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Back Parting Shot Save as PDF
Chapters (68)
  1. Dedication
  2. Title Page
  3. Contents
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. Six
  10. Seven
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. Thirteen
  16. Fourteen
  17. Fifteen
  18. Sixteen
  19. Seventeen
  20. Eighteen
  21. Nineteen
  22. Twenty
  23. Twenty-One
  24. Twenty-Two
  25. Twenty-Three
  26. Twenty-Four
  27. Twenty-Five
  28. Twenty-Six
  29. Twenty-Seven
  30. Twenty-Eight
  31. Twenty-Nine
  32. Thirty
  33. Thirty-One
  34. Thirty-Two
  35. Thirty-Three
  36. Thirty-Four
  37. Thirty-Five
  38. Thirty-Six
  39. Thirty-Seven
  40. Thirty-Eight
  41. Thirty-Nine
  42. Forty
  43. Forty-One
  44. Forty-Two
  45. Forty-Three
  46. Forty-Four
  47. Forty-Five
  48. Forty-Six
  49. Forty-Seven
  50. Forty-Eight
  51. Forty-Nine
  52. Fifty
  53. Fifty-One
  54. Fifty-Two
  55. Fifty-Three
  56. Fifty-Four
  57. Fifty-Five
  58. Fifty-Six
  59. Fifty-Seven
  60. Fifty-Eight
  61. Fifty-Nine
  62. Sixty
  63. Sixty-One
  64. Sixty-Two
  65. Sixty-Three
  66. Sixty-Four
  67. Sixty-Five
  68. Copyright

She was in a shack. Some tiny cottage. She believed she was near water. She could smell ocean in the air, hear the squawking of gulls. And Cory had said they were going to Cape Cod. He’d followed someone here, that much she’d figured out. At one point she opened her eyes a millimeter and saw him holding something. But then he turned his back to her, and she lost sight of it.

It had looked like a gun.

Her fear went up a notch.

It was getting darker, and Cory did not want to turn on any lights in the cabin. He had pulled a wooden chair to the window on the far wall. He sat down and stared outside.

“They’re going out,” he said. “Shit. Where the hell are they going?”

In the dim light, Carol slowly began to twist her wrists against the rope that bound them to the top frame. Her fingers had been going numb, and when Cory had been looking the other way, she’d been wiggling them, trying to keep the circulation going. The rope around her ankles was not secured as tautly to the bottom frame, allowing her to inch her body further up the cot. When she had the opportunity, she’d be in position to get her teeth on the rope.

After a period of time—Carol was having trouble tracking the hours, but it was fully dark now—Cory got up from the chair and began to pace the room. “They’ve been gone for fucking ever! Where the hell are they? What if they’ve gone back and I’m sitting here?” He shook his head angrily. “Time to listen in again.”

He went outside. Carol thought she heard the sliding door of a van. Some time later—ten minutes, twenty?—he returned. She heard him muttering, “Nothing, nothing.”

And then he left.

Carol picked away at the ropes with her teeth, but she wasn’t making any headway.

A short while later, the door burst open again. Cory went back to his post by the window.

“Okay, okay,” he said. “Here we go.”

Carol heard a car drive past the cabin.

“I bet they went to a movie,” she heard him say. “What else could keep them out that long?”

A pause, then, “Okay, good, good. They’re heading in.”

He stood quickly, took a couple of deep breaths. “This is it,” he said under his breath, before going out of the door and closing it behind him.

Carol didn’t know what “it” was, but she had a pretty good idea it wasn’t going to be anything good.

She inched forward again and resumed working at the rope with her teeth.

Fifty-Four

FIFTY-FOUR

CAL