Boy in the Woods, The by Carter Wilson

Author:Carter Wilson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-12-30T16:00:00+00:00

FOUR

T ommy squeezed the leather steering wheel, wanting to feel it crumple under his grip. He and Becky each drove their own cars home, and Tommy was thankful for the ten minutes of silence. He changed lanes and wove in and out of traffic, then sped through a yellow light that had turned red just as he entered the intersection. A fatal wreck might just be the distraction I need , he thought.

Tommy tried to process what was happening, assessing the situation objectively while not really believing any of it was real. She wants revenge, he thought. That’s it. She’s been following my career and she read the teaser chapter of The Blood of the Young. She’s afraid I’m going to reveal who she is.

But that’s crazy. I have no idea who she is. I don’t even know her last name, or where she’s even been in the last thirty years.

Tommy pressed down on the accelerator and swerved around a Honda, earning him a honk from its driver. Finally, he entered his subdivision – Cherry Creek North Estates – and swerved his Audi on to the winding, crushed-stone driveway of their house. He looked up at the massive casa de Devereaux as he always did: like it couldn’t actually be theirs.

The house was over six thousand finished square feet, and they used barely half of it. When the book money went from serious to laughable, Tommy had bought it. Now and then, he yearned for the poorer times, when it was a splurge to get a babysitter and go to the movies.

Tommy got out of his car and stepped into the night. His shoes crunched against the pea gravel path as he walked toward his front door.

The phone vibrated in his pocket. He took it out.

PRIVATE CALLER

‘No,’ he mumbled. His thumb found the power button and he shut the phone off without answering.

He put the key into the front door and turned, but nothing happened. The front door was already unlocked. Not unheard of, but not the norm. Melinda – their nanny – was diligent about locks.

He opened the door and slowly stepped inside his house.

‘Hello?’

His voice echoed in the cavernous entryway. More lights off than on. No sound of a television. No fighting. No laughter. Nothing.

A glance at the security system showed it was deactivated.

Lights glowed down the hallway. Tommy walked down the corridor and entered the kitchen, finding it similarly empty. If the kids had eaten, there was no sign of it. Maybe Melinda had already cleaned up.

The silence was stifling.

Tommy placed his messenger bag on the counter and checked the time on the microwave. Seven fifteen.

Too early for bedtime. Kids must be upstairs.

He heard the front door open at the same moment he saw the note on the refrigerator.

A wave of nausea rolled through Tommy’s stomach, like he was freefalling in a nose-diving airplane. He thought of ten-year-old Rade Baristow (known as ‘Brian’ in the fictionalized version), the boy who hadn’t done anything wrong except talk to a pretty stranger on an empty summer day.

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