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Charlie looked up the trail to where the trough was. "We might get lucky. If I can pick up his tracks there, we might be able to find Lance Nielsen."
As Will and Charlie began their walk up the hillside, a mist began to descend. Will's thoughts turned to the pictures of Maggie Macmillan in the tractor, tied up and cut. Those hills felt bad, and something, Lance Nielsen or another menace, was roaming them.
In his gut, he felt a trepidation he had rarely felt before. He felt the eyes of someone watching him, hiding in the wilderness, but he had no idea how bad things would get when he finally came face to face with the watcher himself.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Sheriff Carter wore a strong aftershave, and it stirred a memory in Valerie as they drove through the hills together.
It was the kind of scent that Tom had worn on occasion. If memory served her, and it often did, she was sure it was the very aftershave he had worn the night they had met years before.
It was an unwelcome coincidence.
How she yearned to be in Tom’s arms rather than driving through the bleak winter hills of Kerry County.
“You okay?” Carter said, turning his head towards her but not taking his eyes off the road.
“Yes, thank you. These hills are … eh…”
Sheriff Carter let out a laugh. “Yeah, they get to you. When I first came here, I thought they were a bit creepy. But I dunno. Over time, I’ve taken to them.”
“How long have you been sheriff?” Valerie wondered what experience he had in law enforcement.
“Three years,” he said, grinning. “I didn’t ever think I’d end up here, that’s for sure.”
“I keep thinking I hear a different accent in there somewhere,” she said.
Carter nodded and laughed again. “I guess I can’t quite hide it, no matter how much I try. You’re right, I’m not from around here. I was born in Maine. I moved here about twelve years ago.”
“That’s a whopping nine years without being a Sheriff,” Valerie joked. “What did you do before?”
The smile slowly faded from Carter’s face. “I moved here to be with my fiancée, but she got sick. I spent a lot of time looking after her until things resolved.”
Valerie had noticed that there was no wedding ring on his left hand. “Did you …”
“Get married?” Carter said. “Best damn wedding in the county.” He reached up and pulled at a thin, silver chain that was hidden under the collar of his sheriff’s uniform. On the end of it was a solid gold ring. “Never could wear it on my finger, not because it’s a wedding ring, I just don’t like the feel of any ring on my finger. But I like to keep it close.”
“She’s a lucky woman,” Valerie said, shocked at how at ease Carter made her feel.
“I’m the lucky one,” Carter said.
The truck rattled on an uneven piece of dirt track. It felt to Valerie as if the barren hills were getting higher and closer.
“So, what about you?” he asked. “You married?”
“Engaged,” Valerie said, but she heard the uncertainty in her own voice.
“Congratulations. How long for?”
“Not long,” she said.
“You set a date?”
“No.”
“Let me give you a bit of advice,” Carter said. “Don’t wait. Time’s short. It’ll eat up all the possibilities of your life if you let it.”
Possibilities,she thought. But it was the possibilities that were killing her. The possibility of the CPU being shut down. The possibility of Tom leaving her. The possibility of the illness …
