“I did. Once I was up and going, I could see enough by the moonlight to tell the difference between an open passage anda tree, and that’s all I needed. I kept running. I don’t think he followed, though. Not for long anyway. Then I was alone, and I just kept going. When it was light out, I found a spot, and by then, I was so tired, I slept. It was nearly dark again when I woke, and that didn’t do me any good, so I stayed there until dawn. That day—yesterday—I was stalked. I could tell someone was there, but they weren’t trying to get to me, just following me, tracking me. And then I ran into you.”
“And after that?”
“By that point, I didn’t even know what was happening. Sometimes I’d hear voices, but before I could get close, they’d be gone. I started to think I was hallucinating. I haven’t had anything but water in three days. I don’t have my backpack—I left that behind when I escaped whoever tried to strangle me. I’ve just been wandering around, hoping that one of those voices is someone who can help me.”
Does that make sense? She knows her husband’s killer is out here. She suspects his killer is after her. Yet she hears other voices and believestheycould help? After she attacked us for trying to help the day before?
Of course, she was actually right—there are two settlements of people out here who could have helped—but that’s not what you expect to find in the middle of the Yukon wilderness. If someone killed your husband out here, and you hear voices, there’s a good chance one of them is his killer.
If it were me, I might have gotten close enough to see them and make a judgment call. That’s what she seemed to be doing, and I don’t know how many options she had, lost in the forest, without any food.
“And then the bear found you?” I say.
“After I heard the voices. It was a man and a woman, but it didn’t sound like you and your husband. Again, I startedgetting close, and again, the voices stopped. I heard someone walking. I even thought I saw a man walking away. I went to get closer, and I lost track of him, and stepped out in front of that bear. That must have been what I saw. I didn’t have my spray, and I was trying to think of what to do when it charged. I remembered seeing that tree—thinking I could sleep under it—and I ran back and dove under just in time.”
I walk over to where our own backpack has been abandoned. I take out two energy bars and a water canteen. When Dalton sees what I’m doing, he passes Rory to Kendra and comes over to undo Gretchen’s bonds.
“If you run,” he says, “I swear we aren’t going after you. Whoever is trying to kill you will get another chance.”
She only nods. I come around her front and hand her a bar and the canteen. She eats one bar in a few bites and reaches for the second. When I withhold it, she scowls.
“You will get it,” I say. “Just not so fast. Give your stomach time to start working on that one and get some water down.”
Once she’s had the water, I hand her the second bar and warn her to eat it slowly. “There’s plenty more where that came from. Just take your time, and don’t get sick.”
While she eats, I ask her more pointed questions. Without a compass, she can’t pin down where all the events took place, but she gives me what she can. Same as for the voices she heard, which had no distinguishing accents or other features—not particularly low- or high-pitched.
When it comes to the figures she saw, I get whatever details I can. Then I need to talk to Dalton, but that’s tricky. Mathias left after he finished butchering the bear, and I won’t expose Kendra. So I quickly discuss plans with Dalton, speaking as obtusely as possible.
We decide to put Gretchen in Lilith’s cabin, as we plannedearlier. She’s seen Anders, so he’ll guard her. I’ll want a second guard, but I need to speak to people and find out who will do it. She’s also seen April, but my sister isn’t a proper backup guard. It might end up being Dalton. We need two people with Gretchen, both to keep her from running—if she’s lying to us—and keep her safe—if she’s telling the truth. We already know that someone has been staking out that cabin.
Dalton agrees. For now, he’ll take her to Lilith’s place with Anders. They won’t use the ATV. If it comes to it, the ATV might be a way to lure in her supposed stalker, but for now, I have a laundry list of other things I need to do.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Lilith offered to stay with Anders, since it’s her cabin, but in the end, it’ll be Yolanda. Not only does she have training—and her own handgun—but she considers herself bulletproof, at least against exposure threats. For Yolanda, Émilie would pull out all the stops.
Yolanda was also Anders’s first choice, and I won’t read too much into it.
I’m still wrapping my head around what I saw this morning, which certainly seems to indicate that Kenny came from my sister’s bed. Given what she said about not being able to take Rory this morning, it wasn’t a spontaneous event. Am I hurt that I didn’t know things had changed? Yes, but I also can’t imagine April telling me. It would require Kenny’s gently prodding to persuade her to take the relationship public, and she’d want to be sure it was working first. Being someone who wouldn’t read the obvious clues herself, April expects I won’t either. So for now, I guess I’ll just pretend I can’t put two and two together.
I check on Storm and sit with her awhile, as I make arrangements to talk to Émilie about Gretchen and Blake. Then I feed and change Rory and play with her a bit before passing her off to my sister, who’s done with her appointments for the day. I’d taken Rory to speak to Gretchen the first time, but only because it was close to town and we’d already made enough noise—screams, gunshots, the ATV—that I was hardly worried about a baby crying. The walk to Lilith’s will be different.
Yolanda and I set out with backpacks of supplies. Anders took a bag, too, and now we add food and a deck of cards, along with Yolanda’s overnight stuff and things I gathered from the store for Gretchen. I’ve added a couple of novels and small games, along with treats from the bakery, things I hope might be a comfort to her, as I begin to more strongly consider the possibility she’s actually a traumatized new widow.
It’s a quiet hike out. Now that I don’t need to stay alert, I can sink into my thoughts. Oh, sure, Ishouldstay alert, so I don’t stumble over Gretchen’s alleged stalker, but I can trust Yolanda to hear him as well as I do. I can also trust Yolanda to not take offense at my silence. If anything, she probably prefers it. Better that than awkward small talk.
As we get closer to Lilith’s cabin, I do run a few things past her. Her reading is exactly what I expect—she doesn’t trust Gretchen’s story and sees too many holes in it.
“So someone randomly murdered her husband in the forest and started stalking her. Two hikers minding their own business? Why?”
“Why kill him or why stalk her?”
“Both. Well, no, her theory on why her husband was killed is that Eric is a crazed mountain man.”
“Her husband thought it first—and he only saw me.”
Yolanda shakes her head. “How the hell does someonemistake you for a mail-order bride? No, don’t answer that. I know how. For the same reason people used to assume I was Gran’s foster granddaughter. Such a generous family, taking in a disadvantaged Black girl and giving her the chance of a lifetime.”
