Zoe nodded. Please, God, help me find my child. And let her be okay.
Tiffany opened her door. "Maybe...maybe you should stay here for a minute. You know, just in case."
Zoe's heart lodged in her throat. Just in case...what? Just in case they found her daughter dead?
The macabre image that rose in her mind nearly made her throw up.
"No, I'll come. G-give me a minute." She put her head between her knees to reestablish her equilibrium.
"You don't look so good. Stay here." Tiffany hopped out before Zoe could conquer the sudden nausea. Now that the cabin seemed to be empty she'd lost the sense of urgency that'd propelled her this far. Fear and dread acted like fifty-pound weights on each limb, making it difficult to move.
Why not let Tiffany tell her if it was safe to look? Zoe didn't want her last memory of Sam to be the sight that might very well greet her if she walked through that door....
So she watched Colin's wife hurry to the cabin and disappear inside.
Then she coaxed herself to lean back and draw deep breaths while she waited. She had to be prepared for the worst, had to be ready to bear up under...whatever.
Fortunately, Jonathan would be coming soon. Knowing that made the situation just a little easier.
But no car pulled in behind the BMW. And, a moment later, Tiffany emerged from the cabin and crossed over to a ramshackle outbuilding without even glancing up.
What was going on? Tiffany knew how anxious Zoe was....
Impatient, she opened her car door and got out. Her knees felt less than steady as she stumbled toward the shed, but determination kept her moving. "Sam, be alive. Be alive, baby," she whispered.
Before Zoe could make it halfway across the clearing, Tiffany came out and let the spring-loaded door slam behind her.
"Anything?" Zoe asked hopefully.
"She was in there, all right." Tiffany gestured behind her.
Zoe's eyes zeroed in on the shed and her vision narrowed until it was all she could see. "How do you know?"
"There's some granola wrappers and an old blanket inside."
That was it? How did that tell Tiffany anything? Anyone could've left some trash. "But no--" she swallowed hard, made her mouth form the word
"--body?"
"No." She beckoned Zoe toward her. "Come see for yourself."
Something was wrong. Tiffany had stepped out of the car as one person--solicitous, worried, sweet--and returned as another. Her eyes glittered with some emotion Zoe hadn't seen earlier, and her nostrils flared as if she was extremely agitated or excited.
Zoe managed a smile that felt too tight on her face. "That's okay. We'd better get the police."
Tiffany's eyes widened, and her nostrils flared again. "You don't want to see what I found?"
"I wouldn't want to destroy any forensic evidence." She took a step back. "If Sam's not here, the police will be better equipped to deal with any leads your father-in-law might've left."
Tiffany glanced behind her. "But...but you drove all this way."
To find Sam. To save her, if possible. But Tiffany had just said Sam wasn't here. "I'll go over every detail with the police."
"But there's--" she frowned, glanced behind her again "--something you should see."
"What is it?"
"Take a look." Hoping Jonathan would arrive, Zoe twisted around to check the road again. But the dust kicked up by their tires had long since settled and there was no sound--nothing but the drone of insects.
"I don't want to."
"You don't have to go all the way inside," Tiffany said. "Just poke your head in. Maybe you'll recognize the swimsuit top I saw in there."
If she'd spotted a girl's swimsuit top, why didn't she grab it and bring it out?
You have a...really nice wife.
Except when she's helping me murder someone.
Considering the way Tiffany was looking at her, that snatch of conversation no longer felt like a dream. And there were other gut-level reactions rushing in on Zoe, like the revulsion, fear and dizziness she suddenly associated with her time at the Bells' house.
Jonathan...She should've waited for him.
"Don't be difficult," Tiffany said. "It'll just make this tougher."
"Make what tougher?" Zoe calculated the distance to the driver's side of the car. Had Tiffany taken the keys out of the ignition? She didn't think so.
"The...surprise."
"The only surprise I want is my daughter."
Tiffany lowered her voice. "I promise you'll see her again if you come with me."
Even if that was true, Zoe wouldn't be able to save Sam, not if Tiffany's surprise was anything like she now suspected. Zoe had begun to sense a strange malevolence in her former neighbor.
She needed to get help, or she'd cost Sam any chance she had.
"Jonathan will be here soon," she said as if his name served as some sort of talisman.
Tiffany smiled triumphantly. "Of course he will. If he doesn't get lost."
Oh God! It was Tiffany who'd given Jonathan directions. Zoe hadn't even listened to what she'd told him. She'd been too preoccupied, too sure they had it all figured out.
Her eyes darted to the shed, and she saw the door move an inch or so.
Someone was peeking out at her. It had to be Colin. He wasn't at work. That was an alibi. He was there, waiting for them....
Was her daughter in that shed, too? The mere possibility made Zoe want to rush over, regardless of Colin. But she couldn't walk right into his grasp. She could be the only hope her daughter had left.
Turning on her heel, Zoe dashed for the car. She'd nearly wrenched open the door when Tiffany caught her, but then they both fell, wrestling, to the dusty earth. The slam of the same door she'd heard earlier told Zoe that Tiffany had reinforcements coming, but she hoped to inflict some damage before she was outnumbered.
Kicking and clawing, she distilled all her pent-up rage and anguish into hurting the person who'd kidnapped her daughter--and knew she'd hit her target when Tiffany screamed.
"Colin, help me! She's gone crazy!"
"I won't let you get away with it," Zoe growled. Then she sank her teeth into Tiffany's shoulder, drawing blood before Colin could drag her off.
Where could the cabin be? Jonathan had followed Tiffany's directions to the letter, but he found himself deep in the Sierra Nevadas, where there was no cell service and no landline, either.
"Shit!" He slugged the dashboard and the radio came on, pumping out static since he couldn't pick up a clear signal. What the hell should he do now? He had no idea where Sam was, where Zoe was, or how to find them.