AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Even the idea of it made his stomach clench and his heart beat out a too fast rhythm in his chest. But he was overreacting and he told himself that.
But when he tried to tell himself to calm down, he remembered that the police had every reason to believe Theresa had hurt other people close to him. Debbie and Pat, who had only gotten in her way at work. What would she do to his fiancée?
Andrew walked into the kitchen and saw some of the cabinet doors were open. A wave of relief hit him hard when he saw Jill’s note.
‘Jarrod called. They have Theresa! Went to store for groceries. Be back soon.’
He stood and gripped the counter, head hanging as he sucked in a deep breath, then another. She was okay. He’d been worried for nothing.
He went back to the living room and let the dogs out for a run in the yard taking another deep breath as relief washed through him. It was over. Theresa hadn’t hurt Jill.
He watched the dogs play for a few minutes, then called them back into the house. Moments later, his phone rang. He checked call display.
“Hey, Jarrod, what’s up?”
“I’m sorry, Andrew. I told Jill we had Theresa in custody. I have bad news. It wasn’t Theresa they picked up. We thought it was because the lady they found was standing with no ID outside Jill’s house – just watching the house. She was sure as hell acting like a stalker and she fit the physical description to a ‘T.’ When we finally got her to stop crying and talk to us, it turns out she’s been dating Jill’s ex but he dumped her. She just wanted to talk to Jill.”
Andrew’s whole body froze as he listened. Jill was out there alone and so was Theresa. The familiar feelings of dread came back in waves, this time hitting harder than ever.
“I gotta go, Jarrod. Jill went out alone. I have to find her.”
Andrew didn’t wait for an answer. He ran back into the house to grab his car keys, then realized he didn’t have a car. Jill had her car and the others had taken Jack’s car to the ski resort. As Andrew looked around wondering about the sanity of taking one of the snowmobiles all the way into town to the grocery store, his phone rang.
Chad.
“Chad, you guys need to get back here. I need the car to go after Jill,” he said without preamble.
“Come down the hill, Andrew. Grab one of the snowmobiles. Kelly was feeling sick so we called it quits early. We were on our way back up. Jill’s car is stopped on the road, but she’s nowhere in sight.”
Icy fear twisted around his lungs, his heart. Andrew couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move for a split second. A rush of terror coursed through his veins and he began to react.
He grabbed the snowmobile keys from the hook on the wall and dashed outside. All he could think was that he needed to get to Jill.
But he wouldn’t be able to. She was gone.
It didn’t take him long to get to where her SUV sat abandoned. His friends were already calling out Jill’s name as if hoping she might be nearby.
They had split up and headed in different directions, calling and searching for Jill.
Chad approached Andrew.
“Her purse is in the car. There’s a small dent and some paint transfer on the back bumper. We’ve called Jason Graham. He’s on his way.”
Jason was the fire chief and also a good friend. Andrew knew he’d move mountains to help them find Jill.
He stared at Jill’s empty car and felt sick to his stomach. Kelly came up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged.
“They thought they had Theresa.” Andrew could hear how thick his voice sounded. He didn’t even recognize his own voice, it was so laden with fear. “Jarrod called and told Jill Theresa was in custody, but that was a mistake.”
“Hey, we’ll find her,” Kelly said fiercely. “Jason’s on his way. You guys tracked me when I was gone. We’ll find Jill.”
Jason pulled up in a truck with several other people and a large shepherd-looking dog. Jason made introductions, but Andrew couldn’t process anyone’s name.
The men discussed several possible scenarios: Jill walking away from the car for some reason; someone driving her away from the car; Jill being thrown from the vehicle. The last was dismissed. There was no evidence of the type of crash that could have caused that and her windshield was intact.
While two men began to search the tree line along the road, Andrew watched as the dog was shown the driver’s side of Jill’s car. The dog sniffed at the seat for several seconds and was then given a quiet command by his handler.
Dog and handler began to circle the car then walked about six feet from the car and stopped. The handler took the dog back to the car and the dog repeated the same sequence, going six feet in exactly the same direction and stopping at the same point. This was repeated a third time.
