Page 94 of The Girl in the River

“Where are you going?” she cried.

His heart burst as he pictured his precious little girl. “I have things to do to prepare for my daughter. I want everything perfect when she meets me.”

“Please, Kevin, you’ll scare her…”

He smiled again then stepped from the room, locking it. The fear in her eyes spiked his blood as he climbed to the main deck and made his way to the captain’s seat. Below deck, he heard her banging on the door and screaming for him to let her out as the wind shifted.

He had to let the storm pass before he got off. Until then he’d savor the sound of her screams.

Now he was here, he wanted to draw out the pain. He could still feel the aching emptiness in his chest from those days she was missing and he’d had no idea where she was. But each day that passed, he’d become more and more determined to find her.

That had been a challenge, but now he finally had.

The boat rocked with the force of the current. The river water splashed onto the deck as the storm raged around them. Lightning flashed and thunder boomed, the constant swaying a reminder of the night Jesse had first disappeared.

The river had swept her away just as it was sweeping them into the safety of the mountains now. There, darkness thrived and secrets could be buried forever.

The river monsters Jesse had been terrified of crawled all around them. Poisonous spiders spun invisible webs, then slunk into their hiding holes waiting to trap their prey. Cotton mouth water moccasins slithered along the surface, blending in with the sticks and twigs brought down by brutal winds rolling off the sharp ridges, and hungry mosquitoes buzzed in the night, nibbling on flesh and spreading diseases.

He could still hear his Jesse crying from that very first time he’d taken her to his father’s riverboat. Screaming that she hated the river.

But the river was his home. And now it would be hers forever.

ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-SIX

CROOKED CREEK

Derrick and Ellie had stopped by Foggy Mountain Real Estate where they learned Kevin had taken an out-of-town business trip for the day. Bryce called with the warrant for Mia’s safety deposit box so they met him at the bank in Crooked Creek.

“When was the last time Mia came to the box?” Ellie asked the banker, Mr. Kramer.

He consulted the log on his computer. “Three weeks ago,” he answered as he removed a set of keys from inside his locked desk.

Sheriff Waters handed over the warrant, and the man examined it. “Looks in order. Follow me.”

A few patrons stood in line at the teller window and another office held a financial consultant. They followed Kramer through a set of doors, then down a hall to another locked door. He unlocked it and they stepped into a rectangular room lined with safety deposit boxes.

He located Mia’s on the third row and handed Bryce the key, who opened it. Kramer stepped away to give them privacy as Derrick removed two folders and a manilla envelope, carrying them to a table in the center of the room.

He handed Ellie the envelope and he examined the first folder. “It’s a copy of Mia’s will.”

Ellie hoped to God she didn’t need it but was glad her friend had one. While Bryce skimmed it for details and Derrick studied the second folder, she pulled a stack of photographs from the envelope.

The first ones were shots of the boutique and shops around Red River Rock. There were others of the mountains and the river. Why would Mia keep these pictures in a safety deposit box?

Bryce cleared his throat. “According to the will, Mia left everything to her sister. She also had papers drawn up giving her custody of Pixie.”

“Is there a birth certificate for Pixie?” Ellie asked.

Bryce nodded. “But she didn’t list the father’s name.”

“There had to be a reason she didn’t want him to know about Pixie.” She glanced at Derrick. “Anything in there?”

“Yeah. Articles about her parents’ death. She also scribbled some notes. She went to Red River Rock to find out what happened. She suspected they might have been murdered. She wrote in a journal as well,” Derrick said. “Said she suspected the Moons had something to do with it. That the day she realized she was pregnant she knew she had to get away from them.”

“It’s starting to make sense now.” Ellie dug through more photographs and saw one of Moon Stillery and then a riverboat shrouded by thick trees. Finally she came to several shots of the woods and what appeared to be a warehouse of some kind tucked back into the foliage. A cargo van sat parked nearby.

There were two other pictures that made her instincts scream. The photos were of Ronnie’s sons slinking into the building.

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