Hollow Road

by H. P. Bayne

  “Okay, but all of these horrible things you’re worried about, those are all dependent on Sully jumping off the deep end when you tell him. You’re not giving him enough credit. He’s been through a lot in his life, and your family gave him the skills and the support to deal with it. If he’s found a place to put everything else, why not this? It seems to me all he might need in the long run are people around him who care, people who will support him through whatever he’s facing. I know you’ll be that for him. I sure will be. So will your mom. He’s got people who love him, Dez. None of us will let him down.”

  Dez smiled, drawing Eva to him in an embrace. “I love you, you know that?”

  “I know,” she said, face muffled against Dez’s shoulder, breath tickling his chest. “So you’re going to tell him?”

  “Yeah, I’ll tell him. When the time is right.”

  “When’s that going to be?”

  “No idea,” Dez said. “But I’m hoping I’ll know it when I see it.”

  Eva broke the embrace first. “I need to get Kayleigh up for school and get breakfast ready.”

  “Just go look after breakfast. I’ll get Kayleigh ready.”

  “She can get herself ready. She’s just not the best at getting up on time. Kind of like someone else I know.”

  The meaning was clear and Dez smirked at the jibe. “All right. Point taken. Just get going before I find a reason for us to stay in bed too.”

  Eva took the hint and left the bed, sliding into the silk robe she kept hanging on the back of the bedroom door. Dez watched her go before turning attention to his own task. Midway through getting dressed, he checked his phone, deciding it wasn’t too early to call Sully.

  The problem was there wasn’t any Sully there to pick up. The phone rang through to a message stating the number he was trying to reach was unavailable or out of the service area. Dez slipped the phone into his jeans pocket and finished getting dressed. He felt the familiar bubble of anxiety in his gut, but he pushed it down, focusing instead on his daughter in her room just down the hall.

  “Kayleigh,” he said. Then louder, “Kayleigh.”

  “No,” she groaned. “Too early.”

  Dez smiled. If he had a nickel for every time he’d said those exact words to his own parents. “I know it’s early, but it’s time to get up and get ready for school.”

  “Don’t wanna go.”

  “I get it, kiddo. Believe me. But no choice. Now, come on. Up and at ‘em.”

  The seven-year-old heaved one massive groan and forced herself to sitting. “Okay, okay. I’m up.”

  He straightened and grinned down at her. “That’s my girl.”

  He expected her to get out of bed, but received only a rather indignant glare instead. “Uh, Dad? A little privacy?”

  “Oh. Right. Sorry.”

  He hightailed it back to the hall, closing the door behind himself. He found Eva in the kitchen. “Privacy? Since when is that a thing?”

  Eva chuckled. “She gave you that line, too, huh? Yeah, she likes her space in the morning these days. Basically, I wake her up and leave. We usually just do cereal and toast with peanut butter around here for breakfast, but I’m going to do some eggs up. I know our usual fare won’t hold you for long.”

  “You got that right. But let me do it. You go get yourself ready.”

  “I’m on a swing shift today. I don’t start until two. I’m in no rush. Anyway, you never fry the eggs long enough.”

  “I like my eggs runny.”

  “It’s like courting salmonella. I’ve got this. But if you want to do the toast, have at it.”

  Dez went about the assigned task, popping a couple of pieces of bread into the toaster and pushing the lever down. Eva had put coffee on, and he laid out a couple of mugs and the flavoured creamers from the fridge while it perked. That done, he pulled out his phone, redialling Sully.

  Another ring, another message: “The number you are trying to reach is unavailable or out of the service area.”

  His anxiety intensified.

  “What’s wrong?” Eva asked.

  “I can’t reach Sully. I’ve been trying but it doesn’t even give me his voicemail. I keep getting that ‘out of the service area’ message.”

  “When did you last talk to him?”

  “Last night. When you and I were in bed together. He was on Hollow Road, searching for Flo.”

  “Faceless Flo? God, what are the two of you involved in now?”

  “Don’t ask. Listen, I might have to skip breakfast. I think something’s wrong. I need to go find him.”

