“But he never got the message,” Sam notes.
"No. Which means no one ever got her instructions. Until me.”
“You don't even know that's where they're holding her,” Sam says. “You don't know what happened after the phone cut off.”
“No, I don't. Which is why I have to go. At the beginning of this, you told me I have to follow my heart. I have to do what it tells me to do. And this is what it tells me to do. This is the last evidence of Lakyn Monroe before she fell off the face of the planet. She wanted somebody to hear this, and now I have. I have to follow these directions, Sam. I have to see what's out there. I didn't call to ask for your permission. I called so you would know what I'm doing,” I say.
“I would never try to give you permission,” he says. “But I hate that you're out there alone. This isn't safe, Emma.”
“I know,” I say. “I love you.”
Ending the call, I start the message and let Lakyn’s voice guide me into the darkness of the farmland surrounding Harlan.
Chapter Forty-One
I test the timing of my drive based on what Lakyn says. I'm driving faster than whoever had her when she left the message, and hit milestones before she mentions them, so I skip ahead in the recording, and let it catch up. Knowing her house is in Salt Valley, I find the road leading to it and turn the opposite direction. From there, I start to count crop fields. She mentioned tracks, and I'm not sure what she means until I see a row of old, abandoned train tracks cutting across the land like a row of stitches holding the wound of the split crop fields together.
I look for signs, count roads, and finally, I think I have gotten to the place where she mentioned the car stopped. I turn off my engine and sit there a few seconds, taking in the feeling of my surroundings. It's dark. Sitting at the edge of a sea of cornstalks, there's only the moonlight to provide any illumination. Everything around me is quiet.
I want to get out and search, but something holds me back. The voice in the back of my head has always guided me. It's always pushed me to run straight ahead. I've always listened to it. But this time, I stop myself. Dean has called me three times since I started driving, and now I call him back.
"Where are you? I thought I was supposed to meet you in your hotel room," he says.
"You know how to access the GPS tracking program Sam has attached to my phone, right?" I ask.
"Yes," he says. "What's going on?"
"I need you to access the tracker and follow it to me. Come as quickly as you can. But be careful, it's dark and twisty out here."
"Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. But I need you here as fast as you can get here. Please just trust me."
"I'm on my way."
I hang up but keep my hand wrapped around the phone in my lap. Even though I want to read the notes I wrote from the other messages, I keep the lights inside my car turned off. Now isn't the moment to call attention to myself. Sitting there in the silence, I do something I haven't done in a long time. My fingers slide over the inside of the door and touch the lock. I check it to make sure the door is secure.
Setting the notebook on the steering wheel, I try to read my writing in the dim moonlight. I read through the notes a few times, hoping something will sink in. Out of the corner of my eye, something moves. The corn stalks shift and bend. My heart squeezes in my chest, and my breath catches in my throat. My hand tightens around my phone, squeezing the button, so the screen pops on and sends a beam of light up through the glass.
I use it to look out toward where I saw the movement, but the corn is still. I watch, waiting, and a few seconds later, a flash of white stands out against the corn a few yards away. It's not moving toward me but seems to disappear deeper into the stalks. It was probably the tail of a deer out to enjoy the easy meal. But I keep watching.
The sweep of headlights behind me snaps my attention away from the corn and to the rearview mirror. I brace myself, knowing it might not be Dean. But when I see him get out of the driver's side door, relief washes over me. I wait until he's close to unlock my doors. He climbs inside and looks at me with expectation.
“You need to hear something,” I tell him.
I play the first part of Lakyn’s message for him.
“Where did you get that?” he asks.
“She left it on the messaging system at the jail where Xavier is being kept. She intended for him to hear it, but they never gave it to him. They thought it was left unintentionally. I'm assuming they didn't even listen to the entire thing. But this is where it led me.”
“Do you realize how close we are to where we drove off the road when we were following Millie Haynes?” he asks. “We're just on the other side of the field.”
I nod. "I know."
"No coincidences."
"No coincidences," I repeat. "Come on."
We get out of the car and meet at the front of it.
“Which way do we go?” he asks. “We don't know where they might have taken her.”
I look at either side of the dirt
