The Haunted (Sarah Roberts 12) (2 page)

Whenever Aaron saw Sarah talking to herself, he backed away to give her privacy. He understood who she was talking to, but she suspected it freaked him out.

“All in good time …”

Vivian’s voice trailed off. A feeling of retreat, a withdrawal, whooshed through her. Sarah was alone with Aaron. The feeling was absolute. She took another moment to collect herself, then got to her feet and brushed the dirt from her knees.

Aaron waited patiently five headstones away. He offered a gentle smile. She nodded that she was okay, then scanned the grounds again.

The vehicle that had entered the cemetery moments before looked like a Ford Fusion. It was parked by one of the fresh mounds of dirt. Two men in black leather coats stood by the mound, heads bowed. The one who faced her seemed to be watching them. Even though his head was aimed downward, she felt his eyes on her. But how was that possible? No one knew where they were going today and even if someone knew, why follow her?

She blinked hard, wiped her eyes, and stared at the men.

They turned from the mound and headed for their vehicle.

“Did you see those two?” she asked.

“Yeah? What about them?”

“Were they watching us?”

After a moment, Aaron said, “Not that I could tell.”

The car eased down the narrow road meandering through the plots.

With one last look at Vivian’s burial site, Sarah blew a kiss and turned away. She linked her arm with Aaron’s as they headed for the car.

Once on cement, Sarah stomped her feet to remove the residue from the wet grass. In a harsh suddenness, their car alarm sounded.

Her head snapped up. No one was near the car as the alarm blared. Aaron fumbled for the key fob in his pocket, brought it out and silenced the alarm.

“How did that happen?” he asked.

“You didn’t bump the panic button on the fob by accident, did you?”

He shook his head and stared down at the keys. “They were in my pocket. Until we stepped onto this little road, my arm was in yours.”

Sarah deepened her voice and tried to emulate Vincent Price. “Maybe it was Vivian or some other ghost wanting to make contact.”

“Don’t be weird.”

“What’s weird? My voice or the alarm?”

“Both.”

She smacked his arm before he could block it or step back. “Let’s go. I need to get back to the cabin.”

As they drove the winding lane toward the exit, Aaron said, “I’m going to miss you.”

“It’s only been two weeks. In six weeks, I’ll come home. Then maybe I’ll visit you in Toronto.”

“Overall it’s two months. That’s a lot.”

She opened the car window for fresh air to replace the humid and thick air after the rain. “It may be a lot, but it’s needed.”

“Isn’t there someone you can see near Santa Rosa?”

“I don’t want to bump into my doctor, the man who knows what’s inside my head, while buying oranges or bread at the local grocery store. I rented this cabin for two months and set up six appointments with a psychiatrist with a purpose.”

“I know, you told me. Sartre said something like, ‘If you’re lonely when you’re alone, then you’re in bad company.’”

“That’s exactly why I need to spend two months alone.”

“But you’re seeing a doctor weekly.”

“Aaron. You know what I mean.”

He pulled out of the cemetery and headed back the way they had come, a smile playing across his lips. “I know, but I can’t be faulted for trying. I’ve been missing you and I’m going to miss you. Parkman’s missing you. Your parents are—”

“Really? Add all the pressure you want. I’ll make it three months. Maybe four. The cabin’s a month-to-month lease. I’ve retained first option. But no problem, just keep pushing.”

He nodded, that smile still there. When he reached for the radio, Sarah looked forward and saw the Ford Fusion from the cemetery again.

It was coming toward them.

The same one?

Before it passed, she visually confirmed it was the same men from the cemetery. Both wore their leather jackets. Both had close-cropped hair, military like.

And both men stared at her with a look she had seen on the faces of men many times.

Hatred.

Chapter 2

As the sun descended behind a curtain of swollen and bruised purplish clouds, Sarah retreated inside the cabin, locking the door behind her. It was quite similar to the cabin Gert had taken her when she was eighteen. Over the past few years she had written her life story in a series of books so one day, when she was gone, she could share with whoever cared to read it, what she had done. Recently there had been more time for writing. She had been making notes on her time in Italy, Kelowna, Canada, and Los Angeles. Soon, after locating her old babysitter, she would write the first drafts of those memoirs.

Her glass refilled with red wine, Blue October playing on the iPad speaker on the book shelf, she fired up her MacBook Pro and continued her search for Cole Lincoln, her old babysitter.

She had discovered he no longer worked for any police organization. Without the proper hacker skills required, getting into the DMV website or searching city records for his name was out of the question. Google was the only tool in her arsenal, but nothing useful came up. As far as she could tell, he did not maintain a Facebook account, Twitter, or Instagram. After leaving the police force for undisclosed reasons, Lincoln just disappeared.

Even Vivian was strangely silent on the matter.

Thinking of her sister, Sarah leaned back in her chair and took another sip of her wine. After leaving the gravesite earlier, she gave Aaron credit for not prying, not asking what Vivian had talked to her about. She thought back to the men in the cemetery, the ones they passed on the road and realized her paranoia had gotten the better of her. Would she have stared at them as intensely if Vivian hadn’t asked her to leave the cemetery? If she hadn’t stared at them in such a way, maybe they wouldn’t have noticed her.

There was nothing else in her life happening. No criminals on her radar. No detectives looking for help and nothing from Vivian. Nothing except routine check-ins like earlier at the cemetery.

