Page 68 of Dark Roads
“You have to tell the police.”
“Heisthe police. Why are you not getting that? I told Thompson that Vaughn was in your room that night. I’ve made anonymous calls. It doesn’tmatter. They’ll never catch him.”
“My room?”
“When he walked you home from the bar, I was in the parking lot. I had to set off a car alarm to get him out.”
Beth tried to take in all the information that was being shot at her. She remembered the distant sound of a car alarm, how her clothes had been all messed up in the morning. Did Vaughn take photos of her too?
“You said Vaughn has hidden cameras? I’ll find them.”
“Do whatever you want, but leave me out of it.” Hailey dragged branches over the pit, kicked dirt and leaves on top of them, then stood on the edge and brushed her hands off. Beth watched, confused. Should she help? Were they done talking?Hailey adjusted the straps of her backpack and looked at Beth. “If you tell anyone where I am, Vaughn will kill me.”
“I won’t, of course I won’t, but you have to give mesomething. I need more information.”
Hailey reached into her front pouch and pulled out Beth’s gun, gestured for her to take it. Beth stepped forward and tugged it out of her hand. She wanted to grab on. Wanted to make Hailey stay. Wolf watched, as though he sensed her internal struggle—and he didn’t like it. She backed away.
“There’s a girl,” Hailey said, chewing on her lower lip. “Emily. She’s a dealer. People say she’s a narc for Vaughn, but I think she hates him. If you talk to her and she’s wearing a perfume that smells like spicy oranges, then she’s definitely been inside his truck.”
“How do I find you again?”
“You don’t.” Hailey walked through a narrow gap in the trees, Wolf at her heels, and she was gone. Beth waited a few moments, then took a few steps through the trees after them. Was the cabin nearby? Maybe she could see it. She stopped. There were no trails; there was nothing to follow.
The sudden noise of a dirt bike cut through the forest, sent birds flying up from trees. Beth lunged at a nearby bush and hid behind it. She felt ridiculous a moment later when she realized the sound was heading away from her. Hailey was on the move.
Beth sat on her picnic table and watched the glowing sun sink in the sky, toasted its descent with vodka. It was a miracle she’d made it out of the forest before dark. The trees had closed in on her, blocking out the sky, the sun. She’d gotten off track and lost the trail for over an hour. Finally, she found a ridge where she could stand on a stump and scan the mountainside belowthat stretched out in variant shades of green. When she realized she’d come up the east side, she picked her way through the slash, weathered logs, and branches spread like brittle bones all down the hillside, until she found her boot tread in the soft dirt. From there she worked backward.
She’d shredded her pants. Left locks of her hair on branches. Scratched her face. Lost her sunglasses on the trail. But none of that mattered. That wasn’t what made her feel unable to move, her arms and legs heavy. She was at the bottom of another mountain, but this one was steeper, and more dangerous. She had a suspect in her sister’s death, and no way to prove it.
She checked her phone, her finger hovering over her last text message with Jonny. She hadn’t heard from him all day. She thought he had wanted space because he was upset, but he was probably scared because she’d seen his other cell phone. He’d lied to her. She wanted to give him a piece of her mind, but she wasn’t ready yet. Tonight she was getting drunk. Otherwise she’d have to think about how he kissed her and how she told him things she’d never told anybody. How she’d felt like he was the only person who understood how much pain she was in. Then she’d think about how for a brief, sparkling, hopeful moment, when she saw Hailey’s face, she’d imagined that maybe Amber was alive too. Maybe she was hiding with Hailey, and the police had made a mistake. But Beth had come down the mountain alone.
She took another swig of vodka and stared at her blank cell screen.
CHAPTER 27
Hailey
I hit the trail hard, taking chances. Beth was already on her way back through the forest to her car. Worse, what if she was looking for the miner’s cabin? I didn’t think she would find it, but just in case, I’d grabbed my escape bag before I left. Would she go into town or straight to Jonny’s house? The handheld radio had stopped working last week—the batteries run dry. I had to get farther down the mountain where I had cell service to call him. Then I’d ride back to my lower camp and hide overnight. I clenched my jaw. How could Jonny be so careless?
I’dspokento her. Beth. Amber’s sister. They had that same crooked tooth. That same fluid tone of voice, the soft cadence. Their words each flowed into the next like connecting lakes. Their musical laughs. I’d heard Beth’s when she was with Jonny. That night of drinking.
Wolf shifted in his crate, trying to balance. We were going fast. We rounded corners, jolted over bumps. Sunlight sliced through trees, casting shadows that distorted the ground and hid roots. I’d been riding for ten minutes when something grabbed the tire from underneath and flung the bike sideways. I was airborne, then crashed hard into a rock. I lay still, gasping. The wind was knocked out of me, but nothing seemed broken. I rolled over. Wolf was gone.
“Wolf?” Silence. I pushed up onto my knees, shouted, “Wolf!”
He slunk out from between a few shrubs, gave his head a shake that made his ears flap.
“I’m sorry, boy.” I felt his body for blood or broken bones, then buried my face in his neck. He grumbled into my ear. When we parted, he looked down the trail, then at me.
“Okay, okay.” I crawled over to the bike, lifted it up. “Dammit.” The clutch lever was broken and hanging from the now-bent handlebar. I checked it over. Wolf watched me with his head tilted. I wouldn’t be able to start the bike unless I had a steep hill and a lot of luck.
I rolled my bike behind a tree and covered it with branches. My shoulder hurt, and I’d scraped the side of my face. I gingerly felt along the raw spot, wincing when I touched a bruised area. How was I going to get a lever for my bike? Then I remembered the truck with Alberta plates and dirt bikes in the back that I’d seen at the campsite last time I was spying on Beth.
It took an hour to walk to my lower camp, where I’d hidden the old mountain bike Jonny had given me. It was late afternoon, the heat still thick in the woods. I paused for a rest, shared some food and water with Wolf. He ran behind my bike as I pedaled the rest of the way. When I finally reached the outer edges of the campsite, warm evening light was slanting through the trees. I patted my pocket and made sure the pepper spray was in place. Some campers let their dogs run free. I’d been more careful since Wolf had gotten into a fight with a German shepherd.
I crouched near the entrance where I was able to get a couple of bars of cell service and called Jonny’s burner phone. No answer. He was either working at his parents’ or Beth had already called him. I shot a text to him—using the code we’d agreed on if I was ever discovered.
Got the part you wanted. Will be in touch with price.
