Familiar Escape. Caroline Burnes

      Thomas knew she was asking how often her sister received a beating at the hands of her husband. Earlier he’d tried to protect her from the truth about her sister’s abuse, but now he felt he had to tell her. “Anna came by sporadically, either when she was really happy or really scared.”

      The dash light of the SUV gave Molly’s face a soft illumination, and he saw the tear trace down her cheek. She was hearing some hard things, but if she wanted to find Katie, she would have to hear a lot more.

      He kept his gaze on the road as he talked. “About once a week Anna would come over because she was afraid. Either he’d already hit her or he’d threatened to hit her.”

      “When she was pregnant…”

      “Toward the end he just slapped her. He had some restraint. He never took it far enough to break a bone or do any permanent damage. It was more about bullying Anna, about breaking her down. The emotional pain was far worse than the physical.”

      Now Molly’s tears flowed in earnest. He slowed the vehicle, but she waved him on. “I’m okay,” she said. “I just wish she’d called me. I suspected she was unhappy, but whenever I spoke to her, she said she was happy and for me to mind my own business.”

      “It was so important to her for you to believe she was a success. That she’d made the right choice.” Thomas thought about the conversations he’d had with Anna. “She felt like a failure. She was the college dropout, the one who couldn’t get it right. She knew she’d worried your mom a lot. After your mother died, she felt like she had to prove to you that she was smart and strong and able to manage her own life.”

      “You see how well that went.”

      “There was nothing you could have done. Honestly. I tried. I begged her to leave Darwin, to take Kate and start over fresh. I offered her money, contacts, whatever she needed. She wouldn’t go.”

      “She was hardheaded like that.”

      “Anna looked up to you. She talked all the time about her sister, Molly, about how talented you were and how you were living in Arizona on an Indian reservation and helping the tribes market their jewelry and crafts.” She wasn’t crying any longer, but in the quick glance he shot her, he could see the pain on her face. Thomas wanted to ease her suffering. He knew enough about loss to know that a few well-placed words could last a lifetime. “Anna admired you so much. She said you’d gotten all the strength in the family. That you didn’t need a husband or anyone. She thought that was great.”

      Molly sighed. “That’s funny because she told me I was too ornery to catch a man.”

      It was the first time he’d seen her really smile, and it literally made him catch his breath. There was something in Molly Harper’s smile that touched his heart and made a shiver rush through him.

      “You okay?” she asked.

      He nodded. “I guess someone just walked over my grave.”

      IN THE BLACKNESS of the wilderness, Molly didn’t see the outline of the cabin until the SUV’s lights struck the cypress exterior. She suppressed a shudder. The cabin was dark and lonely looking, but she needed to get out of the vehicle. She felt as if she’d been riding in darkness for half her life.

      “Let me go in first and check it out.” Thomas got out of the SUV, pocketing the keys and her only chance of escape.

      In truth, even if she had had the keys, she would have had no idea how to get out of the forest. The road had switched back and forth. Thomas had taken turnoffs that seemed to repeat themselves every ten miles. With less than a quarter tank of gas, she might end up hopelessly lost.

      Familiar, her legendary private investigator, had napped most of the way. She nudged the cat. “Wake up.”

      Familiar stood, arched his back and yawned. He certainly wasn’t concerned about their plight. He hopped from the vehicle and trotted behind Thomas up the steps of the cabin. The two of them disappeared from the light cast by the vehicle’s headlamps.

      Molly got out and stretched. The woods were alive with sound. Insects, the rustle of leaves and branches that could be deer—or something more sinister. She hurried after Thomas. It was his bright idea to bring her there, and if someone was going to be eaten by a wild animal, it was going to be him.

      Inside the cabin a lantern flared to life. The warm glow revealed a comfortable front room. Rocking chairs were drawn before a cold fireplace. There was a stout wooden table and cast-iron cooking utensils hanging on the wall behind it. A thin coating of dust covered everything, but otherwise the cabin was carefully maintained.

      “I’ll get some wood.” Thomas acted on his words. Molly took the lamp and examined the rest of the house. There was a kitchen and a single bedroom. Her anger flared.

      Thomas entered with an armload of wood. As he bent to light the fire, she rounded on him. “If you think you can hold me here, you’ve got another think coming. I have to get on with my search for Katie.”

      Ignoring her, Thomas struck a match and the dry wood gave a cheerful crackle. He rose slowly and looked at her.

      “You can’t leave tonight.” He looked at the fire. “You can have the bed. I’ll sleep on the floor here by the fire. I’m going to check for supplies in the kitchen. There probably won’t be much, but we might be able to find some beans or something.”

      With that he was gone. Molly stood, hands on her hips, frustration gnawing at her gut. She wasn’t a single step closer to finding her niece.

      She pulled the note from her pocket and read it again. The words seemed more ominous.

      “The baby is alive. Don’t stop hunting, but don’t go to the police.”

      “What’s that you’re reading?”

      She lowered the note and turned to find Thomas standing not five feet away, his gaze on the scrap of paper.

      “It’s why I’m here.” She handed it to him and watched his face as he read it.

      “Is this for real?”

      “I don’t know.” She bit her bottom lip. “I have to believe it’s real. I have to hang on to the idea that Katie’s alive. That’s why I have to get out of here now.”

      He nodded. “You received this in Arizona? At your home?”

      “Yes. Day before yesterday.”

      “Via the mail? Where’s the envelope?”

      “It was mailed from here in Jefferson.”

      Thomas’s face actually showed hope. “So the person who mailed it knows your physical address and knows your relationship to Katie. That’s good, I think.”

      “Are they going to demand a ransom?” Molly asked.

      Thomas threw more wood on the fire and held his hands out to it. “I don’t know. That note doesn’t have the sound of someone seeking a ransom. In fact, it sounds more like someone trying to tip you off. Is there someone at your home checking the mail, in case they contact you again?”

      “I have a friend I can call to do that.”

      “Good. But you should warn your friend that the police may be watching him.”

      If Molly hadn’t realized how serious her situation was, Thomas’s words brought it home. “Why would they be watching my friends?” Reality touched her. “Because they think I’m on the lam with an escaped murderer.” It was a statement.

      Thomas nodded. “Either as a hostage or a co-conspirator in a jail escape, you’re going to be of interest to law enforcement. And so will your friends or anyone seen going in and out of your home.”

      “But that could work to our advantage, couldn’t it?” She felt a surge of hope. “The police haven’t shown a lot of interest in searching for Kate,