Silent Fall

the plan."
    "I don’t have to prove anything to you," she said, annoyed at his ridiculous statement. "I never met Erica before yesterday."
    "You predicted her arrival in my life. So either you’re lying about knowing her or you used her to fulfill your prediction."
    "Or I had a psychic premonition about her, which is what happened," she said firmly. "You can believe me or not, but that doesn’t make it untrue."
    "If I agree that you had a vision, will you stay for a while and help me sort this out?"
    He was giving her premonition lip service to get what he wanted, but she knew that she wouldn’t leave yet. If her nightmares were ever going to stop, maybe she had to take action, get involved, at least until she found out more. "I won’t promise to stay forever, but for the time being I’m here," she said slowly.
    He gave her a dry smile. "That’s usually my line."
    "I’ll bet it is. You’re not big on commitment, are you?"
    Dylan turned the car into the parking lot next to the lodge. "Right now I’m very committed to proving my innocence in whatever crime I’m about to be accused of."
    * * *
    The yellow tape had been removed from the front of cabin seven, and a large piece of plywood now covered the broken window. There were no cops in sight, and as they paused in front of the cabin a group of guests on their way out of the lodge were laughing and chatting, seemingly unaware that anything bad had occurred on the property.
    "Maybe we imagined it," Catherine muttered. "Everything looks so normal now."
    "I’d like to believe that was true," he replied, but the plywood reinforced the fact that something had happened where Erica had been staying. "It’s a good sign that the police are gone. Perhaps Erica has resurfaced."
    "That would be great," Catherine said.
    "Yes, it would, but you don’t believe it any more than I do. I was going for the power of positive thinking."
    "That sounds more like a feeling," she said with a pointed smile. "I thought you were all about the facts and nothing but the facts."
    "I’m a little off my game."
    "That’s not true. You got right back on your game the minute you woke up in the woods. You had the presence of mind to request drug testing while the drugs might still be present in your system. I doubt I would have done that."
    "Even so, I’m still playing catch-up. I’m at least one or two steps behind Erica." He walked up the front steps of the cabin and looked through the window that had not been broken, careful not to touch anything. The last thing he needed was to leave his fingerprints.
    There were no lights on inside, and he couldn’t make out much, but he could see that the covers on the bed were a mess. A night table and chair were turned on their sides, and there was a lot of stuff strewn about the floor.
    Catherine came up next to him. "What do you see?"
    "It looks like the room was trashed." He took her hand and pulled her closer to him. "What do you think?"
    "I’m not sure. It’s awfully dark."
    "I thought you could see through the darkness."
    She frowned at that. "I’m not Superman. I don’t have X-ray vision."
    "Sorry, I’m not exactly clear on your powers."
    She shook her head in disgust. "I knew you were going to be like this -- all skeptical and judgmental. I must have been crazy to consider helping you."
    "Wait, I’m sorry." He gripped her hand tighter as she tried to move away from him. "That was a bad joke. I would appreciate any thoughts you might have. Really. I would."
    She let out a sigh and then turned her attention to the cabin. He watched her profile for a long moment, noting the slow flush that spread across her cheeks. He heard the hitch in her breath as her pulse quickened.
    Then her fingers squeezed around his, the warmth of her hand sending a rush of heat through his body. He’d initiated the contact, but now he felt a sudden, desperate need to break the current flowing between them, unfortunately Catherine wasn't letting go.
    "Erica was here. She was scared," Catherine said abruptly. "I can feel her fear. She’s surprised. As if she’s been taken unawares." Catherine turned her gaze on him, shadows filling her eyes. "She’s in trouble."
    Logically he knew that Catherine hadn’t told him one thing she couldn’t have surmised by the facts that Erica was gone, the cabin had been ransacked, and the police were looking for her. So why did he