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Where were they?
She shouted into the empty darkness on either side of the SUV.
“Marco? Renzo?”
Panic rose in her throat, as she struggled to see in the black cold night. She paused, and then hurried back to the Mustang to retrieve the flashlight from the glove compartment. She clicked it on and headed back. A quick pass of the flashlight over the car’s windows told her it was empty. She waved the light across the wooded area to either side of her.
“Marco! Renzo! Are you out there?”
The only response was the freezing wind roaring in her ears.
“Marco! Renzo! Can you hear me?!”
A car approached and passed her, heading in the direction of civilization—Arcade Street. She reached into her pocket for her phone, wondering where that car had come from and whether that person had seen anything.
She dialed Marco’s number, willing him with a prayer to answer. She heard the ring of Marco’s phone in her ear, just as she heard the muffled sound of a phone ringing to her right, near the SUV.
Holding the cellphone to her ear, she ran through the darkness, following the narrow beam of the flashlight, and listening to the ringing of the phone, until she was standing at the driver’s window. The window was down, and Marco’s phone was ringing inside. She raised her flashlight into the car and let out a high-pitched, feral shriek, a sound she didn’t recognize as her own.
Marco’s body and head lay slumped across the steering wheel, the side of his temple tilted upward and covered in a dark, shiny mass, its odor smacking her nostrils.
