You Can't Hide by Theresa Sneed (uplifting novels TXT) 📕

him. He could never have carried Sally downstairs and into a car. Still, she knew she would have to watch him closely.

It was getting dark outside. Todd paced the floor. “Have you spoken to any of the locals about Merrick’s family, Mr. Snyder?”

He grunted. “No, why would I want to own up to being related to him?”

Todd nodded. “Do you know anything about him?”

Marvin’s lips puckered. “Nothing.” He scratched his chin. “Except that he liked to hunt.”

“Hunt? How do you know that?”

“There are tons of hunting magazines here, in one of the rooms upstairs.”

“Hunting,” Elle said. “Can we take a look?”

He gestured for her to follow. “Come on.” Upstairs, he pointed to one of the rooms. They had looked in there briefly, passing over the stack of hunting magazines before.

Karen picked up a pile of magazines and appeared to be looking around for a place to sit. “Whose room was this?”

Marvin scratched his head. “Beats me.”

Spying a chair by the window, Karen walked across the room to it. The stack of magazines shifted in her hands and a couple of them slipped to the floor. An official looking document fell out from between the pages.

Marvin looked down at it and then bent over and picked it up. “It looks like a deed to property.” He pointed to Merrick’s signature.

Elle came up behind him and looked over his shoulder. She squinted at the fine print and then her mouth fell open. “Look.” The document showed that Merrick owned a second piece of property on the Little River on the outskirts of Elkmont.

She grabbed the document and read its description. Small, one room cabin sets on two acres of land in lush woodland near river. Working electric. Old well on property needs to be re-dug. The small inset had a map of its location. She looked up at Karen. “This is it. This is where he took her.”

Marvin shook his head. “Who took her?”

That was a good question.

Marvin pointed out the window. “There’s shovels and stuff out in the barn. Let’s take them with us.” When they gave him horrific stares, he added, “It’s best to be prepared. We don’t know what we’re going to find there. You go on ahead, I need to go to the bathroom.”

Todd headed toward the door. “I’ll pull the car closer.” He took off down the steps and sprinted toward the car.

Marvin watched through the window, and when the girls were close to the barn, he picked up the phone. “They found the document sooner than we planned. How far away are you? Hurry, I’ll try to stall them. . . . I don’t know, maybe I can take them down a wrong road or two. Look man, this is all you, I don’t want . . . yeah, okay, alright—just hurry.” He parted the curtain. The girls were just coming out of the barn. “Sorry,” he said, shaking his head. “My hands are tied.”

Eleven

The Cellar

Sally had spent most of the day whittling on the door above her head, and had made a nice hole about the size of her hand, only the dirt kept falling into her hair. She sat on the top step and raked her fingers through it, trying to get the pieces of dirt out. She thought back to the cellar at Sam’s daddy’s farm. She’d only been down there once, but remembered how the steps led from the dirt floor to a cellar door that opened to the outside. She scooted down to the bottom step. Staring at the hole, which still had thin streams of dirt pouring in, she turned to her fairy.

“What do you think? I don’t like dirt falling on me.” She pretended it answered. “Good idea.” She searched through the small pile of wood at the far end of the cellar. Finding a longer stick than before, she poked at the hole from the bottom step. This time, even more dirt fell. She had to push the dirt off the steps to make room for more dirt. It seemed to take forever, but after a while, the stick broke through the surface, and the faint light of dusk seeped through.

Karen unfolded the map on her lap. “I wonder why Marvin wants us to follow him that way.” She pointed at the fork in the road Marvin had just turned left on. “These two maps show the cabin is in the opposite direction.”

Elle glanced over at her. “He’ll have to turn around and follow us then.” She reached over the back seat and beeped the horn. “Flash the lights at him and then turn right at the fork.” It didn’t take long for Marvin to turn around, and soon, he was on their tail.

Karen cleared her throat. “Why’s he following so close?”

Elle rested her chin on on the back of the front seat. “He probably thinks we’re going the wrong way, but we have both of the maps, don’t we?—and absolutely no time to stop for him.” After a while she continued. “Do you think he’s on the up and up, you know, being honest with us?”

Karen smoothed the map out. “I was going to ask you the same thing, I mean, after all, he is Merrick’s father.”

“Yeah, and the creepy thing is that Merrick looks a lot like his daddy.” She suddenly felt bad, after all, the old man seemed penitent for his crimes, and he did say he had ‘found Christ’ while in prison. “I don’t know. He seems nice enough, and he is Sally’s grandfather.”

“Uh-huh, and Merrick is her uncle,” Karen pointed out. “Just watch your back. I know I am.”

Elle nodded.

Karen pointed to the road sign. “There it is. Turn here. It’s about a mile down this dirt road.” She glanced behind them. “Hey, where did Marvin go?”

Elle looked behind her. “Huh. I don’t know, but we are not going back for him.” She pointed in front of them down the dark road.