She pointed inside the blackened bricks of the hearth to a white piece of paper sticking up out of an iron cooking pot held by a heavy shepherd’s hook.
The killer’s next clue.
“The next note,” Ella said on a burst of breath. “This is real, Jake. He’s come back.”
Jake grabbed her hand and held it there between them. “Maybe he never left.”
Ella retreated from him and went to a storage cabinet. She pulled out a set of serving tongs and used them to lift out the stiff paper. Turning, she dropped it on the polished plank table so they could read it.
“Let the games begin. It’s been too long, way too long.”
Jake hit his hand on a chair. “He was here. No telling how long he’s been watching this place.”
“I never told him I was from East Texas,” Ella said, panic rising like bile in her throat. “But he somehow knew and that’s why he brought me back here. I tried not to give him too much information when he had me. I didn’t let on that I even knew these woods or this area.”
But knowing her surroundings had been part of what saved her. That would have to be in her favor now, too. “When I came back here after he’d taken me, I stayed hidden away for the first few months. I should have left the state.” She shook her head. “I’ve put my grandparents in danger. When the killings stopped and we thought he was dead, I got too complacent, too content. I should have left—”
“It’s not your fault,” Jake replied. “We all searched and searched. He was badly wounded but we couldn’t find a trail past the water. Nothing. I always figured he’d gotten away or at least he’d died somewhere else but he’s still on every Most-Wanted List I know. I never dreamed he’d be so bold as to come back.” He looked off into the distance. “I should have kept searching.”
“And I ought to have kept going,” Ella said. “I could have gotten far away from here.”
“He’s the type who’d find you, anyway,” Jake said, his eyes roving around the structure and the woods. “He probably knew you’d lived here as a child, and that’s why he brought you back. If you’d left, he’d have found you and none of us would have been able to help.” He checked the floor for footprints, touched on the ceiling-to-floor screens for cuts. “We never found a trace of him and the murders stopped.”
Ella shivered at the thought of being in that madman’s clutches again. She couldn’t let it happen to Macey. Just knowing a killer had that child made Ella physically ill.
The wind lifted and the forest rustled. Down on the lake, a snowy egret lifted out over the water in a wild flight. What had startled the graceful white bird?
“Maybe you’re right,” Ella replied to Jake on a shaky whisper. “Maybe he’s been hiding out in these woods for years now.” Had he been watching her all that time?
“Hunters and fishermen would have seen him or at least signs of someone living out here,” Jake said, probably trying to reassure her. It didn’t work.
“He’s too smart for that.” Ella moved around, looking here and there, opening the narrow storage cabinets underneath one of the screened corners while she searched for anything to give her a real clue. “But how did he get in?” she asked, her mind recoiling from the nightmare inside her head. “I don’t see how he did it.”
Jake stared up at the stoned wall of the chimney. “Do you have a door on the back of this thing? A place where you can clean it from the outside?”
“Yes.” She hurried to one of the two big screen doors on either side of the chimney and unhooked the inside latch. “I’ll show you.”
“Wait,” Jake said, stepping ahead of her with his rifle raised. He did a quick search of the woods and the path down to the dock and then squinted across the lake canal to the other shore.
“All’s quiet.”
Ella didn’t argue with him or try to rush ahead this time. Instead, she held her own gun at the ready and scanned the paths down to the lake. Nothing. The dark waters of the big lake flowed by in the same way they’d done for hundreds of years. The tall cypress trees swayed in the midday wind, their sighs revealing no secrets. Turtles lay sunning on old broken logs. Brown triple-strand straw from the towering pines dropped in hushed piles to the forest floor only to cover decades of decay and moist, deep earth. What else did these woods cover?
“We have to figure out the clue,” she said, turning to Jake. “He’s on the move and he’s probably got Macey with him.”
“Or he’s left her somewhere, tied up and scared,” Jake said. “Alone.” He lowered his head, his expression dark and full of a helpless despair.
Hearing the crack in his deep Texas drawl made Ella want to take him in her arms and hold him. Or maybe fire a round from her rifle while she screamed at the top of her lungs.
“Here’s the clean-out door,” she said, refusing to give in to the clawing, slithering fingers of fear.
Jake pivoted to the left in front of her. “Did you keep it locked?”
“Yes. Just so no kids or varmints could accidentally get inside. It’s a pretty big door.”
“The lock’s broken,” Jake replied, pointing to the square black-iron door on the back of the stone chimney. “That’s how he left the note.”
“He usually doesn’t leave any signs so the broken lock is significant,” Ella pointed out, the technical facts clearing her head for a brief time. “Maybe he had to hurry and get away. What did the note say again?”
Jake stood, his eyes holding hers. “‘Let the games begin. It’s been too long. Way too long.’”
“What’s he trying to tell us?” Ella paced in front of the clean-out door. She hated that all the horrible memories she’d tried to bury were now resurfacing like dead bones floating in water. “Way too long. Way too long.”
“Does that make sense?” Jake asked, hope in each word.
“I don’t know. I... It’s hard to remember. I don’t want to remember.”
Jake was there, taking her rifle, pulling her into his arms. “I’m so sorry. I thought long and hard before coming here but I’m glad I did. I can’t let him hurt Macey and I sure won’t let him hurt you.”
“I’m okay,” she said, the warmth of his arms shielding her, comforting her, soothing her. “I’ll be okay.”
Jake stepped back as if he’d just realized how close they stood. “We need to stay on top of this. It’s us against him and he knows I won’t bring in anyone else unless he forces the issue. He’s got a grudge going but so do we. It has been way too long. But we get a second chance to bring him in.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do.” She backed away and wiped her eyes. “Maybe if we take a ride...to...the last place we saw him.”
Ella
