Buttons wagged his tail, tongue dripping drool and squirrel blood. Toeing the area where the beagle had found the squirrel, Andrew was unable to locate the missing chunk.

“Glad I already ate breakfast. Come on, buddy.”

They walked for twenty minutes and Buttons didn’t find any more severed critters, much to Andrew’s relief.

He let the dog back inside, Kate fast asleep, and took a thorough tour around the cottage. Tracking was not one of his specialties, but that deer had been so close, it had to have left some sign of its presence. The ground beneath the window on the side of the house where it had made its last pained cry was lush with grass. He didn’t see any small depressions anywhere.

“Check for scat,” he mumbled, remembering Kate’s request the day she’d thought a bear had been on the porch.

For the first time, Andrew wondered if he should have found a place a little closer to civilization. Maybe with more people around, there’d be less wildlife to scare the piss out of them. There were occasional bears that went pool hopping in New Jersey, and he’d once spotted a deer in their backyard, but those were rare instances. At least the Jersey beasts had the common courtesy to be quiet when they lurked about.

Not so with the fauna of Maine.

Andrew and Kate were the interlopers here.

Finding nothing, he ended up on the dock, dipping his feet in the water. With the sun on his face and the lake so still, it was perfect for napping.

If it was an owl, I’m not climbing trees to look for evidence.

He couldn’t get that sound out of his head, nor the one he’d heard that early morning. Every time he started to doze off, the screeches returned, raising the hackles on the back of his neck, even though he knew damn well they were just the weird cries of some harmless animals. Animals hidden by the dark of night, just out of sight.

Looking back at the cottage, he could almost see inside the glass doors to their bed.

A strange thought floated through his brain.

We can’t see them.

But they can see us.

Chapter Fifteen

“You’re burning up,” Andrew said. “And we ran out of Tylenol. I’ll have to go to town to get some. You need or want anything else?”

Kate had kicked all of the sheets off, her skin feeling as if it were being pricked by live wires. Her muscles ached, joints swollen so much, she feared they would crack like old walnuts. It was a very bad day.

“How are we on soda?”

Andrew checked the fridge and the cabinet where they stored their drinks. “I’ll get more. You want a magazine or something? Maybe the paper?”

She shook her head. “I don’t think I could concentrate enough to read a full sentence.”