Page 90 of Shallow Remains

They barked even louder.

“Hey! I said quiet!” she shouted, storming through the kitchen toward the front door where her lunatic pets were going ballistic. Well, as fast as a clumsy old woman with a cane could storm.

The dogs paid absolutely no attention to her whatsoever, barking like possessed demons at whatever or whoever was outside. Could be anything. Some poor soul daring to walk past the gate. The mail carrier the dogs saw five times a week. A damned leaf blowing across the yard.

“What are you three barking at now?” she demanded, bending to scoop them up before straightening to look through the window in the top of the door.

Her gaze landed on that same black car parked next to Maddy’s car in Willow’s driveway. Its trunk was open.

Mae gasped, heart seizing when she saw a woman forcing Maddy, with hands bound behind her, toward the open trunk.

She whipped her door open just as the woman shoved Maddy into the trunk and slammed the lid shut.

“Oh my God.” She almost dropped the dogs in her haste to whirl around and race back for her phone on the kitchen counter, the high-pitched barking ringing in her ears. Her fingers were twice as clumsy as she dialed Rafe.

“Mae. What can⁠—”

“The black car came back to Willow’s. I just watched a woman shove Maddy into the trunk with her hands tied behind her.”

“Which direction did they go?” Rafe asked, voice taut.

Mae rushed back to the door in time to see the car whip around the corner at the stop sign at the bottom of the street, tires squealing on the wet pavement. “Looks like they’re heading away from town. Hurry, Rafe. You have to get them.”

FORTY-SIX

Maddy had read something about how a kidnapping victim had kicked out the taillight of a car to attract attention when she’d been trapped in a trunk. But all she could see was a glow-in-the-dark latch she couldn’t pop open with her feet.

The car drove for a while—at least ten minutes—before making a turn and parking. The engine stopped. In the sudden silence, Maddy could hear the cry of gulls and the low, haunting call of a foghorn somewhere in the distance mixed with the rain drumming on the trunk. She was battered and bruised, the cut on her side stinging where her sweater stuck to it.

A door opened and shut. Footsteps crunched on gravel as they approached the trunk.

She braced herself. The lid popped open. Bright light blinded her for a moment, then she was unceremoniously hauled out by the hair and dumped on the ground, the hard, sharp edges of the gravel gouging her knees.

“Up. And just to make sure you cooperate fully, I upgraded my kit for this,” Lindsay said.

Maddy’s insides shriveled at the sight of a black pistol in the woman’s grip. Then she looked up into her face. There was something familiar about her eyes and voice, but she couldn’t figure it out.

“We’re on a tight timeline. And don’t bother trying anything, or I’ll put a bullet in a non-lethal spot just to watch you bleed.” She jammed the muzzle of the pistol against Maddy’s spine. “Go.”

Maddy had no choice but to comply. She stole a few quick glances around to try and get her bearings. The gravel lot bordered a stretch of secluded rocky beach. A small speedboat was moored to a short dock jutting out into the water.

Lindsay forced her toward it. Kept the pistol trained on her as Maddy got in, then undid the line and went to the helm station to fire up the engine with a throaty roar.

Maddy huddled on the deck near the stern as the boat spun in a tight one-eighty and shot out into the open water. Driven by the wind and the speed of the boat, rain pelted her face like icy needles. She ducked her head, tucked her chin into her shoulder, and shivered as she closed her eyes against the unrelenting wind and rain.

Endless minutes passed while she grew colder and wetter. By the time the wind finally eased and the boat slowed, she was drenched and half-frozen. She opened her eyes to take in their surroundings.

Lindsay cut down a narrow channel between two small islands covered in thick evergreen forest. Maddy spotted two small wood cabins perched on the edge of the rocky cliffs above the shoreline.

They hugged the shore until they came to a small cove sheltered by tall mounds of boulders. Lindsay pulled the boat up to what looked like a private dock. As soon as she tied them up she came for Maddy, wrenching her to her feet and dragging her to the bow.

Maddy’s wet socks slipped over the rain-slick rocks, crusted with sharp-edged barnacles near the waterline. Lindsay forced her to the base of a wooden staircase that climbed the cliff in short switchbacks.

“Hurry,” she snapped when Maddy slowed, jabbing the gun harder into her back.

At the top, she saw the small cabin set back from the cliff against the dense forest. She shivered uncontrollably as they stepped inside. It was clear Lindsay had been here before. Supplies were set up on the counter in the small galley-style kitchen.

Lindsay shut the door and switched on a generator. Seconds later the dim lights in the kitchen came on.