“It happened by chance. I saw a news report about how big produce companies out in California have started doing what they call farm-to-table dinners. I tried a couple and it worked out pretty good so we expanded and now we work most of the spring and summer. Taper off a bit in the fall and winter unless it’s a special request. We’ve got some holiday dinners planned and I’m scheduled for an open house during the upcoming Christmas Festival.”
They both checked the surrounding woods and the lake again, then Jake asked a few more questions. “So it’s not a 24/7 type place? More exclusive?”
She nodded. “We cook our guests a meal that comes straight off the land. The meat, the vegetables, the bread. Even the butter, cheeses and eggs. It’s a real, home-cooked organic dinner and it makes people appreciate farming and growing food a whole lot more.”
Impressed, Jake said, “Sounds like a lot of work.”
“It is,” she said over her shoulder when they reached the double wooden-faced screen doors. Pulling out a key she unlocked the bolt. “I don’t know why I lock it. Anyone could cut through these screens even if they are heavy-duty weight.”
“Any alarms?” Jake asked, quiet now.
“Just Zip’s barking. But we do have floodlights at night and we really don’t keep anything out here but cooking utensils and dishes. We have an outdoor kitchen behind the fireplace and a storage freezer back up the hill.”
She pointed to a covered catwalk from the storage freezer to the open-air kitchen tucked behind the fireplace.
Jake followed her inside the wide square structure, the scents of fresh evergreen branches merging with something that smelled like cinnamon and apple pie. The big candles lining the mantel, maybe?
“Pretty place.” He could see how patrons would be drawn to this spot. Homey and inviting, it boasted gleaming wooden beams and arches with heavy wooden supports between the screens. The windows provided a perfect view of the lake from every corner.
“My grandpa helped me design and build it,” she said on a soft tone. “I used the life insurance money I got...after my parents passed. Took us over a year to get everything together but we’ve had a successful couple of seasons. As I explained, we do winter meals on request, but for the most part we shut down in early November and don’t open back up until spring.”
Jake followed her toward the fireplace. “Everything looks okay for now.”
Ella stopped in front of the rock-covered structure. “Not everything.” She pointed inside the blackened bricks of the hearth to a white piece of paper sticking up out of an iron cooking pot held by a heavy shepherd’s hook.
The killer’s next clue.
“The next note,” Ella said on a burst of breath. “This is real, Jake. He’s come back.”
Jake grabbed her hand and held it there between them. “Maybe he never left.”
Ella retreated from him and went to a storage cabinet. She pulled out a set of serving tongs and used them to lift out the stiff paper. Turning, she dropped it on the polished plank table so they could read it.
“Let the games begin. It’s been too long, way too long.”
Jake hit his hand on a chair. “He was here. No telling how long he’s been watching this place.”
“I never told him I was from East Texas,” Ella said, panic rising like bile in her throat. “But he somehow knew and that’s why he brought me back here. I tried not to give him too much information when he had me. I didn’t let on that I even knew these woods or this area.”
But knowing her surroundings had been part of what saved her. That would have to be in her favor now, too. “When I came back here after he’d taken me, I stayed hidden away for the first few months. I should have left the state.” She shook her head. “I’ve put my grandparents in danger. When the killings stopped and we thought he was dead, I got too complacent, too content. I should have left—”
“It’s not your fault,” Jake replied. “We all searched and searched. He was badly wounded but we couldn’t find a trail past the water. Nothing. I always figured he’d gotten away or at least he’d died somewhere else but he’s still on every Most-Wanted List I know. I never dreamed he’d be so bold as to come back.” He looked off into the distance. “I should have kept searching.”
“And I ought to have kept going,” Ella said. “I could have gotten far away from here.”
“He’s the type who’d find you, anyway,” Jake said, his eyes roving around the structure and the woods. “He probably knew you’d lived here as a child, and that’s why he brought you back. If you’d left, he’d have found you and none of us would have been able to help.” He checked the floor for footprints, touched on the ceiling-to-floor screens for cuts. “We never found a trace of him and the murders stopped.”
Ella shivered at the thought of being in that madman’s clutches again. She couldn’t let it happen to Macey. Just knowing a killer had that child made Ella physically ill.
The wind lifted and the forest rustled. Down on the lake, a snowy egret lifted out over the water in a wild flight. What had startled the graceful white bird?
“Maybe you’re right,” Ella replied to Jake on a shaky whisper. “Maybe he’s been hiding out in these woods for years now.” Had he been watching her all that time?
“Hunters and fishermen would have seen him or at least signs of someone living out here,” Jake said, probably trying to reassure her. It didn’t work.
“He’s too smart for that.” Ella moved around, looking here and there, opening the narrow storage cabinets underneath one of the screened corners while she searched for anything to give her a real clue. “But how did he get in?” she asked, her mind recoiling from the nightmare inside her head. “I don’t see how he did it.”
Jake stared up at the stoned wall of the chimney. “Do you have a door on the back of this thing? A place where you can clean it from the outside?”
“Yes.” She hurried to one of the two big screen doors on either side of the chimney and unhooked the inside latch. “I’ll show you.”
“Wait,” Jake said, stepping ahead of her with his rifle raised. He did a quick search of the woods and the path down to the dock and then squinted across the lake canal to the other shore.
“All’s quiet.”
Ella didn’t argue with him or try to rush ahead this time. Instead, she held her own gun at the ready and scanned the paths down to the lake. Nothing. The dark waters of the big lake flowed by in the same way they’d done for hundreds of years. The tall cypress trees swayed in the midday wind, their sighs revealing no secrets. Turtles lay sunning on old broken logs. Brown triple-strand straw from the towering pines dropped in hushed piles to the forest floor only to cover decades of decay and moist, deep earth. What else did these woods cover?
“We have to figure out the clue,” she said, turning to Jake. “He’s on the move and he’s probably got Macey with him.”
“Or he’s left her somewhere, tied up and scared,” Jake said. “Alone.” He lowered his head, his expression dark and full of a helpless despair.
Hearing the crack in his deep Texas drawl made Ella want to take him in her arms and hold him. Or maybe fire a round from her rifle while she screamed at the top of her lungs.
“Here’s the clean-out door,” she said, refusing to give in to the clawing, slithering fingers of fear.
Jake pivoted to the left in front of her. “Did you keep it locked?”
“Yes. Just so no kids or varmints could accidentally get inside.