3
Jacqueline
Jacqueline hissed through her teeth as the car’s back wheels slid on slick black mud. The coastal road out to the marine reserve was a twisting, broken-up mess at the best of times, but it had taken an extra beating in the latest storms—and the town hadn’t sent anyone out to fix things up yet.
Or ever, Jacqueline thought, narrowing her eyes at the road ahead. That—oh, come on. I remember that slip from last time I was out here… how many years ago?
Jacqueline shook her head as she counted back. Not since she’d started working at the sheriff’s office, at least. A few years into her marriage.
Too long.
The marine reserve was quiet and peaceful, but Jacqueline was in no mood to appreciate it today. It had taken her over an hour to get this far, but she had slowed down to a crawl the last half-mile as the condition of the road got worse and worse. And what she could see in her headlights didn’t exactly encourage her.
She eased around a slippery bend and groaned. A landslide covered the road.
And here I am in a two-wheel drive like some useless townie. If Reg hadn’t taken the truck to cart everyone to the party…
Jacqueline tightened her grip on the steering wheel. No turning back now.
Reg hadn’t returned her call. She didn’t know if he’d even got her message. Either way, this was up to her.
Wincing, she trundled closer to the rocky, silty landslide. The car’s front wheels spun and spun—and gripped.
“Yes!” she shouted. “Let’s do this!”
She made it another ten feet.
The car’s efforts didn’t end with a bang, or a crunch. It just sank slowly into the sodden dirt, wheels whining as they spun.
“Drat!” Jacqueline snapped, smacking the steering wheel. “Useless—freaking—ugh!”
She wrestled the door open and took stock. The car was sunk halfway up the wheels.
So I’ll have to call a tow truck. What’ll that set me back? A few nights of cocktails?
Jacqueline squelched around the car and grabbed her handbag from the trunk, slinging it over her shoulder and stomping awkwardly over the last of the slip. Her flashlight made a sad, small circle of light on the mud.
The caller’s panicked voice echoed through her mind. She pulled her phone out of her bag and slipped it into her bra. Just in case Reg gets back to me. Or a call comes through from the office. She’d set up an auto-forward before she left, although she wasn’t sure how much she trusted it what with all the electrical weirdnesses lately.
A light breeze made her shiver. It was almost pitch black by the time she made it to the parking area at the entrance to the reserve. Jacqueline swung her flashlight around.
There wasn’t much to see. Just an empty parking lot and a concrete building with its doors and windows boarded up. The lights of a boat blinked out on the water. She couldn’t tell in the darkness what type of boat it was, or how far away.
Whoever they are, I hope they’re having a better night than me.
Jacqueline frowned at the concrete building. When she’d been at school, her parents had told her that when they were at school, the old building had been used for field trips. Jacqueline couldn’t remember ever seeing it without its doors and windows boarded up.
She let her flashlight linger over one of the boarded-up windows. Some of the wooden slats had been broken away.
Was that the storm, or…?
Hairs prickled on the back of Jacqueline’s neck. She told herself it was just the cold.
Beyond the abandoned building was a boardwalk, leading out over the shallows and rockpools.
Given the state of everything else out here, that’s probably rotten, too. Jacqueline looked around. There was no sign of anyone, but—she ran her flashlight over the broken boards on the window again.
Just in case…