The drive up the mountain blurred. I pushed the speed limit the whole way, fingers clenched around the steering wheel, heart battering my ribs in a steady, frantic rhythm.
Every turn in the road felt like a countdown. Every tree branch brushing the hood sounded like an intruder at the door.
When my cabin finally appeared between the pines, two police cruisers were already parked out front, blue lights flashing silently through the cold dusk.
Their presence painted the snow in eerie color, and underneath that wash of blue, I saw the uniform shapes of officers near my back deck.
My stomach dropped.
Gloria stood on her porch in a cardigan, arms wrapped around herself despite the cold. The instant she spotted me pulling in, she hurried toward the driveway.
“Oh thank God you’re here,” she whispered, her voice trembling just enough to show this scared her too. “I didn’t know what else to do. I heard someone on your deck—heavy footsteps—then the door handle rattling.”
My pulse hitched.
“Did you see who it was?”
She shook her head.
“I was too far away. But it looked like a woman. Dark hair. She ran off toward the road before the police arrived.”
Dark hair.