Follow The Dark Tale (A Disappearance Mystery Thriller Book 3) Read online

  LAURA GREENE

  A DISAPPEARANCE

  Mystery Thriller

  FOLLOW THE DARK TALE

  Copyright © 2021 Laura Greene – All rights Reserved

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

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  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Also by Laura Greene

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  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  “Darn bottle,” Melody mutters under her breath angrily. “I should have known better than to teeter so close to danger.” But she has no time to wage a war against the green bottle now swaying back and forth at her feet, even though it alerted her presence to Tam and Rob.

  Melody thought she was doing so well on her spy mission to the red barn. She knew Tam was up to no good when she followed him to the Blue Elm, the only boat large enough to sail to the Mainland. Careful to not reveal herself, she hid behind another sail boat on the dock. It was neither grand nor majestic as the Blue Elm, but it did the trick.

  No, it was not then that her cover came so dangerously close to being blown, though she managed to land herself in the icy waters beneath, while attempting to dodge Tam and McCorrie’s suspicious eyes. She would rather the wooden boards had leapt up and formed a fortress around her, but they did not comply. This was her only option, really. Tam was walking right past her and one glance in her direction, would have sufficiently exposed her. So, she quietly dipped into the waters below.

  Perhaps it would have been wiser, had she turned back in the direction of the inn and gone to dry off, but she didn’t. Instead, curiosity bit her soar and in her soaked clothes, she continued to track Tam up the hill towards the rusty old red barn where she now stands, shivering. Inside, a secret meeting between Tam and Rob has commenced. She, on the outside, listens in.

  There is not a second to spare for Melody to think back to the moment her caution parted ways with her actions. It was when she saw Rob, that her heart sank. Here was the one person she was beginning to think was on her side and she could actually trust to help her, quietly plotting with Tam about the dangers of Melody knowing too much. While she was listening intently just moments ago, drawn in by the conversation, Melody accidentally stumbled upon the green bottle. It was an informative meeting for Melody, but as with all good things, it too has now come to an abrupt end.

  Like a front desk bell unceremoniously announcing the arrival of an intruder, with one clink to the barn, the bottle has ended the meeting and Melody can hear the sound of feet rushing to the back of the barn as the two men chase after her. The small width of the red barn will quickly deliver Tam and Rob to her. Of this she is certain, though from which direction, she does not know.

  Moments feel like eternity and she does not have time to think, only react. First, it is the cold shiver that jolts her spine all the way down her back and awakens in her a fear of the imminent horror about to befall her. Tam and Rob are capable of anything, and that’s what scares her. Looking at her damp clothes from underneath the gray skies, Melody realizes the jolt was more than an emotional shock; she is literally shivering and if these two men catch her, this may be the last she breathes in of the fresh Atlantic air.

  The shuffle of feet inside the barn disappears and pounding, like hound dogs about to engulf their prey, takes over. They are still not in view, but Melody cannot stay on top of this hill another moment. Adrenaline to flee kicks in. She steps back and in the same breath thinks, If I run down the hill in the opposite direction from the dock and gain a much needed head start. I’ll scream for hel...

  Melody does not finish her thought. Instead, she gasps. Rushing to safety, her foot catches against a thistle plant just on the edge of the hilltop.

  As boldly rough and unapologetically non-delicate as the prickly, purple flower of Scotland is, it shields its newest visitor, Melody from her captors by ungraciously sending her on a tumble down the hill, away from the view of inquiring eyes. Now at the mercy of the hill she recently traversed to reach the dangerous red barn, Melody rolls and bounces as she is thrust from bush to thistle to brush and then again. Her trip is anything but gentle as a thistle joins her on her journey down by latching onto her blond hair. Why did I even bother to make my hair look nice this morning? She ponders, now that she has time to think. If Tam and Rob are watching, might they think this girl has received her comeuppance?

  Any opportunity to slow her fall is quickly squandered as she reaches out for the nearest bush upon opportunity and misses it at gravity’s merciless betrayal.

  The hill pings her where it wishes in the same manner she would a tiny silver ball in the pinball game she played at an arcade near her home.

  For a moment, she recalls her childhood; a time when her father missed her birthday because of one of his trips. Little did Melody know that it would be the first of many to come. In an attempt to return to her good graces, her father finally yielded to her pleas to humor her and take his daughter to the arcade. Up until then, he had not believed arcades were useful because they did not fit the realm of “brain games,” as he often said when referring to puzzles, but this time he took her.

