Page 1 of Whisper Through the Pines

Prologue

Sunday

Bump. Tap, tap.

An ear-piercing shriek of metal scraped along the truck’s side, slowing to a whine. Flinching, Avril Lampton pushed her boyfriend, Hank Parker, hard in the chest and scanned the forest. “What was that?”

“You wanted to be hidden in the forest.” He pulled her closer and nibbled on her neck. “It’s just the wind in the trees. The branches scrape against the truck, is all.”

Outside, the forest’s silence was deafening, the eerie stillness closed in around them. Moonlight drifted through the trees in patches, turning the white rising mist surrounding them into strange, twisted shapes. Avril moved closer to Hank as the mist swirled as if disturbed and pushed against the windows. She shivered and goosebumps rose over her skin as long white fingers reached out toward her. Somewhere deep in the forest a wolf howled. She swallowed hard. “I know we wanted to be alone, but I don’t like it here. It’s close to Halloween, and we don’t know what comes out of the forest around this time of year.” She met his amused gaze. “Can we go someplace else?”

“Woo, woo, the Axman is coming.” Hank chuckled. “Do you know how many guys use Halloween myths to make girls jump into their arms for protection? That’s what they are, Avril, myths. Stories made up to scare kids.” He waved a hand toward the forest. “Who in their right mind would be hanging around here this late in the hope of finding a couple making out?” He pushed open the driver’s side door and a cold damp gust of air seeped inside. “Nature calls.” He peered into the mist. “There’s no one here. I’ll be back in a minute.” He dropped his feet out of the cab.

Fear gripped Avril and she grabbed the back of his jacket. “Don’t go. You can’t leave me here on my own.”

“I’m not taking you with me.” He gave her a withering look. “I draw the line at allowing girls to watch me pee. I won’t pee long.” He grinned widely at his play on words, switched on the light on his phone, and disappeared into the darkness.

The moment he stepped outside, the mist thickened as if swallowing him up. Trembling, Avril watched the dimming silhouette of his light bobbing between the trees and then he’d gone. Heart pounding, she stared in the direction he’d vanished. The forest teemed with wildlife, but the silence warned her of danger. Her pulse pounded in her ears as she searched the shadows, but nothing but the mist danced through the trees, and it was getting denser by the second. Time crawled by. How long had he been away? With trembling fingers, she checked the time on her phone and waited five excruciating minutes before punching in his number. She stared at the screen in disbelief—no signal. What’s happened to him? She pressed the button to buzz down the window, but nothing happened. The temperature had dropped so fast, and without the heat of his body, her teeth chattered. She grabbed the blanket from the back seat and wrapped it around her.

A branch snapped behind her, racing her heart. She turned to scan the forest, but the mist pressed against the windows in a white shroud, moving in slow waves. Patches opened like black eyes and peered in at her, open mouths screaming in silence. A tap on the roof and then another. “Hank? Is that you?”

Nothing.

What if he’s been hurt? She checked the time on her phone. Fifteen minutes had passed. Fear trembled through her as she gripped the handle and pushed open the door. Cold damp air rushed toward her. “Hank? Stop messing around. I’m freezing cold.”

A spot of wet hit her face and then another. She ducked back inside and turned, staring at the windshield as a few drops of something dark trickled down the glass. She gaped in horror as a widening red slick slid down the center. Terrified, she stumbled out of the truck, tripping on the blanket and falling flat on her face. Crawling away, she looked over one shoulder to stare back at the truck. In the middle just above the windshield, sat a head with Hank’s blank eyes staring back at her. She couldn’t breathe. Panic had her by the throat. Her legs refused to move. Unable to take her eyes from the horror, she dragged herself to her feet and ran blindly into the forest, tripping over exposed roots and dead underbrush.

Spiky pine tree branches ripped at her clothes and tugged at her hair with each step. Darkness swallowed her. Which way should she go? She stopped running and turned, searching for a path. Ahead a stream of moonlight highlighted a trail as if guiding her to safety. Gasping for breath, Avril ran faster into the thick mist. The path loomed ahead of her and she picked up speed, and then without a sound, a dark figure slowly swinging an ax stepped out of the mist right in front of her. “No! No! No!” She turned to escape, but cold steel slid across her shoulder and the forest vanished in a scream of pain.

