Page 77 of Forever Gone

“Does it?”

“It does from where I’m sitting.”

The words carried more edge than he intended. Cheryl went quiet.

Connor rubbed one hand over his jaw. “Sorry. Nearly hit a deer.”

“Are you all right?”

“Yeah. It ran off.”

Another pause passed over the channel.

Cheryl lowered her voice. “There’s a barn dance at Keaton’s place this weekend.”

Connor glanced toward the darkness beyond the driver’s window. “All right.”

“I’ve got two tickets. Somebody dropped out, and I wondered if you wanted to go.”

He closed his fingers around the radio.

Cheryl had asked before. Dinner once. A county fair. Drinks after a retirement party. Each invitation had left them both an easy retreat.

“Sorry, Cheryl. I just…”

“I’ll keep asking, Sheriff,” she said. “One day, you’ll say yes.”

Her tone remained light, but the quiet after it carried what she had chosen not to say.

Connor rested the handset near his mouth. “You deserve somebody who isn’t still trying to sort himself out.”

“I didn’t ask you to sort yourself out before Saturday.”

He almost smiled.

Cheryl continued before he found an answer. “Dana’s taking over the phones for the night. I’m heading home.”

“Good night, Cheryl.”

“Good night, Sheriff. Be careful out there.”

The channel went silent.

Connor returned the handset to its clip and shifted into drive.

The road curved downhill. Trees closed over it again, their upper branches meeting beyond the reach of the headlights. The navigation screen showed the blue position marker approaching the coordinates in slow increments. Each bend reduced the distance, though the estimated location remained away from the road, somewhere inside the wooded slope to his left.

One mile.

Half a mile.

The pavement narrowed until weeds brushed the passenger-side tires. Connor passed a collapsed shed, then a gate secured by a chain orange with rust. No drive matched the map. No mailbox marked the land.

The navigation system announced that he had arrived.

Connor stopped beside a ditch.

Trees stood on both sides of the road. Oak, hickory, and pine crowded the slope, their trunks disappearing into darkness beyond the headlight beams. Fallen leaves covered the ground beneath them. No building showed between the branches.