“Okay, you’re safe here but you have head injuries and we must get you medical attention.” Cheryl cracked eggs into a bowl and beat them. “We have a lovely doctor living close by. He also happens to be a deputy sheriff. All the law enforcement officers in Black Rock Falls are good people. Deputy Raven is just about one of the kindest men I have ever met.” She took down a pan and set it on the stove to make scrambled eggs. “I promise, you can trust him.”
Head swimming and ribs throbbing, Zoe needed to see a doctor, and if they trusted Raven, then she would. She nodded. “Okay, he sounds nice. Will he be able to protect himself against a lunatic? The man who hit me kept telling me it was God’s will that I died. He said he needed to punish me because all women needed to be punished. He was crazy.”
“Oh, yeah, he’ll be able to protect you.” Tracy chuckled and exchanged knowing glances with Cheryl. “He is a very big man and has a K-9 by the name of Ben. The dog is so smart, when Raven fell into a bear trap, he ran from the forest all the way to the sheriff’s office to get help.” She pulled out her phone. “I’ll call him now.”
When Cheryl slid a huge plate of scrambled eggs in front of her, followed shortly by hot buttered toast, Zoe sighed with relief. “Thank you so much.”
Her fingers trembled as she lifted the forkful of eggs to her swollen lips. Her jaw ached and no doubt a few teeth were loose, but food never tasted so good. She could hear low conversation from another room as Tracy made the call. The next moment gunshots rang out followed by the voice from her nightmares.
“Send out the girl.” The deep husky voice echoed through the forest. “Do it now. Nobody needs to get hurt.”
“Get under the table.” Cheryl tossed a cushion from one of the chairs onto the floor and passed Zoe the food. “Stay there.”
Footsteps thundered along the hallway and shortly after came the unmistakable sound of someone racking the slide on a shotgun. Horrified they would all die, Zoe stared into the empty hallway and then Tracy poked her head out of a doorway and looked at her.
“Don’t move.” Tracy stared at her and stepped out with a Glock 22 gripped in both hands.
Terrified, Zoe pushed the last bite into her mouth and hoped she wouldn’t spew.
“Don’t worry. We’ve got this and Raven is minutes away. I’ve alerted him of the danger.” Tracy went to the front door and opened it a crack. “There are no girls here, just me and my friend. The cops are on the way and we’re armed.”
Shots peppered the side of the cabin.
“Empty threats.” The man growled in rage. “Send out the girl—now.”
“Are you hard of hearing? There is no girl here.” Cheryl kicked open the front door and aimed her weapon.
The shotgun boom shook the house and the smell of gunpowder burned Zoe’s nostrils. She put down the empty plate and stared at Cheryl in amazement.
“You can’t win, woman.” The man laughed. “Your feeble attempts won’t stop me. You need to be taught a lesson.” More bullets hit the side of the cabin.
“I’m not playing games with you.” Cheryl racked the shotgun again and aimed it outside. “Next time I’ll aim for your head.”
In the distance, the wail of sirens hee-hawed and Zoe wrapped her arms around her knees. Everything had suddenly gone quiet. She looked up as footsteps came back along the hallway and Tracy came in. She laid her Glock on the table and offered Zoe her hand. Too frightened to move, Zoe looked at her. “Has he gone?”
“Probably.” Tracy hauled her to her feet. “The sirens frightened him away. He’s likely hightailing it back to his cabin. There are plenty of crazy people in the forest. Some are military men who have PTSD, some are men hunted by the cops—killers and the like. In the forest they can hide undetected for years. There’re some parts of Stanton Forest that haven’t been mapped yet. It’s so dense no one goes there.”
“I’ll put on a pot of coffee.” Cheryl went to the coffee machine. “I’m sure we all need one after that nonsense. Raven will want one when he arrives. He likes to spend time with his neighbors. He fixed my roof last year and wouldn’t take a dime for it.”
The fear shuddering through Zoe wouldn’t stop even with all the assurances. Not remembering how she came to be in the forest with a maniac, and not knowing anything about herself at all, was like walking a tightrope across a ravine filled with grizzlies. These women trusted Raven but could she trust him or any man ever again?
Twenty-Eight
Black Rock Falls
“Mornin’.” Wolfe greeted Jenna and Kane as they entered the morgue. “How are the cases out at the ranch going?”
Jenna grimaced and shook her head. “Slowly. I hope you and Norrell have found something interesting at the Larkins’ piggery.”
“We’re making progress and there’s a few things I know you’ll want to see.” Wolfe led the way to Norrell’s part of the building. The men’s boots clattered as they walked on the white tiled floor.
Norrell had her own team and hadn’t changed anyone since her arrival from Helena. Her part of the building was very different from the morgue. As they approached her laboratory Jenna could see the team working diligently. Sifting through tons of soil dug from pigpens hadn’t been an easy job but was a necessary one as the Larkins were accused of feeding people to their pigs. The only way of proving their theory was to look for evidence in the soil, as pigs ate everything but couldn’t digest some bone matter, teeth, or jewelry. As Jenna, Kane, and Wolfe stepped into the examination room, the glass doors hissed shut behind them. The usual strong smell of disinfectant and death had been replaced with the odor of disturbed earth. As Jenna had expected the room to smell of pigs, she heaved a sigh of relief.
Norrell stood at the central workstation, her gloved hands resting on the edge of a tray filled with sieved soil, beside her a young man adjusted his glasses and nodded toward them, before stepping away. Jenna turned her attention to Norrell. “Do you want us to wear masks?”
“No, it’s not necessary. The soil has been washed and filtered.” Norrell indicated to a line of small evidence dishes. “You’ll want to see these.”
Jenna moved closer with Kane at her side. A chill ran down her spine as her gaze ran across bone fragments, teeth, a number of mismatched earrings, and a fragment of a gold bracelet with a heart attached. “Did all that come out of the first pigpen?”
