Page 43 of Spark
“Okay, I think,” Sophie answered. “I just finished interviewing someone who was actually at the wedding. He didn’t have any actual evidence, though.”
“That’s too bad. Remember how Sheriff Jacobsen assigned me to work on the cold case file for Laura Tringstad’s murder?” asked Annika.
“Yes, of course,” Sophie said.
“Well, I talked to some of the old folks in her pack, and learned something interesting. It has to do with the fact that the sheriff at the time, Kenneth Jacobsen, was also the alpha of the Bearpaw Ridge Pack.”
“Like Bill Jacobsen? Is promotion to pack alpha one of the perks of being the sheriff?”
Annika laughed. “Not officially, but the two do kind of seem to go together in this town.”
“So, what was the interesting news item, and can I quote you in my article?”
“Hm, maybe I can be an anonymous source in the police department?” Annika laughed again. “Like it wouldn’t take most people five minutes to guess it was me. Anyhow, one of the old-timers told me that after the murder, Ken made it clear that he wasn’t going to pursue any leads pointing to his own pack members. And that he didn’t intend to ask any questions if he didn’t think he was going to like the answers.”
Well, it looks like Mr. Ornelas was right when he said that the wolf shifters back then were only interested in protecting their own,thought Sophie. Out loud, she asked, “Because they were family?”
“Yeah, and because Ken was completely opposed to cross-lineage matings.” Annika’s tone was sober now. “And there was one more interesting little tidbit that I plan to follow up on. Laura’s immediate family strongly discouraged Ken from asking too many questions, and more specifically, from conducting an in-depth interview of Laura’s bridesmaids.”
Chapter Fourteen
Grizzly Creek Ranch
Monday, June 11
Sophie spent the rest of the weekend hanging out and running errands in town with her mom and Athena. Her emotions were in turmoil from her sudden transition to dating at least one of her two best friends and possibly getting involved with the other one as well.
She also spent a considerable amount of time staring off into space, reliving those two amazing kisses. She desperately wanted more, but she was also aware that she might be wading in dangerous waters.
Matt had texted her early on Saturday morning to tell her that everyone had survived the car crash, though extracting the driver and passenger from the car had proved a little hairy, requiring hydraulic tools and climbing harnesses. The accident victims had then been airlifted to Steele Memorial in Salmon in the middle of the night.
Car was totaled, Matt wrote.
Reading that, Sophie knew that “extraction” meant that Matt and other firefighters at the scene had opened the car like a can of beans. So, if the car hadn’t already been totaled by a plunge off a hundred-foot cliff, the hydraulic tools would have finished the job.
His next text said:
I’d love to go to the movies again next Friday. Promise that I won’t be on call this time. I traded shifts with Lisa Barker.
She didn’t have to think twice before she texted back.
Would love to. Dinner’s on me this time.
He replied:Great. See you soon.
Then, of course, she began mindfucking the whole thing. She was still having a hard time believing that her best friends…who also happened to be two totally hot guys…would actually be interested inheras more than just a friend.
It was exciting. It was flattering, yet it was deeply terrifying.
If things went wrong, she might torpedo her friendship with one or both of them…either by choosing one over the other, if they really were interested in dating her, or worse, if she picked either Matt or Chris, then broke up with them at some point.
It was so hard to figure out where she stood. And getting it wrong—just like she had with Hunter—scared her, because she might end up losing the two people who mattered the most to her, other than her family.
Now it was Monday afternoon, and Sophie was sitting on the living room sofa, trying to figure out the next step in her investigation of the Bearpaw Springs Resort haunting.
Mom and Mitya were over at Ash’s place, attending Grizzly Creek Games’ weekly executive teleconference, and Athena was at her AP Math and Physics summer courses. She was fifteen and a high school sophomore, and wanted to apply to MIT’s engineering program once she reached her senior year.
Javier finally answered his phone.
