Page 36 of Silverstorm

Jude was sick to his stomach with all the ifs, buts, and maybes plaguing him. He really wished he’d had time to delve a little deeper into that cult he and Aria had discussed the other day. But then they’d found Iliana’s and her husband’s bodies and things had developed so quickly, he simply hadn’t had time. And now, Aria had gone missing, just like her sister had three days ago. This was fast becoming a pattern. But he wished he knew who was pulling the strings of this particular puzzle. He had a growing suspicion that it had something to do with Tango’s mysterious past. Something to do with this InXium group, whoever, or whatever, they were.

The first thing Brady had done when they’d discovered Aria was nowhere to be found was order a review of all the security footage from all the cameras in the police station. Only to find that somehow, the cameras had mysteriously been turned off for around five minutes at the same time Aria was thought to have gone missing. This might well be an inside job, but Jude had no clue who to look at first; there were over forty people involved in manning this station, it’d be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Now Jude just glared at everyone around him, suspecting everyone and anyone.

Earlier, Jude had demanded to know what had caused Brady to request a search warrant for Aria’s house this morning. At first Brady wouldn’t tell him, but as it became increasingly clear that Aria may well have been abducted, he relented.

“I asked for a rush job on the toxicology report for the sister and the husband,” Brady said begrudgingly. Hank had already revealed that in his early morning call, and Jude had a sneaking suspicion he knew what was in that report, but he needed Brady to confirm it.

“And,” Jude prompted when Brady offered no more information.

“It came back showing they both had the same poison in their system as the father. Arsenic. The ME won’t confirm it as cause of death yet, but we all know the truth.”

Jude let out a sigh of frustration. “And so you decided because poison was used, that Aria was number one suspect.” Poison was often the murder weapon of choice for women killers. It was less messy, required less physical force, and usually gave a satisfactory result.

“No, that wasn’t it.” Brady bristled at the accusation, but Jude knew he’d been thinking it. “We got an anonymous tip-off late last night from a member of the public, saying that he’d seen on the news about the three murders in Montana, and he recognized Aria Cusack. He said he didn’t want to be identified, but she’d recently bought Arsenic from him, and he thought that might be pertinent to the case. It sounded like he was some kind of dodgy, backyard pharmaceutical dealer, which was why he probably wanted to remain anonymous,” Brady admitted. “But it was enough to make me want to search her house and belongings.”

“You what?” Jude could hardly believe his ears. Brady had been blinded by his own bias, hoping that this case could be solved by a simple family dispute. But he didn’t know Aria like Jude did. This whole scenario was impossible.

“We found an empty arsenic bottle in the boot of her car,” Brady said defensively, as if that had indeed been the answer to all their problems.

“And you think that justifies it?” Jude could hardly believe his ears. “Don’t you see? It was a setup,” Jude said scathingly. “Didn’t you stop to think about how damn convenient that anonymous tip-off was? Pointing the finger directly at Aria. You played directly into the murderer’s hands, giving them exactly what they wanted. They wanted you to arrest Aria. They obviously had a plan to take her from the station.” Jude was so incensed, he could barely look at the man.

He continued to harangue Brady until Ladley had to pull him away before Brady ordered him to be to put under guard and led away to a jail cell to cool his heels, and now Jude was left to wonder at the complete ineptitude of the detective. How he’d only seen what he wanted to see; an easy solution to this case, so he could move onto the next one. Once Iliana’s and Craig’s bodies had been discovered, this had become a high-profile case, with lots of eager eyes watching from higher up. Brady was hoping for a promotion, and so he’d been happy to sacrifice Aria, if that’s what it took.

Now, Jude found himself listening, but not really hearing, as Brady continued to outline the protocol for the missing suspect search to ramp up once the storm had passed.

To compound matters a hundred fold, the big storm the weather bureau had predicted was now pummeling the state. The first big winter storm to hit the region and, of course, it had to be today. All staff had been recalled to the station unless they were responding to an active call; it was too dangerous for them to be outside in this weather. It’d been raining when Jude had first arrived in Missoula. Cold, stinging sleet that was turning the roads icy and dangerous. The temperature had been falling rapidly, as well, and the conditions looked like they might make for a perfect storm. An ice storm. Where the temperature dropped so low that the rain and snow were frozen solid, covering every exposed surface with a sheet of ice. Some locals called it a silver storm because after the storm had passed and it was safe to go outside, it looked as if everything was coated in the lustrous, precious metal.

