Hazardous Homecoming. Dana Mentink

palm.

      “I wish someone had recorded what happened to Alice. If only somebody knew.”

      He squeezed her hand and watched the last light imprint sparks deep down in her irises. The words flowed out. “I’m thinking it will all come out, maybe soon.”

      “Do you believe that?”

      He smiled, and found he could answer truthfully. “Yes, I do. Maybe that’s why the locket’s turned up now.”

      She gripped his hand with sudden ferocity. “It’s what I want, what I’ve always desperately wanted, but at the same time, it scares me.”

      And way deep down, where the roots of his soul were anchored, it scared him also. He started to respond when a squeal caught his attention, the echoing sound of a window closing or a stubborn sliding door being wrenched ajar.

      “Up that way,” he pointed. “Isn’t that where the Walkers used to live?”

      “Josephine still does.” Yet they both knew Josephine was in the hospital.

      He headed up a steep slope where there was barely a trail to be followed. Hardly a challenge for a guy who bushwhacked his way through acres of wilderness on a regular basis. Ruby, he noted, must have done her share of bushwhacking, too, as she stayed at his heels this time until they crested the slope together.

      The Walkers’ cabin sat at the bottom, a wood-sided structure with a sagging roof. The yard around the place was home to a car that appeared not to have run in a very long time and a set of tools laced with rust.

      A light glowed in the front window, through a gap in the curtains.

      “It must be Lester,” Ruby said. “Alice was right, he really is home.”

      She started down the uneven path that served as a walkway.

      “Is this a good idea?” Cooper asked.

      “I just want to ask him if he saw the locket and make sure he knows his wife is in the hospital. He might not have heard about Josephine’s stroke since he doesn’t have a phone.”

      Cooper was never uncomfortable to be completely isolated, nor did he fear the darkness or anything in it, but something about the ramshackle house with the harsh light glaring through the curtains rattled him.

      They hiked down, and Ruby knocked on the door. When no one answered, she called again. “Mr. Walker? It’s Ruby Hudson. I have some information for you. Can we talk?”

      Nothing stirred inside.

      “Mr. Walker?” Ruby tried again.

      Cooper leaned close and whispered, his lips touching the tender softness of her earlobe. “He doesn’t want to talk to us. Let’s go.”

      She shivered, perhaps from his whisper or the gathering cool of the evening, and followed him away. A moment later, they heard the squeal of the back sliding door.

      Ruby set off in a jog. “I’ve got to tell him that locket has to go to the police.”

      “No,” he called, but she trotted down the slope and disappeared through the densely clustered shrubs.

      He followed after her, brushing aside the branches that obstructed his path. She stood, hands on hips, in the grass that had overtaken a broken birdbath filled with green water. “Where did he go?”

      The sliding door was closed and Cooper peered into the darkened living room. “Seems like he could have just stayed inside and ignored us. No real reason to...” He felt a stirring in the air, a strange electricity that made him spin around.

      Ruby stared at him with eyes round and terrified. A hooded figure wearing a bulky jacket embraced her from behind, one wiry arm around her shoulders and the other with a box cutter pressed to her neck, wicked steel against her creamy white throat.

       FOUR

      Ruby clung to the arm that circled her neck, feeling the hard muscles taut with anger and the edge of the blade pressing her windpipe. A man? A woman?

      “Why are you here?” a voice whispered in her ear.

      “I’m...” Ruby was too scared to push out any more words. She swallowed, trying again when Cooper stepped closer, palms up in a placating gesture. “Sorry if we scared you. We don’t want to cause trouble. Just looking for Lester Walker. Is that you?”

      A grunt.

      Cooper nodded. “Okay. Your wife is in the hospital right now. We were coming to give you the message.” He pointed to Ruby. “She was going to tell you. How about you let her go now?”

      “How about,” her attacker snarled, breath hot on her neck, “I cut her throat?”

      Cooper moved closer, his tone harder now. “You don’t want to do that. I understand you’re upset. Our fault for trespassing. We’ll take you to Josephine. No reason to hurt Ruby.”

      The arm tightened around Ruby’s throat. “I think there’s every reason.”

      “Lester, please. I know you suffered a terrible loss, but there’s new evidence. This time we found her locket.”

      “Police and investigators can make evidence say whatever they want.”

      The stranger’s grip tightened. Ruby struggled to breathe.

      Everything happened in a blur. Cooper leaped forward. Lester loosened his hold a fraction, and Ruby stomped down hard on a foot. With a loud groan, Ruby was shoved forward into Cooper’s chest and they went over backward onto the ground. She could hear Lester running away.

      Ruby felt the breath explode out of Cooper as her elbow drove into his stomach. He rolled away and was on his feet in one fluid movement.

      “No, Cooper. Don’t go after him,” she yelled, shoving the hair from her face and trying to scramble to her feet. By the time she did, Cooper was already gone, disappeared into the dark stand of firs.

      She listened, hearing nothing but the wild beating of her own heart as it knocked into her ribs. A cold wind seemed to reach through her skin and chill her from the inside out. With shaking fingers, she picked up her cell phone. No signal. It shouldn’t have surprised her. She moved to a spot farther away from the trees and managed to get a few bars and call 911.

      When the dispatcher answered, she tried to corral her stampeding thoughts. “This is Ruby Hudson. A man, I think it was Lester Walker, attacked me with a knife on his property and...and Cooper Stokes took off after him.”

      No she wasn’t hurt.

      Yes, she was safe at the moment.

      But what about Cooper?

      She should go after him, but her brother would say summoning help was the most important task. Every minute wasted worsened the disaster.

      Like every minute she’d spent calling for Alice that long-ago afternoon in the dark woods before she’d raced home to tell her family. Panic rose inside and she forced herself to talk slowly, though she wanted nothing more than to click off the phone and sprint after Cooper.

      When she was through the litany of questions, she could stand no more. After promising the dispatcher she would head back to her house and wait for an officer, she pocketed the phone and made for the break in the trees. The sky was near black and the interlaced branches formed a living ceiling that crowded out the starlight. Pine needles cushioned her steps. She bit back a scream as a figure stepped through a gap in the branches. Cooper.

      “It’s you,” she said, stupidly.

      He did not seem injured, just winded. “Whoever that was, knows the woods better than I do. Lost me easily when the sun set. Runs like a deer.”

      “It had to have been Lester.” Ruby put her hands on her hips. “Why