But Luke’s already moving for his keys. “I’m gonna take the truck down into the holler, see if I can find her.” He points at Seth. “You double back on the logging road.” Then Lacey. “Stay here. Call us if she comes back.”
As Luke rushes out the front door, his heart pounding double-time in his ears, fear has his vision going blurry. All he can think about is getting to Sal.
She’s out there somewhere.
Roy’s out there too.
Wind in her hair. Sun on her back. Sal feels freer than she has in a long time. In fact, she’s decided she likes running. She hasn’t remembered anything yet—hell, she knew it was a long shot, but it’s there. She can feel it. Memories percolating. Like some forgotten song she used to know.
But now it’s time to turn back, her body telling her that’s enough for the day. Sal’s legs are as wobbly as cooked noodles. Her mind a fog of dizziness, the slow encroachment of a migraine breaching her brain.
In the middle of the path, Sal stops. She doubles over and breathes hard at the pain in her side. Then, giving a quick exhale and taking a pace, Sal looks around to get her bearings. She’s gotten turned around a few times, but nothing she can’t handle. It’s ten degrees cooler in the woods, the sun higher in the sky than it was when she left the farm. She can hear traffic rushing to her right, which means there lies the road and Hellier Curve. Water on her left, which is the river. Which means straight ahead is the farm. Even if she can’t yet see it.
She tilts her face to the trees, letting the sunlight flicker across her face.
Somewhere, behind her, a stick cracks.
She tenses, listening.
Chickenshit. You’re a chickenshit,that’s all, she tells herself. It’s a bird, a fox, a rabbit.
Still, Sal strains her ears, listening. Then, far off, but not far enough, a slow shuffling. The almost imperceptible sound of footsteps.
The hair on the back of her neck pricks up. Her heart’s in her throat. There’s a tug in her stomach, her sixth sense finding her, telling her to go, go, go.
Sal runs, rushing headlong through the forest in a clumsy zigzag pattern. Long branches scratch her arms, her shins. She stumbles once, tripping over roots, nicking her palms, but pushes herself back up.
Behind her, she hears it, she swears she does, a fast-paced, panting herky-jerky movement. Lumbering. Too big to be an animal. Something else. Someone else.
Someone close.
Propelling herself faster and faster, Sal descends a sloped hill. Her breath rattles out like a tin can. She splashes through a mud puddle. Climbs her way back up the steep hill.
Here, the trees have thinned. The light brighter. Sal pushes her way out of the grove of trees, nearly laughing in sheer relief as she sees the farm. Thirty feet away.
She never stops running.
Fear has her fleeing. And she makes a mad dash for the house.
The front door rockets open. Seth launches himself down the steps, his eyes wild with worry and relief.
They make for each other Sal not even bothering to slow her pace. Seth sees it, and his hands come out to brace her as she flies into his arms.
“Thank God,” Seth murmurs, gripping her tight. His blue eyes search her face. “You okay?” He gives her a shake when she doesn’t respond. “Sal?”
Before she can tell him about the woods, she frowns. Cop cars. Luke’s truck—gone. Lacey at the screen door, red-eyed.
Sal stares up at Seth. His face spooked and unnervingly pale. “What’s happening? What is it?”
Seth’s mouth opens. Closes. Opens again. “It’s Roy.”
Sal would have fallen over if Seth hadn’t already been holding her up.
Sal sits on the couch, numb, barely breathing, as she listens to the two detectives tell her that Roy Williams has escaped while in transit from the courthouse to the jail. They toss around terrifying words like fugitive and custody and prisoner.
Beside Sal, Luke keeps a firm arm wrapped around her waist as she leans into him for support. Lacey sits on the other side of her. Seth, at the window, paces.
The big detective’s voice rises sharply as he speaks. Clipped and businesslike. “We have reason to believe that Roy could be on his way to you.”