Ryan opened the single drawer that contained nothing. He searched inside with his flashlight. “There’s something off about the bottom. Hang on.” He turned the cabinet on its side and noticed that the bottom looked the same from this end. Nothing unusual yet. . .
“What’s going on?” Charlie leaned closer to examine it.
“I’m not sure.” Ryan pulled the drawer out to examine the cabinet better. “It has a false bottom. This one definitely didn’t come with the cabinet.”
Her eyes locked with his. “Something’s in there.”
Ryan tried removing the false bottom by hand and it wouldn’t budge. “Can you hand me that crowbar?” He pointed to the tool hanging above Pete’s workbench.
She retrieved the bar and gave it to him. Ryan positioned the chisel end against the edge of what appeared to be some type of tin. After a couple of tries, he was able to wedge the bar beneath the lip of the wooden bottom that Pete had painted to match the rest of the cabinet. It lifted to reveal an old tin box faded and rusted from time.
Ryan tossed aside the false bottom and then removed the box from the cabinet. He handed it to Charlie who carried it to the workbench.
Ryan rose and stood beside her as she slipped the key into the lock and heard it click open.
“My hands are shaking,” she admitted as she opened the lid. Ryan held his breath while praying they’d find something useful inside.
The box contained a single item. An old leather journal similar to the others Ryan had seen Pete writing in. Only this one was frayed around the edges from use.
Charlie opened the journal to the first page. Ryan immediately recognized Pete’s handwriting. Strong strokes just like the man himself. The words were clear and legible despite the scrawling urgency of some of the text.
One name jumped from the page at Ryan. Abby.
“Look at the date on the entry.” Two days before Abby went missing.
Abby came to see me at my house two days before she disappeared. She told me she saw something that scared her at the old Owens place down from her house. She wouldn’t say, only that she was afraid. She made me promise not to tell anyone about what she said. I told her I wouldinvestigate and asked her again to tell me what had her so frightened. She refused, but I sensed that something else was troubling her. I drove her home and then went to take a look around the Owens’ place. There were signs someone had been there recently even though the place hadn’t been lived in for a year.
“I can’t believe it. He was investigating before she disappeared,” Charlie said in a whisper. She turned to him. “Abby knew something before she went missing and she came to Pete for help. He never said a word. I wonder why he kept this one separate from the others?”
Ryan picked up the journal. He had a theory. For the same reason Ryan had never mentioned the footprint in the snow near Charlie’s burned family home. It was his guilt to bear. “There’s no mention of it in the report either.”
Charlie shook her head. “Maybe nothing came of it. He probably investigated the angle, and it came up a dead end.”
“That’s a huge coincidence I can’t accept. This is connected to her disappearance somehow.” It didn’t add up in Ryan’s police mind. According to everything Ryan had heard about the former lawman, Pete did everything by the book. He would have at least noted something in the report even if he didn’t mention Abby by name.
“You think he may have found something that was damaging to someone close to him?”
Ryan could see the thought was a chilling one.
“Wait, didn’t Jason Owens and his father move to another part of town after Grant and his wife divorced? That would have been around this same time.”
Charlie’s eyes widened. “You’re right. Grant still owns that house, but he and Jason moved to a mansion near the ski lodge. According to Pete after Jason graduated, they moved to Denver and Grant remarried. Wasn’t Jason a few years older than us?”
“He was.” Ryan recalled what he remembered about the family. The ex-wife had left town following the divorce. He’d heard rumors she moved back east but no one ever heard from her again. Grant was a county judge at the time like his father before him. Ryan remembered Jason mentioning once that his future was all planned for him. He’d go to law school and one day become a judge himself. Just like his old man.
“It might be worth having a talk with Grant and Jason. I believe they’re in town. I’m pretty sure I saw Jason at the coffeeshop recently.”
Charlie nodded. “You’re right. We should check that out.”
Ryan stopped her before she had a chance to head for the door. “Whoa,wearen’t going to do anything. You’re a target, Charlie.”
She swung on him. “Whoever did this killed my uncle because of what he discovered. I’m part of this, Ryan. And I’m not going to cower in a hiding place letting someone else fight my battles.”
Part of him admired her courage. The other worried it would end in her death.
“Let me check in with Boone and see what he can find out about the family.”
“Fine,” she ground out. She held the journal tight as they stepped from the barn.
