LAURA GREENE
A DISAPPEARANCE
Mystery Thriller
FOLLOW THE DARK TALE
Copyright © 2021 Laura Greene – All rights Reserved
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
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About the Author
Chapter 1
“Darn bottle,” Melody mutters under her breath angrily. “I should have known better than to teeter so close to danger.” But she has no time to wage a war against the green bottle now swaying back and forth at her feet, even though it alerted her presence to Tam and Rob.
Melody thought she was doing so well on her spy mission to the red barn. She knew Tam was up to no good when she followed him to the Blue Elm, the only boat large enough to sail to the Mainland. Careful to not reveal herself, she hid behind another sail boat on the dock. It was neither grand nor majestic as the Blue Elm, but it did the trick.
No, it was not then that her cover came so dangerously close to being blown, though she managed to land herself in the icy waters beneath, while attempting to dodge Tam and McCorrie’s suspicious eyes. She would rather the wooden boards had leapt up and formed a fortress around her, but they did not comply. This was her only option, really. Tam was walking right past her and one glance in her direction, would have sufficiently exposed her. So, she quietly dipped into the waters below.
Perhaps it would have been wiser, had she turned back in the direction of the inn and gone to dry off, but she didn’t. Instead, curiosity bit her soar and in her soaked clothes, she continued to track Tam up the hill towards the rusty old red barn where she now stands, shivering. Inside, a secret meeting between Tam and Rob has commenced. She, on the outside, listens in.
There is not a second to spare for Melody to think back to the moment her caution parted ways with her actions. It was when she saw Rob, that her heart sank. Here was the one person she was beginning to think was on her side and she could actually trust to help her, quietly plotting with Tam about the dangers of Melody knowing too much. While she was listening intently just moments ago, drawn in by the conversation, Melody accidentally stumbled upon the green bottle. It was an informative meeting for Melody, but as with all good things, it too has now come to an abrupt end.
Like a front desk bell unceremoniously announcing the arrival of an intruder, with one clink to the barn, the bottle has ended the meeting and Melody can hear the sound of feet rushing to the back of the barn as the two men chase after her. The small width of the red barn will quickly deliver Tam and Rob to her. Of this she is certain, though from which direction, she does not know.
Moments feel like eternity and she does not have time to think, only react. First, it is the cold shiver that jolts her spine all the way down her back and awakens in her a fear of the imminent horror about to befall her. Tam and Rob are capable of anything, and that’s what scares her. Looking at her damp clothes from underneath the gray skies, Melody realizes the jolt was more than an emotional shock; she is literally shivering and if these two men catch her, this may be the last she breathes in of the fresh Atlantic air.
The shuffle of feet inside the barn disappears and pounding, like hound dogs about to engulf their prey, takes over. They are still not in view, but Melody cannot stay on top of this hill another moment. Adrenaline to flee kicks in. She steps back and in the same breath thinks, If I run down the hill in the opposite direction from the dock and gain a much needed head start. I’ll scream for hel...
Melody does not finish her thought. Instead, she gasps. Rushing to safety, her foot catches against a thistle plant just on the edge of the hilltop.
As boldly rough and unapologetically non-delicate as the prickly, purple flower of Scotland is, it shields its newest visitor, Melody from her captors by ungraciously sending her on a tumble down the hill, away from the view of inquiring eyes. Now at the mercy of the hill she recently traversed to reach the dangerous red barn, Melody rolls and bounces as she is thrust from bush to thistle to brush and then again. Her trip is anything but gentle as a thistle joins her on her journey down by latching onto her blond hair. Why did I even bother to make my hair look nice this morning? She ponders, now that she has time to think. If Tam and Rob are watching, might they think this girl has received her comeuppance?
Any opportunity to slow her fall is quickly squandered as she reaches out for the nearest bush upon opportunity and misses it at gravity’s merciless betrayal.
The
