The roar of the rushing water filled Caitlin’s ears as she burst out of the car. She looked all around as she tried to get her bearings. None of this looked familiar. Her heart pounded in her chest. Was this the right place? Had she made another mistake?
Then she noticed the blue of police lights in the distance up ahead, and she took off at a run. Dimly over the roar of the water and the rain she heard the others shout after her, but she didn’t have time to stop.
Her shoes were no match for the waterlogged grass. They became drenched and muddy in no time. Her cold, numb feet stumbled over the uneven ground, but she kept running until the grass turned to asphalt, and she suddenly skidded to a stop as she came to a small parking area. There was a police car here, but that was not what made her stop. Her Land Cruiser was here, parked haphazardly in the tiny space.
“Lance!” she tried to yell, but she was winded from her run, and it was barely more than a gasp. She took a moment—she could spare no more—to catch her breath and try again. This time the word “Lance!” rang out louder, but there was no reply. The SUV was empty, and there were no police officers in the squad car, but she could just make out the sound of shouting from the creek. As she came around the cars, she saw a man as soaked as she was perched on the small strip of land that remained between the parking area and the raging creek. It wasn’t Lance. She could see that at once, but she called his name again, just because she had to at least try.
Fear gripped her. Images from her dream danced in her head, and she found it difficult to distinguish what was real from what she had dreamed. Of all the places he could be, that Lance was here terrified her. The thought made her dizzy. This was Lance, after all, her Lance. How could she be frightened of her own husband? He had never once tried to hurt her or Adam, but was that true? Adam had tried to warn her, and she hadn’t listened to him. She was as bad as the campus security officers, as bad as everyone who had ignored her warnings. Anxiety swelled inside her.
Without thinking, she scrambled down the embankment toward the creek. Her shoes slipped down the muddy bank. She grabbed at the twisted branches to keep her balance, the rough twigs tearing her flesh. Her foot slammed into a jagged rock and she let out a yelp of pain, but she tried to use the rock to stop her rapid decent. Instead, her soggy shoe came off, and her foot with nothing more than a drenched sock to protect it took a stumbling, painful step closer to the roaring creek.
She looked out toward that rushing water that was now frighteningly close, and what she saw filled her with a heavy, foreboding feeling. It was Lance. She recognized his jacket. He was way out there in the water, and there was a rescue boat trying to get to him, one of those inflatable rafts with a motor on it.
“No!” she screamed at the men in the boat, though there was no way they could hear her. “No! Don’t trust him! He’s dangerous! You need to find my son! You need to look for a little boy!”
Of course, there was no response from the men in the boat. Her words had been drowned out by the creek, the rain, and the boat’s motor. She needed to tell them about Adam. They needed to find Adam before it was too late, but she knew she couldn’t rely on them.
Caitlin staggered out into the creek. Adam could be anywhere, but most likely he was near Lance. She could only see Lance’s back, and not even that well. For all she knew, Lance was holding Adam down beneath the water as she watched. The image caused adrenaline to surge through her as she waded through the too-deep water. She pushed forward against the strong current as the water crept higher and higher. Then she took a step, and without warning, the ground disappeared beneath her.
The water yanked her under. She saw a swirling mass of bubbles as she struggled beneath the surface, flailing her arms in an attempt to find air. She couldn’t tell which way was up, and as she became turned around by the rushing water, she only became more disoriented. The swirling current meant she couldn’t stop herself long enough to figure out which way to go. Her lungs began to burn.
Then a weight pressed down on her—a hand, she realized. It was a hand holding her down. Oh God, it was Lance. It had to be. She tried to break free from his grasp, but her strength was fading. She felt weak and feeble. He dragged her, pulling her deeper into the creek. Suddenly everything grew instantly colder, and she sputtered as she sucked in water, but it wasn’t water. It was air—sweet, beautiful air. Even as her teeth chattered, she greedily sucked in more of the welcome air.
He still grasped her, but her strength was starting to return, and she fought to free herself.
“Lance,” she said, her voice hoarse. “Lance, let me go.”
He continued to hold on to her, but she noticed he was dragging her not down into the creek but back to the shore.
“Not Lance,” an unfamiliar voice said. “Lance is . . . I’m sorry. We couldn’t save him. The current was too strong.”
Caitlin cried out.
“I’m sorry,” the man pulling her to the shore said. “We tried, but . . .”
“My son!” she screamed. “He had my son!”
“Adam’s okay,” he promised her. “Come on, I’ll show you.”
As they crested the embankment, she saw Adam right away. His little face peered out of the big gray fireman’s blanket he was wrapped in. She ran to him and grabbed him up in her arms as someone draped another blanket over her own shoulders. Tears rushed down her face.
When she found her voice again, she said to Adam, “I’m sorry Daddy tried to hurt you, but he won’t hurt you anymore.”
“Daddy saved us,” Adam said. She assumed he was confused, like she had been when her rescuer helped pull her from the creek.
“Oh, honey,” Caitlin said. “He was a bad man.”
“No, he’s right,” a woman said, and Caitlin looked past Adam to see a woman also wrapped up in a gray blanket. “Lance was the one who saved us.”
The words made fresh tears run down Caitlin’s face. Someone shouted her name, and when she turned around, she saw her mother. Luanne ran over and clutched Adam and Caitlin in what became a three-person hug. Caitlin spied movement out of the corner of her eye and saw her mother-in-law hurrying toward the creek.
A police officer caught Raquel before she could foolishly climb down the embankment like Caitlin had done, and Tucker came up beside her, pressed his hand on her shoulder and steered her back to him. He embraced her. Caitlin watched her mother-in-law’s shoulders heave with her tears. Apparently the police officer had told her about Lance, or else she had already known, through the peculiar ways of a mother’s intuition.