anyway? What the hell am I doing here?” She looked around her. “This is a pretty tiny fucking cabin, you know that, Alex? I think my bathroom is bigger than this cabin.”
“Sylvia, stop it.”
“I should have known it would be this small. You built this yourself, didn’t you? I’m surprised it’s still standing.”
“I said stop it.” I went to her and grabbed her by the shoulders again. This time I squeezed a little harder.
“Let go of me,” she said.
I just looked at her.
“Let go of me,” she said again. But she didn’t struggle. She didn’t try to get away.
I kept looking at her eyes, her hair, her mouth. I could feel the warmth of her body. Goddamn it all, I wanted her more than ever.
She just stood there. I couldn’t imagine what she was thinking. Her eyes gave nothing away.
“You shouldn’t be here,” I finally said. “It’s not safe.”
“What do you mean, it’s not safe? You’ve got a policeman outside keeping watch.”
“No,” I said.
“Yes, you do,” she said. “In the unmarked car, hiding in the woods.”
“No, Sylvia. He’s not there anymore.”
“Yes, he is,” she said. “I saw him.”
“What are you talking about? When did you see him?”
“Tonight,” she said. “Just now, I mean. When I pulled in. He’s out there right now.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The fear came to me. There was no way to stop it. I could feel it unfolding in my stomach, cold and alive. “Sylvia, please,” I said. “Tell me exactly what you saw. Did you see anyone inside the car?”
“No,” she said. “I just saw the car. I don’t know what kind. Just a plain car. He’s not doing a very good job of hiding, either. I could see half his car sticking out of the trees.”
“Where? Exactly where is the car?”
“It’s right out there,” she said. She started toward the window.
“No!” I grabbed her. “Stay away from the window.”
“What’s the matter with you?”
“That’s not a cop, Sylvia.” I held her in front of me and looked her in the eyes. “That’s not a cop out there.”
Something changed inside her. I could feel the anger leaving her body. “Who is it?” she asked.
“It might be Rose,” I said.
“He’s the man who shot you?”
“Yes.”
“He’s the man who…” She didn’t finish it.
“I think so,” I said.
“Why is he here?”
“I don’t know.”
She looked toward the window. “What are you going todo?”
“I’ll call the police,” I said. “Here, get down on the floor.”
“Why do I have to get down?” she said. The fear was starting to overtake her. I could hear it in her voice.
I pulled her down behind the couch. “Just sit right here.”
“Alex, this is getting a little scary.”
“I’m calling the police right now,” I said. I picked up the phone.
Nothing. It was dead. I just stood there looking at it. “I can’t believe this.”
“What’s wrong?”
“He cut the phone line. He actually cut the fucking phone line.”
“Alex, this is getting a lot scary now.”
I didn’t say anything.
“Alex…”
I picked the gun up from the table and turned off the light in the kitchen. There was a flashlight hanging on the wall. I took that and then I turned off the lamp by the bed. The cabin was dark except for the dim glow coming through the front window from the outside light above the door.
“Alex, what are we going to do?”
I got down on my knees. “We’re going to wait a few minutes, let our eyes get adjusted to the dark.”
She folded her arms around her knees.
“All right,” I said. “I’ll be right back.”
“Where are you going?” She grabbed my arm.
“I’m just going to look out the window.”
I crawled over to the front window and peered over the sill. The outdoor light lit up the clearing in front of the cabin, and the first row of pine trees. On the right side of the clearing, just off the road, I could see the front of his car. Sylvia was right. It wasn’t even hidden at all. Anyone could see it. Although I couldn’t tell if anyone was in the car. On the left side of the clearing I saw the woodpile, my truck, and Sylvia’s black Jaguar.
Both hoods were up.
I crawled back to Sylvia. “When you drove in, was the hood up on my truck?”
“I don’t remember,” she said. “I don’t think so.”
“You didn’t lock your car, did you?”
“No, I didn’t. Alex, what are you talking about?”
“He’s got both hoods up,” I said. “He must have taken out the distributor caps or something. He obviously doesn’t want us to go anywhere.”
“So now what?”
I thought about it. He was out there somewhere. He knew that Sylvia was here in the cabin with me. No phone. No vehicles. My other cabins were a quarter mile up the logging road. But there were no phones in those, anyway. Nearest phone was in Vinnie’s cabin. That was a good half mile away in the other direction, down by the main road. If I snuck out the back I might be able to make my way down there, but I didn’t want to leave Sylvia alone. And I didn’t want to take her out there, either. “I think we should just sit tight for a while,” I said. “See what he does.”
“What if he tries to come in?”
“Then I’ll shoot him,” I said.
“I don’t like this,” she said.
“I’m not too crazy about it, either.”
She leaned her head back against the rough wall. A long minute passed, and then another, and then I lost track of the time altogether. It was just the two of us sitting on the floor behind my couch, listening to the silence.
Finally, a sound. A car starting, a roar and a rattle. The car needed a new muffler. And then the sound of the car on the logging road. The noise grew smaller and smaller until it disappeared.
“I think he’s gone,” I said. “He just drove away.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Who knows? The guy is nuts.”
“But why would he just leave?”
“Sylvia, he’s absolutely fucking crazy. There’s no reason for anything he does.”
“Are you sure it was him?”
