Someone’s been here,” I said, kneeling near the hearth. “See that?”
He leaned over my shoulder, and I pointed out the ashes in the fireplace. They were gray and compact, but the scent of smoke was long gone.
“It looks like it’s been a while,” he said.
“A few weeks, maybe a month, or even longer.”
We searched the main room first. A few rusted nails clung to a wall where something had once hung, and in the far corner was a single wooden chair, which was missing a leg.
I walked to it and flipped it over, checking out the seat.
In the corner, the initials LL were carved into it inside a heart.
I took a step back, studying the carving.
The letters were somewhat fresh and deliberate, carved with a steady hand.
“This is interesting,” I said.
Giovanni leaned in. “Do those initials mean anything to you?”
“Audrey was dating Logan Lambert. It makes sense that she carved it. And here’s another one—AF.”
“AF wouldn’t be Audrey. Her last name is Ashford.”
We kept looking.
I walked over to the remnants of what used to be a bed, curious to see if there was anything beneath it. “Hey, will you give me a hand?”
Giovanni nodded and joined me. We moved the bed to the side, and I noticed most of the floorboards beneath it were gone.
“Wonder what’s down there,” I said.
“Care to find out?”
I nodded, and he stepped out of the cabin, returning a minute later with a shovel. I gripped the handle, dragging it across the rotted floorboards as I made my way back over to the bed.
“Looks like some of the boards in this place have given out,” he said.
“Or someone pulled them out and used the bed to cover it.” I glanced around. “I don’t see the missing floorboards anywhere, which seems strange to me. If they gave way, wouldn’t they be here, in this hole?”
Beneath the splintered planks, it was hard to tell whether the dirt in the hole had ever been disturbed or not, but there was one way to find out.
I began to dig, a curious Giovanni looking on.
A few feet down, the dirt changed color, darker and wetter, perhaps seeping in from an abandoned body of water nearby. I knelt and began brushing it away with my hands, and then I saw something, a rock maybe. I wasn’t sure. I dug around it with care until it came free.
“What have you found?” Giovanni asked.
“I don’t know, but it’s curved like the link of a chain. I don’t think it’s a rock.”
I brushed the mud away with my fingers, though the grime clung tight, making it impossible to know what I’d found.
Perhaps nothing.
Perhaps something.
“I have a container of water in the car,” I said. “Will you grab it for me?”
He stepped out a second time, unscrewing the lid off the bottle when he returned before handing it to me. I flattened the object in my hand and poured the water, using my thumb to help the grime break free. The water worked, and as I turned the object over in my palm, the shape was unmistakable.
“I think it’s a bone,” I said. “A human bone. A vertebrae from the looks of it.”
Before I could inspect it further, a sound outside caught our attention, a crunch of leaves, quick and deliberate, indicating we weren’t alone.
Giovanni’s gaze met mine, and on instinct, I shoved the bone fragment into my pocket, and we reached for our guns.
We stepped out onto the porch. The woods beyond the clearing were still at first. Then came another sound, footsteps pounding through brush like someone was running.
Branches clawed at my jacket as I tore through the trees, following the rustle of movement until it vanished altogether.
I shouted, “Logan, stop,” even though I did not know if he was the one we were chasing. By the time I reached the clearing, the person I was chasing was gone.
As Giovanni caught up to me, I lowered my weapon and scanned the tree line, trying to piece together who had been out here, what they were running from, and why.
“See anything?” he asked.
“Nothing. Whoever was out here was fast.”
Giovanni holstered his gun, his eyes sweeping the trees one final time before we started back toward the cabin. The clearing felt different to me now, as if charged and uneasy.
When we reached the porch, I stopped short. In the dirt were fresh footprints. They were larger than mine and smaller than Giovanni’s. Beside them, a single handprint was pressed deep into the soil near the car, as if someone had crouched there, waiting and watching.
Giovanni bent down to study it. “Whoever it was, they were close.”
“Too close,” I said.