See Her Hide (A Mia North FBI Suspense Thriller—Book Two)

CHAPTER ONE Pushing open an umbrella, Carlina Adams stepped out into the storm. “One of those stupid Dallas storms,” she mumbled under her breath as a cool wind blew raindrops against her cheeks. “All fuss, but they never last long. I bet by the time I get home, it’s over.” Their Oak Cliff neighborhood was an established one, with mature trees and sprawling yards. The shortcut between their homes cut through a small forest in the center of the development. As kids, she and Evvie constantly played among those trees. They’d even built a tree-house there, once. She tilted the umbrella back and tried to see its remains among the dark outlines of the branches, but she quickly realized she could see nothing. Grabbing her phone, she turned on the flashlight to guide her way. Shining it down on the path in front of her, she saw thick mud. Great. There go my new sneakers. She stepped carefully, taking a more roundabout path on higher, less muddy ground. Though she knew each tree here like the back of her hand, now, in the pouring rain, the place seemed eerie, sinister. Of course, the Marlene Dotts thing had really sent shockwaves through this quiet neighborhood. There was no doubt about that. Marlene had been a classmate of Carlina’s, at Oak Cliff High School in Dallas. Okay, yes, she was a bit of a b***h, but a lot of girls at school were. She was pretty, vivacious. She’d gotten accepted to Stanford. She was going places. And then, on her way home from school one dark night of March, she’d disappeared. Her body had been found, not far away, on the outskirts of a safe, family neighborhood like this one. She’d been strangled and dumped there. That was . . . wow. I guess we’re coming up on the one-year anniversary of that, Carlina thought as she pulled her hood tighter around her face. It almost seemed wrong that here they all were, finishing up their first year of college, when Marlene’s life had been cut short. Marlene had been part of her circle of friends, and the murder had certainly thrown everything haywire. The excitement of the last months of senior year and graduation was dampened in a big way. Shocked friends huddled together for weeks in the hallways, crying instead of sharing news of college acceptances. Prom was canceled. Vigils were held. The funeral and memorial service were so well-attended, Carlina hadn’t even been able to get in the door. People had a right to be obsessed with it, though. It wasn’t just that Marlene was young and beautiful, cut down in her prime. No, it was that the killer had never been found. The surrounding neighborhood was wealthy—they hadn’t had a murder in years. And an especially brutal, unsolved murder? No one in their right mind could do such a thing, and so that meant there’d been an insane person in their midst. Probably a transient. But no one knew for sure. Needless to say, people were still worried about it. Now that Carlina thought about it, that was probably why her mother had been so concerned about her going out, alone. Even though a whole year had passed, Marlene hadn’t been forgotten. There were too many crazies out there. She moved faster. For the first time, she wished she’d taken the more direct path, sneakers-be-damned. Thankfully, though, when she took another few steps, the back porch lights of the homes in her development came into view. She heaved a sigh of relief and ran the last few steps, joining her regular path through the mud, only stopping a couple times, when her umbrella snagged on a branch. Before long, she arrived at the back fence of her backyard. Slipping around it, she saw the lights of the living room ablaze—her mom was probably home, reading there in her usual spot on the sofa. She made her way past the old swing set that her father hadn’t quite gotten around to removing, and crept around the side of the house to the driveway. Sure enough, by the time she got there and saw her gray SUV, parked in the C-shaped driveway, the rain had thinned to a light drizzle. She stepped through puddles, searching out the windows of her car. They were all up. False alarm. Brilliant, she thought with a roll of the eyes. What a waste of time. I’m such a ditz. I’d probably trip if a serial killer was after me. She turned to her front door, wondering if she should go in and say hi to her mom, but then thought better of it. If my mom knows I’m here, she’ll give me the guilt trip and make me stay in. She was just about to turn and head back to Evvie’s place when she heard a sound behind her. She stiffened, thinking of poor Marlene. Out, walking alone, home from soccer practice. Maybe on a night like this . . . Whirling, she searched the darkness. Her neighborhood was eerily silent. The lights were on all over the streets, making the puddles in the road glisten, but even so, the normally busy neighborhood was quiet. There wasn’t another soul around. It must’ve been an animal. We get way too many squirrels around here, she thought to herself. She’d nearly run two of them over when she returned earlier that day from Tulane. Making her way to the back of the house, she peered in a window. Sure enough, her mother was curled up under a blanket, reading. Oh, well, Carlina thought, closing her umbrella. What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her, either. And she’ll never find out, no matter how much she snoops in my room. She turned to head across the lush, wet lawn, toward the woods. The second she stepped that way, though, she heard another sound. This time, from behind the ancient swing set. The swing set, with its big wooden clubhouse, had been her refuge as a little girl. Now, it was abandoned, a pile of decaying firewood, ready to become a bonfire. It looked like a small mountain in the darkness, the broken swing hanging askew from the rusted chains. The sound of dripping water all around buffeted her ears as she stepped toward the back fence. And then the sound came again. It wasn’t a cracking branch, though. It sounded more like a scraping, like fingernails raking down a rough piece of bark. This time, she wasn’t sure where it’d come from. Behind the swing set? Maybe there was an animal there, hurt. Once, her father had found a bird’s nest that had fallen from a tree. They’d managed to save a couple of the baby birds, but they’d all died over the next few days. She crept to the edge of the wooden monstrosity and peered around the corner, shining her flashlight this way and that, afraid of what she might see. But there was nothing. No animal. Nothing but wet grass and a few bushes that lined the back of their property. Sighing with relief, she turned to make her way into the woods and back to Evvie’s. Brendan already thinks I’m stupid. And he’s going to think I’m even stupider when I tell him about the windows. She’d just made up her mind not to tell him—there were plenty of things she kept from him, after all—when the figure moved in her periphery. At first, she thought it was an animal. A large one. But then, suddenly, hands wrapped around her neck, squeezing all the sound from her throat. A warm breath grazed her cheek. It occurred to her in a rush that she was being strangled. Why? Gasping for air, she tried to form the question, but the pressure on her throat was too much. All the dreams and wishes she’d had, all of her excitement for the future . . .… they all seemed to be fading away, as her lungs began to ache. Hot tears dripped down her cheeks while her mascara melted into her eyes, making them burn as they bulged from their sockets. The air was quickly leaving her lungs and her entire body started shaking from the fear of what was about to happen. She pounded futilely while her sneakered feet scrabbled for purchase on the muddy ground. Marlene . . . The name flitted through her mind. Her vision grew blurry, a sharp pain spreading through her head. Her heart’s thudding echoed through her ears, and for a brief moment, she wondered if Marlene’s fate would be her own. No . . . She had never wished to be able to scream as much as she did in that moment. But it wasn’t possible. She stared into the void, her last breath leaving her, until her eyes could see no more.