  She stayed there for hours, playing her favorite pinball game. When she had paused to grab a bite to eat with her father, she gladly dragged him around from ring toss to ball shooting games, then her father, seeing the joy in his daughter’s eyes, began to join in the games, playing Air Hockey with her. In a matter of hours, what should have been her worst birthday, had quickly turned into one of her best.

  It dawns on Melody, why she really is on this trip to find her father. All along she has been holding onto the father of her childhood who no longer exists in the hopes of reigniting the relationship they once had. What if we can’t? What if he is really gone and we never get the chance to...? Melody is not sure she is ready to forgive him or his side of the family yet, let alone allow them to be a part of her life again. Still, the memory of her father and the motivation to get her father’s side of the family – including Uncle Tobias – off her back, fuels her to keep trying to find out what happened to him.

  She bumps her head against a surprisingly large bush which knocks a painful reminder of her current state, glancing around, she realizes she is not in an arcade, but tumbling down the hill. While she is grateful for a means to her escape, the lack of control upon her movements frustrates Melody.

  In one final attempt to put an end to her misery, she swings her arm out, unmindful of what she hits as long as she can grab something. With it, she grunts deeply almost leaning towards the top of the hill where she came from to slow her movements down. At least this is her wish as she acknowledges an insignificant change to her pace. From what she has been able to tell so far between spins, she may be halfway down the hill by now.

  She feels some leaves
in her hands, then latches onto them and whatever is sourcing them. Her back feels the brunt of this sudden halt as she bounces off the ground and flies into the air legs first. She curls somewhat in an unpolished summersault motion as her feet curve down towards the ground again.

  It could be the many Olympic gymnasts she’s watched in the past or her anticipation of what’s coming next, but she immediately tucks her knees under her, unwillingly releasing the leaves and branches now brushing against her hands. Again, she can’t see where she is going, only a glimmer of where she has been. And how distant and far that now seems.

  Then, she feels her body squeeze between one or two large bushes which nestle her through like a delicate baby then release her into the air with a swoop towards another free fall. She feels like she is being swung like a slinky. This time, however, her foot catches in the bushes, sending her soaring into the air before snapping back into place and retrieving Melody into its tight grip. As she swings in the air with her head facing the bottom of the hill down yonder, a scary realization fills Melody with dread – her life is now at the mercy of a bush.

  Her messy blond hair waves in the air and periodically brushes against the ground just below. And for a moment, for a moment is all that she has, Melody consoles herself with the thought that at least she can now catch her breath.

  The wind blows in her face and she instinctively shuts her eyes, unsure what the wind is carrying with it.

  “Shh, listen. Dae ye hear’rit?” The wind brings with it a gift; a familiar voice that Melody unmistakably recognizes as belonging to Tam.

  Melody squints her eyes shut, worried that they might see her.

  “Hear what ye old geezer? It’s jus the wind.” Rob answers, frustration permeating through his voice and his accent sounding more Scottish than when he talks to Melody. Now knowing that he is not on her side, she can’t help but think she doesn’t know him at all.

  “I ken whit I hear. There’s something.” Tam darts back.

  Melody’s curiosity peeks again and she opens her eyes. The sun is glimmering through openings in the clouds and adding some buoyancy to a very cloudy day. As she hears the conversation above, she thanks God she is still alive, but wonders for how much longer.

  She can’t see clearly what’s going on above, especially while hanging upside down with her foot harnessed in a bush. In an attempt to comfort herself just now, she reasons that if she can’t see them, they probably can’t see her either, or in the least, they can’t get a good look at who she is.

  Melody peers through the wisps of light between the leaves and tries to put together the unclear figures above with the much clearer audio being delivered by her wind courier.

  “Maybe it’s a squirrel.” Rob offers, realizing he may have taken a shot too soon when he called Tam an old man.

  “Look, whit I heard when we were coming roond there was a gasp. I’m tellin’ ye. Someone was here.”

  “Okay, I’ll go look on the other side o’righ’?” Rob, who looks like he has a dark blue shirt on, offers a solution then walks around to where the barn door is located.

  “Aye, and I’ll go doon this wee bit o’ hill and see whit I can find.”

  Melody is not sure what “doon” means, but her suspicions tell her that it may mean down. And down, Tam starts to walk. The dread that slowly dissipated from Melody’s heart, regressing into a light anxiety, now thuds with a loud drum, clashing against her plans to catch a breather.

  Panicking at the thought of Tam finding her suspended like meat ready for a barbecue, lunges forward with all the strength God has given her petite body. Her arms fly wild in the air as she fumbles around the branches trying to unhook her foot. Any thought for not being seen has left her mind. She has one goal only, to escape this hill alive.

  Now standing at the edge where the hill begins its decline, Tam reaches in his pocket and pulls out a small personal pistol. He cocks it like someone who has handled a gun before then, he starts his descent.

