In Strange Woods - Claire Cray Page 0,31

get it.” So, someone was definitely growing weed out there, then. There weren’t many other illegal activities he could imagine Deenie being so coy about. He reeled his line in for the last time. “Anyway, I’m sorry you lost your friend like that, Deenie.”

“Me, too, honey.” Deenie patted him on the back. “Believe it or not, this place is a lot more mellow than it used to be.”

Hunter caught his lure and hooked it to the rod so it wouldn’t swing around. “What about the guy you mentioned before? Beau?”

“Oh, Beau.” Deenie’s voice warmed again. “Wildest kid I ever met in my life. Woodstock to the bone. Heart of gold, though.”

“That right? Is he still around?”

“Yeah, when the mood strikes him. Sneaks in and works on people’s gardens here in town when he needs something. Just between you and me…” Deenie gave him a meaningful look. “He’s got a real talent with plants.”

Chapter 13: Up Pike Creek

River Road had been dry, but James found Pike Creek as muddy as if it had just rained again. Now he saw how laughable it was that he’d tried to take it on in his rental car. The ruts were way too deep and pitted to drive on. The place where he’d gotten stuck was still surrounded by his and Hunter’s footprints.

James paused to look at the flimsy yellow plastic sign tacked to a tree just ahead. The font was at least thirty years old, and it was covered in green mildew and moss.

NO TRESPASSING

PRIVATE PROPERTY

With a soft sigh, he looked around at the woods surrounding the road to Camp Five. So this was Grace’s land. The secret family farm. Nothing but forest as far as he could see.

It was quite a forest, though. The trees were huge, with sprawling roots that dug into the earth like giant talons. The ground was rugged and uneven, with mounds and pits and the occasional stump or fallen log covered in an explosion of plant life.

The road got rougher and rougher as he walked, and after twenty minutes, he came up against a huge pile of brush that completely blocked his way. The branches and shrubs were piled up higher than he was tall. To circumvent it, he stepped off the road and into the woods. His boots sank into the soft, wet moss, and he gave his surroundings another look.

The woods were different, this deep inside. Thick. Wet. Primeval. The trees reached way, way up, scraping the sky. Some were bare of branches at the bottom, but spread out in spiraling spokes high overhead. Others had huge, drooping limbs that hovered close to the forest floor.

There were too many kinds of moss to count. Bright, sprawling patches crept over the ground. Long, pale strands hung uncannily from the limbs of trees, while dark green pelts competed with delicate shells of lichen to cover their trunks. Ferns crowded the forest floor in huge bursts of alien green, their fronds spread out like they were feeling around for something to touch.

James hiked back onto the road on the other side of the brush pile and walked on at a slower pace, feeling much more conscious of the woods. Now the road was little more than a trail, so overtaken by foliage that there would barely be room for three people to walk side by side.

The sounds were scant. Water dripped from leaf to leaf in soft, isolated patters. Unseen birds called out occasionally, distant and unhurried.

A strange hush settled over his mind, too, as his thoughts yielded to his senses; and as he walked, he lost track of time.

“Beau!”

James jumped at the distant call, his eyes darting from a lush patch of giant clovers to the road ahead.

Shock and horror coiled around him like snakes. Up ahead some twenty yards was a bend in the trail, and from around the bend emerged a woman trotting toward him—dressed in camouflage, with a rifle held across her chest.

Fuck. His heart seemed to seize for a second. Fuck.

“Hey!” The woman cried excitedly, still hurrying toward him. She was in her late forties or early fifties, rosy-cheeked, with leathery tan skin that was smudged with dirt, and scruffy brown hair sticking out from under a wool cap. “What’re you doin’ out here, baby? This ain’t your route!”

“Thought I’d try something new,” James called in reply before he could even think it through. Fuck. He coughed to clear his throat.

“Well, you look different today!” The woman was out of breath by the time