Of the Trees(71)

“And Jessica Evans, she was here, too?” he asked, watching Cassie for a response. She nodded.

“This was the last place I saw her,” she said.

“I’m sorry to waste your time,” he said, moving toward them. Cassie jumped when Aidan stepped off the branch, landing with bent knees at the base of the tree. He straightened and moved toward her. No one said a word.

Aidan paused as an officer with light brown hair moved in front of him. He inclined his head with a little nod as though to say, “After you.” The officer didn’t even pause. A cold sweat broke out on the back of Cassie’s neck.

“Did you guys find anything?” Gibbons called out to the other officers. Most shook their head or answered in the negative. One held up an empty beer can. Another said he found the remains of a fire.

Aidan stepped around Officer Gibbons, came to stand between him and Cassie. He peered down at her, not speaking, his blue eyes stormy and distracting. Someone had spoken, asked Cassie a question, but she didn’t hear it, couldn’t focus. His lips twisted into a mocking smile.

“Cassie. Cassie,” her mother said, tugging on her arm.

Cassie blinked, jerking reflexively against her mother’s hold. She glanced over, finding Cathy staring at her in concern. “Hmm?”

“The officer asked you a question.”

Aidan circled around them, sidestepping her mother with exaggerated emphasis. He looked pleased with himself, speculative but amused. She could feel his hot breath on her neck as he stepped up behind her. Despite the chilly autumn morning, a bead of moisture slicked down her back.

Someone repeated the question, asked her if she knew what kind of beer everyone was drinking. She shook her head. Fingers, warm and insistent started tracing the lines of her palm. Her arm trembled, but she didn’t dare move it, not wanting him to know she saw him, felt him. The panic started in her chest, the uncontrollable fear that began to pulse with her pounding heart. It beat against her ribcage, her muscles sore with tension. His finger traced patterns, first on her palm and then slowly down each of her exposed fingers.

“Mom,” Cassie moaned, trying to make it obvious that she needed to leave, needed to get out of here. His laugh sounded close to her ear, and she shuddered violently.

“Can we leave?” Cathy asked Officer Gibbons. The officer nodded, gesturing back toward the trees. He barked some commands to his junior officers and rolls of police tape and markers were taken from bags and out of pockets. They would canvas the area, search through the pine needles. They would find nothing. He spoke to her too, but she couldn’t hear it, couldn’t focus. Because just as the words were coming from his mouth, another mouth, one closer to her ear started to whisper.

“Go now, my dear,” it said, soft and lyrical, “I can always find you.”





Cassie did not sleep well that night. She had checked every window in the house, every door. She locked and double locked everything she could, even propping a chair against her bedroom door before she got under her covers. His voice never left her.

Leaving the woods had been horrific. Thankfully, everyone, her mother included, chalked Cassie’s nerves up to seeing the place from which Laney had disappeared.

Aidan hadn’t followed her. Or, if he had, she hadn’t seen him, but she wasn’t exactly looking for him either. Cassie held fast to her mother’s hand, unwilling to be separated from her, and made a straight line back to Gray Lady cemetery, cutting a path from there to home.

People came up to her as she broke through the woods closest to her house. The number of volunteers that still combed the woods had diminished, most of them being forced back into school or work. Still, many were there. They patted her back and murmured reassurances, claiming they would search every inch of the woods and that they would find her friend. The officers thanked her for showing them the clearing, said they couldn’t find it before based on everyone’s descriptions. Cassie still wasn’t surprised.

Ryan arrived just as the sun was coming up the next morning to drive her to school. It was clear and cold and thankfully not raining.

“I’ll see you there,” her father said, standing behind Cassie at the front door. She nodded, watching Ryan as he started for the walkway. “If you need anything, or if you’re going to cut out, let me know first.”

“I will, Dad,” Cassie said, turning to give her father a quick kiss on the cheek before heading out the door. Ryan smiled when he saw her. She walked toward his car, and he hurried to open the door for her.

After he slid behind the wheel, he leaned over and kissed her, soft and quick. Cassie let out a little squeak of surprise, feeling her cheeks heat. She caught his eye in the early washed out color of the predawn.

“That’s my thing now, isn’t it?” he asked, searchingly. “Kissing you without talking about it.”

Her lips part in surprise. “Oh.”

“Okay?”

“Yeah, okay,” Cassie answered. He caught her lips again then, his fingers stroking lightly along her jaw. She smiled against his mouth as he pulled away, her chest lightening. And then a feeling like a bowling ball getting dropped in her gut slammed into her as she instinctively thought she needed to tell Laney this new development, only to remember that, of course, she couldn’t. Laney wasn’t here anymore.

School was as horrible as Cassie thought it was going to be. The only real bright spots were Ryan and Rebecca.