Crime Scene at Cardwell Ranch - B.J. Daniels [29]
She stepped past him to the window and stared up the hillside. There was only falling snow and darkness now. "I don't see the light now."
"I want you to stay here," Hud said. "Lock the door behind me."
"You aren't going up there alone?"
He smiled at her. "Does that mean you're not wishing me dead anymore?"
She flushed, realizing she had wished that. And fairly recently, too. But she hadn't meant it and now she was afraid that foolish wish might come true if he went up that hillside alone. "I'm serious. I don't want you going up there. I have a bad feeling about this."
He touched her cheek. Just a brush of his gloved fingertips across her skin. "I'll be all right. Is that thing loaded?" he asked, tilting his head toward the shotgun where he'd left it.
"It would be pretty useless if it wasn't."
He grinned. "Good. Try not to shoot me when I come back." And with that, he was gone.
* * *
HUD MOVED STEALTHILY through the snowy night, keeping to the shadows of the house, then the barn and outbuildings as he made his way toward the pines along the mountainside.
Earlier, he'd caught glimpses of the light flickering through the falling snow as he'd run up the road toward the ranch house, his heart in his throat.
Now, the falling snow illuminated the night with an eerie cold glow. No light showed by the well, but he didn't think whoever it was had left. He hadn't heard a vehicle. More to the point, he didn't think whoever it was had finished what he'd come here to do.
The breath puffed out in a cloud around his face as he half ran through the fallen snow in the darkness of the pines.
He stopped at the edge of the trees in view of the old homestead. Snow fell silently around him in the freezing night air. He watched the eerie play of shadows over the new snow. A quiet settled into his bones as he stilled his breathing to listen.
From this position, the dark shape of the chimney blocked his view of the well. He could see no light. No movement through the blur of snow.
The night felt colder up here, the sky darker. No breeze stirred the flakes as they tumbled down. He moved as soundlessly as possible through the snow, edging his way toward the dark chimney.
He hadn't gone far when he saw the impression of tracks in the new snow. He stopped, surprised to find that the footprints had formed a path back and forth along the edge of the old homestead's foundation as if the person had paced here. Making sure Dana saw the light and went to investigate? he thought with a start.
Again Hud listened and heard nothing but the occasional semi on the highway as it sped by into the night. The snow was falling harder, visibility only a few feet in front of him now.
If any place could be haunted, this would be the place, he thought. A gust of sudden wind whirled the snow around him and he felt a chill as if the woman from the well reached out to him, demanding justice.
He pulled his weapon and made his way toward the chimney, staying in the shadow it cast.
That's when he saw it. Something lying in the snow. A rope. As he moved closer, he saw that it was tied to the base of the old chimney and ran across the snow in the direction of the well.
Hud stared into the falling snow, but he couldn't see the top of the well at this distance. He took the flashlight from his coat pocket but didn't turn it on yet. Holding his gun in one hand and the flashlight in the other, he moved soundlessly along the length of rope toward the well opening.
* * *
DANA COULDN'T STAND still. She'd lost sight of Hud as well as the old homestead chimney as the storm worsened. Nor had she seen the light again.
She couldn't stand it any longer. She couldn't wait here for Hud.
She knew he'd be furious with her and had even tried to talk herself out of going up there as she pulled on her boots, hat, coat and gloves.
But ever since last night, she hadn't been able to shake the feeling that something horrible was going to happen.