The soiled yellow canvas flap that acted as a door fluttered in the breeze like a phantom. The darkness inside made it difficult to see, and I berated myself for not having brought a flashlight. Perhaps if I fastened the canvas flap open, the light would chase off the largest of the shadows.
I rolled the canvas to the top of the doorway, discovering as I did so that a cord was sewn into it. I tied the knot, imagining Marlette doing the same thing so he could sit on his wooden crate and pen his novel on the makeshift table. A rustling behind me made me spin around, only to see a chipmunk dart across the clearing. I exhaled, mumbling to myself to stop being so jumpy.
On the wall opposite the entrance, a ray of sunshine drew my attention to the cabinet and the books cluttering its shelves. I approached it, moving deeper into the cabin. Suddenly a shadow blocked the doorway. I turned to see who was there, my throat tightening.
Silhouetted in the opening stood a man, his dark figure exuding menace in the backlight of the waning day.
It was not Trey.
“So nice of you to come,” uttered Carson ominously, and then he entered the cabin, untying the tent flap.
The material fell across the opening, shutting out any illumination and inviting terror in with the darkness.
Chapter 15
CARSON DIDN’T HAVE TO SAY ANOTHER WORD FOR ME to know that his intentions were wicked. Every cell in my body was buzzing in alarm. The blood rushed through my veins in an attempt to keep my heart pumping at its frenzied pace as my mind tried to comprehend what was happening.
In movies, when an attacker confronts a helpless female, the action always seems to take place at lightning speed. He lunges, she screams and runs, and the scene moves rapidly forward. But in this moment of terrifying discovery, I was rendered immobile. My limbs felt like anchors, and I could not take my eyes from Carson’s face, painted in shadow and utterly devoid of any emotion.
I don’t know how long we were frozen in our places like two prehistoric creatures encrusted in ice, but when he finally took a calm, unhurried step deeper into the cabin, the spell his arrival had put me under lost its power. My hand, which had been on the rough surface of Marlette’s makeshift table, could once again register the feel of its coarse texture. I took in a fortifying breath of pine and damp soil, which seemed to invoke Marlette’s presence with such intensity that I felt as though he could be standing right next to me. It was as if he were in the cabin, wordlessly reminding me that he had been murdered, cautioning me to wake up and act.
My fingers reached out and closed around the walking stick leaning against the desk, but I never broke eye contact with Carson.
He took a second step toward me, his mouth curving upward into a chilling smile.
I wondered if Luella had seen the same smile the day she’d died. I didn’t need Carson to tell me what had happened—the cold gleam in his eyes and the hulking shape of his shoulders served as his confession. He was a killer.
Carson’s hands curled into loose fists at his sides, becoming twin cobras waiting to strike.
He had not come to talk.
He had come to see that I would never speak again.
Marlette’s walking stick had a polished knob at its crown, and it fit perfectly against my palm. I took comfort in its solidness and then slid my hands down the shaft, positioning my arms so that I could lash out with the knob the moment Carson reached for me.
“Now, Lila.” His predatory gaze turned smug. “Do you really think you can stop me with that thing?”
I gripped my weapon tightly and answered him in a voice made steady by anger. “I’m sure as hell going to try. You can’t sneak up on me. I’m not turning my back on you like Luella did.”
He laughed a dry, brittle laugh, the expectant glimmer in his eyes shredding my confidence. “I didn’t think I had it in me, you know. To take someone’s life. But she forced my hand. All this time she’s hidden things from me. Her real name. A copy of the bum’s manuscript. Not the original, of course, but she told me the photocopied manuscript was her insurance and that after I paid her a ridiculous amount of money, we’d burn it in her fireplace and make love as it went up in flames.”
I frowned in distaste at the warped relationship those two had shared and waited for him to move within striking distance. Luella had been a fool to think she could go on mani-pulating Carson once he discovered her duplicity. Her arrogance had no bounds.
“You were beautiful, Luella. Oh yes, I enjoyed our time together, but I never loved you.” He glanced over my shoulder, no longer seeing me. “You thought I was in your control, but I will never be anyone’s puppet again. No one’s employee. No one’s errand boy. Even though I never found that damned copy, you haven’t won. I’ve won!” He reached behind him with his left hand and pulled out something from his back pocket. Even in the dimness, I recognized that it was a notebook with a red cover.