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“Instead of amateurs fumbling in the dark?”
Kaden chuckled at the painful accuracy of her words. “Not exactly how I was going to put it, but yeah, fumbling in the dark.”
“What else can we do?”
He slowed to a crawl as the lane continued to narrow and the snow began to fall in earnest. It was becoming increasingly difficult to see more than a few feet in front of him.
“If we could discoverwhyVanna was running down the road the night you saw her, we might be able to narrow the list of suspects.” Kaden cautiously tapped the brakes as they reached the railroad bridge. Once they stopped, he shoved the gearshift into Park. “This is where she jumped, right?” He waited for Lia’s hesitant nod. He hated putting her through the events of that night, but he didn’t know what else to do. He pointed toward the road that stretched in front of them. “And she was running from that direction.” Lia nodded again and Kaden glanced around the isolated spot. “Why here? The most likely explanation is that she was coming from town.”
“But?”
“Why was she running?”
Lia glanced toward him, as if surprised by the question. “I assume because someone was chasing her.”
Kaden shook his head. “No, I mean she had to drive to get to Pike. Why not get in her car if she wanted to get away?”
“Yes,” Lia breathed. She glanced out the passenger window, as if looking at her surroundings with the eyes of an adult instead of a terrified teenager.
“Plus, she was familiar with this area. She would have to know there was nothing out here but empty fields once she was past this bridge.”
“And if was in town, there would be no need to run.” Lia added. “All she had to do was scream for help. There would have been a dozen people rushing to see what was going on. Even if they didn’t intend to help, they wouldn’t dare miss the opportunity to be part of the action.”
Accepting that Vanna’s presence at the bridge hadn’t been a random accident, Kaden turned his thoughts to how she’d gotten there.
“It seems more likely she was brought to this area by someone else.”
Lia glanced back in his direction, her expression difficult to read in the shadows of the night.
“But was she lured or kidnapped?”
“A good question.”
“I have more.”
He didn’t doubt that for a second. She probably had a hundred more questions. Just as he did. For now, however, he wanted to concentrate on Vanna’s reason for running down this particular road in the middle of the night.
“We’ve determined the closest locations to the bridge are the meatpacking plant. The Walsh farm. And the extension office.”
Kaden hesitated as he considered the various options. It didn’t take long to decide. The meatpacking plant was probably empty, but it was surrounded by security cameras. He didn’t want to get caught poking around a place where there’d just been a murder. Not if the FBI was going to start an investigation. And they could hardly barge into the Walsh home and ask to look around for evidence.
There was really only one choice.
Putting the Jeep back into gear, Kaden slowly bumped his way along the frozen road, painfully aware he had no real plan. He was just trying to feel as if he was doing something to solve Vanna’s murder and make sure Lia was safe.
Rounding a sharp curve, Kaden caught a glimpse of the decaying building. From a distance, it looked like a haunted house on a Hollywood set. All it needed was a . . .
“Kaden.” Lia’s voice sharply intruded into his aimless thoughts.
On instant alert, Kaden swept his gaze over their surroundings, at last spotting the sleek sports car parked at an odd angle toward the back of the building.
Giving the steering wheel a jerk, he pulled to the side of the road and hastily switched off the headlights.
“I see it.”
Lia unhooked her seat belt and leaned forward. “That’s Tate’s car.”
“Yeah, hard to miss,” he said dryly. “And for once, I don’t want to barf at the idiot’s narcissistic need to show off. He just made sure we know exactly where to find him.”
