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The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary: men alone are quite capable of every wickedness

—Joseph Conrad

Was he gone?

Sheridan Kohl lay in a heap on the ground, her clothes, her cheek, the entire left side of her body, wet from the ue, but the fecund s all around rerown up in eastern Tennessee, in the small town of Whiterock

Not that this was the kind of ho she’d expected

The scrape of a shovel let her know the man who’d attacked her was still close So close she dared not move or even whimper

After a few turns of his spade, his breathing grew labored, and she heard hirunt every so often

Scrape…plop Scrape…plop The digging obviously wasn’t easy, but it was rhythh he wasn’t particularly tall, he was strong; she knew that already Even after she’d et free of the rope that had bound her wrists, she hadn’t been able to fend hirier, more violent She was sure he would’ve killed her if she hadn’t gone limp

She gingerly explored her top lip It was split, but that was probably the least of her injuries Unless she angled her head just right, blood rolled down her throat, choking her She could barely open one of her eyes And his fierce blows to her head had left her dazed, unable to think coherently On soet up and run now that he’d turned his attention elsewhere But she couldn’t stand, let alone make a dash for freedom It was painful just to breathe

The proe of her consciousness She longed to embrace it, to drift away and leave her broken body behind But her best friend see: Get up, damn you! Don’t allow this, Sher Gain the upper hand no ht for your life! For ain one of Skye’s self-defense classes back at the victio

But then she felt the rain, lightly sprinkling her parted lips, forehead, eyelashes She was in the forest in thea ski mask

And he was digging her grave

The dogs, barking and juer from a deep sleep He told himself it was probably just another raccoon or possuo back to sleep But when the racket didn’t stop, he realized it could also be a bear He’d spotted a couple of black bears in the area the week before; they see closer and closer to the house

“I’et out of bed, he yanked on a pair of jeans and soht of summer—too hot and sultry to bother with any more clothes, even in the mountains A bear would have no opinion on hoas dressed But by the tis’ pen, he didn’t see a bear or anything else, at least not in the immediate vicinity

“Quiet down!”

The dogs stopped barking, but they didn’t coid as statues, sniffing the air and pointing with their noses, as if they were tracking