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recognized the return address on the first e-mail— [email protected] —she’d opened it without a second thought. She figured her brother had gotten a new e-mail address and was letting her know about it.
    The second the large, bold letters had appeared on her screen, she knew she’d figured wrong. That message had been equally short—and equally chilling.
I’M WATCHNG U.
    Her brother would never send something like that, not even as a joke. She had configured her account to block the person’s address, then deleted the e-mail, figuring it was a tasteless prank from someone who had too much time on his hands. Nothing to worry about.
    Then the second e-mail showed up.
    This one was from [email protected] . Again, not an address she recognized, but she only hesitated for a moment. No stranger could know that
Kylie
was her nickname for her older sister. It had to be okay.
    Wrong again.
THAIR R WORST THINGS THEN
BEING LOST U’LL SEE. SOON.
    Annie considered forwarding it to her brother. After all, one of the perks of having a sheriffs deputy for a brother was that he was there when things got weird.
    Or frightening.
    But she didn’t want to get him all worked up just because of some anonymous twit. Better to just save it and then wait to see if any more messages showed up.
    Well, apparently the old saying is true: Third time’s a charm.
    When she’d opened her e-mail account a few minutes ago, she saw the suspect message right away At the sight of Jayce’s misspelled name in the address, an increasingly familiar dread skittered through her. She grabbed the mouse. She’d just forward the message to Dan with an explanation. Let him deal with it …
    Yeah, nice welcome-home-from-your-honeymoon gift.
    Right. Well, then, she’d just keep it in her mailbox and talk with him when he got home. That decided, she peered at the picture again. It looked like the one the local paper had used for an article on search and rescue several years ago. Anyone could have found that, made the
X
with a marker, then scanned it in.
    But why? Why would someone want to do this?
    It’s Dan’s job to figure that out. Just leave it alone until you talk with him.
    Good idea. She clicked the
close
button, then just about jumped out of her skin when a hard rap sounded at her door.
    “Annot! Turn off that stupid computer, and go to bed.”
    Annie gritted her teeth and powered down her computer. She loved her siblings. She really did. But as she slipped the laptop into its case, she thought she’d had about all the sisterly mothering she could take.
    And then some.

TWO        
    “
‘Because of God’s tender mercy,
the light from heaven is about to break upon us,
to give light to those who sit in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
and to guide us to the path of peace.’”
    L UKE 1:78-79
    “Step within His light and keep following.”
    E LSI D ODGE
    S EPTEMBER 8
    Time had lost all meaning.
    Torture had a way of making that happen. And if standing here being badgered by these two women wasn’t torture, Dan Justice didn’t know what was.
    “I can’t believe I let you two talk me into this. Do you know what time it is?” He lifted the phone from its base, ready to dial.
    “Your sister won’t mind, Sheriff. I just know she won’t.”
    Dan’s fingers tightened on the phone. “Aggie, how long have we known each other?”
    Agatha Hunter pursed her lined lips. “Sheriff, do you
really
think now is the time to reminisce?”
    “Agatha, how long?”
    “Howl on?” Doris Kleffer, Agatha’s best friend and constant companion, tugged at the taller woman’s sleeve. “What’s the sherifftalking about? Did you howl? I didn’t hear you howl.”
    Aggie batted at Doris’s veined hand. “How
long
, Doris. He wants to know how
long
we’ve known him.”
    “Well!” Doris huffed. “This is hardly the time to discuss
that!”
    “That’s what I said, but he wants to know.”
    “Wants to go? Go where?”
    “
Know
, Doris. He wants