by Love, Aimee
Aubrey nodded gratefully and sank down with her head on his shoulder.
“Will you stay?” She asked him hesitantly.
Joe looked down at her.
“I know you haven’t made it around the lake yet. Vina’s got a bettin’ pool going and I’ve got ten bucks on November fourth. I’d a heard if you’d already done it.”
Aubrey sat up straight and looked him in the eye. She looked around to make sure that nobody was within earshot, and then told him about the events of the last few nights.
He nodded, unsurprised.
“Heck mentioned it,” he told her. “Since it wasn’t an official crime scene, they needed my permission to go out and look around.”
“So you knew he’d be here,” Aubrey said, “and that’s why you came in with that woman.”
“I might a thought it’d do you good to see how it feels when the shoe is on the other foot,” he admitted sheepishly.
“You didn’t have to let her kiss you,” she said, trying not to sound too petulant.
“On the helmet,” Joe pointed out. “Besides, it coulda been worse. You coulda caught me in a hot tub with her when I was supposed to be recuperatin’.”
“I don’t like the idea of you in that trailer all alone tonight,” Aubrey told him, suddenly eager to change the subject.
“Hell, I don’t like the idea of me alone in that trailer any night, not with you right across the way… But if this is you givin’ up on gettin’ better, or just tryin’ to keep me from wanderin’ off, I won’t have no part in it.”
Aubrey nodded her understanding.
“I’m not giving up,” she promised. “I just miss you.”
Joe’s smile seemed to light up the dark porch.
“Then I’m all yours, darlin’,” he said softly, and pulled her head back down onto his shoulder.
The karaoke machine started up again and someone began to croon. The words of the old Platters song drifted across the lawn.
“Heavenly shades of night are falling, it’s twilight time. Out of the mist your voice is calling, ‘tis twilight time…”
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
Aubrey spent the next day puttering around the cabin, feeling out of sorts. Joe had papers to grade and had gone home early, saying he’d be back with dinner. She worked. She read. She surfed the internet. But she was restless.
She wanted to know what was going on. She wanted to know who Vina had been talking t
o in the library the night before. She felt cooped up, trapped by an overcast sky that threatened to break into a downpour at any moment and by her leg, sore from a night on her feet.
At two in the afternoon, the rain started. Aubrey gave up on the idea of Joe coming back early and opening the hot tub for her. She went into the bathroom and filled the tub with scalding hot water, throwing in a handful of bath salt for good measure. Then, because she knew that her tolerance for sitting still and doing nothing was at an all time low, she lugged her laptop into the bathroom and set it on the vanity, where she could see it from the tub. She popped in an old Bogart DVD and stripped down.
The hot water loosened the tensed up muscles in her leg and shoulders and felt wonderful. She was just starting to wonder if she should get out and take a nap when the security system started to beep at her. It wasn’t the door alarm, just one of the cameras coming on. What now, Aubrey wondered. They weren’t even supposed to be active until after dark. Then she realized that the light sensors couldn’t tell the difference between the darkness of the storm, and actual night.
She dried her hand on the towel that hung from a bar beside the tub, and reached over to the laptop to pull up the video feed. Nothing. Aubrey swore under her breath, remembering that she’d disconnected the security system from the network so Lettie couldn’t accidentally access it. She crawled out of the tub, wrapped the towel around herself, and walked into the closet. The little monitor there showed her front yard as the only active display. She watched it intently, at first thinking that the rain or a falling branch had set it off, but then she saw movement. The wolf was back.
“That’s it,” she said aloud. “I’ve had enough of you and your two legged friends.”
She pulled on a pair of jeans, her hiking boots, and the shirt from a set of thermal underwear. She strapped on the Beretta’s shoulder holster, covered it with her leather jacket because it was the only waterproof one she had, and crammed her keys and cell phone into the pocket. She picked up two extra clips for the Beretta, checked that they were full, and shoved them into her back pocket. She picked up the Mossberg, gave it a quick once over, and went to the front door. Drake trotted up beside her with the tennis ball in his mouth.
“We’re not going for a walk you idiot,” she warned him. She looked around the cabin, out all of the glass, but didn’t see anything on Joe’s dock or anywhere else. She opened the front door and stepped out onto the deck. The front yard was empty as well.
“Shit,” she swore vehemently.
Drake ran past her into the yard and cavorted around in the mud puddles, getting his fur coated in filth. She sighed, but let him have his fun, aware that she was going to have bath him to get the golden dye out anyway. He tossed his head to the side and released the ball. It bounced away from him with a splash, and he ran to retrieve it.
“Alright, alright,” she told him, taking the hint. The rain had tapered off to a slow drizzle and there was still plenty of daylight left. Besides, she told herself, she might see something along the way. She popped back inside, traded the Mossberg for her cane, and came back out.
They made it to Joe’s uneventfully. Aubrey saw that his truck was gone. She checked her watch and decided he must have already gone to pick up supplies for dinner. She should have left him a note, she realized, but she knew if she turned back and did it now, she wouldn’t leave the cabin again. The soak had loosened her leg muscle and the walking felt good. She reminded herself again to try to find a motorized cover for the hot tub.
