Oblivious, Jenny mumbles about this place hating her as much as she hates it. I hide my grin and keep my focus out the window. It takes a while for my brain to put together what Jen’s been trying to tell me. There is bleakness here that wasn’t there before. It might have been a place of nightmares for me, but visually, Crowhurst has always been picturesque. One of those small towns with huge ranches and a view that went on for miles. If you squinted hard enough, you’d see peaks and hills that almost looked like they stood sentry for the town, but the rest was all flatlands perfect for keeping cattle and growing crops. Now, as we pass the first ranch on the outskirts of town, the place that had once been vibrant and full of color looks desolate. A field of mud and a dilapidated house stand where a beautiful family home once stood, with its orchards and flowers looking like something out of a magazine spread. Now it looks like it had been shrouded in misery and abandoned.
“Any idea what happened here?”
“No. But this isn’t the only place like this. It’s as if darkness rolled into town and slowly started sucking the life out of everything. You think I’m being dramatic, I know. But I swear, when I said nothing seems to grow here anymore, I meant it. Another few years like this and the town will have to be abandoned, or people will die.”
So this is what she was talking about. I had thought maybe she was exaggerating, but if anything, it looks like she underplayed it.
I suddenly feel an overwhelming urge to cry, and it takes me a moment of sifting through my feelings to realize the emotion isn’t mine. “It’s sad,” I murmur.
“Downright tragic if you ask me. And yet it couldn’t happen to a more deserving town.”
It’s sweet that she’s mad at the place on my behalf, but that’s not what I meant. The land itself is sad. I can feel it. As if it’s in mourning. We keep driving, thankfully avoiding the center of town itself and Main Street. She’s right. This whole place is off. Everything feels wrong—cursed even. An instinctive part of me knows I’m the reason.
My eyes slip closed as I flash back to that night so long ago. Crawling on my knees, collapsing in the dirt, pressing my hands to the ground, and pouring all my anguish into the soil as sheets of rain tried to wash me clean. Did I do this? Is that possible?
As we move along the winding road that leads to the ranch, something else stirs inside me, something achingly familiar. Before I can dwell on it, I see the sign looming before us—Corvis Wing.
The feeling inside me intensifies. Before I can figure out what it is, a police cruiser pulls up behind us with a second one right behind it.
Jen pulls over, her eyes glancing down over my orange jumpsuit, making her sigh. “Well, you were always going to make a splash regardless. Might as well get this over with.”
“Be careful. Sheriff Andrews was in my father’s pocket. He knew he beat me, saw it with his own two eyes, and did nothing to help me.”
“In that case, I’m glad the fucker’s dead.”
“Wait, really?”
“A couple of years ago. Heart attack, if I remember correctly. I hear he pulled an Elvis.”
I frown, not knowing what that means.
She sighs. “Kids today. It means he died on the toilet.”
“Oh.” I’m not sure I’m supposed to feel anything but mild surprise. The man had no business being a cop, as far as I’m concerned. The town is better off without him.
Jenny responds to tapping at the driver’s side window by lowering it. “Can I help you, Officer?”
“License and registration, please.”
Jenny sighs, pulling down her sun visor where she has both things stashed. She holds them out to him. He dips his head lower to take them, and I get a flash of a vaguely familiar face. I wonder for a second if it was he I was sensing, but shake it off. It doesn’t feel right.
He flips his flashlight on to look at the documents, which has me rolling my eyes. It’s broad fucking daylight, for goodness sake.
He hands them back before he shines his flashlight in my face. “You want to state your business?” he asks sharply.
I have no idea if he’s talking to me or Jenny, but I reply anyway. “I’m coming home.”
Chapter Six
He freezes solid at my words, his eyes scanning my face before recognition sparks.
“Calliope Hart.” The name comes out in one breath.
I nod. “That’s me.”
He swallows, looking unsure for a moment before he takes a step back. “Can you step out of the car for me, ma’am?”
And so it begins. I look at Jen, who gives me a tight, frustrated smile. I move to get out of the car, leaving my bag in the footwell.