  “Let me get Kayleigh off to school, and I’ll go with you. Two sets of eyes are better than one, right?”

  The idea of having Eva with him was a comforting one. Not only did he welcome having someone with him on a haunted road, he liked the thought of her being there for him if he found something not good. With Sully, anything was a possibility.

  In the meantime, the minutes dragged by, and Dez had to mentally coach himself into maintaining his patience as Kayleigh dawdled. Finally, the three of them fed and watered and Kayleigh ready for school, they left in Dez’s SUV. Having dropped their daughter off at school, Dez turned around, setting a course east through the city, making for one of the bridges that would take them to the north side of the Kimotan River.

  It didn’t take any real work for Eva to read his mind. “I’m sure he’s all right, Dez.”

  “Experience with Sully has taught me to never get too comfortable. There have been too many instances of him not being all right.”

  He knew he’d made his point when Eva fell silent. He wished she’d say something to take his mind off of this latest problem.

  Of course, there wasn’t really anything she could say. Dez worried about people. She knew that as well as he did. And with Sully, he’d had plenty of cause to worry over the years. This growing sense of dread wouldn’t quit gnawing at him just because Eva filled the silence.

  Only one thing would make it quit, and that was finding Sully in one piece. The problem was, there was no certainty that’s what Dez was about to find.

  The drive out to Hollow Road took a little over an hour, enough time for Dez to get himself worked up. Eva had done her best, trying to talk about other things to distract him. But, with five more attempted calls to Sully resulting in the same message, there was nothing Eva could do to calm him down.

  Dread turned to full-on fear when he spotted Emily’s car on the road, its windows covered in morning frost. It was clear the car had been here all night.

  It was equally obvious, having gotten out to scrape a window on the car, there was no Sully.

  Dez called his brother’s name, listening for a response that didn’t come. A second attempt fared no better. He was about to try again when Eva nudged him. He turned to see a number of vehicles driving toward them from the direction of the highway.

  “Search party for Emory,” Dez said. “Bloody hell.”

  “Might not be a bad thing. Those are a lot of additional eyes.”

  “Just what Sully doesn’t need.”

  “Priorities,” Eva said. “I think our focus right now needs to be on finding him. Seems kind of pointless to be worried about hiding him from the authorities if we can’t even find him ourselves, doesn’t it?”

  It was a fair point. Even so…. “He’s been using the name Oliver Chadwell publicly. Let’s use that to call. I’d rather people don’t hear me yelling the name of my supposedly dead brother.”

  “Message received,” Eva said as the first of five vehicles pulled up next to them.

  Dez recognized the face of a police officer he’d once worked with, and did his best to hide his anxiety. “Hey, Clark. I heard you guys are searching for that missing guy.”

  “Yeah. I’m leading the search party.”

  “Any luck?”

  “Nothing. But we’ve got a couple of conservation officers and a tracker coming in a few hours, so I’m hopeful. What brings you and Eva
out here?’

  Dez quickly thought through how honest to be. This wasn’t an area normal people came for a hike, and there was the frosted-over car to explain. It seemed the only option was to provide a version of the truth.

  “I’ve been trying to reach a friend of mine, and I wasn’t having any luck. Eva and I just got here and found the car he’d borrowed. It belongs to my neighbour.”

  “God, don’t tell me,” Clark groaned. “He’s another ghost hunter, isn’t he?”

  “Uh, yeah, something like that.”

  “I wish there was a way we could just block this road off. There’s nothing down here for anyone, not anymore.”

  “The no-trespassing signs are up,” Eva said. “People know walking around the area is at their own risk.”

  “Fair enough, but we’ve still got to come out when people do something stupid and get themselves lost,” Clark said. “Listen, if you’re planning on hiking into the woods in search of your buddy, do us all a favour and set yourselves some coordinates. Do you know how to read coordinates and use them to navigate?”

  “Yeah,” Dez said. “My dad taught me about that years ago. I’ve got my phone. I was planning on using it to help us get around. You haven’t run into any dead zones out here, have you?”

