She laughed. “I’m not whining?—”
“Look out!”
Katie slammed on the brakes, skidding on loose gravel for another couple of feet. A large tree limb was lying across the street.
“Wow, where did that come from?” said Katie. It was about six to eight inches in diameter.
The detectives got out to investigate.
“It almost appears like someone put it here on purpose,” said McGaven. “See these tire impressions back and forth?”
Looking around at the trees and the road, as well as the frenzied impression, Katie said, “I was thinking the same thing.”
McGaven went to the back of the car and popped the trunk. He grabbed some rope before returning to the branch. “Let’s see if we can pull it to the side.”
The detectives maneuvered the limb until they could drag it out of the roadway.
Katie sighed. “I didn’t expect to have such a workout this morning.”
“No kidding.” McGaven retrieved the rope, looping it together, and then returned it to the trunk.
The detectives were quickly on their way again.
“We seem to be running into tree limbs in places they’re not supposed to be,” said McGaven.
Katie thought about this. It did seem strange that in barely two days they’d run into big limbs trying to stop people from passing by. She slowed the sedan where there was a dirt road and stopped.
“What?” McGaven said.
“I think this is the road… Birds Nest Lane. There’s no sign. Oh wait…” She pointed to the side of the road. “That looks like what’s left of a wooden sign.”
“Nice,” said McGaven, chuckling.
Katie continued driving up the road. There were few houses and even fewer visible addresses.
“This is going to be tougher than I thought,” she said.
“What’s the address?”
“One-four-two.”
“Okay,” he said, scrutinizing every wooden sign. Most said “no trespassing” and “keep out.”
Katie kept driving slowly. The gravel became thicker and made a crunching noise as the tires slowly moved onward.
“Wait,” McGaven said. “Doesn’t that say, one-four-two?”
“Yep, it does.” Katie found an appropriate place to park and they exited the police sedan. “That must be it,” she said, referring to the broken-down house that appeared to have had its siding and windows replaced. “How do we want to handle this?” she asked, sensing the area could be full of surprises. “Together or split up?”
McGaven took a good look around—more than he usually would on approach, but it seemed he too sensed there was something they weren’t seeing.
“Did you notice that it’s really quiet?” he said.
“Yep.”
The next closest house was a ways, but there weren’t any forest sounds, or cars, or voices, or even barking dogs. Katie quickly checked her cell phone and it showed barely one bar that wavered back and forth to no signal. Great, she thought.
“There’s no car in front,” she added.
