Until Dark - Mariah Stewart [9]
“The Bureau has been requested to assist in the investigation. There are several field agents on the scene as we speak.”
“I’ll need to meet with the witnesses that you have on the Garvey case if I’m to come up with a sketch. I’m going to want to go along with you on Tilden if witnesses are identified. If that’s all right with you.”
“That’s why I’m here. John thought we should work in tandem on this.”
A loud crack rattled the windows.
“Yow.” Kendra turned toward the sound of the thunder, startled. “I wasn’t aware we were in for a storm.”
She rose to close the window as the wind whipped up, sending the curtains dancing and billowing over the sill.
“You might have just enough time to put the top up on your car before the rain starts,” she said. “Unless you don’t mind if all that fancy leather takes a bath.”
“I’ll be right back.” Adam took off out the back like a shot.
Kendra stood in the window, the curtain pulled to one side, and watched Adam cross the yard to the drive where the Audi sat exposed to the rapidly approaching storm. His strides were long and quick with the crispness of the professional athlete he once was. Within minutes, the top was up on the car and he was taking the back steps two at a time to escape the storm’s first wave.
“I can’t believe how quickly the storm moved in,” he said as he came through the screen door. “It’s almost completely dark out now.”
“Hopefully it will pass through before it does too much damage. If the wind keeps up like that, we’ll likely see some trees down.”
“As long as they don’t take the electrical wires with them, I guess that’s not the worst that could happen.”
“Losing electricity isn’t the worst thing back here. My ancestors lived a heck of a long time without electricity. But having the roads flooded out can be much worse than losing power.”
“What’s the chance of that happening?” He frowned. His assignment left no room for delays.
“Depends on how much rain we get and how quickly it falls.” She stepped past him into the small laundry room off the back entry and returned with a white towel. “You might want to dry off before we get back into those files.”
“Maybe we should put the Weather Channel on,” he said as he dried off. “I was hoping to leave for Pennsylvania tonight. My schedule didn’t take flooded roads into consideration.”
“I’ll be sure to pass that on to the Rain Gods.” Kendra turned on the small television that sat on a counter opposite the sink, and watched the meteorologist of the moment discuss a storm moving into the southwest. Minutes later the local forecast followed.
“There you go.” She turned to Adam as the forecast concluded. “Heavy rains and wind tonight, followed by clearing skies in the morning and . . .”
Another crack of thunder split the sky. The lights flickered and the picture on the television darkened.
Kendra leaned over and turned off the TV.
“It’s dark as midnight here, and it’s only, what, barely six o’clock.” Adam looked out the window and saw nothing except darkness.
“It does seem darker out here sometimes because there are no streetlights, no lights from other houses. My closest neighbor is almost a mile down the road. The storm is just making it worse.”
She opened a closet door and took out a lantern, several candles, and a flashlight and set them on the counter near the television, just in case, then paused and asked, “Are you hungry?”
“I thought maybe we’d stop someplace and grab some dinner on our way to Pennsylvania.”
“If we wait until we’re on the road to have dinner we’re going to get really, really hungry.” She appeared mildly amused. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the road is already flooded out from here to the highway.”
“Are you serious?”
“It takes very little to flood out a dirt road. Fortunately, because the soil here is so porous, it will recede very quickly once the rain stops. Until then, I think we can count on being here for a while.”
“Has anyone around here considered paving the road?”
“Sciencing,” she