Page 58 of Vanished in the Mist
“Why did you stop?” Dawson asked.
Shanna’s notes. The last ones he’d read. What had she said? “Keep it simple, stupid.”
Dawson frowned. “What?”
“Shanna’s research, her notes. She knew the mines were around here. She mapped them out. And she studied the topography and…she wrote down KISS.”
“Keep it simple, yeah, yeah. What of it?”
“Under that she wrote something about the bonfire clearing. No, not just something. It was specific. She wrote…” He closed his eyes, trying to picture the exact words she’d used. “Tanya. The bonfire clearing. Jack. Tristan. The cove.”
“And? What does it mean?”
“I think she was saying to stop making things so complicated. The guy we’re dealing with isn’t some criminal mastermind. He’s a thief and a coward, likely stealing people’s food and supplies from the cabins in these mountains when they’re empty of tourists and hunters. And for fun, or some kind of misguided sense of a divine mission, he’s punishing people he believes need to be punished. Remember what Sam said the Phantom said about bullies? But this guy cheats. He doesn’t fight fair. He uses a stun gun, sneaks up on them. Hell, he probably used a stun gun on Tristan to drown him. I’ll bet the cuts on his bones were postmortem.”
“They were. The ME confirmed it.”
Kaden tightened his hand around his flashlight. “Tanya was killed at the bonfire clearing. We know that. It’s only a mile or so past Cooper’s Bluff. All the others being hurt or killed were at that clearing with her the night she went missing. That bonfirearea is his comfort zone. I’ll bet he takes all his victim’s there to kill them.”
“Except Tristan. You found him on the opposite side of the lake, closer to the marina.”
“But I don’t think he was actually killed there. This guy has a pattern. Abduct someone using a stun gun. He probably uses the mines all the time to transport them where he wants to take them. He’s doing it with Shanna. Makes sense he did it with them too.”
“That’s a huge leap,” Dawson said. “We don’t know if that’s true or not. And there’s no evidence to say that Tristan wasn’t killed right where you found him. Take Jessica, for example. She was found outside the restaurant. That’s nowhere near the bonfire clearing. Is there a point to any of this speculation other than to say he’s been by Cassidy’s cabin, the restaurant, the cover, and the bonfire clearing?”
Kaden swore and raked a hand through his hair. “I’m trying to play investigator and I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.”
Dawson put his hand on his shoulder. “Take a breath. The state police are hot on Shanna’s trail. They’ll find her.”
“But will they be too late?”
Dawson remained silent.
Kaden braced a hand on the rock wall of the mine. “Think. Think. What would Shanna do if she was here? Where would she look for someone taken from the B and B down through the mine?” He straightened and turned around. “Trust her. I have to trust the work she did, her notes. Tanya. The bonfire clearing. Jack. Tristan. The cove.”
“All right. We’ll do it your why,” Dawson said. “Trust Shanna’s notes, her conclusions. She mentioned two places, right? The clearing and the cove. We can cover more ground if we split up. And we can get to both places way quicker over water than land. You drive to the Tate cabin and get your boat. Head outto the clearing. I’ll take the police boat to the cove and radio my officers to split up and cover both places.”
“I’m not waiting around for your team.”
“I don’t expect you to.”
They took off running back toward the B and B.
SHANNA SWORE.
“What happened?” Tanya asked. “Are you okay?”
“I think I cut my hand. Wait. Let me get the light on again so we can see our progress.”
She carefully felt for where she’d left the batteries after removing them to use the body of the flashlight as a shovel. It took several minutes of shaking the flashlight and using her shirt to wipe out the inside before the batteries got a good enough connection to flood the cave with light again.
“Definitely bleeding. But it won’t kill me.” She winced at her poor choice of words. “Looks, Tanya. We’re getting there. Two bars dug out.” But it had taken far longer than she’d hoped. “There’s enough room for you to squeeze through. Go on. Hurry. Get out, run and hide before he comes back.”
“Wait, leave you? No. I’ll help you dig out another bar.”
Shanna put her hand on the other girl’s shoulder. “A lot’s been happening in the past few days. He’s escalating. We can’t risk that he won’t go ahead and kill you when he returns. Killers don’t leave witnesses behind.”
Tanya’s eyes widened. “But I don’t… I don’t want to leave you behind, either.”
