Page 46 of So Dark

“She went on a solo hiking trip two days ago, and no one’s heard from her since. She’s supposed to check in with her neighbor once a day, but she hasn’t.”

“Shit. Did she tell her where she was going?”

“Him, but I guess that’s not really relevant. She was going to hike to the mouth of the Tazlina River, follow it to the Copper River and then hike back to a cabin she has on St. Anne Lake. I don’t know where any of those places are, though.”

“Find out and get authorities and rescue services there ASAP. Get Wyatt to put search parties out too. If he protests, tell him we’ll name him as part of the reason this girl dies.”

Michael nodded. “I’ll make the calls.”

“Good. As soon as we get locations, we’re going out looking for her. Dress warmly. We might be out all night.”

Michael dialed Wyatt while Faith dressed in her parka and boots. Turk looked at her, and his eyes showed similar concern.

Kelly had left two days ago. Lisa Blackwood was murdered last night. The killer could be out hunting Kelly right now.

Or she was already dead.

CHAPTER TWENTY

The truck bounced and skidded over the rough terrain as Michael drove them toward Tazlina Lake. The Tazlina River began at the far northeastern tip of the lake, about ten miles from their lodging in Nelchina. The rental truck was fairly capable over rough terrain, but the ground was growing steadily worse the farther into the wilderness they drove. Soon, they would have to abandon it and proceed on foot.

Faith considered the possibilities, but at this point, there weren't many to consider. There were tensions between all of the Nature's Guardians for different reasons, but only one man had a reason to hate all of the other members of the group. Only Graham Nash had been universally despised by everyone. True, Lisa hadn't despised him, but from his perspective, Lisa had allowed the group to oust him. He would be angry with her, too.

He was also the only member of the group who hadn’t been accounted for at some point during this investigation. Kelly’s whereabouts were unknown now, but she had been home at least two days ago.

Faith frowned. “Why didn’t the neighbor report her missing? Why didn’t we hear about this yesterday?”

“I don’t know, but it’s pretty common for people not to report missing persons until it’s been far too long. People don’t want to believe the worst, so they assume the best and ignore the problem until it gets too big to ignore or resolves itself without any action on their part.”

Faith shook her head. “So what, the neighbor didn’t think it was a problem that she didn’t check in?”

“He said she rarely did. He was the one who asked her to check in. He always does, and she always says she will, but she never listens.”

Faith smacked the dashboard in frustration. So they had a young woman who thought she was invincible and a neighbor who didn’t think it was his problem. Damn it, why were people so stupid?

“And we still have no news of Graham Nash?”

“No. He didn’t have a lot of friends, and his neighbors said the same thing everyone else has said about the rest of the group. He always disappears with no warning, sometimes for days, sometimes for weeks without telling anyone where he’s going or when he plans on coming back.”

“Well, we need to find him. It’s more likely than not that he’s our killer.”

“I think at this point we should focus our efforts on finding Kelly Connor,” Michael replied. “If she’s the potential victim, then we need to get her to rescue ASAP.”

“Yeah.” She smacked the dashboard again. “Shit. This is just…”

“Nothing we haven’t done before,” Michael reminded her.

“We haven’t done this in a massive wilderness,” she countered. “Everywhere else, the victim’s always been traceable. They go to their homes, and they go to work. Maybe the park or the subway station. Kelly could be anywhere over one hundred square miles of land right now. Even when we were hunting that killer in the cave in Idaho, we didn’t have as much ground to cover.”

“You’re right,” Michael said. “Let’s give up. There’s no way we can do this. We’ll just act like Wyatt and throw our hands in the air. After all, this is just what happens in the wilderness.”

“You’re not helping,” she snapped.

“Neither are you. So how about instead of being pissy that this job is difficult, you focus on doing it.”

“I am focused!”

“No, you aren’t. You’re focused on the killer back home who might be chasing you, the fact that the media wants to pester you about West, Turk’s retirement, your cold feet with David, and these feelings for me that have resurfaced out of nowhere.”

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