Every Precious Thing

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Sara had been trying the number for hours, but every single time she’d been greeted with the same message: “The caller you are trying to reach is not currently within our coverage area.”

Where are you?Why aren’t you answering?

Her panic had been caused by a call she’d received from Diana four and a half hours ago.

“Sara…Sara, can you hear me?”

“Yeah. You’re breaking up a little, but I can hear you,” she’d replied.

“Can you hear me? Sara?”

“I’m right here. I hear you.”

“Oh, good. There you are.”

“What’s going on? Is something wrong?” They hadn’t been scheduled to talk again until the next day.

“I screwed up.”

Sara froze. “What…what are you talking about?”

“Have you seen anyone? Anyone at all?”

“No,” Sara said. “Not since Richard came by two weeks ago. Why?”

“Stay inside. Don’t go out.”

“Diana, what’s going on?”

“I’m taking care of it. That’s all you need to know. Just hold tight.”

Hold tight? “What happened?”

“I’ll call you later.”

“Diana! What happened?”

Dead air.

“Diana? Diana?”

Nothing.

“Dammit! Diana, can you hear me?”

It was no use. The line was dead.

Immediately she’d called Diana back. That was the first time she’d received the out-of-service-area message. She’d lost count how many more times she’d heard it since.

Movement through the window caught her eye. Panic almost choked her as she stared out at the trees that surrounded the cabin. If someone was that close already, what would she do? Run? Hide? Could she really hope she wouldn’t be caught?

There it was again, a few feet above the ground.

She let out her breath and closed her eyes in relief. A deer. It was only a deer.

She quickly walked over and pulled the curtain shut, temporarily denying the existence of anything beyond the cabin walls.

Even though they had stuck to the plan, something had obviously gone wrong. It should have worked. It had worked to this point.

Not knowing what else to do, she tried Diana again.

“The caller you are trying to reach is not-”

She hung up, waiting five seconds, then hit redial.