  “Not so far.”

  “So no explanation for why my buddy’s phone just rings through to an ‘out of the service area’ message?”

  “Emory Davis’s is doing the same thing. Could be the phones are dead, I suppose. Weird thing was his girlfriend started trying to call him not too long after he walked off, and she was already getting that message. Not sure why. One thought was he was somewhere there was a lot of interference, but that doesn’t make any sense. There’s not even any phone or power lines up around here, and that wouldn’t impact a phone’s ability to receive calls anyway. It would take some pretty strong interference to impact it.”

  “Where’s the nearest cellphone tower?” Eva asked.

  “Nothing right nearby, but we’re all getting at least two bars on our phones anyway,” Clark said. “And Emory’s apparently using the same service provider as I am. That shouldn’t be an issue, unless he fell into a hole somewhere—which is what I’m starting to think happened. That’s where the conservation officers and the tracker will hopefully come in handy today. They know the area better or, in the case of the tracker, can read it better. Hopefully, we’ll get some results quick. His girlfriend and his family are pretty worried. I can’t say I blame them. Much longer and I’ll be concerned about exposure issues. It’s getting pretty cold at night.”

  That was all Dez needed. One more thing to worry about.

  “Are you starting your search from the townsite again?” he asked.

  Clark nodded. “We want to give the town another thorough look. If he fell into an old well or a cellar or something, it would explain a lot. Most homes had roots cellars or storm cellars at the time, and I feel like we haven’t uncovered a whole lot of them. The two of you are checking out the woods here?”

  “Yeah,” Dez said. “Seems the best thing, since the car’s here.”

  “What’s your friend’s name and description? We can keep an eye out, give you a call if we find something.”

  “Oliver Chadwell. He’s six feet tall, thin build, with long brown hair and a beard. He’s probably wearing a hoodie and this green overcoat he got from Army surplus.”

  “Got it,” Clark said, handing over a business card in exchange for one of Dez’s. “Good luck. Give me a call if you find anything.”

  Clark drove off, leading the other vehicles in the direction of the old townsite.

  “At least they’ll be busy in Loons Hollow for a while,” Eva said. “That’ll keep them out of our way.”

  “For a bit,” Dez said. “But it doesn’t give us much time.”

  “Well, then,” Eva said, “we’d better get started.”

  15

  An hour passed. Dez’s throat had grown hoarse from calling out his brother’s fake name.

  It reoccurred to him midway through the morning another Oliver Chadwell had gone missing in these woods many years ago. If life had taught Dez anything, it was that ghosts were everywhere. He couldn’t see them, but he had gained unwanted awareness through Sully. If Oliver Chadwell had stayed around here after his death, there was a good chance Dez could be summoning him by repeatedly calling his name—kind of like that Bloody Mary game schoolkids played in their bathrooms.

  He shuddered, but fought to suppress any additional thoughts of ghosts. He already had Faceless Flo to contend with, and that was a big enough deal—especially if she was the one responsible for Sully’s disappearance.

  “How are you holding up?” Eva asked. Her own voice sounded a bit croaky; she’d been doing plenty of calling out too.

  “About ready to run mad,” Dez said. “How are you?”

  Eva’s fingers slipped through his. Dez felt a little warmth seep back into him, a little of the fear slide away. “We’ll find him, Snowman. We won’t go back until we do, okay? Worse comes to worse, I can call in sick and we can ask your mom to pick Kayleigh up from school.”

  “God, we’d better not be out here that long.”

  Dez started to take another step forward, about to call out to Sully again when Eva yanked back on his hand.

  “What?” he asked, every bit of anxiety he possessed standing to attention as he thought about faceless ghosts and mysteriously missing men.

  “Did you hear that? It sounded like movement.”

  “Where?”

  “I don’t know. Nearby. Shh.”

  Dez listened. It took a few seconds, but he could indeed hear the sound of movement not far away.

  “Could be an animal,” Dez said, hoping saying it out loud would make him feel better. He decided he’d rather face a bear than a spectral woman with no face and homicidal tendencies.

