Chapter Nine #2
Another idea formed. If she found a rock and broke a window, then maybe she’d set off an alarm.
With an alarm, there’d be police. She didn’t even want to think about the response time out in this area and she was still debating if the local cops were safe.
She decided she had to take the chance and see if she could get an officer to respond.
If the cop looked like Josh Colten, she would take off again.
Elena walked around the house. Most of the property still had snow on the ground, but she found a landscaped area. There was a rock small enough to pry loose and pick up. She went to the back door and threw it into the window.
The sound of glass shattering pierced the night, but no lights came on. There were no barking dogs or people yelling. Not the city. Apparently out here in the woods, no one worried about people breaking in. Go figure.
Elena carefully stuck her arm through the broken glass and felt for the lock and turned it.
Maybe now there would be an alarm? She opened the door and stepped inside.
Nothing. Elena tiptoed through the house, double-checking that no one was home, although she didn’t think most people would sleep through a rock being thrown into a window.
No one was home and there was no landline phone.
That probably meant that the homeowners now used cell phones here because maybe they had service.
Or maybe they had Wi-Fi calling. It didn’t really matter. She needed a phone.
Feeling bad about vandalizing the property, she found a broom and dustpan and cleaned up the glass. Then she duct-taped a plastic bag over the opening. Not exactly a good fix like plywood, but it was the best she could do for now. When killers weren’t chasing her, she’d try to pay for the repair.
If she lived.
Shivering again, Elena turned up the heat and was happy to hear the furnace kick on.
She figured that homeowners had left the heat on low so that pipes wouldn’t freeze.
As she warmed up, her stomach rumbled and she went to the kitchen, opening the pantry.
There wasn’t much, although there were some stale crackers, peanut butter and bottled water.
Right now, that looked like a gourmet meal.
Feeling better after eating and warming up, Elena figured she had better find a route back to Pinecone Junction.
There wasn’t a phone, but there was a computer.
What were the odds that she could contact the local sheriff through the computer?
Would there be internet? At this point, she wanted to try anything that didn’t involve going back out into the cold and tromping through snow again.
On the off chance she had to do that, she took the rest of the water and food.
That way she at least had a couple of necessities.
She spied some waterproof matches and packed those as well.
Elena booted up the computer and the screen came to life.
Her hope was once again dashed when the password box came up.
Opening drawers and sifting through the desk, Elena hoped that she could find a list of passwords, but there was nothing except a few paper maps of the surrounding national forest and town.
She took those and stashed them in her backpack.
If she couldn’t get into the computer or find a phone, then at least she would have some way of knowing where she was out in this remote area.
Now that she wasn’t so cold, exhaustion was starting to set in. Maybe she could get a quick nap and, in the morning, find her way back to town. Would the two men searching for her give up by then? Maybe they’d assume she was dead from being out in the elements. That could work to her advantage.
Going over to the couch, Elena sat down and was ready to take off her shoes and try to rest when she noticed light shining through the window.
The vehicle was down the street. Maybe there had been a silent alarm and a deputy was coming to investigate.
She rushed to the window, although still cautious, stood behind a curtain, waiting for the vehicle to get closer.
Maybe someone had found Amber and this was an officer out looking for Elena.
Or maybe just doing a home welfare check.
Then the spotlight came on. And she saw the single headlight.
“Crap.”
Elena stayed behind the curtain as the vehicle approached.
They wouldn’t be able to see the broken window since she’d entered through a back door.
How had they figured out where she went?
Maybe they knew the area and guessed she’d end up here from the road leading to the mountain pass.
It didn’t matter. She just needed to hide and wait them out.
Then she could figure out her next move.
The dark SUV parked and she could see the men staring at the house where she was hiding.
How did they know? Then it hit her. The computer screen.
The light was like a beacon shouting out that someone was in a house that was otherwise unoccupied.
It was too late to pull the cord. They knew she was there.
Sprinting toward the back door, she grabbed her backpack and another water. Then she escaped once more into the desolate area where she was the prey being hunted.