oddly covert about his movements, and Carrie remembered her conversation earlier with Cochburn about the unsavory element in the area.
Quickly, she closed the door, then stepped back into the room before the man spotted her. He seemed to be heading directly toward her, but at the last moment, he veered off the path and disappeared back into the trees.
Who was he? Carrie wondered with a shiver. And why did he have a gun?
She watched for a moment longer, but when he didn’t appear again, she turned and walked over to examine a framed photograph Tia had left on the dresser.
The picture had been taken at summer camp the year she and Tia turned twelve. They were both beaming with arms thrown over each other’s shoulders. The two of them had been inseparable back then.
How odd that Tia had kept the photograph all these years and brought it with her to Cape Diablo. Carrie had long since put away everything that reminded her of that summer.
The knot in her chest tightened. It still hurt to see their shining faces in that snapshot and know what the future held for them. She and Tia had been so happy that day. So eager for a summer adventure.
But a week later, their lives had been changed forever. In the blink of an eye, the innocence had been lost, replaced by the kind of horror most people could hardly imagine.
The day of the abduction had started out like so many others that summer. The sun had been out. Carrie could still see the way the light dazzled off the man’s wristwatch.
He’d seemed cute and harmless at first. It was only later when she’d seen that terrible tattoo on his chest that she’d begun to have an inkling of just how evil he really was.
“Don’t leave me here, Carrie. Please, please don’t leave me….”
She squeezed her eyes closed as Tia’s desperate plea echoed through her head, followed by her own hollow promise.
“I won’t leave you, Tia. I swear I won’t….”
But she had left Tia. She’d left her all alone in that hellish place. Carrie had managed to get away, and the police had later told her that her escape had probably saved both their lives. But Carrie hadn’t seen it that way, and neither, she feared, had Tia.
In spite of everything, though, the two of them had managed to resume their friendship, but nothing was ever the same after that summer.
It had almost been a relief for Carrie when the two of them had gone off to separate colleges and eventually lost touch. Away from Tia, the nightmares and guilt had finally faded.
Then, just a few months ago, Tia had come back into Carrie’s life. She’d called out of the blue one day, shocking Carrie from the pleasant complacency her life had become.
“I’m getting married and I want you to be my maid of honor. There’s no one else I’d rather have with me than you, Carrie. We’ve been through so much. Please say yes.”
Of course, Carrie had said yes, even though she’d had some trepidation about renewing the friendship. After years of struggling to ‘find herself,’ she’d finally gotten her life on track. She had the job of her dreams with a local magazine, a great apartment, a small circle of friends. So what if she hadn’t met that special someone. So what if at times loneliness threatened to engulf her. She’d finally put the past behind her and that was all that mattered.
Or so she tried to tell herself.
But Tia’s phone call had brought it all back. The nightmares and the guilt.
Carrie had worked long and hard to exorcise her own demons, but they were always there lurking in the deepest recesses of her subconscious, waiting to undermine any intimate relationship she might have hoped to establish.
The guilt was still there, too. She’d gotten away from their abductor before he’d physically harmed her, but Tia hadn’t. What must her nightmares be like?
They’d never talked about what that monster did to her, but Carrie knew. Deep down, she knew.
The wedding was to be Tia’s exorcism. A chance to finally put the past to rest and have the kind of fairy-tale life she’d always dreamed of.
So what had happened? Carrie wondered. What had ended the dream and driven Tia away from the church that day? Had she simply gotten cold feet or had she discovered something about Trey Hollinger that had frightened her into running away?
And why had she brought the photograph—such a painful reminder of the past—with her to Cape Diablo?
A noise from the sitting room brought Carrie around with a start. Her mind flashed instantly to the man she’d seen a few minutes earlier on the path. He’d still been some distance from her so she couldn’t be sure that she’d seen a gun, but the very idea that someone might be armed and dangerous on the tiny island made her hesitate at the doorway.
“Anyone home?” Robert Cochburn called from the sitting room.
Recognizing his voice, Carrie let out a breath of relief as she replaced the frame on the dresser, then walked down the corridor and through the archway.
The attorney hovered on the threshold, giving her an apologetic smile as soon as she entered the room. “Sorry to just barge in like this, but I did knock. I guess you didn’t hear me.” His gaze darted to the hallway behind her. “I trust you found your friend?”
“Unfortunately, no.” Carrie brushed a restless hand through her hair. “I don’t know where she is.”
Something flickered in his eyes, a shadow that made Carrie wonder. “How did you get in here?”
“The door was unlocked.” Realizing what he might think, she said quickly, “I wasn’t snooping. I just wanted to make sure everything was okay. I thought Tia might have left the island for good.”
“And?”
He had the oddest expression on his face. Carrie didn’t know what to make of it. “Her clothes are still hanging in the closet so I assume she hasn’t gone far.” She glanced over her shoulder. “There’s a smell in the hallway. I think an animal might have gotten trapped in the walls and died.”
Cochburn grimaced. “I wouldn’t be surprised. The house is old and falling apart. I’m sure there are dozens of ways for mice and rats to get in. I can have someone check it out if you want.”
“I should probably leave that up to Tia. It’s her apartment.”
They both walked outside then and Cochburn closed the door behind them. As they moved into the courtyard, Carrie suddenly remembered something in Tia’s letter.
Sometimes I go down to the beach and try to imagine the two of them collecting shells, building sand castles, playing chase with the surf. Reyna, so quiet and shy, and Pilar, too adventurous for her own good. They remind me of the way you and I once were.
Her gaze lifted to the upstairs windows at the back of the house. She almost expected to find Tia gazing down at her, but instead there was nothing but light reflecting off glass.
She rubbed her hands up and down her arms as she continued to stare at the
