Free Written in Stone by Ellery Adams Page A

off, not quite knowing what she wanted to say.
    “But you think she felt threatened?” Rawlings asked.
    Olivia shook her head. “No, not threatened. She acted . . . resigned. Prepared. She
     summoned me, Sawyer. It was important to her that I come right away, even though we
     were complete strangers. She needed to see me, to give me advice and her last memory
     jug. She told me that jug had all the answers I’d need to keep death at bay.”
    “This gets more bizarre by the minute.” Rawlings frowned. “I don’t like it. With two
     highly publicized events coming up, the sheriff is going to want to wrap up this case
     as quickly as possible. He won’t want any media attention.”
    “So if I tell him about my visit and explain that I’d given Munin the necklace, then
     she’ll just disappear?” Olivia asked, though she already knew the answer. “There’s
     no logical reason why I should have a problem with that, but I do.” She searched the
     chief’s face and saw her concern mirrored there. “I can’t let her fade away like that,
     Sawyer. Like she never existed.”
    Rawlings swept his gaze over the water and then pivoted to look at the lighthouse.
     As if summoned, Haviland appeared from around the corner of the tower, paused to investigate
     an interesting scent in a clump of sea oats, and then trotted toward them. Olivia
     held out her hand and he pressed his nose into her palm and then gave Rawlings a brief
     nuzzle before heading back up the path to the cottage.
    “We need to examine that jug,” Rawlings said. “And find out the rest of Munin’s story.
     There’s a reason she removed herself from the world. Very few people live like that
     by choice. She was connected to someone once. A mother? A father? Siblings? Someone.”
    Olivia nodded. “I think she’s been in hiding for so long that being alone became her
     way of life. After enough years had passed, her past, whatever it was, must have seemed
     like a dream.” She reached for her necklace, her fingertips meeting only naked skin.
     “But after all this time, something from the past must have found her. I believe she
     knew it was coming, that there was no place left to run.”
    They stood in silence listening to the waves whisper onto the shore. And when the
     first star began shining through the canvas of deep blue, they didn’t bother wishing
     upon it. Instead, they walked toward the cottage, turning their backs on the beauty
     of the night.

Chapter 5
    Because we focused on the snake, we missed the scorpion.
    —E GYPTIAN P ROVERB
    “W e have to call it an evening,” Olivia told the rest of the Bayside Book Writers apologetically.
     Chief Rawlings remained outside, kicking chucks of gravel as he made another phone
     call.
    Laurel was the first to recognize that something grave had occurred. She tucked Harris’s
     chapter back into a folder and clutched it against her chest. Olivia’s eye was drawn
     to the red and pink bubbly hearts on its cover. She imagined a working human heart,
     sinewy and slick, its powerful muscle contracting. She saw the same heart falling
     still, the blood pooling in the four chambers. How had this mighty muscle reacted
     to the venom of an eastern diamondback rattlesnake? Had it beat double-time? Or had
     it burned in those last moments of life as the poison coursed through its valves?
    “Are you okay?” Laurel’s voice brought Olivia back from her gruesome reverie.
    “A woman I met for the first time last week has passed away,” she said. “I’m reeling
     a bit over the news because . . .” She trailed off, unsure of how much to tell the
     other writers.
    Millay, sharp as ever, drew her own conclusions. “Because something’s off about her
     death? Is that why the chief’s in uniform?”
    Harris glanced at her in surprise. “He probably just wanted to tell Olivia in private.”
    Millay shook her head. “I doubt it. Olivia said she just met this woman. There’s more
     to it than