Page 4 of Refuge for Cherilyn

“Ah. Gotcha. I’ve got the address as four twenty-three?”

“Nah. That’s my brother’s place. She don’t live there no more.”

“Do you know where she lives now?”

“Some other apartment somewheres. So why you asking about her? I mean, has she done somethin’?”

“No. We just heard there was something going on in her apartment building and we wanted to ask her about it.”

“Oh, you mean that murder?”

That was the first Shaw had heard about a murder. “Uh, yeah. The murder.”

“Yeah, that was awful. Killing that woman with her little kids there. Awful.”

Jesus, how did I miss that?He knew the answer. He never turned on the TV. Hell, he didn’t have time. He worked all the time, and when he was home, a boatload of electronics yakking at him was the last thing he needed. “So we were wondering if she saw or heard anything that might help us.”

“Good luck. Probably thought she was next and took off.” That struck Shaw as strange. She wasthatparanoid? That was pretty bad. “Thing is, she’s got the girls with her.”

“Girls?”

“Yeah. They’ve got two girls. Maya’s fifteen and Lara’s ten. Wherever she went, she took them with her, or at least it looks that way.”

That truly alarmed Shaw. It was one thing if she was hiding out, but her kids too? They should’ve been in school. “Where do they go to school?”

“Maya goes to the high school. Lara’s at Central Primary. She’s special ed.”

Shaw was stunned. What would make a woman run that way? She had no reason to feel that threatened.

Unless shehadseen something.

“Okay, well, thanks for the info. I’ll see if I can scare her up.”

“Good luck with that. She spent her whole life huntin’, fishin’, trappin’, that kind of thing. I doubt she’ll have any trouble staying hidden.”

That was the moment Shaw was sure his suspicions were true. CherilynTravis was out there in the woods in Cumberland Falls State Park. He needed to find her before something happened to her and her kids.

Unless, of course, it already had.

* * *

She was runningout of money, but there was no going back to the apartment. That just couldn’t happen. If there was anything she had a perversion to, it was dying, and she had no plans to do it anytime soon.

Her thoughts were pierced by yet another whine. “Oh, no. Mom?”

It was hard to stop herself from sighing?loudly. “What, honey?”

“My period’s started! What am I supposed to do? I don’t have anything!”

It hadn’t crossed her mind, and she wasn’t sure why. “Okay. I’ll figure this out.”

“And what am I supposed to do while you’re figuring it out?”

“Maya, please! I’m doing the best that I can.”

“We should just call Dad to come and get us.”

Cherilyn’s heart froze. “No, baby. We can’t. You know that. I’ll figure something out.” But what? If she went over to the store, shoplifted them, and she got caught, she’d be dead. Maya really did need them. What the hell could she do? “Look. Here.” She handed Maya one of her athletic socks and a shopping bag. “Put the sock on top of the bag and use that until I can get you some.”

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