Page 37 of Glimmer in the Darkness

“If you’re a kidnapper.”

Good point. He hopped back over to her side.

They’d walked ten minutes when she asked, “You going to answer my question?”

He’d hoped she’d forget. “I figured I had three options. I could turn you in, pretend I hadn’t seen you, or go with you.”

“Three good choices,” she said.

“Not really. My best friend’s kid is missing, so pretending I hadn’t seen you wasn’t going to work.”

“You could have turned me in.”

“Except I think you’re right. I think everybody believes you’re behind the kidnappings.”

“Whoever did it is trying to make it look like it was me.”

“If they’d caught you and you’d told them about the cave—”

“I’ve told them. Twice. They haven’t looked. Though I never called it a cave. It felt like a cave, but it wasn’t, not really. Just boulders positioned so that there’s space beneath. Giant rocks with space under them.”

“Whatever you called them, they’ve looked,” James said. “Just haven’t found anything.”

They walked in silence for a few minutes, and James hoped the conversation was over. But then she disturbed the silence once again.

“You believe I’m innocent?”

He clenched his jaw. “Innocent is a strong term.”

She grabbed his biceps. He could have easily shrugged her off, but instead he turned and faced her.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked.

“Why’d you run?”

“I told you. I was afraid they wouldn’t believe me. I was afraid—”

“Guilty people run. Innocent people don’t. It’s that simple.”

She dropped her hand. “Nothing is that simple.”

“What were you afraid of?”

She shook her head and trudged past him.

“What?”

She said nothing.

He followed her. “Come on, Cassidy. What aren’t you telling me?”

“Two days ago, you said you didn’t want to hear it. Now you do?”

He started to respond but held his tongue.

She turned, arms crossed. “Well, do you or don’t you?”

“I do. But… Not right now.”