Silent Fall

there."
    Catherine didn’t want him to leave. She didn’t want him to run into the danger that surrounded Erica, but she knew she couldn’t stop him. Dylan was a man of action, and even though Erica had wrecked his life, he would still risk his to save her.
    "Tell me if there were any other identifying features in your dream, like tennis courts, a lake, paddleboats, a rose garden.... Damn, what else is in that park?"
    She thought for a moment, but the images were gone from her mind. "Dylan, I think it’s too late."
    He met her gaze head-on. "Don’t say that. Don’t tell me Erica is dead. I’m going to look for her." He jogged out of the room. In a few minutes he would be on his way. She had to go with him.
    Jumping out of bed, she threw a long sweater over her camisole top and pajama bottoms and slipped her feet into her tennis shoes, then hurried down the stairs. Dylan had put on a sweatshirt and was digging through a desk in the hall.
    "What are you looking for?"
    He answered by holding up a flashlight. He tested it, and the beam danced off the floor. "Still works. You’re coming with me?"
    "We’re partners. We have to stick together."
    "Then let’s go."
    As they approached his grandmother’s car, Catherine took a wary look around. It was the middle of the night and very, very quiet. There was no movement anywhere on the block, no sign of someone sitting in a car watching them. It didn’t appear that anyone knew where they were, at least, not yet anyway.
    Once inside she quickly locked the doors as Dylan started the engine. She hoped they’d be in time to help Erica. Maybe her vision was of the future, not of the past. That was certainly possible. She tried to hang on to the positive thought, admiring the way Dylan didn’t let anything keep him from his goal. He was deter-mined to succeed. Failure was not an option.
    She’d grown used to failure, accustomed to disappointment. She hadn’t realized until now how low her expectations for herself and others had sunk. But Dylan was setting the bar a little higher, and she was eager to keep up with him.
    It was past three thirty in the morning now, and there was little traffic on the city streets. Her nightmare had happened almost an hour ago. Had the dream come in real time? She hoped not.
    They entered the park off the Pacific Coast Highway, turning in past an old windmill. As Dylan drove through the twisting streets, Catherine was struck by how enormous Golden Gate Park was. It ran for several miles and encompassed hundreds of acres. There was a stadium, two lakes, a Japanese tea garden, a museum, tennis courts, and a carousel -- how on earth could they find Erica? She could be anywhere.
    The trees, the shrubs, the plants -- they all felt so familiar, but Catherine couldn’t bring herself to pinpoint one area over another. They drove for fifteen minutes without speaking a word, each scanning the grounds on their side of the car. They passed several homeless people, some sleeping under the trees, others wandering along the road.
    "I don’t think I’d want to be here on my own," Catherine murmured.
    "Maybe that’s why you felt Erica’s fear. She could have been afraid of her surroundings, not whoever is trying to get to her."
    "That could have been it." Catherine certainly felt uncomfortable now, and she was in a car with the doors locked and Dylan by her side. "This place is creepy. It’s dark and deserted. Why would she come here?"
    "Hell if I know. If she thought someone was trying to kill her, she should have gone to the police."
    Dylan slowed down as a man stumbled across the road in front of him. He wore a baseball cap, and a backpack hung from one shoulder. Catherine flashed back on her dream.
    "I saw him," she said. "He scared her. She ran from him."
    "This guy?" Dylan asked. "Are you sure?"
    He stopped the car as they watched the man sit down on the side of the road and take a swig out of a bottle. A moment later he lay down on his back. Catherine didn’t know if he’d passed out or was just resting. Certainly the man seemed oblivious to the fact that they were watching him.
    "What should we do?" she asked, her nerves tingling. She didn’t know why she felt so scared, but she really wanted to get out of the park. "Let’s go back to the house."
    "We haven’t found Erica yet. If you saw this guy in your dream, then maybe she’s nearby."
    "What do you