Babe in the Woods

CHAPTER FIVE

REBECCA LISTENED to the sound of the wailing baby and wanted to cover her ears. It was far worse in reality than it had been in her imagination when Aurelia had told her about it. Even though Rebecca knew it wasn’t a real baby but some type of recording, it didn’t stop the haunting sadness of the sound.

Why would Randall Levert be such an idiot that he would return to Blackthorn and try to play the crying-baby scam again? The obvious answer was that Randall had gone over the deep end. His mother had been murdered on Blackthorn property by his own partner, a Realtor named Yvonne Harris. Where Yvonne had been sentenced to prison for murder, Randall had turned state’s evidence against her and had gotten himself a deal from the prosecutor. His involvement in the crime had been minimal—trying to frighten Aurelia away from Blackthorn. Randall was as much a victim of Yvonne as Aurelia had been. Maybe even more since he’d lost his mother to Yvonne’s greed.

All of that said, it made Randall’s determination to scuttle around Blackthorn even more creepy. He was unbalanced, and in a way that boded only ill for her and her project. But Dru would handle it. She thanked her lucky stars for the lawman, realizing that the baby’s cries had ceased.

For a moment her thoughts slipped to Dru Colson. He was almost the antithesis of what she’d come to imagine a Mississippi sheriff might be. Of course, she did have an active imagination! But Dru was calm and deliberate. Handsome in a lean, athletic way. He was a man who’d taken up the badge not because he wanted the power but because he’d been asked. And asked again. He was young to bear the load of responsibility he shouldered, but he seemed born to it.

That was an interesting phrase. Born to it. Funny, but when she’d first met Aurelia Agee, she’d instantly known that Aurelia had been born to be heiress of Blackthorn. After five minutes of conversation with Aurelia and Marcus, Rebecca had been able to hook on to their vision and dream of what Blackthorn was in the past and what it could be in the future.

Aurelia had been able to convey that vision to Eugene Batson and his brother Roy, and together they’d come up with a house plan that was going to dazzle the architectural world. It was a heady time for Rebecca, spoiled only by some nutcase running through the woods with a taped recording of a crying baby. It would be funny if only someone hadn’t attacked Joey and injured him. Concern for Joey made her start toward the door.

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