Tess had just left the church when someone called her name.
She turned and smiled at Ethan.
âLet me walk you to your car,â he said.
Tess met his gaze and couldnât look away. Was it more than polite friendship she found there?
Ethan reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear. âIâve wanted to do that since I first sawââ
Brakes squealed.
An engine roared.
âRun!â Ethan yelled as he pushed Tess behind his back.
A black van flew over the curb, hit the brakes, backed up and made for Tess once again.
She froze in the headlight beams. She couldnât breathe, couldnât think. She could only feel more fear than sheâd ever known before.
a former newspaper reporter, lives in Pennsylvania with her engineer husband and their three younger sonsâthe oldest married and flew the coop. Born in Havana, Cuba, raised in Valencia and Caracas, Venezuela, she discovered books early, and wrote her first novel at age fifteen while she trained with the Ballets de Caracas, later known as the Venezuelan National Ballet. She burned that tome when she turned a âmatureâ sixteen. Stints as a reporter, paralegal, choreographer, language teacher, retail salesperson, wife, mother of four boys and herder of their numerous and assorted friendsâincluding soccer teams and the 135 members of first the Crossmen and then the Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corpsâbrought her back to books in search of her sanity. Sheâs now an author of more than twenty-eight published works and a frequent speaker at Christian womenâs and writerâs workshops, but has yet to catch up with that elusive sanity.
âSo they kicked you out,â Tess Graver said into her cell phone, her breath labored from jogging.
Uncle Gordon sputtered, âI tell ya, Iâm fine. And now that I got âem to put a cast on my leg, Iâll prove it. You didnât have to quit your fancy-pants job in Char lotte just to come babysit me.â
Tess slowed; sheâd run close to three miles. âLetâs talk about that later. Iâll see you after supper, once Iâve showered, and then tomorrow morning Iâll spring you from the hospital.â
After a few more âHmphs!â Tessâs great-uncle hung up. Sheâd have to tell him about the thefts at Magnus sonâs Department Stores soon enough, but not over the cell phone while jogging. The situation at her last job had affected her more than she would have thought. Sheâd been under suspicion for a few weeks. Even after she was cleared of all wrongdoing, her fellow workers had withdrawn, and the odd looks had kept on coming her way.
She could no longer manage the Finer Footwear department under those conditions. Uncle Gordonâs accident had given her the push to quit the job sheâd once loved, and come back homeâ
âOooof!â
Tess flew when a body hurtled out of the dense woods on the side of the road and crashed into her. She held her hands out to brace for the fall, then landed in a muddy patch, the ooze sliding between her fingers.
âHey, come back and help me up!â
Footsteps pounded down the road toward town.
Disgusted, Tess took stock. Nothing hurt more than what she could expect from the fall. The worst part of her predicament was the thick mud on her legs, belly, chest and hands. Fortunately, sheâd kept her face up and only felt muck on her chin.
With slow, measured movements, she got to her knees. As she rose to her feet, she heard a rustling in the woods, more than the balmy, breezeless day warranted.
What was going on?
First a jerk had knocked her to the ground, and nowâ¦now she heard what sounded like a whimper. A shiver ran through her.
Should she go check? She had no idea what she might walk into.
Should she call the police? She might look like a fool if the sound came from an injured squirrel or something? Did squirrels cry?
Another whimper. More thrashing leaves.
Something was there. Maybe the guy whoâd hit her had dumped a dog.
Maybe a child was hurt.
Tess couldnât just walk away. She eyed the heavy layer of vines, fallen twigs, branches and last fallâs blanket of leaves.
She shivered again. âLord? If you could somehow manage it, can you make sure thereâs no poison ivy or worseâa snakeâin there?â
Taking a deep breath for courage, she stepped over the ground cover and parted the tall weeds, then made her way toward what sounded like a whimpering pup.
But as Tess rounded a massive tree trunk, she stopped. âOh, no!â
A woman lay sprawled against a fallen tree, her too-thin face shiny with perspiration. As Tess watched, the slender body went into a spasm, her arms and legs twitched and sweat poured off her face.