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He didn’t believe for a minute that the Barrister house, the one Sheriff Harms said was deserted and abandoned, was the house he’d been inside

"We should see the house any minute now," the sheriff said It seemed to Savich that there were more ruts in the road than he re inti That beautiful big lighted house would come into view at any moment Yes, there, another hundred feet and the small rise appeared, on the left, and on top of the rise was the house, trees closing in around it fro so close

There were no lights shining out of the first floor of the house now, none at all It looked like a huge black hulk, crouched atop that rise Sohts off, or the power A small voice in the back of his brain asked why

"This is the Barrister house," Sheriff Har, dark house "Is this the place where you brought the young wo He pulled on his leather gloves as he slowly got out of the SUV and walked to the front of the house He paused aHe walked up the ooden stairs that led to the covered porch which extended the full width of the front of the house

Suddenly the moon came out from behind the black clouds, and he saw the house clearly for the first time

It was the same house he’d been inside an hour before, but it wasn’t, not really This house looked deserted, dilapidated, as if it had been neglected for many years Trees pressed in toward the house, soainst upstairs s There were boards nailed over downstairs s, broken glass scattered on the porch There was even graffiti on the wall next to the front door

The house was dead, had been dead for a very long time His heart pounded as he looked at the front door that was barely hanging onto its hinges, studied it, and accepted what he saw because there was si the wo how very pretty she’d been, not having noticed it at first because she’d been so frightened

He turned and walked back to the car

Sheriff Harine, "Her naust of 1973"

"I want to see a photo of her," Savich said

Sherlock took his hand, held it tight

TWO HOURS LATER, Sherlock awoke to find Dillon standing by the bedrooot up and walked to him, and wrapped her ar about her, aren’t you, still trying to find logical reasons for what happened"

"There aren’t any It’s driving uess I can’t get around the fact that I’ve experienced souess you’d have to call it otherworldly"

She kissed his shoulder "Then perhaps it’s time to simply accept it"

"But the reasonable part of my brain doesn’t want to" He turned and pulled her into his ar, Sherlock, so I just remembered I called you when I had the blowout It wasn’t tenout of the woods I insisted on calling for help, but I couldn’t get through on the cell phone But then later, at the house, after she was gone, I called you and it worked just fine again"

She held hinal was better there" She paused a ertips to his jaw "I just re to like this, he kneasn’t

"You called ht"

"The second tiht"

He sucked in his breath "No," he said, "no, that’s just not possible That would mean that all of what happened--no, that’s ridiculous I spent a lot of ti that house No, I can’t accept that all that happened in fifteenabout the tiain, touched her fingertips to his cheek "It’s very late It’s snowing Sean will be up and raring to go in less than four hours We’ll have time to discuss this tomorrow; you can decide what to do then