The rain had completely stopped by the time they made it to Wayne’s place. His truck was gone and the garage sealed tight. Part of her wanted to go over to it and poke around. She stopped and threw the ball for Drake, considering her options.
If my life was a movie, she told herself, and I was watching the main character do that, I’d lean over to whoever I was with and say what an idiot she was. She pressed on, deciding to go as far as Vina’s and then either take a rest, or bum a ride back to the cabin, depending on how she was holding up.
She crossed the creek, near where she had cut through when she saw the man in the woods and the witches, and scanned the roadside carefully. There was no sign of anything amiss and Drake was acting, if anything, a little more frisky than normal. He certainly didn’t seem the least bit wary. If there was anything going on in the woods, he was as oblivious to it as she was.
She got to Vina’s and decided that she could press on, but that she should leave a message there for Joe, in case he came back and found her missing. She turned down the driveway, ridiculously glad to be walking on real pavement instead of gravel, even if only for a short way. When she saw the house, she stopped dead.
Detritus from the party littered the yard. The termite tent had been removed from the house, but the circus tents still surrounded it. Most of the refreshment carts had been taken away, but there were still overflowing trash cans, now full of water as well, everywhere and sodden wrappers and half dissolved popcorn peppered the ground. That wasn’t what caught her eye, though. The driveway was full of cars and there among them, was Joe’s.
She remembered that Joe had told her a crew came by the next day, but she supposed that the rain had delayed them. She also knew that Vina threw another little party for the lake residents to view a slide show of the photographs, but it was much too soon for that, and she surely would have been invited.
What then, she wondered, was all this about?
She examined the cars. Joe, Lettie, Germaine, Erma, Emaline, Armistead… Assuming a bit of car pooling, everyone from the hollow was there except herself and Wayne Mosley. Did this have something to do with the conversation she’d partially overheard last night, she wondered.
She grabbed the tennis ball out of Drakes mouth and, instead of throwing it, shoved it into her pocket.
“Keep quiet,” she told him and stepped off of the driveway and into the yard where the tent that they’d had their pictures made in blocked her from view from the house. She squelched forward until she was right behind it and then slunk around its side, heading for the library window at the front of the house. She came to the edge of the tent and glanced around it. The curtains were drawn tight. Aubrey walked forward as stealthily as she could manage with a cane and a bum leg, and flattened herself against the wall below the window. She couldn’t hear anything, and glancing up, she didn’t think the light was even on. She eased around the house.
“Heel,” she whispered to Drake, who was walking beside her sedately enough, but was far enough out in the yard to be easily seen through a window. He trotted over to her obediently. “Stay here,” she told him. He sat happily in the mud, thumping his tail and sending little ripples though the puddle.
Aubrey crept around the corner of the house and headed toward the back. Half way there she froze. She heard voices. Either they were in the kitchen and had the doors open or they were all sitting on the back porch.
“I still say men shouldn’t even get a vote in this. What’s it to you, anyway?” Vina asked.
“Vina,” she heard Erma say peaceably. “We’ve already agreed that they have just as much a right to be involved as the rest of us.”
“I don’t care if you give me a vote or not,” Joe said, his voice angrier than Aubrey had ever heard it, even when he’d been yelling at Matt. “You ain’t doin’ this. If I have to lock her in a closet where you can’t get to her, I will. Nobody is touchin’ Aubrey.”
Aubrey pressed herself more firmly against the wall and held her breath. Her heart hammered in her chest and she felt lightheaded. She remembered Vina, only last night, discussing the murder and the need to be more careful. She also remembered Vina telling her that Joe had been looking out for her more than she realized. Was she too close to figuring out who the killer was? Why would they care, unless of course it was one of them. She remembered Vina telling her she had erased the tapes to protect someone they liked. She had assured Aubrey that it had nothing to do with the murder, but was it really out of character for Vina to lie?
Aubrey slumped against the wall, feeling completely adrift. She loved her mother, but she had never really liked her. All her life, Vina had been the closest thing to real family that she had.
“I agree with Joe,” a man said. “I won’t be a party to any use of force. Things aren’t that desperate yet.” She tried to place the voice and realized it was John. Did everyone get a vote in deciding her fate but Aubrey herself, she wondered. Was the bagger from the Food Lion in there? Well, at least it sounded like he was on her side.
Something nudged her leg and she started. She looked down and saw that Drake had come up beside her. He made a low, growling sound in the back of his throat. Aubrey wondered if he could sense her anxiety, and that was why he was upset.
“Did you hear that?” Lettie asked.
Aubrey ducked behind the nearest shrub and did her best to convince Drake to squeeze in beside her.
“It’s probably just Rose,” Charlie said. “She said she’d keep an eye out.”
And that, Aubrey decided, meant it was time to go. She could plant listening devices all over Vina’s house or she could ask Joe some hard questions at dinner. She could call Matt and bring him into her confidence. She could go running back to DC. She had plenty of options. The one thing she couldn’t do was stay here and get caught spying.
