Rath spotted the pale glow of the cell-phone flashlights in the fog as Rachel and Felix hiked up the dark road toward him. He wanted to run to Rachel, but feared he would alarm her more than he already had. Alarm was fine—it sharpened focus—panic was not. Whatever came next would require cool heads.
Rath’s phone rang. Harland Grout. Grout had been the one to call Rath earlier in the apartment, his mall work number showing private. He’d asked how things went. Rath had berated him for not reaching the deputy personally to give the specifics about Preacher, and told him to call back. Rath let this new call go to voice mail.
A car crept up the hill behind Felix and Rachel, headlight beams swimming in the fog, illuminating the couple’s silhouettes as Felix helped Rachel over the slags of plowed snow on the roadside, got her safely up against a scrub of alders to make room for the car.
The car, an ’80s rust heap, slowed as it came alongside them. Its muffler growled. Rath tensed. The two cops hurried down the stairs from the landing.
The vehicle’s license plate was crusted with road salt, the number obliterated.
The car stopped.
Rachel and Felix, arms locked at the elbow like Dorothy and the Scarecrow, leaned toward it.
“No!” Rath shouted, a hand going to his revolver.
Rachel looked up at Rath.
The car’s tires spun as the car slung past Rath. He drew his revolver and stooped to get a look inside the vehicle. But the windows were fogged, and the car dark inside as it climbed around the bend. Was it Preacher? Or were fear and paranoia distorting reality?
The couple picked their way along the road toward Rath.
“Who was in that car?” he asked.
“Someone asking directions. What’s going on?” Rachel eyed the cops. “Why are they here?”
“Let’s get inside,” Rath said.
He let the kids get by him and go up the stairs, Rachel pausing on the landing in the fog lit beneath the floodlight: “What happened to our door? What’s going on?”
“Inside,” Rath said.
“Stay out here, if you would, miss,” the trooper said.
“I’m not staying out here. I’m freezing and it’s dark. I’m going inside my home.”
“Then don’t disturb anything.”
“I just want to be inside my place. Our place.” Rachel glanced at Felix.
Inside, the canaries piped up.
Rath despised the birds more with each chirp.
He shut the door as best as it would shut. Rachel leaned with her back against the counter dividing the living room from the kitchen. Felix moved next to her, but her look—give me space—halted him, and he sat on an arm of the futon, stooped to accommodate the pitched ceiling.
The deputy brandished his notepad as the trooper clasped his hands behind his back.
There were too many people in the cramped space. It made Rath itchy and claustrophobic. He took a breath and told Rachel only what he felt she absolutely needed to know about Preacher’s phone call.
“I heard the canaries, birds,” he finished. “So I thought Preacher was here, with you and—”
“Canaries?” Rachel looked at Felix.
They both looked at Rath.
“We were at the pet shop,” Felix said.
Rachel’s fingers worried the buttons on her coat. “Browsing, comforting puppies, and getting birdseed.”
The cops eyed each other.
“And?” Rath said.
“There was this guy, looking at me,” Rachel said.
“What guy?” Felix said just as Rath said it: “What guy?”
“The creep outside Lovin’ Cup?” Felix said.
“You saw him, too?” Rath said.
“I didn’t get a close look. And Rachel didn’t tell me about a guy in the shop. So I don’t know if it was the same guy.”
“Stop,” Rachel said, her voice measured, calm. “Please. Stop talking. I didn’t say anything because I’m used to weird looks, all women are used to it. And I barely glimpsed his eyes, really, through the birdcages.”
Rath knew she was downplaying the encounter. The more reasonable her tone, the more emotion she hid. She’d done it all her life. And in this case the emotion she tried to hide was fear. It grieved, but did not surprise, Rath to see her hide it, try to battle it alone. She was just like him, a true case for nurture over nature.
She glanced at Felix to invite him back to her side. He knew to smother her would drive her away, being by her side was enough. Smart kid.
While it irked Rath that Rachel and Felix could not describe the man, it didn’t matter. He knew who it was.
“You need to interview the pet shop’s employees, check CCTV footage,” Rath said to the trooper.
“Let’s go outside.” The trooper nodded at the deputy. “Have the kids look around the place, see if anything’s out of place. Besides the door.”