Chapter 24
Gabriel tested the engine of the Cherokee as he raced to Melissa’s house on Blackstone Drive. For reasons he could not explain, urgency surrounded his return. He felt compelled to get there as quickly as possible, that a second tour of her house would reveal crucial evidence. Tension coiled tightly within him, twisting and winding tauter the closer he got to her home.
When her street finally came into view, he felt as though his compactly wound worry would launch his body and propel him forward like a canon straight in to her house and enable him to initiate a frantic search for a clue that suggested her whereabouts. He knew that more orthodox methods would be employed as opposed to blasting through her front door but struggled internally to manage his fear for her safety. Without a hint of her location, Gabriel felt helpless, powerless.
Once on Blackstone Drive, he noticed that nearly every driveway stood unoccupied by vehicles indicating that most people were out, their homes empty. Gabriel had fleetingly entertained the notion of knocking on the doors of some of Melissa’s neighbors to find out if they had seen her leave or had noticed anyone out of the ordinary coming or going from her house. Given the scarcity of available neighbors, his idea became void.
Instead, he parked a few houses away from hers and hesitated before opening the driver’s side door. From where he sat, he stared at the white vinyl-sided structure wondering what he had missed in his initial search.
“We’ll find her, Gabriel,” Alexandra assured him as if his thoughts were obvious. But her voice sounded unconvincing.
“We missed something. We must have,” Gabriel replied.
“And we’ll find it now,” Yoshi said confidently before opening the back door of the Cherokee.
Gabriel and Alexandra followed him and they proceeded cautiously up the hill. Gabriel had left Melissa’s bedroom window unlocked as it had been during their first visit but closed the pane instead. This detail proved useful as it allowed him access a second time. He climbed the massive oak and let himself in just as he did earlier. Once inside, he descended the staircase and opened the front door for Alexandra and Yoshi.
After Yoshi crossed the threshold, he immediately began utilizing his hunting skills that included tracking based upon intuition and basic senses as opposed to logical search methods that suggested they begin looking in Melissa’s bedroom. Instead he moved about the main level of the house and allowed himself to be guided by a more comprehensive force than mere logic offered.
“We’re going up to Melissa’s room,” Gabriel said to Yoshi. “You’re staying down here?”
“Yes,” Yoshi replied.
“Something’s not right here,” Alexandra said cryptically.
Before Gabriel and Alexandra reached the top of the staircase, they heard Yoshi call out to them.
“Guys, get down here!”
Gabriel’s mind reeled as the horrific image of Eric’s badly beaten corpse flashed through it. He bounded down the staircase taking two at a time until he reached the bottom and ran in the direction of Yoshi’s voice with Alexandra following after him.
He reached the family room at the rear of the house and noticed that the door stood ajar and Yoshi was nowhere in sight.
“Yoshi?” Gabriel called.
“Out here!” Yoshi called back.
Gabriel stepped out into the pale light of the backyard. The sky, several shades paler than it had been earlier, had been encroached upon. Ashen clouds, dull and dirty, advanced from the west and pressed slowly soiling and sullying stretches of pastel blue in its wake. The green of the grass, emerald earlier, looked a drab hue of olive in the muted light of late afternoon.
“What is it Yoshi?”
“Well, for starters, the door to that room was left unlocked and open slightly,” Yoshi gestured to the door off the family room that led to the backyard.
“It wasn’t like that before, was it?” Alexandra asked.
“We never checked,” Yoshi answered. “It looked normal to me at a quick glance.”
“Me, too,” Gabriel added.
“I wouldn’t have noticed it either if I wasn’t staring at the deadbolt. I saw that it wasn’t engaged and then saw light passing through the doorjamb. Anyway, the door was unlocked and open, so I walked out onto the porch and look what I found,” Yoshi pointed to rain-softened grass that had been pressed down flat and smeared in a trail. Beside it were a set of large footprints.
“What the hell am I looking at?” Alexandra asked.
“Footprints,” Yoshi replied.
“I see that. But what does that have to do with finding Melissa? Anyone could have made those prints.”
“Look beside the prints,” Gabriel interjected. “That mark looks like something or someone was dragged.”
Alexandra’s golden complexion paled and her dark eyes grew wide, began to fill with tears.
“Oh God,” she whispered.
Yoshi began following the tracks. Gabriel and Alexandra followed. The large foot imprints continued across the width of Melissa’s property and that of her neighbor’s property before ending at her neighbor’s painted wooden deck. Peculiarly, the depressed smears of grass and mud ended midway across Melissa’s yard. A black, fabric, slipper-like woman’s shoe, sat alone in the yard. Muddy footprints continued on to the lightly colored deck to the sliding glass doors at the rear of her neighbor’s house.
“That’s Melissa’s shoe! This doesn’t make any sense,” Alexandra said. “The woman that lives here is like, eighty years old. I sincerely doubt she dragged Melissa across both lawns, onto her deck and into her house.”
“Is she a really big old lady?” Yoshi asked.
“No way, she’s tiny; like less than five feet tall tiny.”
“None of this makes sense, but we’re going to find out what’s going on right now!” Gabriel said determinedly.
Alexandra and Yoshi exchanged furtive glances before Gabriel climbed the wooden steps to the deck and stealthily began peering in windows.
Dark Creations Boxed Set (Books 1-3) Page 84