Sound of Darkness

Fourteen

Colleen knew Jim Carver had to be an extremely sick and demented human being.

But he wasn’t a stupid one.

His directions came by phone and then by notes left under rocks or squirreled between roots in the trees by the roadside. He had her drive south just to turn and drive north, then west, and then east.

Her first instinct had just been to find her sister. If she traded herself for Megan, that would be all right.

But Megan had been correct in her thinking. Carver would just kill them both. Unless she could find a way to save them.

Eventually, her training and sense of logic began to kick in.

There was a second person involved. The man had to have been watching them—somehow.

Who?

Brant Pickering? She had the oddest feeling she would have somehow known through Megan if the second killer had been Brant Pickering.

Gary Boynton?

Did it matter who? One of them had gotten his hands on Megan and met up with Carver after he’d escaped the corrections bus!

It was Carver who had Megan, and Carver who wanted her.

But what she was doing was reckless. He’d asked if she was alone. Obviously, he and this person were wherever it was that she was going.

And she was foolish not to report in.

But even as she knew she needed to call, she feared Ragnar or Mark—or even Red—might be so determined to take the men down that they’d give themselves away.

And Megan would wind up being collateral damage.

That was unacceptable.

If she didn’t have a plan, Megan would die along with her.

She’d stopped by a huge oak in the forest—bigger than the others—just as she had been told in the last instructions.

The note she found there led her to a fork in the road where she’d receive further instructions.

Two men. Both with Megan. They couldn’t see her. And they didn’t have a trace on her phone.

She was being irresponsible. Fear for her sister was taking control. She couldn’t let it—not if she wanted to save her sister.

And herself.

Back in the car, she set her phone down on the seat beside her, hesitated only one more minute, and then called Mark.

He answered the phone frantically.

“You’re all right?”

“Yes.”

“Carver—”

“Escaped, yes.”

“And you took off on a dangerous solo mission without a word. Colleen—”

“He has—”

“Your sister. I know. But you’re trained to work as a team, to understand—”

“It’s my sister! Listen, please, listen. I called you because I know what you’re saying. But he promised to shoot her—even if it meant his own death—if he saw you, Ragnar, or Red.”

“And you didn’t think we could stay back? Colleen—”

“I’ve called you now. I’m about ten miles east of—”

“I know where you are.”

“How?”

“GPS on the car. We’ve been following you.”

“Stop! Please, you can’t follow me. If he sees you—”

“He won’t see me.”

Colleen pulled the phone away from her ear and realized she could hear Megan speaking.

“Wait, wait!” she said to Mark. “Hold on—please!”

She pushed the phone away and closed her eyes.

“This is where you build coffins,” Megan was saying.

“One of my many hideouts. My dear, you would be quite surprised what secrets old forests can hold!” It was Carver speaking then. His voice was fainter.

She could always hear her siblings more clearly.

But Megan knew that. And she couldn’t know where Colleen was—Megan didn’t have a map of the area in her head—but she was making him talk because she knew Colleen might hear them.

She picked up the phone quickly, knowing Mark was going out of his head.

“I can hear them. I’ll call back as soon as I’ve figured out what Megan is trying to get him to say.”

“How clo—” Mark began.