  He continues down the hill, looking for anything that might rustle in the bushes. He is yet a ways from Melody, but he is quickly gaining ground. The confidence in his step suggests that he is looking for something specific; a young, American teacher spying on him perhaps? Melody considers.

  Still feeling like a sitting duck, Melody knows that if she fails to unhook herself soon, she will be no match for the gun-carrying groundskeeper. With a little more strength and less carefulness, Melody shakes at the branches around her foot. But they do not give; their claws are clenched tightly, refusing to release her from their firm hold.

  “Tam!” No sooner does a loud shout bellow through the wind with a tinge of Rob’s familiar vocal chords, than Melody wonders if Rob has reverted sides again to help her.

  She continues to wriggle her foot, unconvinced Tam will be deterred from his mission.

  “Whit?” Tam shouts back without turning to face Rob. His eyes are firmly planted on the ground before him, scouting for the slightest sign of life.

  Fortunately for Melody, the wind is carrying the loud rustles of her shaking at the bush away from Tam. He is just far enough to not hear her, yet.

  “I checked aroond and back. There’s nout there.” Rob yells.

  “Not even inside?”

  “Nothing. Tam, we the only ones up here.” Rob sounds like he’s getting ready to put a stop to the search party. “Come on, I’ll...”

  “In a wee bit.”

  “I can see the whole hill fae here and I cannae see anything tae worry aboot. It’s probably the wind anyway.”

  “Aye,” Tam responds more quietly, now lowering his gun. He lingers and stares down the hill, obviously contemplating if he should go further down the hill or return with Rob.

  “Come on then, I’ll buy ya a stiff one. You look like you cud use it.”

  “Alright by me.” Tam puts away his gun and returns up the hill reluctantly, then he glances back with a stern look as if to admit defeat followed by resolve to fight another day.

  As the two men depart down the path on the opposite side of the hill, Melody notices that in the time she has been in Scotland, she is yet to see a Scotsman refuse a drink.

  Still, the suspicion on Tam’s face alerted Melody that this is not over yet. Instead of waiting to find out if the men change their mind and return to the hill, she wriggles more vigorously this time. The branch rewards her persistence and gives, setting her foot free.

  Before Melody can begin her celebration, she free falls again, only this time she is rolling on more horizontal ground. Instead of gaining speed down the hill of death that she is certain has caused her more grief than pleasure, she slows down. And as serendipity would have it, her tumble down the ferocious hill completes her round trip to McCorrie’s boat and delivers her a few feet away from the Howling Dog inn.

  Unsure whether to thank God that she is alive or shout her peaked frustration at the skies, Melody lays on the ground and opts to release droves of pent up anger through heavy panting. Only five times does she permit herself to do this, then she stands up to avoid unwanted attention.

  That’s when she feels it; the sharp sting of pain in her foot accompanied by merciless throbbing from her ankle down to her foot. She cannot stand; she cannot even put weight on her foot. Like rocks falling down a hill, she crumbles to the ground. And just steps away from the warm bath and soft covers that await her in her guest room, Melody is finally overcome by the hill.

  The pain in her foot throbbing more fiercely, expressing an anger of its own, thrusts Melody into one final piercing cry for help.

  Her voice rides the sea salt-licked air, her shrills penetrate through the stone-washed walls of the Howling Dog and it is Morrison the innkeeper who hears her pleas and races to her rescue.

  Soon enough a crowd gathers around to give her cries the attention they commanded, and within the crowd are Rob and Tam with pints in hand, looking like they just received their drinks.

  “Wha’ happened to ya hen?” Mo
rrison says urgently, concerned for his guest.

  “It’s my foot. I… argh!” Morrison taps her foot with his finger and almost makes the crowd disperse as quickly as it arrived when Melody yelps in anguish. Gasps are heard bouncing in the crowd all the way to the doors of the inn.

  “Oh my, you’ve really dun it in haven’t ya?” Morrison places his hand under her back and with the other he picks up her legs at the knees. “Come on, let’s get you away from these scavengers. They’ll dae anything for a wee story, I tell ye.”

  Melody does not want the crowd to see her cry, especially the treacherous Tam and Rob, but the pain is too much to hold back her tears. She hears loud whispers skip through the crowd asking what happened and sees Rob and Tam’s puzzled faces among the scavengers as Morrison rushes her to the inn.

  “Go on then! Ge’ oot the way. Have ya nae decency?” Morrison commands the scavengers as he pushes past them with his heavier body, making sure Melody’s foot is protected. “I tell ye, they jus’ wonnae stop.”