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Shifting his tobacco to the other cheek, he shook his head. “No. If someone’s actin’ out, it’s gotta be Dean.”
She was putting another twelve inches or so between them, but at this, she paused. “Why do you say that?”
“Dean’s always been weird.”
“That’s it?”
“If you knew how weird, you’d know his type of weird is enough.”
Francesca understood why he’d say that. It was Dean who’d threatened his ex-girlfriend right before she went missing, Dean who’d broken into her house.
And yet…it was Butch who frightened her.
* * *
“Are we getting close?” Jonah asked.
Ray Leedy, the young security guard who’d followed Butch into the mountains the night before, sat in the passenger seat of the rented SUV, leaning into the harness of his seat belt as he concentrated on every bend in the road and every tree and rock that came into sight. “It feels like we’re close,” he said. “But…a lot of this area looks the same, you know? And it was dark.”
Jonah was losing hope. He’d been driving back and forth, going around the same bends, going down this turnoff and then that one for hours, searching for where Butch had gone, all to no avail. Ray insisted he’d seen a cabin near the place where Butch had disappeared into the trees, but numerous cabins dotted these mountains.
“This one had a big S above the front door,” he explained. “The initial of the family who owns it, I guess. It was right there in the beam of my headlights.”
Ray had shared this detail before, several times, but they hadn’t come across a cabin fitting that description.
“Do you think it could be up a little farther?” Jonah asked.
“Maybe. When I headed back, I clocked the distance on my odometer, but not right from the start. I didn’t think of it immediately.”
Jonah rubbed his face. They had to find where Butch had gone, had to recover that black garbage bag.
Spotting a cabin they’d passed twice already, he pulled into the drive.
“What are you doing?” Ray asked.
“Checking to see if anyone’s around.”
“Looks empty.”
“Maybe we’ll get lucky.” Jonah jogged to the front door and knocked, but there was no answer. Primarily vacation getaways, these cabins were used mostly on holidays and weekends.
Ray rolled down his window as Jonah returned. “Nothing?”
“Nothing,” Jonah said, but he wasn’t ready to give up. He visited the next cabin they saw, and the next and the next one after that. It wasn’t until he’d approached six different cabins that he finally found someone at home. And then she wouldn’t open the door.
“Go away. Or I’ll call the cops,” a female voice called out.
Jonah didn’t blame her for being scared. For all she knew, he could be someone like Dean.
“Will you just answer one question for me?” he called back.
After a long pause, she responded. “What do you want to know?”
“I’m looking for a cabin with an S on it. Can you tell me if it’s in this area?”
“Who are you?”
“I’m slipping my card under the door.” He leaned down to do that. “Name’s Jonah Young,” he said as he straightened. “You can call the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office and someone will vouch for me.”
