Dawn in Eclipse Bay

as he geared down to take the steep, rutted path that led through the woods to Arizona’s cabin. He did not want to think about what the rough road was doing to the Jag’s expensive alignment.
    “She said she was being followed?” he asked.
    “Yes.”
    “Did she give you a description?”
    “No.” Lillian watched the narrow road. “Just said she thought it was an institute spy. But she sounded nervous, Gabe. That’s what worried me. In all the years I’ve known A.Z. she’s always seemed very cool and somehow in full command of her crazy conspiracy theories. I’ve never heard her sound genuinely scared or even uneasy.”
    “Maybe she’s slipped another cog. Sunk a little deeper into her fantasy world.”
    “Gone from being seriously eccentric to seriously crazy, you think?”
    “It’s a possibility.”
    Lillian folded her arms tightly beneath her breasts. Her body was tense. She was concerned and she appeared to be getting more so as they got closer to Arizona’s cabin.
    “Take it easy, we both know there’s nothing really wrong here,” he said.
    “It’s A.Z’s state of mind I’m worried about. I wonder if getting involved with that crowd at the bakery is responsible for pushing her over some psychological edge.”
    “If she has cracked up big-time,” he said, “you’re right. We’ve got a big problem on our hands. I doubt if we’ll be able to talk her into checking into some nice quiet psych ward for observation.”
    “She’d never trust a psychiatrist or a sanitarium.”
    “Probably not.” He negotiated another sharp bend in the road. “There’s not much you can do for someone who won’t go for help unless she is a clear danger to herself or others.”
    “Let’s try to keep some perspective here. We’re talking as if A.Z. has gone off the deep end. We have no evidence of that yet. Keep in mind that she hasn’t ever hurt anyone in her life.”
    “That we know of.”
    She shot him a swift, searching glance. “What do you mean?”
    “Just that no one around here knows anything about her past before she showed up in Eclipse Bay. I remember asking Mitchell about her once when I was in high school. He just shrugged and said that she was entitled to her privacy so long as she didn’t do anyone else any harm.”
    “That’s the whole point,” Lillian said. “To the best of our knowledge or anyone else’s she’s never done any damage to people or property.”
    He navigated the last tight curve in the road and saw the cabin. Rain and wind slashed the heavy limbs of the trees that loomed over the weather-beaten structure. Arizona’s ancient truck was parked in the small clearing.
    He eased the Jag to a halt behind the truck and switched off the engine.
    “Well, at least she’s here and not out prowling around the new wing of the institute with her VPX 5000,” he said.
    He unfastened his seat belt and reached into the back seat for Lillian’s rain cloak and his jacket.
    “She said something about holing up for a while.” Lillian put her arms into the sleeves of her cloak and pulled the hood up over her head. “That’s not like her, either, when you stop and think about it. She’s always out doing recon and surveillance. Says she likes the bad guys to know she’s keeping an eye on them.”
    “True.”
    He shrugged into the jacket, tugged the hood up over his head and opened the door. Rain driven by rough winds dampened his hair when he got out.
    Lillian did not wait for him to come around to her side of the car. She already had her own door open. A few seconds later she joined him at the front of the Jag.
    They both went quickly toward the shelter of the porch. Gabe took the steps two at a time and came to a halt at the front door. Dripping rain from her sparkling cloak, Lillian stopped beside him.
    There was no doorbell. Gabe banged the brass eagle knocker a few times.
    There was no response. No surprise, he thought. No right-thinking paranoid would open a door without verifying the identity of the person on the other side.
    “A.Z.? Gabe and Lillian out here,” he called.
    The door did not open. He glanced at the nearest window. It was covered with what looked like blinds fashioned from metal slats.
    “I got your message.” Lillian rapped her knuckles on the blank window. “Are you okay in there?”
    The wind-driven rain whipped around the cabin. He knew Lillian was getting more agitated. He had to admit that the utter silence from inside the cabin was