Black Water Creek by Robert Brumm Page B

sun felt good on her face as she stepped out side. Paul’s footprints from the night before, as well as his tire tracks, had turned from snow to damp gravel. She needed to hurry. Just as she thought, the river appeared to be no problem for crossing at all. She stepped off the grassy bank and was able to walk the first five feet over large pebbles. Piece of cake so far.
    Kelly squinted at the bright sunlight reflecting off the water and considered the best path to take. A line of rocks directly in front of her looked perfect, except for the large gap toward the other side. She wasn’t sure if she’d be able to jump it but she didn’t have much of a choice.
    She stepped over the first few rocks with no problem but started to gain too much momentum with each step. Kelly took her eyes off the rocks directly in front of her, eyeing the gap, and slipped. She over compensated and lost her balance, sending her right foot into the icy water an instant before her right knee and both hands followed.
    Kelly cursed and got to her feet, now both of them submerged. She glanced back to the house, embarrassed to see Keegan standing in the window watching her. She waved at him and held up one finger, hopefully getting the message through that she would be right back.
    She stuck her cold wet hands under her arms and stepped back onto a dry rock. She was tempted to turn back but she knew she’d regret it once inside warm and dry. She bit the inside of her cheek and pushed on, running through the remaining few inches of water and on to the bank.
    Kelly climbed up the bank and glanced back at the house, trying to figure from that side where the person would have been standing. It actually looked pretty close, so she looked around the forest floor for any footsteps. Her feet were quickly going numb and her teeth started to chatter. She trotted up the shoreline, scanning the ground for any signs of man, but saw nothing.
    A smile crept across her face and she allowed herself to start feeling reli eved. She looked across the river at her cottage. The person she thought she saw would have been standing almost directly where she was now and no footprints could be found anywhere. The only thing she saw among the leaves and twigs were some prints from a small animal and some droppings it left behind.
    Keegan still watch ed from the window. Kelly had no idea how she would explain this to him, but she didn’t care. She was just glad that nobody was spying on her. She didn’t have a logical answer for the distant crying or the figure across the river, but it didn’t matter. It was in the past.
    Kelly spotted some rocks that might provide a better path across to the other side and decided to head that way. Her feet were getting colder by the second and falling in the water a second time didn’t sound like fun.
    She walked a few feet up t he bank toward the rocks and froze in mid-step. Directly in front of Kelly were footprints next to a large oak tree. She spun around, scanning the trees behind her, suddenly feeling like she wasn’t alone.
    The footprints looked like Paul’s back at the house. The snow beneath them had already melted away completely, not like her own which were merely depressions in the snow. Like Paul’s footprints, they had to be from last night.
    Kelly looked over at her cottage. It couldn’t be the right spot . She could have sworn she saw the person farther up the river than this. But now in the light of day, could she be so sure? Panic gripped her and she dashed for the river bank, trying to understand how there could be no other tracks leading to or from the tree. It was if the person had simply vanished.

Chapter 17
     
    A lull in customers finally gave Kelly a chance to deal with the growing stack of trade-in paperbacks behind the counter. She scooped up an armful and tucked the new editions on the shelves among their peers alphabetically and by genre. The stack in her arm headed for the mystery shelf. Two more stacks on