The Last Sister (Columbia River)(87)

“I’ve been searching for you for years, you fucking bitch!”

“That’s Harlan Trapp,” Madison whispered, her nails digging into Emily’s arm.

“I don’t understand.” Emily’s brain spun.

“He’s yelling at Tara.”

His words sank in.

Harlan has been looking for Tara for years. Tara was scared of someone hurting her . . .

Pieces snapped together in her mind.

“Could Tara have left because someone threatened her life? The only thing worth hurting someone over is if they witnessed . . .”

Tara running through the woods the night Dad was killed.

“Maybe she saw who killed Dad . . . Could it be Harlan?” Emily’s instincts fought against her conclusion. She’d known Harlan Trapp all her life.

“Come out, come out, come out, little girl!”

He was hunting Tara, his words echoing through the forest. “She must still be alive,” Emily said in hushed words.

“And hiding,” finished Madison. “We should do the same before he spots us.” She turned off her phone’s flashlight, and Emily powered hers down, the screen buttons unusable.

The two of them moved off the narrow road and into the trees. Emily’s eyes finally adjusted, and she could see the hazy shape of Madison’s face.

“You thought you could pull a gun on me? Me? I’m the fucking mayor!”

The women slowly crept through the trees, keeping the road in sight and watching for Harlan or Tara. The road widened and fed into a small parking lot. Emily had visited only two or three times since she nearly slid off the cliff as a child. Each time she’d stayed far from the overlook fence, nausea heavy in her stomach. The big metal swing sets, tetherball poles, and slides from her childhood were still present, the swings swaying with the wind, the chains of the tetherballs clanking against their poles.

Harlan paced at the far end as he yelled, a faint silhouette against the dark sky.

“You’re a whore!”

“I think he’s between us and Tara,” Emily whispered. “Now what?”

“Wait for the police.”

“What if she’s hurt? I don’t even hear sirens yet!” Stress built in Emily’s shoulders.

“Maybe they thought sirens would spook someone who might be considering suicide,” Madison whispered.

“Who the fuck knew two sisters could cause me such problems?”

“Two sisters? Who else? Me?” gasped Emily.

“You were shot at yesterday,” Madison hissed. “I bet he was trying to clean up his mess. First Nate Copeland and then you.”

“But why would he kill Sean and Lindsay?”

“I don’t know, but right now all I care about is that my sisters are on his list. We need to get out of here.”

“I’m not leaving Tara.”

“We can’t help!” Madison said in a low voice.

A faint siren finally sounded. Help was coming.

“That took long enough.” But it didn’t give Emily the relief she needed.

Harlan heard it too and let out a string of profanities. “Your family is the rot in this town! Your father was the worst of all!”

“Look!” A black shape crawled along the ocean side of the parking lot. Emily dropped to her knees to see the person’s form against the dark sky. She yanked Madison down beside her.

Tara.

“She’s dragging. She’s hurt,” she whispered as she watched Tara lower herself flat to the ground and roll under the overlook’s fence at the edge of the park. Harlan continued to pace and shout a dozen yards from where she’d seen Tara vanish. “She went under the fence.”

Madison swallowed audibly. “There are some places to hide safely on the other side.”

“One loose rock and she’s gone.” Emily shuddered, remembering the terror of clinging to the cliffside rocks.

The place where Emily had nearly lost her life.

“If we backtrack a bit and cross the road, we can follow the fence on its other side until we reach Tara,” she told Madison. “He probably won’t see us.”

“No! There’s a reason for that fence. We both know how unstable that ridge can be.”

“But we can get her out. We can crawl back.”

“Wait for the police!”

“But what if she’s hurt?” Tara’s dragging movements hadn’t left Emily’s thoughts. “Minutes could mean the difference between life and death if she needs a tourniquet or something.”

“You’re crazy,” Madison hissed.

“I’m going.”

“Dammit! Fine. I’ll go meet the police,” said Madison. “They should know what they’re walking into. Be careful.”

Emily jogged back through the woods until she couldn’t see the parking lot and then crossed the road to the trees on the other side. She wound through them until she spotted the fence. She estimated it was nearly fifty yards to reach the spot in the fence where her sister had vanished. Her head threatening to split with pain, Emily went under the fence and started to crawl, the surface treacherous with roots and loose rocks. The slope had several deadly steep areas, but if she stuck close to the fence, it was flat enough.