Chapter Nineteen

NÜWA ADDED FIFTY pounds to the squat machine bar. The ring of metal on metal as the plates settled comforted her. Anxiety coiled in her body, restless as a snake, and just as constricting. After drying her hands, she stepped under the squat machine bar, leaned forward to unlatch the safety, and took the weight on her shoulders. The intense pressure sent a wave of calming energy through her as she lowered herself into a full squat. She stood and the bar rattled along the track. Nüwa repeated the action until her thighs burned and sweat poured down her face. After the last rep, she settled the bar and stepped out from under it.

Her thoughts spun back to the art opening and Martin’s appearance. Why had she run? Why hadn’t she gone over and punched him in the face? Or done all the things she had dreamed of doing to him to exact her revenge. Weak. She had been weak. Run like a child. Let her mother lead her out like she was incapable of making her own decisions.

And then the car ride. Her mother’s suggestion it had all been in her head weighed on her. Infuriating as it had been, the worst part was the way it undermined Nüwa’s hard-won belief in her own experiences.

But what if she had acted as violently toward him as she often dreamed, and it had been a case of mistaken identity? What then? Charges. A lawsuit. Nüwa shivered. Perhaps a forced stay at a forensic mental hospital.

Nüwa’s anger simmered. She had to do better. For Julia. For herself. The ache in her thighs had resolved. Nüwa sipped her water as she circled the weight room, mentally preparing herself for her next round of lifts. Overhead she could hear her mother’s heels tapping on the floor. Nüwa strode to the music system and pulled up her favorite workout playlist. She cranked the volume up to drown out the sounds of her mother’s pacing and her own thoughts.

 

JULIA UNLOCKED HER truck and placed her lunch cooler on the floorboards. The pleasant ache between her legs was sufficient to make her ignore the long day that lay ahead of her. Yesterday’s bad weather had destroyed her schedule and she would be playing catch up all week. Knowledge of Nüwa’s love wrapped around her like a blanket warm from the dryer. Nothing could change her sunny mood today. She slammed the door shut and rounded the bumper of the truck. Her foot slipped. Julia skidded, catching herself on the body of the truck before she fell all the way to the ground.

A thick puddle of blood covered the grass and hard-packed dirt of her drive. Black and tarry, a thin trail of old blood led away from the puddle and into the woods that flanked the drive. Small hairs stood up on Julia’s neck and her mouth went dry. “What the fuck?” She spoke out loud, the sound of her voice reassuring in the dim light of early morning. Julia backed away from the mess, stopping to scuff her boots over the wet grass to clear away the blood.

Unwilling to risk trying to hop over the puddle, she walked back to the passenger side, opened the door, and crawled across to the driver’s side of the truck. What had happened? Julia ran through a list of possibilities in her mind. Fox? Coyote? Even as she played out various scenarios, she could not come up with one where such a large amount of blood would stain the ground. Nor lead away from the car. Fox and coyote killed quickly, then carried their prey away to eat. No fur. There had been no fur, or anything else offering a clue to the source of the blood. Julia shivered and glanced at the clock.

Too early to call Nüwa. Julia chewed her thumbnail. The curious nature of the mess was an itch in her brain. She reached under the seat and found her large flashlight. Heavy and bright, it would serve as a weapon if she needed one. After opening the door, she inspected the puddle using the flashlight to highlight the edges. Her initial shock and fear subsided. Only blood, no fur, no half-dead animal she’d need to dispatch. She stepped out on the running board, then leaped over the stain.

She shone the flashlight on the trail of blood leading away from the car. The grass was matted down and broken as it led to the cover of the trees. Tall oak and beech crowded each other in the dense woods. The forest floor was covered in detritus. Julia shone her light into the forest.

The sounds of the birds stopped as she entered the woods to follow the trail of blood. The lack of sound and movement pricked her ears, the quiet unnerving as Julia kept her flashlight beam trained on the ground. The trail grew fainter. Twenty feet from the parking area, it stopped. Julia peered ahead of her. No clues had turned up. “Too many creepy movies. Get your ass to work, Johnson.” Her self-talk served to bolster her courage as she turned back and hustled along the way she had traveled.