  Eva took a chance at calling out. “Oliver?”

  It wasn’t Sully who came in to view, emerging from between the trees and shrubs ahead. For a moment, Dez thought he was seeing another ghost.

  “Rosie?” he asked. “That you?”

  Her face broke into a grin as she clamped eyes on him. “Holy hell. Big Red. It’s been years. How the hell are ya?” She closed the distance between them, grasping his hand in a solid handshake and pumping his arm to near-dislocation.

  “I’m okay, more or less,” he said. “How about you? I thought… uh….”

  “That I was dead. I know. Your brother said the same thing.”

  Dez felt a pounding in his chest. “Sully? You’ve seen him?”

  “Yup. Last night. Wandering around in here with a big dog. Nice dog. Been thinking I’d like one myself.”

  Dez’s heart sank. “So you haven’t seen him since?”

  “No. Why, he didn’t come home?”

  “No, and I can’t get ahold of him. His phone’s telling me his number’s out of the service area. That’s usually a sign it’s broken or somewhere it can’t receive a signal.”

  “Damn. Tell you what, ‘cuz it’s you two, I’ll give you a hand. I always liked that kid, and you’re okay too—for a cop.”

  “I was a cop,” Dez said. “I got canned.”

  “Jesus. For what?”

  “Long story, but basically I drank myself out of the job. On the up and up now, though.”

  “Good to hear. Too much booze will kill you. I’ve seen it happen to too many good people.” Rosie turned to Eva. “I don’t think we’ve met.”

  “We did once or twice. I’m Eva Braddock, Dez’s wife.”

  “Cop?”

  “Yeah. We met in police college. How’d you know?”

  “Most cops carry themselves the same way. You get to recognizing it after a while. Don’t worry, I’ve got no problem with police. Don’t be fooled by the talk. I was pretty drunk myself when that whole mess happened, and I regretted it after.”

  The story came back to Dez. “Lachlan Fields. He’s a
private investigator now. I’m actually working with him.”

  “Guy’s an asshole,” Rosie said. “But he didn’t deserve the lickin’ I hung on him. Pass along my apologies, will ya?”

  Rosie led the way through the woods, leaving Dez and Eva to follow behind. “I didn’t hear you calling your brother’s name. Sounded like you were saying something else.”

  Dez explained Sully’s use of the false name and the reason for it. No point keeping anything from Rosie, not now that she had seen Sully.

  “I’d appreciate it if you’d keep all of this to yourself,” Dez said. “No one can know.”

  “Hey,” Rosie said, turning to face him with a smirk as she spread out her arms to indicate the woods around them. “Who am I going to tell?” She turned back around, continuing the search. “Hey, listen, I know all about needing to get out of Dodge and start over. His secret’s safe with me. Don’t worry.”

  “Thanks.”

  The conversation ended there while each focused on calling out. Another half hour went by with no success.

  “Sully said he was out here looking for that missing kid,” Rosie said. “Any word on him yet?”

  “He’s still missing,” Eva said. “Search party is combing through the townsite this morning, and they’ll likely be searching the woods later, if they don’t find anything in town.”

  “Great,” Rosie said. “Another day of hide and seek for me, then.”

  She pulled up short, causing Dez and Eva to do the same. Any questions Dez had were prevented by the hand Rosie raised as a command for silence.

  Dez listened. He could hear it, too, now, the sound of movement ahead. He risked calling out once more. “Oliver?”

  The sounds intensified, whatever it was no longer walking, but running toward them.

  “Shit,” Rosie said. “Sounds like an animal. And it’s big.” She drew a bowie knife from the waistband of her pants and held it before her, knife-fighting style, as she placed herself in front of Dez and Eva. “Get ready.”

  Dez was looking around for anything he could use as a weapon when the animal burst through the brush ahead.

  “Pax!” Dez pushed past Rosie, meeting the dog’s enthusiastic greeting. Only Dez’s size saved him from being knocked to the ground as Pax leapt on him, paws against his chest as he tried and failed to reach Dez’s chin with his tongue.