AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"Nothing. Sorry. Go have your lunch. I'm going to take Annie home. I probably won't be back, but I'll meet you in the square after school and walk you to the cabin. You shouldn't be in the woods alone."
I could have said the same for him, and this struck me as odd, coming from a guy who hadn't tried to shield me from stuff because I was a girl.
I agreed, and he made me promise to wait at the town square until he arrived. I made him slip back into school and get that pepper spray. I waited with Annie until he came back, then went to find Daniel and the others.
If the morning had sped by, the afternoon slogged. When it finally ended, I told Daniel I'd catch up with him after having dinner at Rafe's. Then I took off for the town square.
Rafe wasn't there. I perched on the base of the monument, a bronze life-size figure of a guy in a lab coat. It isn't marked with a plaque, and we tell people it's to honor all scientists. I've heard, though, that it's supposed to be some guy named Samuel Lyle. I looked him up once on the Internet, but couldn't find any mention of him.
I'd been there about ten minutes when a guy strolled my way. A stranger with dark blond hair pulled back in a ponytail and the vague-eyed look of a drug addict. I could see the top of a badly done tattoo on his collarbone, the rest hidden under a golf shirt buttoned all the way up. A windbreaker topped the golf shirt. He wore white sneakers and jeans that looked like they'd been bought this morning.
As he approached me, he smiled, and if he'd brushed his teeth in the last year, I'd be shocked. I could smell his windbreaker--that stink of new plastic. Smelled his breath, too, as soon as he opened his mouth.
"Hey there, Miss," he said, stumbling over the Miss a little. "I'm looking for someone, and I was told you could help."
One look at the guy, and I knew exactly who he was looking for. I glanced to the side, toward the forest, the path I knew Rafe would take. It was empty. Good.
"I will if I can," I said, giving my best tourist-friendly smile. "Who is it?"
"Kid named Rafael Santiago. No, Martinez. Rafe Martinez. He's about your age and I just talked to someone who said you're his girlfriend."
I managed a laugh. "I wouldn't go that far, but sure, I know him. You're a friend?"
"I am. From way back. Lost track of him when he came up to Canada. Then I was in Vancouver, visiting a buddy and he said, 'Hey, you know who's over on the island?' Course, I couldn't go home without saying hi to my old pal. He's been tougher to find than I thought, though."
He laughed. "Hell, this town was tougher to find than I thought. Wasn't even on the map. Then I get here and find out he's living with his sister in some cabin in the woods. Out there." He waved north. "Seems there isn't even a road to follow. I was hoping you could take me to him."
"I would, but I've never been there myself. I'm waiting for my dad to pick me--" I took out my cell, as if it had been vibrating, and answered. "Dad. Where are you?"
I paused, then sighed. "Fine, I'll walk home then."
I hung up and slid off the monument. "Seems I'm not getting a lift and my mom needs me home right away. Why don't you try Chief Carling's office? They can give you directions to Rafe's place."
There was no way this guy was going to the police station, and the look on his face confirmed it.
"All right then," he said. "I'll keep asking. Thanks for your help."
He couldn't resist a sarcastic twist on the last word. I hoisted my backpack and headed out.
TWENTY-FIVE
RAFE HAD LIED. HE was in trouble. He should have warned me. Now I needed to warn him. Luckily, he was more than a few minutes late.
With the guy hanging around I couldn't head straight for the path leading to Rafe's place. Still, I needed to go in that direction, so I could watch for him. I circled out of the thug's sight, then veered back toward the path, picking up my speed until I was safely in the forest.
When there was still no sign of Rafe, I started worrying that he'd taken another route. I wasn't even completely sure that mine was the right one, because I rarely went out to the Skylark cabin. It was a twenty-minute walk from school, and in the opposite direction from the park.
It was thick forest here, the evergreens so close together they were as bare as telephone poles, trunks soaring into the air, finding sunlight and sprouting branches only near their tops. When the weather wasn't so dry, the ground was boggy. It had to be the crappiest piece of land in the area, which is why Ed Skylark picked it.
Skylark had been an antisocial old hermit who'd lived here before the St. Clouds bought the land. Everyone else had happily taken the generous packages the St. Clouds offered. Ed Skylark had set up traps around his cabin and told the town that if any local kids stumbled over them, it wasn't his fault--he was just trying to catch mink and martens. We didn't know for sure if there actually were traps, but we'd grown up giving the cabin a wide berth.
No one had been surprised when heirs didn't show up to claim his estate or when--five years later--the pair who did were very distant, very young relatives. The more I thought about it, the more I wondered if Rafe and Annie were related to Ed Skylark at all or had been in one of the nearby towns, heard about the abandoned cabin, and declared themselves heirs. It wasn't like anyone was going to challenge them for custody of the place.
I was thinking about that when a branch cracked beside me. I wheeled and peered into the forest. This deep in, the forest was as dim as twilight. Once my eyes adjusted, I could make out a pale white sneaker peeking from behind a tree.
Rafe had white sneakers.
So did the guy looking for him.
