Page 82 of Last Seen

“Run, Halley Bear. Run.”

Her mind flashes to the note stabbed to Kater’s chest.You’re next.

Am I next? Is it now? Am I about to die?

She’s hyperventilating. The 9-1-1 operator is saying soothing words. The sun is beating down mercilessly. The lost little boy is crying, crying, crying.

Theo’s words: “You can’t leave me. I won’t let you.”

Noah’s words: “Stay. This is bigger than an hour’s conversation.”

The stranger at home: “You don’t remember me, do you?”

Early’s confusion: “I don’t know why Kade was messing with your Jeep.”

Tammy Boone’s revelation: “The circumstances were similar ...”

Stop stop stop.“Stop!”

The squawk of the sheriff’s siren pulls her from the abyss. She fumbles the gun into her bag, feels an unfamiliar piece of paper inside. She pulls it out and unfolds it. There is one word on it, written in shaky letters:Help.

What the hell is this?

Brockton is almost to her door now. She shoves it back in the bag and puts her hand on the gun. Uses her left to wipe the tears away. She gets out of the Jeep.

Brockton’s swagger is gone; the concern on his face is clear.

“Miss James? What’s happening?”

She is unmoored and unloads everything. The kid, the Jeep, the tire, her sister, Theo’s threat, the stranger, and before she realizes what’s happening, he’s holding her as she weeps. He’s an awkward comforter, patting her shoulders and saying “Now, now. Now, now” over and over, but somehow, it works. She finds herself again; the fear, the pure dismay receding until she is finally able to take a full breath and a step backward. It’s the first time a man has willingly touched her in months. She doesn’t want to admit how normal it makes her feel.

“Sorry about that,” she says, wiping her eyes. “I feel like an idiot.” She hears a truck’s engine roaring up the road, tenses, but it’s a tow truck withEddie’s Garagestenciled on the side. She passed that garage last night.

Brockton pats her shoulder again. “For having emotions? Don’t. You’ve had a few shocks this week. Eddie will take the Jeep back to his place and fix the tires for you.”

“Something else is wrong, too. With the engine. Someone made sure I couldn’t leave.”

And left a note asking for help in my bag.For some reason, she holds this back. It feels too ominous to mention. She doesn’t know who wrote it, or when it was put there. It could have been any moment from the second she left the jail until now.

The sheriff is speaking; she tunes back in. “We’ll figure it out. Now, show me where this little boy was?”

They head back to the tree line. Halley explains seeing the child out of the corner of her eye, then stopping and following him into the woods. “He’s so little. So dirty. I can’t imagine he’s okay out here. Are there people living in these woods? Or was he a lure to get me to leave the vehicle long enough for someone to sabotage it? I heard a car while I was looking for him. It has to have happened then.”

Saying it aloud sends shivers down her spine. What if she hadn’t been in the woods? What if she had still been in the Jeep? Would she have come face to face with Kater’s killer?

Is it the stranger from the bar? Or is someone she knows all too well after her?

The sheriff tries to calm her. “Miss James, this is quite the story. Sure you’re not writing mystery novels in your spare time?”

“This is not a joking matter.Youwere the one who wouldn’t let me leave last night.”

“About that,” he starts, but freezes, holding up a finger. She hears the crashing seconds later, impressed that he was so attuned to the woods that he heard it first. He peers into the forest, hand on his weapon, then relaxes. “Deer.”

“How do you know?”

“I have eyes,” he says, pointing, and sure enough, she sees the soft tan flank of a doe twenty yards away. The doe stares at them for a moment, tail twitching, then puts her head down to the grass and starts cropping it.

“I wasn’t holding you hostage, or in custody. I just didn’t want you on the switchbacks late at night. In case something happened.” He points at the Jeep. “Turns out that was a good thing. If there’s a maintenance issue—”