Donna Jacobs kicked the deflated rubber. A flat tire. The perfect end to the perfect day.What did she do now? She hugged her arms around herself and drew in a long breath of cool night air, held it to a count of five, and then slowly released it. It was late and it had been a very long two days on the road, but it was almost over.Donna squinted at the white sign swinging from an L-shaped post not ten feet in front of her crippled car. Welcome to Huntley. Home of the Hornets.Too bad there was no welcoming committee. She surveyed her dark surroundings. Not quite close enough to town to have the luxury of street lights and the silvery glow of the full moon was more ominous than comforting.Dense woods loomed on either side of the desolate road, their appearance as black as the inky highway that stretched out before her. The night sounds added another layer of uneasiness. The wind rustling through the leaves. The distant, haunting call of an owl. She silently cursed the jerk who had stolen her cell phone at a service station a few hundred miles back.At half past ten she doubted there would be any traffic on this little country road.