She backed away carefully, glancing over her shoulder for any sign of Rose. She made it around the tent and then back to the road without incident. Beside her, Drake continued to growl.
“It’s okay, boy,” she told him. “Whatever happens, you and I will stick together, okay?” She reached down and rubbed his wet fur behind the ears, her hand came back covered in fine, white hairs. She rubbed it off on her jeans and limped along, heading toward Lettie’s house. If anyone happened upon her now, she was just doing what she did every day, trying to make it around the lake. If nothing else good happened today, she knew she would at least accomplish that goal, because there was no way in hell she was accepting a ride home from anyone.
Drake growled louder. Aubrey stopped and scanned the trees. It was gloomy and overcast, but still a long way from dark. Perhaps the wolf she’d seen had followed them, and was out in the trees. She continued forward, and Drake seemed to relax. She pulled the tennis ball out of her pocket and threw it ahead of her. It hit the edge of a pot hole and bounced toward the lake side of the road. Drake tore off after it, but skidded to a halt as something crashed through the underbrush at the side of the road and caught the ball in its mouth.
Aubrey’s first thought was that it was the wolf, but Drake was only a few feet away from it and it dwarfed him. A bear? Did black bears come in colors other than black, she wondered, aware that it was stupid to be thinking about it at a time like this.
“Drake,” she called, her voice as close to panic and she planned on letting it get. She dropped her cane, reached into her jacket and pulled out the Beretta in one smooth, fluid motion. She flipped off the safety and leveled it at the creature. It turned to look at her and she wished, oh how she wished, that she didn’t instantly know what it was. It was still daylight, and the full moon was at least a week away, but Hollywood had shown her enough of them that the werewolf was instantly recognizable for what it was. It would be taller than a man, she guessed, if it stood up on its hind legs, and a good deal broader. It was covered in reddish brown fur and had a very wolfish face, though its muzzle was a good deal shorter than she thought it should be. It had large, fur tufted dog ears and the back paws were those of a wolf, but its arms ended in furry, clawed, but all too human looking hands. How could she have thought the man on the dock was wearing a costume?
“Drake,” she called again but the dog ignored her. He wanted his tennis ball back. He jumped around the beast friskily, eager for a tussle.
“Drake! Heel!”
Aubrey loved her dog, but she loved herself a good deal more. She fired three quick shots at the werewolf. She hit it with two of them, which was a miracle considering how much her hands were shaking, and she managed to miss Drake, another boon. The werewolf was knocked off its feet and tumbled with the force of the shots. Drake whimpered. Aubrey took a step forward and fired again, this time aiming more carefully. She hit it full in the chest.
The werewolf came out of its roll in a crouch, shook itself, and looked at Aubrey. It didn’t look hurt so much as pissed off. It opened its mouth and let out a blood curdling howl, its snout pointed at the sky. Aubrey shot it in the throat. She had shot it on the dock too, she realized, and that certainly hadn’t slowed it down. She had no reason to think that emptying an entire clip into it would do any better. The bullets would do her more good at close range, she reasoned, and so she turned and ran.
The best she could manage was a staggering hop, and Drake seemed determined to trip her. He danced around her, suddenly - finally - alarmed. He growled and barked, and seemed to be trying to herd her away from her route. Aubrey ignored him and concentrated on keeping her footing. Without her cane and with the loose gravel of the road, the effort was doomed to failure. She fell sprawling onto the ground, the gravel cutting into her hands as she reached out to control her fall. She rolled with it and came up facing backward, gun ready. The road behind her, toward Lettie’s house, was empty.
Sh
e picked herself up and scanned the underbrush and tried to see back into the trees. She heard another howl, close and behind her, and swung around. If the thing had gotten between her and Vina’s house, she was doomed. Even if she could make it all the way to Lettie’s, there was nobody home. She no longer cared what they had been talking about or if they knew she had heard them. Right now, Vina’s house was her only chance. She didn’t bother aiming. She fired into the trees on both sides of the road. Ten shots before she heard the click of the empty gun. She released the clip with one hand, grabbing one of her spares and slamming it home with the other.
She walked forward slowly, hands forward holding the gun, running it along the roadside, alert for any movement or noise. When she got to the end of the driveway, she turned and ran again, trusting Drake to warn her if anything was coming.
“Aubrey!” She saw Joe burst out the front door and hurry down the steps to her.
“Get back inside,” she screamed.
She saw Charlie and John come out behind Joe and stand at the top of the steps. Charlie had Vina’s shotgun up, leveled directly at her.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Aubrey froze, but it took her only a moment to realize that the gun wasn’t aimed at her, but at the driveway behind her. Another howl split the air. She turned and glanced back, but there was nothing behind her but Drake, who had planted himself halfway down the driveway, legs splayed, teeth bared, growling fiercely at the woods to guard her retreat.
Aubrey whistled as Joe reached her and slid his arm around her to help support her weight. He half-carried her up the steps and into the house. Drake shot through the door a second later, and Charlie slammed and locked it.
Aubrey was panting and her heart was hammering in her chest. The edges of her vision went dark and she felt certain that she was going to faint.