Ladley sat on a chair in the corner of the office, staring stoically out of the window. He’d followed the way the police station had come alive, like someone had stirred a hornet’s nest once they found Aria missing, with a sort of morbid fascination. But in the end, he couldn’t be of any more help than the rest of the confused and slightly angry team. They were just as perplexed as to how a suspect could vanish out of a locked room from a well-guarded building. Even Brady’s constant shouting couldn’t miraculously make Aria reappear. It was a complete mystery.

“I’m going to see if the local motel has a spare room,” Ladley said. “Anything is better than sitting here and drinking this awful coffee all afternoon.” Ladley glanced over at Jude. “I think you’d be wise to come with me. There’s not a lot you can do here right now. This storm is going to stop everything in its tracks. Neither of us will be able to get home today.”

Jude merely shook his head. He couldn’t leave, not without knowing where Aria was.

His phone vibrated in his pocket, and he almost didn’t answer. But it could be someone with information about Aria, and so he reached into his top pocket and withdrew it, noting Levi’s name on the caller ID.

“Hi. I’ve just had some interesting news I thought you might like to hear.” Levi launched into his speech before Jude even had a chance to get out a greeting. But he didn’t have time for this, whatever it was.

“Look, Levi, something’s going down here. They’ve arrested Aria on suspicion of murder. But she’s gone missing from the Missoula Police Station.”

“Shit.” There was silence down the line as Levi digested the news. “I didn’t know. I’m sorry. Anything I can do to help?”

“As soon as this storm abates, Brady’s promised he’ll have this whole squad out looking for her.” Jude ran a hand through his hair. “He’s already put out a BOLO and alerted all the other stations in the state.” God, what if whoever took her had already crossed state lines? The thought was too much to bear. “I’m not really sure what else we can do right now. Where on earth would we even start looking?”

There was another studied silence on the end of the phone before Levi said, “Maybe this information I have might help more than I thought it would.”

Jude doubted it, but he said, “Go on.”

“I got word that a white van was abandoned in a rest stop halfway between here and Missoula around two hours ago. A couple who’d stopped there in their Winnebago to weather the storm called it in. When they saw it was empty, they were scared that whoever owned the van might be out hiking in the storm and got caught, so they rang the station. The main ranger station in Missoula runs CCTV cameras on all large rest stops, so I asked them to check the footage. Most people don’t even realize the stops are being monitored, but you wouldn’t believe some of the illegal shit that goes down in those places, and so the cameras are often hidden. Anyway…” Levi hesitated slightly, as if searching for the right words. “The van registration matches the one on the side of the road the other day. You remember, the guy who flagged Aria down with a supposed flat battery, and then the car started without a hitch after you guys left? I recorded his rego plates, mainly because something felt a little off.”

Jude went completely still. Awareness spiked up his spine. Call it his sixth sense, his cop intuition, but this felt like something. Something big.

“The thing is, Jude, I decided to replay the footage in the rest stop right back to twenty-four hours ago, and there was a four-wheel-drive parked up there for that whole time. It was backed right into the forest, almost as if someone was trying to hide it from view from the main highway. I kept watching all the way through today’s footage, and the white van appeared, parked right in front of it, so part of the truck was obscured, but I could see at least two men and it looked like they moved something into the four-wheel-drive, then drove away, leaving the van behind. The other couple in the RV arrived around fifteen minutes later, and that must be when they called it in.”

Jude didn’t speak. He couldn’t speak. Was the something those men had transferred from the van to the truck actually Aria? He was also wondering if the man by the side of the road was connected with the three murders. Had he and Levi been that close to the murderer and let him slip through their fingers? Had that man been about to abduct Aria on the side of the road that day, and he and Levi had come along in the nick of time?

Levi filled the silence on the other end of the phone. “But even if this is the connection you’re looking for, I’m not sure how far they’ll get. This weather is really closing in. The roads will be treacherous. The Department of Transport is warning everyone to stay at home and shelter in place. As is your sheriff’s office. Roads are closed all over the county. They’re predicting a huge ice storm.”

Jude still didn’t speak; the ice storm wasn’t even on his radar right now. Instead, he was coming up with a preposterous plan. Suddenly, all the puzzle pieces seemed to drop into place.

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