Chapter Twenty-Seven
Olivia’s heart stumbled as she stared at the bloody blond hair. Her gaze went to the body, then swept the room. “So where is Zoe?”
Was she here after Jacob died? Or while he was being killed?
Is she still alive?
Lincoln glanced around. “We’ve checked the whole place. She’s not here.”
Olivia’s own kidnapping flashed through her mind like a slideshow on fast-forward. Memories pelted her. Being gagged. Bound. Held underground. The dampness. The cold. Her asthma flaring. Her lungs tightened. She wheezed.
“Hold on,” Lincoln said. “Let’s get out of here.”
“We can’t go!” Olivia gasped. “We need to find Zoe.”
“In a minute.” Lincoln guided her through the house and out the front door onto the covered front stoop. “Did you bring your inhaler?”
“Yes.” She fished it out of her pocket and puffed. The medicine instantly eased her breathing. “Better. Thank you.”
“Do your breathing exercises. I’ll be right back. I want to check something.” Lincoln went back inside.
She listened to the dog barking and waited for what felt like an hour but was probably ten minutes.
Lincoln reappeared. “His wrists were slashed.”
“Slashed?”
Lincoln nodded. “Both of them. Vertically.”
“He didn’t do it himself.”
“No.”
“Wouldn’t it be more expedient to slit his throat?” Olivia asked.
“Maybe expedient wasn’t his goal. Maybe he wanted to drag it out.”
“Harold said Tim wants revenge.” Olivia shuddered. “Either Zoe found Jacob like this and ran or Tim has her.”
Lincoln frowned. “Why would he take her when he could just kill her here and be done with it?” He shook his head. “I think she found Jacob like this and left.”
“So we try the cabin?”
“Let’s do it.”
Olivia jerked a thumb at the house behind her. “Do we report the death?”
“Nothing can hurt him now.” Lincoln headed for the SUV.
Olivia flipped up her hood and ran for the passenger side. In the vehicle, she shook off the hood. Water dripped from her jacket. “Feels wrong to leave him.”
Lincoln turned on the heater. “If we call it in, the cops will want us to stay here and wait for them.”
“And we need to find Zoe.”
“Yes.” Lincoln headed up the mountain. “We’ll call after we find Zoe.
We need to report the dog too. It has shelter tonight, but someone will need to take charge of it.
” He paused. “We’ll make an anonymous call asking for a wellness check.
” Lincoln used an app to disguise the number of his phone and called the local police.
He ended the call a minute later, turned, and stared at the house.
“They said they don’t have the manpower to send anyone out here unless it’s a life-or-death emergency. ”
“We can’t leave the dog here, not in this weather,” Olivia said.
“I agree.” He opened the door again. “I’ll be right back.”
He ran around to the rear yard and came back with a shape tucked under his arm. Sliding behind the wheel, he handed the shivering, bony lump of fur across the console.
Olivia tucked the mud-covered dog inside her jacket. “This is the terror that was barking at us?”
“He did try to bite me. Good thing my boots are thick. I think he was just scared, but now he seems to understand I’m OK.” Lincoln shifted into gear and drove away. “We’ll deal with the legal fallout of dog thievery afterward.”
“No one will fault us for taking him under these conditions.”
They passed a sign for Hidden Cavern, which offered guided tours of the local caves. The sign boasted a half mile of underground walking trails with seventy steps. Olivia shuddered. She’d pass on exploring any caves.
At the entrance to Hidden Mountain Estates, they followed the GPS onto a dirt-and-gravel road that had not been graded in a long time.
It was more mud than gravel. The SUV slipped in and out of ruts.
The road appeared to have been cut into the mountain, with a steep incline on one side and a drop-off on the other.
Olivia gripped the armrest and held her breath as the vehicle slid sideways toward a deep ravine.
Lincoln maneuvered the vehicle back to the center of the road.
Water lapped over the edge of a small bridge.
Branches brushed the sides of the vehicle.
He made a turn and stopped the SUV on the side of the road.
Rain sluiced across the windshield. The wipers swept back and forth in a frantic arc.
“It’s right up there.” He pointed to a steep driveway.
“Do we want to go quietly on foot? Or attempt to drive up?”
“Where is the SUV safest?” Olivia asked. “We won’t get off this mountain without it.”
Lincoln nodded. “On foot it is.” He parked at the base of the driveway. Lincoln was wearing a rain jacket, but Olivia zippered her waterproof shell over her puffy jacket.
Olivia was well aware that the ascent was steep and the mud deep, but the longer they waited, the worse conditions would become.
Lincoln stuffed his pockets with equipment.
Olivia watched a flashlight and extra ammunition disappear.
She grabbed her own flashlight, tugged on a knit hat and gloves, then flipped up her hood. “Let’s go.”
She opened her gym bag, dug out a sweatshirt, and bunched it as an impromptu dog bed. The little dog curled up immediately. When Olivia slid out of the SUV, the dog made no attempt to follow her.
The rain found its way into her waterproof layer in seconds.
Water dripped down her neck. She trudged behind Lincoln.
It seemed to take forever to climb fifty feet.
The mud sucked at their boots. Her foot slipped and she went down on her knees.
She pulled a foot under her, then slipped again, sliding on her side a few feet.
A glance over her shoulder told her they’d climbed more than fifty feet.
The path was rocky and rutted. Tumbling down it would hurt.
She reached for anything to stop her descent, scrambling for purchase with her hands and the toes of her boots.
“Liv!” Lincoln shouted, scrambling toward her.
The sole of her boot finally caught in a rut. She breathed, sweat mixing with the rain running down her spine. “I’m OK.” She’d slid about fifteen feet. She dug in and hauled herself back up to his level. He grabbed her hand and helped her up the last few feet.
Their eyes met, his grim. “Maybe we should go back to town.”
“No. We’ve come this far.” She eyed the remaining driveway.
“We’re almost at the top. It’ll take ten minutes to check the house.
If Zoe isn’t there, then we’ll head back.
If she is, we take her with us.” If Zoe wasn’t at the cabin, Olivia had no idea where to look for her.
“We have to find her before Tim does. He’s going to kill her next. ”
Lincoln nodded toward the cabin. “Let’s do it.”
They trudged up the muddy hill without any further incident. At the top, Olivia stopped and stared at the cabin. Unlike many of the vacation homes in the area, this one hadn’t been refurbished. It was old and rustic. The cabin was dark.
“Looks empty,” Lincoln said in her ear.
She leaned close to him. “Do we risk using a flashlight?”
Lightning zigzagged across the sky. In the flicker of light, Olivia saw boot prints in the mud. She pointed just as the night went dark again.
But Lincoln nodded as if he’d seen them. He mouthed, “Someone’s here.”
“Too big to be Zoe’s,” Olivia mouthed back.
Footprints would wash away quickly in this rain. They must be recent.
The garage door was closed, and there were no windows on it to see inside.
They walked around to the back of the cabin.
Another burst of lightning illuminated the back door.
It stood ajar, the lock broken. Lincoln drew his gun and eased through the opening.
Olivia followed him inside. Voices floated from somewhere else in the cabin.
Olivia and Lincoln shared a look. Zoe was probably here. But so was someone else.
Tim?
They crept through a mudroom to a flight of stairs leading upward.
Above them, boots thudded on the wood floor.
The cold, the damp, and the fear tightened her lungs until every breath felt shallower than the last. But she didn’t dare fish out her inhaler.
Lincoln motioned for her to stay low and behind him. Olivia didn’t need to be told twice. She crouched and followed him up the stairs. He paused before his head poked above the last step.
A woman screamed.
Zoe!