Page 6 of Twin Jeopardy

He fell asleep there on the ground, and his father woke him to go into the tent, where he burrowed into his sleeping bag beside Valerie. She lay curled on her side, the rhythm of her deep breathing lulling him to sleep.

He woke early the next morning when she crawled over him on her way to the door. “What are you doing?” he whispered, then glanced toward their parents, who slept side by side a few inches away.

“I’m going to get wood and start a fire.” Valerie pulled on one green boot, then the other, then ducked out the tent flap and zipped it up again.

He lay down again and must have fallen back asleep. Next thing he knew, his mother was shaking him. “Vince, have you seen your sister?”

“Huh?” He raised up on his elbows and looked around. Valerie and his dad were both gone from the tent, and his mother was dressed in tan hiking shorts and a blue fleece, her brown hair pulled back in a ponytail.

“Valerie isn’t here. Do you know where she went?” Mom asked.

“She got up early and said she was going to get firewood.” He sat up. Bright sunlight showed through the open tent flap. “What time is it?”

“It’s after eight. When did she get up?”

“I don’t know. Really early, I think.” He had that impression, anyway.

“Get up and get dressed. We need to look for her.”

When he crawled out of the tent, he noticed the firepit was empty and cold. “Valerie!” his mother called.

“Valerie!” His dad echoed from the other side of the dike.

Vince climbed onto the granite slab and shaded his eyes, searching for movement or a flash of color. His father joined him. “Do you see anything?” Dad asked.

“No. Yesterday, she said there was a man camped over here, but I don’t see anyone.”

“Come on. We need to spread out and look farther away.”

They searched for an hour. Vince peered into canyons and climbed atop rocks, but there was no sign of Valerie. “I’m going to hike back to the car and go for the sheriff,” his father said. “You stay with your mother and keep looking.”

His mother pulled him close. Her eyes were red and swollen from crying. “Where could she have gone?” she asked. “Did she say where she was going?”

“No. She just said she was going to get some wood.”

“How can she have just vanished?”

But she had. None of them would ever see her again.

Chapter Three

Tammy met with Sheriff Travis Walker on Monday morning. When she had first moved to Eagle Mountain, the handsome dark-haired sheriff was considered one of the most eligible bachelors in town. Now the married father of twins, he had a reputation for being an honest, hardworking lawman who had run unopposed in the last election. Not long after Tammy had started work at the newspaper, she had been attacked by a pair of men who had been preying on women in the area. She had escaped unharmed, and Travis had been gentle, but firm, in digging out all the information she could remember about her attackers.

As she waited in his office, she studied the photo of his smiling wife, a baby in each arm. It probably wasn’t easy being married to a man who had to face his share of danger, but Lacey Walker looked happy. Tammy felt a pinch of jealousy as she stared at the photo. She wanted that kind of happiness—that settledness of having a mate who loved you and children who were part of you. So far, that had eluded her.

“Hello, Tammy.” She turned as Travis entered the office. He settled behind the desk, the chair creaking as he sat back. “Sorry to keep you waiting.”

“I haven’t been here long.”

“I had a copy of the Valerie Shepherd file made for you. There’s not a lot of information here.” He handed a single file folder across the desk.

“I spoke with Vince Shepherd Friday,” she said. “He told me the consensus was that Valerie must have fallen and either been killed instantly or so injured she wasn’t able to cry for help.”

“By all accounts, she was an active, adventurous little girl,” Travis said. “There are a lot of steep drop-offs, deep canyons and unstable rock formations in the area.”

“But if that was the case, don’t you think someone would have found her? According to the accounts I’ve read, there were literally hundreds of people searching for her for weeks. And yet not one item of clothing or any part of her remains has been found.”

He shrugged. “If she ended up deep in a canyon, or in a cave or rock crevice, her remains might never be discovered.”

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