Chapter One
On the night of the disappearances, a blood moon had hovered over the piney woods in East Texas. The old-timers called it an omen. Tom Brannon had considered it just plain bad luck. He’d forgotten his flashlight when he rushed out of the house and the lunar eclipse provided weak illumination as he’d traipsed along the banks of the lake, hoping against hope that by the time he got back home, he’d find the girls safe and sound in his sister’s bedroom.
Fifteen years had passed since that fateful night, but Tom still got a chill when the moon turned ruddy and a pine-scented breeze blew in from the lake. He stood outside the sheriff’s station gazing up at the sky, telling himself to get back to work and forget about that moon. He had more important things to worry about at the moment, like budget cuts and rising crime rates, not to mention the mountain of complaints that seemed to grow exponentially higher with each passing day. On and on it went. The job of a rural county sheriff never ended.
He thought about his sister, Ellie, out there alone on Echo Lake. Miles from town. Miles from anyone. He asked her once if she ever got lonely, but she scoffed at the notion, insisting that the isolation kept her sane. Besides, it was only a twenty-minute drive into town where she could find all the company she wanted. She seemed content these days, but Tom had to wonder if the nightmares ever came back. If she hid under the bed or at the back of her closet until the monsters went away. He didn’t ask. He and his sister were close, but there were things they didn’t talk about. Of the three girls who had entered the old hospital ruins on the night of the blood moon, Ellie was the only one who had come out whole. Survivor’s guilt could be a powerful thing. Tom understood only too well.
Maybe it was the moon or maybe he was being overly protective, but he felt the need to check in with her tonight, hear her voice to calm his disquiet. He should have called earlier. She’d already be on the air by this time. She produced and hosted a syndicated radio program called Midnight on Echo Lake, which she broadcast from a small studio behind her house. She wouldn’t answer her cell right now, but he could call into the program. Talk about space aliens or the Bigfoot creature that some of the locals claimed to have seen in the woods near the lake. She’d get a kick out of that, though she’d later scold him for mocking her callers.
Things happen that can’t be explained, she would tell him. People need someone they can talk to about their experiences without fear of ridicule.
Yeah, and some people are just plain nuts, Tom would retort.
Maybe he was one of them. He couldn’t seem to shake the uneasiness that had gripped him all evening. He didn’t believe in premonitions, but he knew enough to pay attention to his instincts. Something was brewing. He could feel it in the wind. He hoped it was nothing more than a summer storm.
“Evening, Sheriff.”
He turned to find his newest recruit striding across the parking lot toward him. He checked his watch out of habit. The department ran on a six, two and ten schedule. Tom had been there since six that morning. He’d worked straight through two watches.
“You’re early,” he noted. “That’s a good habit to get into.”
“Yes, sir,” the young officer replied with a solemn nod. A recent graduate of the East Texas Police Academy, Billy Navarro was a young, eager rookie who reminded Tom a bit of himself ten years ago. His father had been winding down his nearly thirty-year career as the Nance County sheriff when Tom had come on board. He’d served under his dad for only a year before a heart attack had claimed Porter Brannon in his sleep. Tom had then served under his father’s replacement for another nine years, going from patrolman to criminal investigator to the deputy sheriff in less than a decade before running for office two years ago.
The campaign had gotten nasty and personal, fueled by a hostile opponent and an onslaught of negative commentary from the editorial pages of the Echo Lake Star. Everything from Tom’s age to his integrity had been called into question and there had been times when he wondered why he had ever thought it a good idea to try to follow in his father’s footsteps. In the end, he’d won in a near landslide, no doubt a bitter pill to swallow for the Cavanaugh clan, who had spearheaded the campaign against him. He suspected the animosity between the two families would only worsen as the next election approached.
“Beware the blood moon,” Billy muttered beside him.
Tom slanted him a frowning glance. “What did you say?”
“That’s what my grandmother told me before I left the house tonight.” He shifted uneasily. “What kind of goodbye is that for a guy going out on patrol?”
“It’s just an old wives’ tale. Keep your eyes open and your mind on the job. You’ll be fine.”
Tom would never point out to a rookie that patrolling the town of Belle Pointe and the outlying country roads was hardly the same as taking on the mean streets of a crime-ridden city. He wanted Billy aware and on guard. Nance County was rural, but their home turf had more than its fair share of drug-related crime. Meth dealers had taken to scoping out abandoned houses in the country where they could cook their product in mass quantities. Then they used the nearby interstate to transport the drugs to points north and south. Big business. Big money. Synthetic weed was becoming a problem, too, along with fentanyl and the old standbys of crack cocaine and heroin.
Beside him, Billy searched the sky. “I know it’s just a superstition, but there’s something in the air tonight. Can you feel it?”
Yes, he felt it, but Tom didn’t want to spook the rookie any more than he already seemed to be. He shrugged off his foreboding as he turned to go back inside. “Static electricity,” he said. “Storm front moving in.”
“There’s not a cloud in the sky,” Billy said.
“Not yet,” Tom allowed. “Who’s riding with you tonight?”
“Naomi Clutter.”
“Tough as nails. Nobody better in three counties. You run into trouble, she’ll have your back. You just make sure you have hers.”
“Yes, sir.”
Tom went back inside and crossed the nearly empty squad room to his glassed-in office at the front of the building. Long windows looked out on the street. He kept the blinds open so that he could see all around him, both within and without. The space hadn’t changed much since his dad’s time. The desk was the same. The vinyl chairs that faced him had been there for decades. Even the pictures and citations on the walls brought back memories. Tom had been meaning to change things up, bring in a few personal touches, but he never seemed to have the time. Never enough time for anything these days. He couldn’t remember when he’d last asked a woman to dinner or a movie. He lived in town with neighbors all around him and yet in recent months he’d become as isolated as his sister.
He rubbed the bridge of his nose and then his temples. A headache nagged and exhaustion had set in, but paperwork kept him chained to his desk. Settling in with a fresh cup of coffee, he opened the latest budget report. The hours passed by quietly. He didn’t take a break until right around midnight when he got up to stretch his legs.
When the call came in about the missing girl, he was standing at the window staring up at the moon.
*
