Page 37 of So Dark

“But there were others who were only in the group part of the time?” Faith asked.

“A few. I can get you a list of members. Lisa has their contact info on her phone. I can send it to you if you want.”

“Please do,” Faith said.

"The thing is, most of them moved away. Or they weren't from here, and they joined thinking it was an online thing that organized annual trips. Sorry." He rubbed his forehead. "I'm all over the place."

“That’s all right,” Faith said. “Get the list, and we’ll go through the names together and see if there’s anyone who could be involved.”

“I just don’t get it,” Robert said. “Why would any of them hurt her? Why would anyone do this kind of shit? Like… you guys see this a lot, right? This kind of fucked up shit?”

“More than we would like,” Faith replied.

“So why? Why do people do this?”

She looked at Michael. The two agents shifted uncomfortably in their chairs. “I think you should let us handle that part,” Michael said. “The honest answer is that reasons differ in each case. None of them are good enough to justify the murders. You focus on mourning your wife and honoring her memory. We’ll find whoever took her from you.”

“I know you will, but damn it,why?”Tears streamed from Robert’s face. “Just…”

He fell silent and buried his head in his hands. Faith’s heart ached for him. These were the worst conversations she ever had to have. It was impossible for normal people to put themselves in the headspace of murderers, and these murderers were far beyond the ordinary spectrum of killers. The sad, brutal truth was that whatever reason the killer had would seem ludicrous to anyone who wasn’t as sick and violent as the killer was.

“You’re going through a lot right now,” Faith said. “Why don’t you send us the list when you’ve had a moment to process everything?”

“No,” he said, shaking his head and standing. “No, I’ll get it now. It’s…” he chuckled bitterly. “Well, it’snotall right, but it’s life.”

He left the kitchen, and the agents shared a glum look with Wyatt. The police officer looked ten years older than he had when they first met him.

“Did you get anything from the murder weapon?” Faith asked.

Wyatt shook his head. “We sent it to the crime lab in case they could find something, but we didn’t notice anything on the spear or the thrower. Same thing as before, the killer’s being very careful not to leave anything behind.”

“Any thoughts on why he used a spear thrower this time?”

Michael answered that one. “I could be off base, but it seems like the killer might be going from easiest to kill to hardest to kill. Valerie was a snare from right up close. He had multiple traps at Ethan Holloway’s place. Here he rigged a trap from a distance. Maybe it’s not that Lisa was harder to kill, but she might have been better at noticing things up close or…” he sighed. “So basically, the same thing we already know. He’s adjusting his method for each victim. Christ, I hate this.”

He sipped his coffee and frowned across the table. Robert returned a moment later with the list.

“Looks like nine names,” he told them. “I forget how many I said earlier. Anyway, there was Lisa, Ethan and Valerie. Graham Nash, Kelly Connor and Justin Thornton. Those six were the permanent members. Then we have George Von Karman, uh, Henry Duchamp and Uma Parker. They were the out-of-towners who showed up to a meeting or two but figured out that this wasn’t like a social media adventure site.”

“We can probably rule out those three,” Faith said. “Wyatt, go ahead and call the numbers anyway and get alibis for the nights of the murders.”

She kept her tone professional, but inwardly she was disappointed. This revealed no new information to them, and the three permanent members were all unavailable right now. Could they be working together?

She was tired. Her mind was all over the place. She needed to get some rest and then attack this with fresh eyes. She stood and called for Turk. “Thank you for your time, Mr. Blackwood.”

“Sure. Don’t mention it. Just do me a favor.” His face set grimly. “If you find the asshole who did this, I want to talk to him. I want to know why he did what he did.”

Faith and Michael shared another look. Obviously, they couldn’t grant this request, but Faith didn’t want to argue with Robert right now. So she deflected. “Get some rest, Robert.”

The three of them left the house and started back toward their hotel. Part of Faith’s depression was due to exhaustion, but there was no doubt that seeing the impact of Lisa Blackwood’s murder made the pain of their failure to capture the killer harder to handle.

She might save other lives. She might even find this killer. But nothing she did would ever bring Lisa Blackwood back. Now and forever, Robert had lost the woman he loved.

Somewhere in the wilderness, her killer was still roaming free. He could already be stalking his next victim.

But then, so could the hunter in Philadelphia, the one who had killed Eleanor. Faith should be able to put that aside and focus on the hunter she was tracking, but it was hard to do when she had to worry about her friends and loved ones being targeted by another violent murderer.

Only a few months ago, Faith thought that she had finally found stability in her life. Now her world was crumbling around her, and all she could do was watch it happen.

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