Chapter 2
There weren’t many things Charli hated, but driving on solitary country roads with rain mixed with ice pellets pelting against the windshield was quickly escalating to the top of the chart with every mile that took her further away from civilization. She squinted through the windscreen of her VW Beetle, and nothing but fields and trees met her eyes. Could this day get any worse?
She’d been on the road for seven hours and thirty minutes, driving nearly non-stop all the four hundred miles from San Francisco to Spring Harbor, Oregon where her friend Ellie was getting married in a week. She felt as if she’d been driving for days, though, especially once she crossed the border and left California behind. Clouds had started coming in the moment she saw the green Welcome To Oregon sign on the side of the road. As if Mother Nature was having fun testing her resolution and resistance, the first lone drops started falling two hundred yards past the sign, and the sky turned darker, the rain turning into a mix of water and ice the farther she drove. Under other circumstances, she would’ve probably loved the scenic drive along the rugged coast. Today, though, she didn’t exactly feel like enjoying it, not after the weeks she’d had.
Sure, she could’ve booked a flight and asked her friend to pick her up from the airport, which was only approximately ninety miles away from her destination, but considering her friend now lived in the thick of the woods, Charli had reckoned her car would come handy. Especially now that she didn’t have a place to stay anymore and wouldn’t want to go back to San Francisco just to pick up her car after the wedding.
Two weeks after leaving her job, she’d come to the conclusion that her chances of finding another one without any references from her ex-boss were going to be pretty slim. And when she ran into Lousy Pig twice in a week, and one of those times he was playing lovebirds with Penelope at a café near the office, she realized she could no longer stay there. Besides, without a job she wouldn’t be able to afford the rent she’d been struggling to pay all on her own after Ellie left. She still had a couple of months left to finish paying off her student loan, and she had no intention of taking money from her family, or using the trust fund her grandmother had set up when Charli was just a kid and that had become available to her upon turning twenty-five. That money would stay right where it was until she was ready to start her own business. Not a cent would be spent for anything else.
So she’d called her landlord, packed up her life, put what little furniture she and Ellie had bought up for sale in a second-hand shop, and hopped into her car with all that she owned neatly packed into two big suitcases, a travel bag, and a carry-on. She’d told Ellie she’d show up a couple of days before the wedding, to deal with all the last-minute details she hadn’t been able to take care of from San Francisco, but she was sure her friend wouldn’t be suspicious if she came a week before instead. She’d already planned to tell Ellie she’d taken a few extra days off so she could personally take care of all the preparations on site. She wasn’t going to spoil Ellie’s big day with her sorry tale of a cheating boyfriend and missed promotion, at least not until her friend had a ring on her finger.
Now, as she drove on unfamiliar roads that seemed to belong in a horror movie, she couldn’t help questioning her sanity—as well as her friend’s. Seriously, who would want to live in the middle of nowhere?
The wind picked up, blowing through the tall trees and making them sway dangerously as it whistled around the car, against the windshield and the windows. A particularly strong gust shook the car, and a second later a branch fell off a tree, some two hundred feet ahead. She instinctively stomped on the brake, shrieking as the car skidded sideways with a three-sixty and stopped at the side of the road. She collapsed against the steering wheel, letting out a sigh of relief. Mother Nature had a sick sense of humor indeed. Well, at least she wasn’t dead, and her car was intact, it seemed.
Once her heart rate returned to normal, she turned the key in the ignition, wanting to reach her destination as soon as possible. The engine sputtered—and stopped. Her heart took a dive and her throat constricted.
No. Way.
She tried again, pressing down on the gas pedal as the car once again spluttered and coughed like a dying man taking his last breath.
No. No, no, no, no. Please, no!
Fine, no problem. She’d call AAA, and they’d send a tow truck and take her to Spring Harbor. No big deal. It shouldn’t be too far anyway, and that was what insurance was for, right?
She reached for her phone in the cup holder and held it up. She tapped the screen, but nothing happened. She tapped again, a little more forcefully, and pressed the on switch, but the screen remained black.
“You stupid phone,” she screamed, slamming it against the seat. “You were working just fine this morning, and now you’re leaving me?”
She slammed her fist on the console and winced at the pain that shot up from her hand.
“Stupid car, stupid phone, stupid country roads!”
She took a deep breath, held it in while she counted to five, then let it all out on a half whoosh, half groan. Eventually, she collapsed against the wheel and let out an annoyed grunt. Okay, this had to be the lowest this day could get. Now it could only get better, right?
“Okay, Charli. You can do this. You’re an efficient businesswoman who’s used to dealing with last-minute glitches,” she said out loud, staring at her reflection in the rearview mirror. “You just need to stop panicking and start thinking. You can pull this off.”
She gave a fake smile, trying to look more in control than she actually felt—the same look she’d practiced and used more than once with clients when something went wrong during an event.
I can do this. I can so do this.
“Okay, so. We just need a plan of action now.” Talking out loud to herself as if there were a twin Charli sitting next to her was a technique she’d learned would help her get over the panic and find a solution faster. Little did it matter that people might think she was crazy. “I should probably pop the hood and check if something’s wrong.” She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, as if you’d be able to tell the carburetor from the radiator. Okay, think. Think.” She pressed both index fingers to her temples and squeezed her eyes shut. A moment later, there was a knock on the driver’s side window, and she shrieked like the protagonist of a horror movie.
“You okay there?” A man with a scruffy face and a navy-blue ball cap stared at her with a frown from outside the car. Visions from that episode of Criminal Minds she’d watched with Donnie just the other week flashed in front of her eyes, and she saw her lifeless body lying in a ditch by the side of this godforsaken country road, while coyote and bears feasted on her tender flesh. Her right hand grabbed her purse from the passenger seat, and she pulled out her handgun and pointed it at the man standing outside the car. His face came a little closer to the window as he squinted inside.
“Step back or I’ll shoot you!”
He jumped back, holding up his hands in front of him. “Whoa there, lady! Chill out. I only wanted to help.”
“Yeah, well, I’ve already called for help. The cops are on the way,” she said with a confidence she didn’t feel. He wouldn’t be able to tell she was lying, would he? Nor could he tell that the .38 caliber in her shaky hands was, in fact, a toy gun. She’d agreed to keep a handgun in her purse upon Donnie’s insistence, just so he’d stop annoying her. She’d been raised in Texas, and her father had taught her and her brothers how to shoot when they turned sixteen, claiming they’d never know when it might come handy, but she’d never really been comfortable around weapons.
Right now, stuck in her broken-down car in Nowhere, Oregon, she wished her gun was real, though. Could this be the end?
The stranger took another step backward and shook his head. “No need to get defensive. I only wanted to help, but if you’re sure you’re okay—”
“I am. Go away.” She waved the gun in front of her and thought she heard him mutter something that sounded like ‘crazy woman’, but with the rain pelting against the roof of the car it was hard to make out the exact words. She watched as he climbed into a red and silver pick-up, and as he finally drove away, something akin to dread squeezed her gut. What if he hadn’t been a serial killer but just an honest-to-God, old-fashioned gentleman who really only wanted to help a damsel in distress? What if she’d just sent away the only Good Samaritan who could’ve helped her reach that stupid town her friend now called home, and nobody else showed up? Would Ellie get worried and send out a search party? And how long would it take them to find her? Would they know which way to go looking for her? Or would she have to spend the night locked in the car, fending off wolves and bears? A trickle of perspiration trailed slowly down her spine, and a sudden chill shook her to the bones.
This, my dear Charlotte, may very well be the end.