When you visit our website, if you give your consent, we will use cookies to allow us to collect data for aggregated statistics to improve our service and remember your choice for future visits. Cookie Policy & Privacy Policy
Dear Reader, we use the permissions associated with cookies to keep our website running smoothly and to provide you with personalized content that better meets your needs and ensure the best reading experience. At any time, you can change your permissions for the cookie settings below.
If you would like to learn more about our Cookie, you can click on Privacy Policy.
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR All of the rural Virginia back roads looked the same as far as Kate was concerned. Blacktop—some unmarked with signs or lines down the middle—and expanses of woodlands that were slowly being decimated by local lumber companies. Over and over again. And Duck Branch was no different. It was a little hole in the wall town, nearly every business closed up like the echo of some better life from a decade or so ago. About halfway through the sorry excuse for a town, Bill’s Tire and Auto Shop came up on the right. There wasn’t even any real sign out front—just an old piece of double-enforced plywood with the name of the business painted on in black. It was 5:25 when Kate pulled her car into the bumpy parking lot. There were several old beaten-up vehicles parked along the side