Page 54 of The Missing Couple

But she would do whatever necessary to protect herself.

She walked with a light step. That was something else her father had taught her. There was walking and there was stomping. Deer walked. People stomped. At least when it came to exploring the woods, he would explain. The man had been over six feet and about one hundred eighty pounds and he walked like a cat. Soundless. Purposeful.

As she traveled through the trees, skirting the thicker masses of shrubs and undergrowth, she thought of how Briana and her husband may have escaped the old cabin. Had they been caught and taken to a different location? Maybe another place on the property. Or was all the effort too late? Maybe those signs of movement around the cabin were from when they were picked up by the really bad guys. They could be far away from here by now. Or worse…dead.

What kind of person sold another human being like a piece of furniture?

She was just about to click on the flashlight when she heard a voice. She stopped…didn’t move…didn’t even breathe.

A light came on in the near distance.

Cabin.

Charly must have reached the edge of the Getaway area. Like the cabins at her place, these were scattered at good distances apart to provide greater privacy. She estimated the one she was approaching sat the farthest from the property entrance and business office.

“Just calm down.”

Male.

Not a voice Charly recognized, at least not from this distance. That he’d growled the words didn’t help, either.

If she was going to identify the person speaking, she needed to be closer. Slowly…carefully…she eased in the direction of the light. She paused just long enough to shift the Maglite so that she was holding it like a hammer ready to swing.

Another voice shattered the silence. “You don’t understand. He may say the wrong thing if we don’t intervene.”

Female. Shrill.

The woman speaking was upset, and Charly recognized her identity as well as why she was upset.

Laney Rogers was distraught that her son was being questioned by the sheriff. Was the man whose voice Charly heard the woman’s husband, Kerwin?

Charly moved closer. She needed to hear what they were saying. Surely, Laney and her husband had no idea what their son was doing…but Charly couldn’t be certain. No, she decided, that couldn’t be right. Laney was condescending and sometimes rude but she wasn’t…

“The single problem we have is the necklace,” the man said.

Not the husband.

Charly went cold…ice-cold. She recognized the voice. Laney said something else but the words were lost to Charly’s utter denial.

No. That couldn’t be right. She had to have heard wrong.

She needed to hear him again. She needed to hear better.

A few more steps and she would be right next to that window. She would be able to hear far better. The windows in these older cabins were single pane. Everything could be heard through them if standing fairly close.

Charly’s chest felt tight as she eased in nearer to the structure.

“What are you doing?” Laney demanded.

Charly listened intently to see what the man would say next. Was he calling someone?

“Charly.”

She swung around, her heart in her throat. Flashlight raised.

Even in the darkness she could see the barrel of his handgun. Maybe the dim light from the window made it more visible…made it all the more eerie. But the sight of it was not as startling to her as the man’s identity.

“Charly. Charly. Charly. What am I going to do with you?”