One

Monday

Johnny Raven had followed many careers in his life. He flew medevac choppers in the military but retired to Stanton Forest, where he continued his medical practice for the mountain folks. In between times he trained K-9s, but more recently he’d become a deputy sheriff of Black Rock Falls. After living a lonely existence for a couple of years getting his head straight and building a ranch-style dog-training complex, he’d somehow fallen into the job of the K-9 unit for the sheriff’s department. He and his dog, Ben, enjoyed the work and it was only part-time, which left him time to turn dogs from shelters all over Montana into K-9s, protection dogs, or just reliable companions. His business was thriving and he’d taken on a partner, Atohi Blackhawk. In their downtime, he helped Atohi extend his cabin in the forest. At present, Blackhawk lived with his mom on the res. His work as a guide and now with the dogs meant living close by was convenient. The fact he’d been by with a very beautiful young woman more than once to view the renovations made Raven wonder if marriage was in the air.

Pulling his mind away from his thoughts, he concentrated on the young bitch named Socks, waiting for her next command. He wiggled his fingers, and she moved forward, checked the perimeter, and then came back to sit beside him. A few seconds later, her hackles rose and she growled a warning. He clipped on her leash as he turned to scan the surrounding forest and then he heard hoofbeats coming in hot. After giving Socks a treat and walking her to her pen, he slipped inside the back door and strapped on his sidearm. In the forest, anything could happen. Moments later he stood on the front porch with Ben at his side, with his rifle leaning against the wall in plain sight. The low rumble from his trusted companion meant trouble was on the way.

Two horses came galloping along the trail and skidded to a halt in his driveway. Two women jumped down and ran toward him, distraught and talking at the same time. Raven held up his hands. “Okay, I want you to take some long deep breaths.”

He waited, taking in the overall appearance of the women. Their faces were sheet white and their eyes flicked around as if someone had chased them. “Maybe you should come inside.” He stood to one side and ushered them into the family room. Placing Ben on guard at the door, he turned to the two women. “Sit down and I’ll get you some water and then maybe you can tell me what’s going on?”

He retrieved two bottles of water from the kitchen and returned to the family room. “Okay, what’s happened?” The women gaped at him, eyes wide and trembling. He sat opposite them, leaning forward with his hands clasped between his knees. “It seems to me you’ve had a shock. How about we start with something easy. What are your names?”

“I’m Barbara Stamper.” The first woman sipped the water, but her gaze fixed on the front door as if she expected someone to come crashing through at any second.

The other woman shuddered and moved her gaze to him. Raven smiled at her. “I recognize you. You work with authors—right? Zooloo’s Book Tours? I’ve read your reviews.”

“Yeah, that’s me. I’m Zoé O’Farrell.” She visibly tried to gather herself. “We were taking a trail ride in the forest. We usually head out early in the morning. We always ride the fire roads, but we heard music and noticed a murder of crows in the pine trees.”

“I was concerned someone might have been injured or attacked at night by a bear.” Barbara moved her gaze to him. “So, we rode deeper into the forest and found a trail that looped all the way around to another fire road. There were soda cans and beer bottles all over, so we figured it must be a popular place with the high school or college kids. We followed the music and found a truck with its door wide open and the radio blaring inside but—” Her voice faltered and she swallowed hard. “On the top of the truck—” She shook her head, pushed her fist against her mouth, and shook all over.

“We saw two bloody heads and the forest smelled of death.” Zoé looked at him with blank eyes. “It’s the story of the Axman all over again. Everyone says he’s a myth, but we saw what he did with our own two eyes. You need to stop him before he kills someone else.”

Raven ran a hand down his face. He’d lived in the forest for a long time now and had witnessed firsthand the pranks people set up over the Halloween week to make people believe in the myths and legends of the forest. The tale of the Axman, who hunted down couples making out in the forest and decapitated them, leaving their bloody heads on top of the vehicle, was one always told around campfires. There were so many more myths attributed to Stanton Forest. Seeing unusual things and finding them out to be pranks had become usual at this time of the year. The problem was that the best pranksters used pig’s blood, which stank, making everyone believe they’d found a dead body. He nodded slowly. “Okay, if you take your horses over to the horse trough and secure them, we can jump in my truck and you can show me exactly where this happened.”

“You want us to go back there?” Zoé looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. “What if he’s still hanging around?”

Raven stood and tapped his weapon. “I don’t figure a man brandishing an ax will be a problem against an M18 pistol. Plus, I have Ben. He’s a military-trained K-9 and will go straight for the hand holding the weapon. I need to find this vehicle and determine whether or not it’s a Halloween prank. I can’t do that unless you cooperate. It’s a very big forest out there.”