Cades Cove 01 - Cades Cove: A Novel of Terror Read Online Free Page A

she suggested they stop for a farewell photo. They hoped to find a passing tourist to take their picture together, but nearing dusk and the park’s closing time, they found themselves alone.
    At David’s insistence, Miriam posed first since sunset came quickly. He managed to get two excellent shots of her standing in front of an incredible backdrop of the Smoky Mountains.
    His turn next, she captured one good shot of him standing in the same place she stood a moment earlier. The sun fell behind the mountains just as she snapped the picture. When they reached the parking lot adjacent to John Oliver’s place, only their rented Chevy Malibu remained.
    “ Well…I’m waiting, Mr. Music,” she prodded.
    “ I’m still trying to put today’s experience in its proper perspective,” he said, once he defined the main theme fueling his rampant thoughts.
    “ I’m sure it’s just a strange string of coincidences, which only seemed connected in some weird way,” she said, and then momentarily looked away, as if she’d already filed the event away in the recesses of her mind and was unhappy to deal with it again. “Like we talked about earlier, maybe we just happened upon some stuff that had already been there for awhile.”
    David shrugged his shoulders and took another sip from his beer. “But, now that you turned the bag and tooth over to the park service,” she continued, “we no longer have to worry about it.”
    Ah…therein lies a problem, thought David, still smiling at her. When they reached the visitors’ center next to the Cable Mill, he was the one elected to give the items to a ranger. For efficiency, he opened the bag and dropped the tooth inside. He did this as soon as he stepped out of the car. Once he walked into the building and on up to the main information desk, he held out the bag for the park service employee working behind the counter to take. A pudgy middle-aged woman with thick eyeglasses and short gray hair, he waited for her to finish filling out a report.
    Unsure if the employee was an actual ranger or not, he intended to give her the bag anyway. Right before she finished working on the report and finally acknowledged his presence, a peculiar sensation overwhelmed him. He pulled his hand back, and by the time the woman looked up at him he’d deposited the bag inside one of his coat pockets that already contained a pair of Indian arrowheads and an unusual-shaped piece of pyrite he found on the way to the ravine. Without saying a word, he turned and walked out of the visitor’s center.
    “ So, what did they tell you?” asked Miriam, when he returned to the car.
    He started to tell the truth, but then sensed that he shouldn’t—more like couldn’t— without incurring some terrible consequence for doing so. After opening his mouth and saying nothing for a moment, he lied.
    “ The lady I just spoke to said she’d take care of the bag and tooth.”
    Miriam frowned and David feared his ruse would be uncovered.
    “ What did she think about what happened? You did tell her everything, right?”
    “ Yeah, I told her,” he said, worried he hadn’t stayed inside the visitor’s center long enough to make his story believable. “But I’m not sure she took me seriously.”
    He hoped this explanation sufficed. He didn’t understand why he couldn’t give the items away, and worse yet, why he lied to the one person he cherished more than any other.
    “ Well, that takes care of it then,” she said, seemingly relieved.
    She pulled the car out of the parking lot and back onto the main road out of the park. Once they returned to the chalet, they took a quick shower and then headed back into town to look for one of the nicer venues to eat at….
    “ Thanks a lot for reminding me about that poor girl and her lost beau,” she said, as he nodded in silence across from her at their table in the restaurant. “Can you picture how lonely she must’ve been out there in the cove?”
    “ Yeah, I