Storm Rising by Sara Driscoll

Author:Sara Driscoll
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2018-09-11T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

Catching Feature: A visible, obvious landmark which can be used to navigate to another remote, unseen location.

Sunday, July 23, 7:49 PM

West 48th Street

Norfolk, Virginia

Meg had no words. Van Cleave did, most of them blue.

They stood on what was left of West 48th Street, having had to park Van Cleave’s sedan four blocks away and hike in to the site through what was left of the Larchmont-Edgewater neighborhood. Situated behind the Norfolk Southern Lambert’s Point Docks and a cluster of apartment buildings, this was an older neighborhood. The house Emma led them to was at the end of the street, a redbrick bungalow, sheltered on three sides by overgrown oak, ash, and pine trees. The other side of the property opened onto the waters of Hampton Roads Harbor.

At least that’s what Meg’s phone showed them through Google Street View. Now, the trees were felled, splintered, or washed away. The house itself was simply gone.

“It got swept out to sea?” Emma’s voice was full of shock. “All of it?”

“Looks like it.” Meg stepped onto the property, wading through sand layered over the grass a full six inches deep. “Hawk, with me.” She still had him on his leash, but she scanned the area to see if there was cause to let him off lead to search, if there was any hint of life remaining. Hawk had his nose in the air, scenting the winds, but he looked up at her and whined.

Nothing.

She turned to Van Cleave. “This would have been a bad area for the storm tide. We’re at the mouth of the Elizabeth River here. The water would have come in like a wall, stories high, pulverizing anything in its path, and then either driving it inland, or, more likely, washing it back out to sea. There’s nothing. And Hawk is telling me there are no survivors.”

Van Cleave had left his suit jacket in his car, so he paced over the sand in his shirtsleeves, his hands jammed deep in his pockets. “I really hoped we’d have a good chance at finding something.” He turned to Emma, who stood staring at the footprint of the house’s foundation, scoured practically clean. “You okay?”

“It’s like it never existed. Like the storm just came in and wiped it clean away.” A smile unevenly tilted one side of her lips. “It seems right somehow. It was an evil place.”

Meg walked to her, Hawk at her side, to rub a hand over her back. “I’m sorry you lost your things.”

Emma’s shrug was pure indifference. “They were just things. Now I have nothing from my years here. Nothing to take with me.”

“Maybe it’s easier to make a fresh start that way?”

“Maybe.” She turned to Van Cleave. “Now you don’t have anything. Sorry.”

“Hardly your fault.” Van Cleave picked his way over the sand and around debris to her. “And I do have something. I have you. There’s a lot more you know we haven’t gone over. Locations, men, other girls in the house. And more about John. He’s my focus to start.

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