When it was over, she had thought, she would take her chance. When his rage was spent, and his lust, she would run. If her body held together, she would be able to run.
Her half-shod feet had dangled in the water as he hauled her across the creek and onto the far shore, where the ground was so, so cold. Now, where no one could possibly hear, he battered her with punches and slaps, knocking her to the ground and yanking her to her feet again and again.
When she’d been sure that he’d never stop, his meaty hand had closed around the fabric of her dress one last time, and he had yanked her uphill, away from the shallow creek crossing and up onto a high bluff where a thick copse of trees made a terrible darkness. The dawning sun’s light was growing, but it was still pale and sickly. It didn’t penetrate the trees’ shadows at all. She didn’t want to go into those shadows.
She let herself go fully limp, which didn’t stop him from dragging her toward the darkness. Perhaps her feet, still dragging on the ground, slowed their progress by a second or two. Eventually, even her knees dragged, but he knew where he wanted to go, and he was intent on taking her there.
As they reached the shadows, she felt the ground grow softer under her knees. It was looser, as if someone had been at work with a hoe or shovel, preparing to plant a season’s seeds. For a moment, her knee balanced on the soft earthen edge of a great hole, then it slid down into the hole and took her with it.
He loomed above her, holding a shovel. Now she knew two truths.
First, this was the tool he had used to dig her grave, so there was now no question that he planned to kill her.
And second, she knew this man. The men in Frida’s life had, by and large, done her no favors, but knowing that this particular man planned to kill her made her want to die.
But she couldn’t die, not when Kali needed her. She had to get away, but she had so little left inside her. No strength, no heart, no hope.
Still she lunged at the rim of her grave and tried to throw herself out, again and again, but it was no use. Her attacker was armed. He wasn’t armed with a gun or a knife, only the shovel he’d used to dig her grave, but the shovel was enough.
Chapter Six
It wasn’t even seven o’clock yet, but the sun was coming up fast. Even the parking lot that served this part of Sweetgum State Park was lovely. It was a vast park to be located within a short drive of a large city’s downtown district. It encompassed a popular campground, a golf course, soccer fields, tennis courts, and more, but Faye would be working in a section that was still pretty wild for an urban park. Bordered by the creek she’d waded with little Kali, this part of the park was undeveloped other than a few walking trails.
The state of Tennessee wanted to build another campground near the creek, and they had hired Faye’s cultural resources firm as part of the preliminary work. Her job as an archaeologist was to make sure that workers didn’t destroy any irreplaceable traces of the past while they were building their new campground.
Faye sat in a parking lot surrounded by leafy trees and underbrush in a million shades of green. Hers was the only car there. She could have sat there for an hour, enjoying the greenery, but she had a job to do.
Closing her car door, she headed for the trail leading from the parking lot straight down to the creek. She, and sometimes Jeremiah, had been doing preliminary work here most of the week—except for the time she’d spent splashing through the creek with Kali—but her full crew was on its way. She had arrived early because there were still some things she wanted to check out before they arrived.
To get from the parking lot to her site on the far side of the creek, she had to get her boots a little wet. Maybe damp was the right word. The trail crossed the creek at a spot where the water was just an inch or two deep, with stepping stones to help people with a real water phobia get across. She could have parked in other lots that wouldn’t have required her to wade the creek to get to work, but she would have had to haul her equipment further. Besides, this was the quietest and the prettiest place to park, so she was happy to get her water-resistant boots a little wet at the beginning of the day and again at the end.
Carrying a heavy load of equipment made the creek crossing harder than usual. Her feet slid off a wet rock in midstream, taking her into the shallow water with a splash and a reflexive curse, but the stumble didn’t slow Faye down. She was enjoying her usual early morning good humor, which was precisely why she had started early in the first place. It only made sense to make efficient use of her favorite time of the day.
As it turned out, taking the wet route to work might not have been the best use of her morning efficiency, because splashing across the creek reminded her of Kali, which caused her pace to flag. Faye tried to shake off the memory of the little girl’s daily hikes for food. She needed to be focusing on her work, not on a kid who had a mother to look out for her. Granted, the mother didn’t seem like an outstanding specimen, but Kali
