Silent Fall

that? You’re Jake’s brother, Sarah’s brother-in-law. Sarah would kill me if I tried to hurt you." Her eyes narrowed. "Besides, what reason could I possibly have for wanting to set you up for something? I barely know you."
    He couldn’t think of a reason; he just knew he didn’t completely trust her. "If you knew Erica would cause trouble for me, why did you take off yesterday? Why didn’t you stick around to help me?"
    "It wasn’t my business, and you seemed to know her. I certainly didn’t expect her to drug you and drag you off to the woods, if that’s what happened. I heard what you told the detective," she added. "You weren’t talking all that quietly. I’m sure everyone heard your story."
    "Well, it’s not a secret," he said with annoyance, although now he wished he’d spoken to the detective in a more private setting. The lodge employees were all looking at him with extreme speculation.
    Catherine’s gaze darted around the room as if she were waiting for something else to happen. Did she know what was coming? Had she seen something else?
    He’d never believed in psychics or visions, and certainly Catherine’s prediction that two women would enter his life and cause problems was vague enough to come true at just about any time. After all, a lot of women came into his life. But it did bother him that Catherine had identified Erica as the woman she’d seen in her vision, especially now that Erica was missing. Had it been just a lucky guess? Had Catherine seen Erica come up to him at the bar and decided to tell him that was the woman from her vision to make it look as if she really were a psychic? Or was there something to her supposed visions?
    "So what’s going to happen next?" he asked. "Since you seem to have an insight into the future that the rest of us don’t have."
    "Obviously you don’t believe that I do," she snapped back. "I don’t know why I came down here."
    "Why did you? Or are you going to claim you were just headed for breakfast?"
    She hesitated. "I was worried about you. I saw the cop car from my room. I knew something was up."
    "And you decided I was the one in trouble?"
    "I had a bad feeling."
    "Sure you did," he said wearily. "You can never give me a straight answer, can you?"
    "That is a straight answer. I work off my instincts, Dylan. But you have bigger problems to worry about than why I’m here."
    "You can say that again." He let out a sigh. "I wish I knew what happened to Erica, why the police were called."
    "They arrived a little over an hour ago," Catherine said.
    "That long? What were you doing up so early?"
    "I couldn’t sleep."
    He could tell by her short answer that she had bitten off the rest of what she wanted to say, which probably had something to do with her bad feeling.
    "I tried calling your room," she added, "but you didn’t answer."
    "Because I was unconscious in the woods, which won’t be easy to prove without a witness. That’s why I need a blood test to confirm that I was drugged." He shifted his weight, feeling restless and pissed off. He didn’t like being taken unawares, and someone was definitely setting him up for something. "What happened with Jake and Sarah? Did they get off okay? Did they wonder where I was?"
    "Sarah asked if I’d seen you, and I mentioned that you’d been having drinks at the bar with a woman. Jake laughed and said you always got lucky at weddings. I guess he thought you were having a good time somewhere."
    "Lucky... yeah, I feel real lucky right now. But I’m glad they left. I don’t want Jake involved in my problems." The last thing Dylan would do was ruin Jake and Sarah’s honeymoon. He was glad they were safely away from this mess. He straightened as the detective and a uniformed police officer walked back to them.
    "Deputy Barnes will accompany you to the hospital," the detective said. "And we’ll talk later, when we have the results of your tests. I hope you don’t have any plans to leave the area."
    "I was going to return to San Francisco today," Dylan replied.
    "I’d appreciate it if you’d stay in town until we have a chance to speak again. We’re going to search the woods, but we may need your help pinpointing your last location with Ms. Layton."
    The detective’s voice was friendly, but there was steel in his words. If Dylan didn’t agree to remain in the area, he suspected the