Page 35 of Glimmer in the Darkness

It seemed the least she could do.

She feared he would drive all the way back to the highway by the time he found a spot. Then he did, bumping between the trees and over the bracken, finally coming to a stop a good twenty yards from the road.

“Somebody obviously uses that road,” he said.

“How do you know?”

“Otherwise, it’d be overgrown. Could be anybody, but we ought to assume this is the killer’s route.”

The killer. The last thing she wanted was to run into him again.

She touched the Glock in the holster at her waist. This time, she’d be able to defend herself.

“What’s that?”

She lifted her shirt to show him the pistol.

His eyes widened. “You know how to use that?”

“Of course.”

“Back in high school, you were anti-gun all the way.”

“I’ve since learned more than once how vulnerable I am.”

He lifted his own T-shirt, and she got a glimpse of the handgun he carried there. “I wasn’t going to show you because I thought you’d be mad.”

“Relieved, more like.”

“Good.” They climbed from the Jeep, and James took the backpacks from the rear. Then, he reached for something else, something big and plastic and camo.

A tarp.

He pulled it over the Jeep, tying the corners to keep it in place.

“You think of everything.”

“Sullivan family motto: Be prepared.”

“I think the Boy Scouts took that one.”

He turned from his work, a smile tugging at one corner of his lips, and she got a brief glimpse of the boy James used to be.

But the closed-off man was back immediately. “Ready?”

She hefted her backpack and strapped it on as James had shown her at the house. “Ready.”

James kicked leaves and twigs to cover his tire tracks, and they set off up the road.

Already, he was considering things she’d never thought of. She let herself believe they might really do this. They might really rescue Ella, bring the kidnapper to justice. And then… And then she could be herself again. She wouldn’t have to live her life in hiding. She wouldn’t have to live with the guilt anymore.

Except, the guilt wouldn’t go away, not until she told James everything. And maybe not even then.

Chapter Thirteen

At the top of the road, James walked to the edge of the clearing, looking for a path. On the first pass, he found nothing. He stepped into the woods and again circled the clearing until he saw some pressed-down leaves and needles. He was no tracker, but he knew the woods. He’d spent his life in the woods. With a little luck and a lot of divine help—the kind other people talked about but he’d never experienced—he might be about to figure out where… whoever’d been here had gone.

From the clearing, Cassidy said, “What’d you find?”