Page 23 of The First Hunt (The Final Hunt)

HOLLY

H olly leaned her elbows onto the desk and rubbed her eyes.

She’d been staring at the blank page for over half an hour.

She stood and stretched her arms overhead.

She needed coffee if she was going to keep working for several more hours.

Outside the office window, the late-afternoon sun peeked out from behind the clouds above the Narrows Bridge.

Yawning, she made for the stairs. She’d tried to work when she got home from the grocery store last night but had been too shaken to focus.

Giving up, she’d gone to bed early, hoping the rest would clear her mind.

Instead, she’d lain awake all night, tossing and turning in an unfamiliar bed, her mind running wild trying to decipher the face of the dark figure in the parking lot. It had to be Jared.

He could’ve attacked her if he’d wanted to. Had he only wanted to scare her? Or maybe he’d been worried someone might see them or hear her scream. But if Jared knew where she was...

She’d called Andy at King County Major Crimes when she’d gotten up this morning to tell him she wanted the restraining order against Jared. But her call went to his answering machine. He still hadn’t called her back. Walking into the kitchen, she glanced at the microwave clock. It was after four.

She grabbed the glass coffee carafe and turned on the kitchen sink when a knock sounded at the door. She jumped, nearly dropping the carafe. She turned off the water and left the pot in the sink, then made her way to the front of the house.

She squinted through the peephole. It was Clint. She exhaled, chastising herself for being so jumpy before opening the door.

“Hey,” he said with a smile. He wore a different plaid shirt than he had yesterday, checkered blue instead of red, and held a pair of hedge pruners. “I normally prune the hedges around back every spring for Norm and Maurine, but I wanted to make sure you were okay with me going into your backyard.”

“Oh, sure.” She hadn’t noticed the dimple on Clint’s chin last night; he was even more attractive in the daylight.

“Okay, cool.” He extended her a rolled-up newspaper wrapped in plastic. “And this was in your newspaper box.”

“Thank you.” Her fingers brushed his when she took the paper, making her blush.

He shot her a crooked, friendly grin as he started for the side of the house.

As she closed the door, it struck her she hadn’t put on any makeup this morning before she started writing. She could only imagine what she looked like after a night of practically no sleep.

She caught her reflection in the hallway mirror on her way back to the kitchen and cringed, attempting to smooth her unruly hair.

Did I even look in the mirror this morning?

She’d been so preoccupied by last night’s encounter that she couldn’t remember.

Holly slipped the plastic bag off the newspaper and tossed it into the trash.

The phone rang on the kitchen wall when she set the Tacoma Herald on the counter. Her shoulders sank with relief as she turned to answer it. It must be Andy, calling her back.

A restraining order might not stop Jared, but getting served with the order would hopefully give Jared pause if he was thinking of trying anything again—especially if he knew doing so could be a violation of his parole and land him back in prison.

“Hello?”

“Hey, it’s me.”

Recognizing Laurie’s voice, Holly sank against the wall. “Oh, hey.”

“I just called to check in,” Laurie continued. “Everything okay at the house?”

Holly bit her lip, seeing Clint outside the kitchen window. His back was to her, and his shirt was pulled taut around his muscular arms as he trimmed one of the large hedges that lined the yard, starting at the top.

“Yeah, great,” Holly said, turning from the window.

She decided not to tell Laurie about what happened in the grocery store parking lot.

Laurie would probably insist on coming to stay with her.

While her publicist meant well, Holly couldn’t concentrate with Laurie talking on the phone with PR outlets all day.

“How’s your writing going?”

“Good,” Holly lied.

“Did you meet the neighbor yet?”

“I did.”

Holly cocked her head toward the window. Clint laid his hedge pruners on the grass to peel off his plaid shirt, revealing a fitted white undershirt.

“And?”

Holly continued to stare as Clint tossed his plaid shirt on the ground and bent over to pick up the pruners. “And nothing.”

“Okay. Well, if you get lonely one of these nights, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if you came over for a drink. I may have even hinted that you could use some human contact, so don’t be surprised if he invites you over.”

Holly’s jaw dropped. “Laurie! Human contact, really?”

“Don’t worry. I didn’t say it like that.”

Holly breathed into the phone, watching Clint move around the side of the hedge. He turned to face her house, and she spun away from the window.

“I should get back to work.” Holly cradled the phone in the crook of her neck as she unrolled the paper on the counter. Seeing the front-page headline, she froze.

HAIRDRESSER MISSING FROM ALBERTSON’S BUS STOP

Laurie sighed into the line. “Okay. I just wanted to check in and make sure you were settling in okay.”

Holly scanned the article. Her breath stuck in her lungs when she got to the end of the first paragraph. Rebecca Lopez, twenty-five, was last seen getting into a sedan near the bus stop in front of the Tacoma Albertson’s on 43 rd Street just after 9:00 p.m.

“Were you able to figure out the hot water in the upstairs shower? I know it can be finicky.”

The article blurred in Holly’s vision. That was the same grocery store she’d been to last night, less than fifteen minutes after she’d left.

Holly blinked and kept reading. The missing woman failed to return home to her boyfriend last night and didn’t show up this morning at the hair salon where she worked.

Detectives were seeking information from the public related to her disappearance.

Holly’s heart thudded against her chest. Jared. Could it be possible that he had taken her? Was he trying to show her what he was capable of?

No, she thought. It couldn’t be. He had a violent temper, but Jared wasn’t a killer.

“Holly? You still there?”

Or could it? She closed her eyes, recalling the veins bulging out of Jared’s forehead after he’d wrapped his hands around her throat five years ago. She pinched the bridge of her nose. Either way, she had to tell Andy.

A knock on the window made her whip around. Outside, Clint gave her a thumbs up, which must’ve signaled he was done with the pruning. Holly forced herself to return the gesture, her mind somewhere else.

“Laurie, I have to go.”

“Hol—”

“I’ll call you later.”