Page 22 of Tangled Past
She wasn’t afraid of the barn. It was the truth buried inside. Her gaze drifted toward where the old hay bale had been. A strangled sound slipped from her throat. “I hid over there. Behind a hay bale,” she whispered. The space was dark. Shadowed. All too familiar. She moved slowly toward it with Asa. The closer she came, the stronger the sensation grew—déjà vu rising like a wave.
She reached the spot where the bale had once been and stopped. Images surged again. Her tiny fingers were gripping the stuffed rabbit. Her cheek pressed into the rabbit for protection. A boot stepping into view. A low voice muttering something she couldn’t bring herself to remember.
Her breath stuttered. “He was so close.”
“Who?” Asa asked, his voice barely above a whisper.
She shook her head. “The man who shot your father.” She tried to bring out more. “I still can’t see his face, but he’s close.”
Rachel stepped to her side. “Trauma often erases faces but leaves sensations. Give it time.”
Maya exhaled a shaky breath. She turned toward the center of the barn. “That’s where Raymond fell.”
Asa’s jaw flexed, though he said nothing.
Maya took a single step before stopping. The glint of something buried beneath the dirt on the floorboards. Tiny. Metallic. Out of place.
She crouched and brushed the dirt away.
“What is that?” Asa asked, dropping down beside her.
The object nestled between two floorboard planks. A fragment of something copper. Thin. Rounded on one side.
She bent down and caught her breath. “It’s part of the chime.”
Asa picked up the fragment, turning it over in his gloved fingers. “Looks like it’s been here a long time. It must have been overlooked because it was wedged between the boards. Pure luck we found it now.”
Her pulse hammered. Was it luck, or was God bringing all the pieces of her past together now? She closed her eyes as a memory flashed bright like a light. “It got broken when he—someone—grabbed the chime. It was by the door.”
“Who grabbed it? My father?”
“No, I think it was the killer.” The vision flickered. “There was someone else here with me hiding.”
“Can you see them?” Asa asked in an urgent tone.
She closed her eyes and tried to hold onto the vision, but it was too late. She shook her head. “Sorry, it’s gone.”
“You’re doing great,” Asa assured her.
She didn’t feel like it. Why couldn’t she recall the rest of the details about who else was there with her?
Eli’s voice cut through the barn. “We’ve got something out here!”
JT sprinted toward the door.
Asa’s grip tightened around Maya’s hand. “Stay close to me.”
She nodded, her heart pounding as they stepped outside.
Declan and Chief Kelly converged from one side of the barn. Eli stood near the treeline. “A fresh set of footprints.”
They led into the woods.
JT’s expression hardened as he straightened. “These weren’t here earlier.”
“No, they weren’t,” Declan confirmed. “Someone was watching the barn from near the trees.”
Maya’s stomach dropped. “While we were inside?” The thought was alarming.
“Looks that way,” Asa said, his voice grim.
The cold wind cut through the trees, brushing over Maya’s skin like a warning. She lifted her gaze to the woods ahead. They appeared dark, tangled, silent.
A shiver ran through her spine with the realization that the man from her childhood memory—the shadow with no face—hadn’t vanished into the past. He was still here. Close enough to leave tracks in the snow.
She exhaled slowly, her breath trembling, her gaze still fixed on the place where the tracks disappeared.
The past wasn’t done with her—nor was the man who killed Raymond Dutton. But this time she wasn’t a child hiding in the dark.
This time she wasn’t alone.
