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Parker hears it, too, looking around for the noise. I wonder why he doesn’t answer it, then I realize the phone is mine. Out here, with nothing to hear but the breeze and birdsong, the vibration is loud. I inch my hand to my pocket to silence the phone. But I freeze when Parker turns his gaze my way.
Parker seems to be staring right at me, but I still don’t move. There’s plenty of cover—branches, leaves, shadows—and I try to have faith that the camouflage is doing its job.
“Weren’t you supposed to meet Harvey and Ellis in town?” Josie calls out to Parker.
“Oh, crap,” Parker says, turning away from the noise in the woods and checking his watch. “I’ve gotta get going.”
I feel relieved as he lays the maul down and heads toward the house. I check my phone and find a missed call from Lieutenant Abrams. As I look at the screen, a text comes through from him.
Need you to come back to Waco tonight,he says.Want to interview a guy in County. Lawyer’s setting it up for tomorrow.
Which means I need to drive back to Redbud tonight.
I let out a silent sigh and take this news as my cue to leave the woods. I move quietly through the trees, keeping one eye out to make sure neither Parker nor Josie hears me. Parker goes inside, and it looks like Josie has the line almost filled. I can barely see her through the branches. I’m far enough away now that I don’t need to worry about being spotted.
As I push through a cluster of branches into a clearing, I freeze when I see three mule deer standing in front of me, their big ears erect, their bodies rigid. One is a buck, its short antlers fuzzy with summer velvet. The other two are does, one full grown and the other barely more than a fawn.
I hold my breath, not wanting to spook them.
But it’s too late.
The buck vaults away, springing through the air. The others follow, and I watch them crashing through the brush. Deer can move through the forest as silent as ninjas, but when they’re bounding like this, they make a hell of a racket.
The deer run into Parker’s yard, circle around Josie, and disappear into the cornfield.
I can’t quite see Parker, but I hear the back door swing open and shut.
“That was cool,” Parker says with a laugh. “What was that all about?”
“I don’t know,” I hear Josie say. “Something spooked them.”
I lift my binoculars and try to get a better look through the branches. I spot Parker, seeing his expression change from curiosity to concern. He walks slowly through the yard, looking toward the wood. At the back of the property, where the remains of the old oak lay, he stops and considers the chainsaw and the maul.
He reaches for the chainsaw, hesitates, then moves his hand to the maul.
He carries the heavy instrument two-handed into the woods toward me like a knight heading into combat with a battle axe.
CHAPTER 23
CROUCHED AMONG THE foliage, I turn myself into a statue, moving only to lower the binoculars. I don’t want Parker to see a glint of sunlight on the lenses.
A gnat buzzes around my ear, and I control the impulse to swat it away. Another buzzes in the corner of my eye, and it’s all I can do to not squish it with my fingers. Through my twitching eye, I watch my former colleague about fifty feet from me, obscured by leafy branches. I debate about whether I should stay in place.
Or try to move.
Either option is risky. If I move, he might hear me. If I don’t, he could swing back this direction any second and spot me. He seems to be looking the other way, and I try backing away. I’m in a small clearing, without many branches or leaves, and I’m able to travel stealthily. I move when he moves, so the sound he makes will cover mine.
But when I get to the other side of the barren patch of earth, I find myself at the edge of the dry creek bed I followed earlier. The ditch is thick with thorn bushes, so dense it’s hard to see into them.
Parker shifts back toward my direction. He steps forward. If he keeps heading this way, it’s just a matter of time before he finds me. When his eyes are diverted elsewhere, I slowly kneel to the forest floor. Moving as quietly as I can, I crawl into the thicket. The thorns tear at my clothes. Their needlepoints stab into my skin. On my belly, I low-crawl deeper into the tangled brush.
I ignore the pain of the thorns and find the rocky bottom of the ditch. I crane my head to see Parker and can barely make him out through the brambles. He might be only fifteen feet away, but—camouflaged and buried in the thicket—I’ll be hard to spot.
He pauses his pursuit and kneels. I can hardly make out his face, but I swear I sense a grin come over his features. He holds that expression for a moment, then takes a deep breath, as if resigning himself.
Abruptly, he rises to his feet and heads back the way he came.
I let out a sigh of relief but I don’t move. When he gets back to his yard, I hear him call out to Josie, “Nothing there. I’m going to head out now, okay?”
