Page 4 of Twin Jeopardy

“No, but it’s an enduring mystery.”

He braced himself for her to say that people were always interested in mysteries. That was true, but when it was your own family tragedy at the center of the mystery, it was tough to think of it as entertaining. But she gave him a direct look, her blue eyes showing no sign of guile. “It doesn’t hurt to bring the case to the public’s attention again. You never know when someone might have seen the one thing that could help you find out what happened that day.”

“Do you really think there’s a person out there who knows something they’ve never talked about?” he asked. “I’m pretty sure the sheriff’s department—not to mention my parents—talked to everyone they could find.”

“There was another camper in the area that day. No one ever found and talked to him.”

“How do you know about him?”

“One of the news stories from the paper’s archives mentioned law enforcement was looking for the man.”

“He was backpacking, like us. It’s not like he could have smuggled my sister out in his pack or anything. The general consensus was that Valerie fell or had some other accident. It’s pretty rugged country, and there are a lot of places a little kid could get lost.”

She glanced at her notes. “I plan to meet with the sheriff, and search and rescue has agreed to let me review their logs and other information in the archives about the search. And I want to speak with your parents.”

“Let me call them first.”

“That would be great.” She smiled, and he felt the impact of the expression. How could someone put so much warmth into a smile? “I’ll wait until I hear from you before I contact them. But it would help a lot if you could tell me about that day. I’d like to know more about Valerie and what she was like, and what your family was like before that day.”

“I was only ten when it happened.”

“She was your twin. You must have memories of her.”

“I do.”

She leaned toward him, her voice gentle. “I’m not trying to cause you pain, opening up old wounds. But Valerie is at the center of the story. I want to try to show my readers how her loss affected not just her family but also this town. I have a quote from the newspaper stories at the time. One of the volunteer searchers said that before Valerie disappeared, everyone thought of the wilderness as safe—not without risk, but a haven from the kinds of crimes that happen in cities and towns. That sense of security was taken along with her.”

“We don’t know that her disappearance was a crime.”

“No. But because her body was never found—not a single trace—the possibility remains that someone took her. It’s every family’s worst nightmare, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.” A nightmare. One from which they had never completely awakened.

Fifteen Years Ago

“COMEON, VINCE. Race me to that big red rock up ahead.” Valerie turned around and walked backward along the trail, thumbs hooked in the straps of her blue backpack, her legs like two pale sticks between the frayed hem of her denim shorts and the folded cuffs of the striped knit socks she wore with her green leather hiking boots. She had had what their mom deemed a growth spurt that summer, and was now three inches taller than Vince and all angles. Except for the corkscrew curls that stuck out from the green bandanna she had tied around her head.

“I don’t want to race,” he said. He didn’t even want to be on this trip, lugging a heavy pack up into the middle of nowhere instead of hanging out with his friends at Trevor Richardson’s birthday party, which was going to be a pool party at the rec center in Junction. Some of the boys—including Vince—had been invited to spend the night, with sleeping bags in the Richardsons’ basement rec room, where they planned to stay up all night eating junk food and watching horror movies.

But Vince’s parents had put an end to that prospect, insisting Vince needed to come on this trip. “We’ve been planning it for weeks, and family comes first,” his mother said when Vince had protested.

So here he was, with the straps of his backpack digging into his shoulders and Valerie doing her best to be the kid who wassoooohappy to be here. Instead of sympathizing with her twin, she was purposely making him look bad.

“How can anybody be such a grumpy-pants when we’re surrounded by all this gorgeousness?” Valerie turned to face forward again and raised her arms in the air like she was auditioning forThe Sound of Musicor something.

No one answered her. Instead, their dad said, “I think there’s a good spot to camp up ahead, off to the left in the shelter of that dike.” He pointed toward a gray rock wall that stood out from the rest of the more eroded mountainside. An amateur geologist, Dad liked to use these trips to talk about various rock formations and how they had come to be. Usually, Vince found this interesting, but how could that stuff—much of which he had heard before—compare to the lost prospect of swimming, pizza, and a sleepover with unlimited junk food and horror movies?

“Awesome!” Valerie raced toward the campsite, pack bouncing. Vince brought up the rear of the group. When he got there, Valerie had already scaled a flat-topped chunk of granite. “There’s another camper over there!” She pointed straight ahead. “Looks like a guy with a blue dome tent.”

“Come down and help set up camp,” their mother said. She was already pulling the rain fly and a bag of stakes from her pack while their father unpacked the folded tent. They each carried their own sleeping bags and pads, and the food for the weekend was divided among them.

“I’ll help with the tent,” Valerie said.

“Vince can help with that,” their father said. “Why don’t you see if you can find firewood? I thought I spotted some dead trees on the other side of the trail.”

Valerie raced off to gather wood while Vince reluctantly helped his dad assemble the tent. “There will be other parties,” his father said.

“Not like this one.” Vince pounded a tent stake into the hard ground. “And there will be lots of other camping trips.”

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