Witness...and Wife? by Stevenson Kate

Author:Stevenson, Kate [Stevenson, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Suspense
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-11-16T01:24:31+00:00

Chapter 10

“Home, sweet home,” announced Luke. The car rolled to a stop in front of a tiny cabin on the edge of the clearing. Juggling her laptop and Duffy, Cassie trailed Luke to the door. While he fished a key from his pocket, she eyed the log structure with suspicion. It looked as though the next strong wind might knock it flat. Evidently sensing her apprehension, he reassured her. “Mac says this place is about as secure as you can get. Besides the road we came in on, the only other access involves an hour hike through the forest. The path starts just beyond the outhouse.”

“Outhouse?”

“Mac said a septic tank’s next on his list of improvements, but till then…” Her face must have reflected dismay because Luke smiled as he turned the key in the lock. “I’ll stand guard if you need me.”

“Wonderful,” Cassie replied faintly and followed him across the threshold.

The single window on the cabin’s rear wall transmitted only token light as the late-afternoon sky darkened outside. Cassie paused to adjust to the shadowed interior. It reminded her of the three bears’ house—or at least the way she’d imagined it as a child. Halfway across the room, two straight-backed chairs and an antique highchair were pulled up to a wooden table. All that was missing were bowls of cooling porridge. Cassie set her computer on the table and released Duffy, who made a beeline for an overstuffed couch in front of a stone fireplace.

“Turn on the light. It’s behind the door,” Luke called over his shoulder as he carried the grocery bags to a low counter beneath the window.

Cassie groped unsuccessfully in the shadows, a vague sense of unease grabbing her. A distant clap of thunder combined with the darkness to send her fingers scrabbling over the rough logs, frantically searching. Anxiety ballooned in her chest, pushing outward with ever-increasing pressure. She sensed Luke moving around the kitchen, heard Duffy’s doggy snores, but they were no more than phantoms hovering on the edge of the mist.

Reality was a sinister, looming shape at her back. It was a growing sense of fright and the certainty that something awful would happen if she couldn’t push back the gloom.

Her lungs ached in their effort to suck in air and release it through her constricted throat, until finally, after what seemed like hours, she touched the corner of a smooth plastic plate, then flipped up the lever at its center. Light flared across the open room.

On legs of rubber Cassie crossed the short distance to the couch and lowered herself onto one lumpy cushion. Her body felt oddly limp, like a shirt with no starch. She clasped her hands in her lap to keep them from shaking. Was she going mad? She was no longer a child, afraid of the dark. She’d long ago outgrown the fear of monsters waiting in dark corners. So what had possessed her?

Was she suffering some kind of delayed stress syndrome? A result of the last few

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