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“Seriously, Josie. Are you okay? You’re a million miles away.”
She decided not to tell Alice about the camera. At least not yet. She still had no idea what it meant or if it was even important. Why make Alice even more freaked out than she already was if the cameras had been placed in the main house at the direction of the property owner?
“I’m fine,” Josie replied. “Just exhausted. Worried about all of us getting out of here safely.”
Alice hugged herself. “Yeah, me too,”
“But I’m okay for now,” Josie added quickly. “Thanks for checking on me. Get some sleep.”
Alice nodded and padded back into the big hall.
Josie couldn’t put the camera back now. What if Meg’s killer had placed it there? She had no evidence that Meg’s murder and the hidden cameras were connected but her gut told her they were. If it was the killer who had placed the cameras, she didn’t want them to access the SD card somehow and see her finding the one in the kitchen. Plus, if the killer put it there, it was evidence. Even though she’d already touched it—not realizing what it was—she still had to treat it like evidence, just in case it was connected to Meg’s murder. It took several minutes of careful rifling through the kitchen drawers and cabinets as silently as possible to find a small sandwich bag to deposit the camera into. It wasn’t ideal but nothing about her present circumstances was ideal. Once the bag was sealed, she found a pen and wrote down where and when she had found it. She tucked it into the pocket of her pajama pants and took photos of the fake succulent. Turning off the kitchen light, she padded back to her sleep area in the main room. As quietly as she could, she unzipped her suitcase and pushed the bag deep inside one of the inner pockets.
She spent the hours until dawn watching everyone else sleep and wondering if it had been one of them who’d planted the camera and if so, why?
TWENTY-THREE
After taking nearly an hour to get out of the parking lot, Noah took several more to travel the three treacherous miles to the small house that Deputy Ehrbar had described as belonging to Cooper Riggs. The snow was so thick and coming down so fast and hard that he got stuck several times. He had to use his shovel and salt after all. He kept his phone plugged into the car charger but got no service. By the time Riggs’s small, one-story house came into view, it was the middle of the night. Noah’s headlights swept over its blue siding as he pulled into the driveway. There were faint tire tracks, already full of new snow, leading from the road to a Dodge truck. The house had a small square of a front yard and two sheds next to it. He was relieved to see light glowing from the windows at the front of the house.
He parked his SUV behind the truck and pushed through the snow to get to the front stoop. He rapped against the door several times, getting no answer. If Cooper Riggs was inside, he was probably asleep. Noah was considering his options when the door finally swung open. A man with a shiny shaved head and a thick, dark beard stared at him, one bushy eyebrow raised.
“Help you?”
“Cooper Riggs?” asked Noah.
The man looked behind Noah. “Who’re you?”
“Noah Fraley. I’m looking for my wife,” said Noah. “She’s up at Hunter Shaw’s property. The Sacred New Beginnings Retreat. Josie Quinn.”
Recognition flickered in the man’s eyes. “Oh yeah, of course. The retreat. Sorry. I just got up. Fell asleep on the couch.”
Noah felt the wind at his back like a slap. Snow swirled around his face. “Why aren’t you with them?”
“With them?”
“On the mountain,” said Noah. “At the retreat.”
Riggs opened the door wide enough to fit his hand through, gesturing behind Noah. “Can’t get up there in this, not the way it’s coming down so hard and fast. Gotta wait it out. Once the snow stops, I was going to try to get up there. I’ve got a snowmobile out in one of the sheds. I was gonna try to get back up there on that.”
“You were already down here when this started?” Noah asked.
“Yeah.” The man stroked his beard. Noah noticed he was wearing faded blue jeans, a flannel shirt, and a pair of boots. Fully dressed in the middle of the night. Riggs continued, “They sent me down to get some supplies but by the time I was ready to go back up, the snow was bad. I couldn’t go back up even if I wanted to.”
Noah felt a flush creep up his neck to his scalp. “So you just left them all up there?”
Cooper frowned. “I didn’t want to. Believe me. But look outside, my friend. This is a bona fide blizzard. Did you, uh, did you try to get up there?”
Snow blew against Noah’s back again, some of it sliding down the nape of his neck and into his coat. “I went to the parking lot but I couldn’t get up there. Not on foot.”
“You went to the parking lot?”
“Well, yeah. It was on the way. I’m sorry to have knocked on your door so late but I got stuck a half dozen times.”
Stroking his beard again, Cooper looked past Noah toward the road. “I told you, the snow is bad. We just have to wait for it to stop. Then we can head over there together. Say, where are you headed from here?”
Noah sighed and brushed snow from his hair. “I don’t know. My only option is to go back to Laporte for the night, but I’d just as soon sleep in my car right in your driveway knowing how long it will take to get there. If you don’t mind. I just need to get to my wife as soon as possible. I’m not leaving Sullivan County without her.”
Cooper opened the door wider, revealing a small living room with one sagging couch, dated orange carpeting and a television tuned to WYEP coverage of the storm. “Don’t be ridiculous. There’s no need for you to sleep in your car. I’ve got a perfectly good couch right here. Grab a few hours of shut-eye and as soon as it stops coming down, we’ll head over to the parking lot together and get everyone down from the mountain.”