And now Aaron was gone for another week, only to return with groceries and supplies before he left for Toronto for a few months. He would stay the night, leave in the morning. Even though he was to head to Toronto after that, she was strangely happy. In her life, the kind of peace and quiet the cabin offered had been rare.

Blue October sang about being foiled while she closed her eyes, swished the wine around in her mouth, and listened for her sister on the inside. She could usually detect her, lingering, rummaging around.

Since leaving the cemetery, the devastating Vivian memories had eased off. Maybe that signaled the end of them. If so, she wouldn’t need any help in maintaining her sanity. Maybe she would tell Dr. Williams she might not come again after their first meeting.

Sarah jumped at a soft rapping, like something bumped the outer wall on the south-facing side of the cabin. A branch snapped and swung in front of the window. She looked in time to see it swing back and forth until it came to a stop.

In one fluid motion, she set her wine glass on the table and pushed her chair back. In sock feet, she rushed for the dark bedroom, retrieved her Glock from the back of the night table and huddled by the bedroom window, her eyes closed to adjust to the darkness faster.

The half moon wasn’t bright enough to illuminate the area outside the window. The cabin was surrounded by tiny bushes and shrubs. About ten yards away, near the edge of the property, a row of tall deciduous trees lined the back. As far as she could tell, nothing moved out there.

And nothing moved on the inside either.

“Vivian, where are you?” she whispered. “You wanna tell me what that was? Or who that was?”

When Vivian remained silent, Sarah moved through the cabin killing the lights as she went. At the door, the only door in the two-room building, she wrapped her finger around the trigger guard of the Glock and eased the door open. Her stomach fluttered and it made her crack a smile. She hadn’t been in any kind of action or danger in so many months it almost felt new again. It was something that lifted her spirits, propelled her adrenaline. Others jumped from planes for the rush. Sarah needed the cloak and dagger of the chase, the hunt and the fight.

Her head low, she slipped outside and put her back to the wall beside the door. Then she scanned the area immediately around her, the Glock following her gaze like a first-person-shooter video game—which had been part of her recent training, using a game as a simulator.

The landscape was void of humans and the air was completely still.

Then what the hell made that noise? What moved the branch?

With the cabin at her back, she moved away from the moonlight to remain in the darkest regions of the property. After a dozen steps along the side, the sound of twigs snapping underfoot held her up short.

She stopped, listened, held her breath, and waited.

Slowly, her weapon leading the way, she eased around the corner.

A white-tailed doe chewed on a rose bush at the back of the cabin. Alert to her presence now, the deer’s head snapped up and looked toward her, then trotted away and disappeared into the brush and trees.

“Shit. Pulled away from my research and wine by a hungry animal.”

After another scan of the property line, which was easier to see now that her eyes were fully adjusted to the dark, Sarah headed back inside.

She closed and locked the cabin door, flicked on the lights, and replaced the Glock in its holder behind the night table.

It wasn’t another hour before she had finished the wine, exhausted Google in search of Lincoln, until she finally found the email of Lincoln’s sister who now lived in Atlanta. She emailed Rebecca Lincoln with a false story about being an old friend. She was trying to find Rebecca’s brother, Cole, without much success. Could Rebecca offer any advice as to where Cole might be?

It didn’t bother Sarah in the least to lie to Rebecca in her missive or to involve the sister in locating Cole. He had to pay for what he did to her all those years ago. It was the right thing to do. Even Vivian agreed. Having gotten away with it, how many other victims had Lincoln abused since then? Although it would be nice if Vivian would just tell her where Cole was so she could stop wasting time.

She prepared for bed, set the cabin’s alarm, and brought her iPad into the bedroom. Within minutes of hitting the pillow, she was asleep.

In the morning after a shower, breakfast and getting dressed, she turned the alarm off to leave the cabin, reset it and stepped outside. In the light of the sunny morning, she noticed large footprints in the dirt. The prints were not hers. It was a man’s print, at least twelve inches long. Yesterday’s rain had left the ground soft and now revealed the footprints of her late-night visitors.

So someone had been here last night.

She closed the cabin door behind her, locked it and followed the footprints. They circled the cabin, coming close to the window where the branch had been disturbed.

When Aaron dropped her off after the cemetery visit yesterday, he hadn’t gotten out of his car. The prints were too big to be his anyway. There had been no visitors since the day she moved in for her two-month stint. These particular footprints were new and meant only one thing.

Someone was keeping tabs on her.

But who? And why?

Could Lincoln know she’s looking for him? Could he have someone watching her and that’s why Vivian said that it would happen in its own time? Were those two men in the Ford Fusion from yesterday Lincoln’s men?

If so, was Aaron being watched, too?

She pulled her iPhone out to check the time. Another hour until her first appointment with Dr. Williams. She would still make it on time, but on the way she would call Aaron and warn him to watch his back.

She had left the Glock in the cabin, but wouldn’t need it for a doctor’s appointment. Once in the car, she headed out to the main road.

Until whoever was on her tail confronted her or she discovered them back tonight, she would carry on as normal as possible.

When do I ever let an asshole change my schedule for me?

But when she nabbed them, she would definitely change their schedule.

Among other things.

Chapter 3

Sarah pulled into an empty spot near the front doors to the little clinic where Dr. Williams had an office. During the forty-minute ride over, she watched the rearview mirror repeatedly in search of a tail, and was disappointed to find none. Unless they were exceptional at what they did and could stay undetected as they followed her, she was confident she rode in alone.