Doubt (Caroline Auden #1) - C. E. Tobisman Page 0,97
of answering, Annie turned away. She walked to the bedroom where her son was sleeping.
Caroline stood frozen in the foyer, waiting.
Annie padded softly back into the room, her arms around herself again, hugging her body as if to stop it from shaking. She met Caroline’s eyes and said two words:
“Let’s go.”
Caroline led Annie and Nolan from the apartment. When she reached the street, she stopped, stretching out her senses for signs of danger. Scenting the air for predators.
She found none. Instead, the last light of day streaked the western sky. Somewhere in the distance, Caroline could feel rather than hear the deep bass thump of waves crashing against the bluffs, their rolling power relentless even in the night. Endless vibrations rising up through solid rock, the sound was both subtle and constant.
A sudden crack in the woods made Caroline’s breath catch.
She froze, listening. Watching the darkness for movement.
Beside her, she could sense Annie Wong holding her breath, too, hoping that the calm evening wasn’t about to turn into a nightmare.
When there were no further sounds, Caroline decided it must have been a deer or other nighttime woodland creature. Even knowing the sound didn’t connote actual danger, she couldn’t relax. Standing on the street, she felt exposed.
Her father’s old Mustang offered an illusion of safety, as if his arms were wrapped protectively around her. Still, she wanted to hurry Annie and Nolan along toward it.
“Come on,” Caroline murmured, stepping toward the car. She ignored the nose-to-tail gouge in the paint, a souvenir from her escape at the golf course. She just wanted to get inside. To get moving.
But Nolan stopped. He tipped his face up toward his mother, his eyes open and curious in the moonlight.
“How long are we going away?” he asked.
“Just a few days, honey,” Annie replied. “We’re going to go on a long trip, but then we’re going to come back here and pack up all of our stuff and go home.”
“Home to Henrik’s house?”
Annie paused and met Caroline’s eyes before answering.
“Yes,” Annie said.
“Good. I like Henrik,” Nolan said. “But can we come back and visit here some time? They have good ice cream here. And good swings.”
Instead of answering her son, Annie looked toward the hills and pastures. Even in the darkness, the air was fresh, a verdant green moistness overlaid with sea salt. But despite the pastoral beauty, Caroline knew what Annie was seeing: a prison. Nothing could ever erase the reason why Annie had come to this place.
“Maybe someday we can come back here,” Annie allowed, glancing at Caroline.
On the silent cue, Caroline led Annie and her son toward her waiting car.
Behind her, she heard Annie’s words, softly spoken to her son. “I need you to try to sleep in the car. We have a very long trip ahead of us.”
Annie strapped her son into the car seat. Then she moved to close the passenger door, her movements hurried and efficient, as if she felt as vulnerable as Caroline did in the open.
“Don’t forget Dino,” said Nolan, his almond-shaped eyes big and concerned.
Annie reached into the large purse slung over her shoulder. She fished out a turquoise dinosaur and handed it to Nolan, then moved again to close the passenger door.
“And Teddy,” Nolan said.
In answer, Annie opened her bag again, withdrawing a tattered stuffed bear, which her son took and tucked beside the dinosaur.
Nolan opened his mouth, but before he could speak, Annie handed him a gray fox.
Nolan smiled a large smile and hugged the fox as his mother shut the back passenger door and climbed into her seat.
When Annie had closed the door, all was quiet. The streets of Mendocino lay dormant and empty in the moonlight.
“Is it going to be a long drive?” Nolan asked, breaking the silence.
“We’ll be in San Francisco in about three hours,” Caroline answered, pulling away from the curb and swinging the Mustang onto the road.
“Is Dino short for dinosaur?” Caroline asked Nolan, her conversation an attempt to ward off the seriousness of their journey.
“No,” Nolan answered from the backseat. “It’s short for what kind of dinosaur he is. See if you can guess.”
“Can you give me a hint?” she asked.
“He lived in the Cretaceous period and liked to eat Tenontosaurus for breakfast.”
“Dimetrodon?” Caroline asked, though she knew it couldn’t be right.
Nolan laughed like she’d cracked a joke. “Dimetrodon wasn’t even a dinosaur. Plus, he lived in the Triassic. Tenontosaurus lived in the Cretaceous. So he couldn’t have been eating him. Dino’s a Deinonychus. Duh,” he added.