Page 73 of Cold as Hell

“But if it leads to an arrest, I’d need to testify.”

He speaks calmly, but his face is taut with tension. Yes, of course. He’s in Haven’s Rock because his parents were eyewitnesses to a murder. His father died because of it.

“Absolutely not,” I say. “I will never reveal anything you said to anyone here. If we believe someone committed a crime like murder, they’d be taken home. Any punishment would happen there, and that’s where they’d get the chance to defend themselves, but no one up here would be involved—or evencouldbe involved, for privacy. Our only concern is the danger people pose to other residents. Once they’re gone, they aren’t our problem.”

“Okay, that makes sense.” He toys with the seam on his jeans. “I guess me worrying about making Mom mad seems like a very small thing, considering what happened to Lynn. I wouldn’t keep quiet just to avoid getting in trouble. But Mom… She has nightmares about Max going missing, and if I admitted I slipped out during a storm… She doesn’t need that.”

And she definitely doesn’t need to learn that her son may have been eyewitness to an abduction leading to murder. The echoes to her own past will mean—between that and memories of Max’s disappearance—she might never sleep again.

“Whatever information you have, I will do what I can to avoid telling your mother. Teens sneaking out is just…” I shrug. “Part of being a teen. But after Max’s kidnapping, it’s different for her.”

“I reallywouldhave come forward sooner if I thought what I saw was helpful.”

I want to hug him for that. In spite of what happened to his parents, he still wanted to do the right thing. That takes unbelievable courage. Of course, the last thing he wants is a hug, so I settle for an encouraging smile.

He continues, “It was during the whiteout. Max was playing on the Switch, and Mom was napping. I got bored, and I was looking at the storm and wondering what it was like to be out there. We’ve mostly lived in places that don’t have snow. Sheriff Eric gave us that talk about blizzards and whiteouts and snow blindness, but it sounded weird. The idea that you couldn’t actually see anything. It’s just snow. I wanted to see what it was like.”

He looks at me. “I was very careful because I knew if I evengot a little lost, Mom would have a heart attack. I put on my winter stuff in the hall and slipped out. I just walked around the building, while keeping one hand on it.”

“Good,” I say. “Because you really can get lost out there.”

“Yeah, I saw that. The wind was whipping the snow around, and at one point, I couldn’t evenseethe building. If I wasn’t touching it, I’d have been screwed. But then, the wind died down for a second, and there was someone there. Like maybe fifteen feet away. Two people walking.”

“Did they see you?”

“Nah, they had their backs to me. They were heading the other way. Then the wind came up again, and I couldn’t see them. I didn’t think much of it. Just people getting home in the storm. But then I heard someone say Lynn had been spotted with a guy, and I started wondering whether that’s who I’d seen. Except, even if it was, you already had that information, and I couldn’t add anything. I just saw two figures, one a lot bigger than the other, like a man and a woman. He seemed to be holding her arm, but not restraining her or anything. Just helping her along.”

“What can you tell me about them?”

He shrugs. “Nothing, really. Just that it was two people that I automatically thought were a man and woman. Wearing the usual stuff we all do. I didn’t take a good look.”

“Lynn wears a very distinctive scarf. Did you see that?”

He shakes his head. “Whoever it was, she had her back to me.”

I hesitate. “So you didn’t see her scarf tied around her neck?”

Now he’s frowning. “She wears it inside, like most of us. Which I know because I mistook her for Mom once, which was really awkward.”

“Were you behind your residence or beside it?”

“Around back.”

“And they were heading where exactly?”

“I was coming around clockwise, and they were up ahead of me. I figured they were going to the residence next to ours.”

Which they might have been. Two people in the storm, unrelated to Lynn’s disappearance, just heading home, as he figured. Otherwise…

I need to give this more thought. For now, though, I thank Carson and send him on his way, and then it’s time for me to go.

Talking in a plane is never easy. A small plane means there’s little chance of speaking without our headsets, but even with those, it’s too much effort for a conversation. With Dalton being the pilot, I’m never keen to divert his focus at the best of times, and this isn’t the best of times.

While it’s an easy takeoff and the cloud cover is well overhead, he’s focused on distant dark clouds. Very distant and not very dark, meaning any bad weather is far enough off.

Storm is in the back, having been trained to stay there so she doesn’t interfere with the pilot. I glance back at her. She’s an experienced flier, but not necessarily a happy one. I offer her a smile, and then I let myself fall into my thoughts. While I’m technically the copilot, this small plane doesn’t need that. I was in the process of learning to fly when morning sickness derailed me. I’ll still get my license—it’d be good to have another pilot, besides Dalton and Phil. For now, Dalton will let me know if he needs my eyes.

I’m deep in my thoughts when I see his lips moving. I check my headset. It’s on. I just can’t hear him, which means—coupled with the fact that he isn’t looking my way—that he’s talking to someone on the radio.

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