Page 54 of Face Her Fear

No one moved.

Once again, Josie knew she needed to eat but it was the last thing she felt like doing. The only sound in the building was the crackling and popping of the wood inside the stove and the wind shrieking outside. Josie would give anything to go back to the beginning of the week when they were all alive and unharmed, unaffected by this new tragedy, when the dinner conversation was lively and laughter came easily.

Sandrine folded her napkin in half. “There was no sign of her at all?”

“None,” said Josie.

Alice picked up a glass of water and took a sip. It trembled in her hand, water sloshing over the rim and onto her chest. Ignoring it, she said, “Where the hell could she be?”

Nicola twisted her ring around her finger. “Maybe she left the camp. You heard how her parents were all outdoorsy. For all we know, she could survive in the wilderness for days.”

“In this weather with no resources?” Josie reached over to the bowl of pasta and spooned some onto her plate even though the smell of the cream sauce turned her stomach. “I don’t think so. She didn’t take anything with her.”

“How do you know?” asked Nicola.

Next, Josie deposited some salad onto her plate. “Because there were three tote bags in her cabin earlier when I was there. One of them is in the kitchen—she brought her food to share with us—and the other two are still in her cabin.”

“But her coat and all that are gone,” Nicola offered. “How do we know she didn’t take some of her food with her? Did you inventory that while you were with her?”

“No,” said Josie. “I don’t know if any of it is missing. What I do know is that unless Taryn has a lot of Arctic expeditions under her belt, she has no chance of surviving in this cold. She didn’t leave camp.”

Brian went for the pasta next. “There’s no reason for her to leave camp. It’s not like anything happened to make her want to leave. Maybe the bear got her.”

Nicola turned to him, mouth hanging open momentarily. When he didn’t acknowledge her, she slapped his shoulder. “How can you say that? How horrible!”

He rubbed at his shoulder, shooting her a dirty look. “I’m being realistic, Nic. She’s not here. Josie spotted that bear twice this week and she saw it in the camp today. I know you don’t want to think about it, but it’s not impossible.”

“There were no tracks,” Alice said. “Anywhere in the camp. At all. Only the ones we made looking for her. There was also no blood. Wouldn’t we have found blood if she got mauled by a bear?”

Nicola slumped with relief. “You’re right. So she wasn’t killed or dragged off by the bear.”

Brian started to spoon pasta onto Nicola’s plate, but she shoved him away, knocking the large pasta spoon out of his hand. It clattered onto the table, splattering sauce all over the wood. “What the hell?” he said.

“I’m lactose intolerant, remember?” Nicola snapped. “I’ll just have salad.”

Brian picked up the pasta spoon and tossed it back into the bowl. He didn’t attempt to serve Nicola salad. “Whatever,” he said. “If there are no footprints and no blood, then where the hell is she?”

Josie said, “She’s still here.”

Nicola used the salad tongs to fill her own plate. “Still here? What are you saying? She’s…hiding?”

Josie doubted very much that Taryn was hiding, although she could not rule it out completely. The most likely scenario was that someone in this room had killed her and hidden her body well enough that their exhaustive search hadn’t found it.

“Why the hell would she hide?” Alice said testily.

Josie could feel the fear and agitation rolling off her in waves. Under the table, she reached over and patted Alice’s knee. Instead of answering either question, Josie said, “Where were all of you when Taryn walked up to her cabin?”

Brian said, “I was here. I went out back to check how much fuel was left in the generator and then I came in and sat by the stove.”

Everyone looked toward Nicola. “You know where I was,” she said. “I walked up to our cabin to change my clothes. Then I came back. I was in the kitchen getting a drink of water when Brian called me.”

One of Alice’s hands found Josie’s and squeezed it tightly. “I was here, in the breakout room.”

Nicola looked over at Sandrine. “What about you?”

Sandrine spooned food onto her plate. “I went to my cabin for a bit. I needed some space. Some time alone.”

“In the cold?” asked Nicola.

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