She kissed me on the cheek and said she'd be back Sunday. I said have a good time. I watched her back out of the driveway, then I went inside and texted Rick and Dana, "Tomorrow night." Rick and Dana had driven up separately and were parked off the access road behind me, two cars back, headlights off. We hadn't talked since the drive up, just a single text from me when I left the house and a thumbs-up from each of them. The plan didn't need rehearsing anymore.
We'd been over it enough times that it had worn grooves. I left my truck and went on foot through the brush along the south side of the property. The ground was soft and quiet. I'd worn dark clothes without thinking about it too hard, not tactical, just practical. I wasn't trying to be a movie.
I was trying to get close enough to the bedroom window without the outside light catching me. Both cars were in the gravel lot. His SUV and a second one I recognized as Amber's. The light in the main room was off. The bedroom light was on, visible at the edge of the curtain on the south-facing window.
The one I'd clocked on my second visit out here when I'd walked the tree line in daylight to understand the layout. I moved to within maybe 12 ft of it and stopped behind a wide pine and stood still for a moment listening. I could hear them. I didn't want to think about what I was hearing. I took my phone out and opened the camera and switched to video and pressed record and held it up toward the window.
Not trying to film anything explicit, just establishing that the light was on, the cars were there, the voices were real. Enough to build from. I held the angle for about 90 seconds. Then I tilted down and hit stop and checked the audio on the clip. Clear.
I sent the signal. Two texts, same message. One to Rick and one to Dana. Now. Then I went around to the front of the cabin and stood at the door.
I'd thought about this moment a lot. What I'd do, what I'd feel, whether I'd hesitate. I'd told myself I wouldn't hesitate. Standing there with my hand on the door handle, I found out I was right. There was nothing to hesitate about anymore.
I'd been patient for a long time. I was done being patient. The door was unlocked. I pushed it open and walked in. The main room was dim, just the spill of light from the hallway, and I crossed it in maybe four steps.
The bedroom door was half open. I put my hand flat on it and pushed it the rest of the way. What I saw, in the order I saw it, Holly sitting up in bed, sheet pulled up, face turning toward the door with an expression of total incomprehension, like the image in front of her wasn't assembling into anything recognizable yet. And Brent, slick, coming off the far side of the bed fast, already on his feet, which told me he'd had half a second more warning than Holly. Maybe he'd heard me cross the main room.