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But she had seen him hunt women as if she was the one being hunted herself, so vivid and clear, and she had felt their fear as if it was her own. Maybe that was the difference, this time.
For the first time, really, she actually felt afraid, as though she was going to die.
“Let’s go,” Laura whispered, because if she stood there any longer she was going to lose her nerve and get back in the car and drive home to never leave her daughter’s side again.
They walked into the trees and within seconds they were in darkness. Laura glanced across at Nate and found she could still make him out – the darkness was not complete – but it was still unnerving. Due to the growth of the trees and other small plants, thick and close together, it was impossible for them to walk directly side by side. They had to diverge around tree trunks, step sideways from time to time. Every time they took a half-step away from one another Laura felt a flare of panic in her chest, prickles of sweat over her body. They had to stick together. That was what they had agreed.
They walked in more or less a straight line from where they had parked, though it immediately became difficult to judge distance. Laura knew that if they kept going straight they would hit the clearing and the relic of the forester’s hut, which apparently was the kind of historic landmark you could expect around here. But inside the trees, which might as well have been a different world than the one they had come from, it was difficult to judge distance – and to know if you were even still going the right way or had veered off too far to one side or the other.
When the trees opened up to show them the place they were looking for, it was so sudden that Laura almost gasped. She found herself pulling back, rocking backwards into a spot among the trees, so that they could wait and observe before moving in.
This hut was in better shape than the one they had visited a couple of days ago. It was still mostly intact, and rather than being fully wooden, one of the walls – complete with a half-crumbled chimney – was made of stone. Though the wooden walls were green with slimy moss, it looked like it was actually a pretty decent place to stay if you had no alternative.
And there was smoke coming out of the chimney.
Laura held her breath, looking over at Nate. He nodded; he had seen it too. He made a series of quick gestures with his hands:I’ll go round the front, you go round the back.
Laura shook her head, breathlessly, fear flaring up inside her.
Nate bit his lip, looked back at the hut, then nodded. He moved both of his hands together this time.We both go in the front.
Laura nodded gratefully. She took a breath, then held up three fingers to Nate. They needed to rush in, united, and get this done before the element of surprise wore off – if they had it. She dropped one of her fingers down, then after a beat, another.
She dropped the last finger, and they both charged out of the trees towards the hut.
“FBI! Put your hands in the air!” Laura yelled, hoping this would ward off the possibility of the two of them getting shot by some trigger-happy wild man with a rifle.
“Freeze and put your hands in the air!” Nate shouted alongside her, as they both hit the door. It gave in a shower of splinters, much easier than Laura had expected, and fell to reveal the inside of the cabin.
There was a man there, a man with his hands raised slightly above the level of his shoulders and an expression of pure shock on his face. He was dressed in dirty but warm layers of clothing, his face outlined by a beard, his hair unkempt. He stared at them wildly and wordlessly as if the whole thing had taken his breath away.
Laura took a glance around the rest of the space, looking for the missing woman. The hut was a simple one-room structure with nowhere to hide, and just that quick glance told her immediately that there was no one else here. Whatever he had done with her, she was no longer around. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing remained to be seen.
That quick glance was all she had time for, taking in the makeshift fire in the stone fireplace and the single broken camping chair that passed as furniture. And on the chair, more telling than anything else, what was clearly a woman’s purse. Laura could see the tension in their suspect’s body and the way he flinched towards the back of the room – and she knew that they had a runner.
“Stop where you are,” she ordered sternly, moving towards him. “Don’t move!”
It worked, holding him in place for a moment longer. “What’s going on?” he stammered, and his voice was much more timorous than she had expected.
“You’re under arrest for murder and attempted murder,” Laura said, covering all bases just in case their victim was still alive somewhere. “You have the right -”
She never got the chance to tell him what he had the right to, because in that instant, he turned and ran.
“Hey!” Nate yelled, as he launched himself forward toward the back of the cabin and the other exit, this one in the form of a window that was now boarded with only cardboard. Laura didn’t stop to wait for the outcome of that chase. She turned, even as she heard the shredding sound of their man jumping through the window and tearing the cardboard with him, heading for the door they had just come in from. She would try to head their suspect off if he came around the side of the hut.
She almost dislodged a heavy coat hanging off the back of the door as she turned, and her fingers brushing against it gave her a flash headache that she knew had to mean –
She saw the man from the hut, but he was cleaned up, shaved and tidied, wearing a suit. He was nodding and smiling as he shook someone’s hand. A flash of a camera went off. Laura caught a glimpse of a banner in the background – something about a program helping vulnerable people get on their feet – an awards ceremony with small, glass trophies being handed out –
Laura ran back out into the open air, stumbling for just a second as she crashed back into reality. Her head barely hurt, and she had enough presence of mind to register the fact that this meant what she had seen was likely a long way off into the future.
She heard a shout and dashed in the direction that it came from, around the side of the hut. As soon as she rounded the corner she saw them: Nate and the man from the hut rolling on the ground, fighting. Nate was the bigger and more muscular of the pair, but the man from the hut was fighting desperately, scratching, and lashing out with his hands and feet in any direction he could, making it hard for Nate to get a grip on him.
Laura wanted to help, but they were going over and over, scrambling madly, and if she had barged in as well it wouldn’t have made any positive difference. She couldn’t shoot without risk of hitting Nate, and besides, the suspect wasn’t armed.
She couldn’t shoot. But she could pretend to.
“Stop or I’ll shoot!” she shouted, drawing her gun, and pointing it in their direction as if she was actually going to use it.
