Murder at Sunrise Lake

by Feehan, Christine

  Stella frowned. “They still have their regular backpacks on.”

  “You have tonight. If they have them on tonight, I’m wrong, but some of this beginning terrain looks much more like they started out near upper Guitar Lake to me. He’s a seasoned hiker, Stella. Would he take an inexperienced backpacker up Whitney and then hike the JMT this time of year? He wouldn’t. The answer is no.”

  There was that. Stella knew Raine was right. It wasn’t snowing— yet. But it would eventually, and once it did, the female wasn’t dressed appropriately at all.

  “He knows weather can turn up there fast. The wind can be a real bitch. You know what it’s like in lightning storms. He started her out super early in the morning. It wasn’t until night four that you heard others around them. He’s done this hike before, probably more than once, and wants to make sure she makes it without a problem. You said they’re hiking at her pace. He isn’t trying to make her go too fast. I’m just guessing that he took the easiest route to show her the Sierras he loves without her taking on too much.”

  “I’m so glad I showed these to you. I really thought the switchbacks. The granite.”

  Raine turned the last sketch to several different angles. “I believe you’re right they’re trying to summit Mount Whitney. You said you heard others.”

  “I couldn’t see anyone, just heard them.”

  “If they drop their backpacks at Trail Crest and keep going with day packs to the summit, you know there’s a very dangerous place, narrow, drop-offs on both sides. They could be shoved off there. There’s one more switchback. It wouldn’t be hard, even with others around. Feigning an accident. Trying to help if she got altitude sickness. So many things can go wrong up there.”

  Stella dropped her head in her hands. “Sam’s trying to find out who can help with figuring out who has a permit, but I told him the couple has one for the main trail.” She texted him. “I don’t know if it’s even possible for him to do that.”

  “I might be able to,” Raine said. “I can hack almost anything. I’ll do my best to track them down.” She put the sketches on the table and leaned back in her chair. “So, how are you doing? This is rough. Really rough.”

  “Let’s just say I’m not getting much sleep. I don’t want to lose them. I can feel him. He’s right there and I can’t call out to them and warn them, but there’s a feeling.” She gave a little shudder. “The first couple of nights he wasn’t there, but last night he was close to them.”

  Raine jumped up. She wasn’t very tall, but she had a powerful, forceful energy that could take command of a room— or a conversation— when she chose. Stella had seen her go from a quiet almost-shadow in a corner of a room to a formidable explosion of energy, her brilliant mind suddenly on display, razor-sharp, challenging someone, most often a man, who put down someone else with a pompous display of superiority on some subject he thought he was familiar with. She would start out softly, but she could annihilate her opponent the moment they underestimated her— and they always did.

  Raine looked young, with her strawberry-blonde hair that fell as straight as a board nearly to her waist. She was always careless with it, pulling it back in a ponytail or braid to get the silky mass out of her face. With her slate-blue eyes, golden lashes, dusting of freckles across her nose, and lips defined and curving upward, many people, on meeting her, made the mistake of thinking she looked like a pixie or cute little fairy, due to her size. Anyone who knew her laughed at that description. She was a fighter, an Amazon.

  Stella looked around Raine’s single-story house on the outskirts of town. She had an acre of land surrounding the house, with neat little gardens and a greenhouse because she liked to grow her own food year-round. She also loved to get her hands in the dirt.

  Her property reflected who she was. The three-bedroom home was always neat but overrun with workout gear. She had some kind of gear in every room, including her office. The office was huge, with state-of-the-art computers in it, and banks of screens, but also a treadmill with a TrekDesk. Raine actually did walk on her treadmill while she worked. Stella had tried it and it was no joke even walking at the lowest possible setting.

  Raine liked to mountain bike as well as backpack. Like Stella, she wasn’t into running and she didn’t do peak bagging, but she bouldered and trad climbed when pushed. She was a problem solver, so bouldering afforded her, like Stella, that continual occupation of the mind she needed.

  The thing that Raine really loved about her house other than the acreage that allowed her gardens was her secret indoor pool. She loved to swim. She joked that when she was younger, she had permanently green hair from constantly swimming in chlorinated pools until she could figure out how to take care of her hair and swim without damage. The pool was heated too, so in the winter Raine’s house was the place to go when the friends wanted to get together. Stella had to admit, she’d grown fond of that pool.

  Bailey’s very best friend in the entire world was Daisy, Raine’s Jack Russell. The little female went everywhere with Raine as a rule, even when helicopters came and picked her up and took her off to work, or she hiked hundreds of miles. Sometimes, it was true, Daisy rode in Raine’s backpack, but the energetic dog usually ran circles around them all when they went hiking or camping together. When Daisy couldn’t go with Raine, she usually stayed with Stella and Bailey at the resort. Right now, Daisy was running around the yard with Bailey, occasionally giving a yip of pure joy as the two animals dashed together in one direction then the next, discovering every little insect and lizard that dared take up residence in Daisy’s territory.

  Stella couldn’t help but smile. “Those two out there, they are so cute together. I love their friendship. They live life without all the complications. Sam seems to do that too. He doesn’t worry about things that haven’t happened yet. This thing that’s happening, Raine, it’s really shaken me. I’ve built a good life here. It isn’t just that for the first time I’ve actually found friends I love, and that’s true. I’ve never had that before. It’s that I’ve found peace up in the Sierras. There’s something about that country that calls to me.”

  Raine nodded slowly. “I do understand because I feel it too. That’s why I settled here. I could work from anywhere, but this is my happy place. There’s a reason I backpack so much. Being in the forest and hiking along the trails at ten thousand feet, taking in the ever-changing nature, is an incredible experience. I feel more alive than I do anywhere else, but like you, that same peace. This is a glitch, Stella. The Sierras have been here for thousands of years. We’re like little ants crawling around on it. This killer is nothing. He’s come and you’ll eventually catch him. The Sierras will remain, and so will their beauty. You can count on that and the peace they bring to you because that will never change. He can’t change that. Nothing can.”

  Stella kept her gaze on the two dogs now rolling around on the golden grass, legs in the air, kicking wildly. Bailey looked like a bear next to the petite Jack Russell, and rather silly too, with his giant legs in the air. She laughed at the two dogs. They certainly weren’t concerned with a serial killer.

  “You went to UC Berkeley, right? After finishing high school, you were accepted straight into the university.”

  Stella turned to face Raine, hearing the speculation in her voice. “Yes, why?”

  “Do you realize there was a serial killer at work in the area near the university at the time you went to school there?”

  Stella nodded slowly, wrapping her arms around her middle, her stomach dropping. She suddenly wished Sam was there. Her mind shied away from where she knew Raine was going. Sam let her get away with it; Raine wasn’t going to.

  “Yes, of course, it was all over the news. He had a particular type. He went after mothers of children playing sports. The mothers who stay home, take care of their children, drive them to practices and all of their games. He followed them home, tied the child or children to chairs and made them watch while he tortured and then killed the mother.
He left the children alive, but very traumatized. How could anyone forget that?”

  “But you didn’t have nightmares. You weren’t in any way involved, yet it was close to you, right in the same city.”

  “It’s a big city.”

  “Stella.” Raine’s voice was gentle. Low. She shook her head, those gray-blue eyes compassionate but steady. “Not so big. He struck close several times. The killer was one of the security guards right there on campus.”

  Now Stella’s heart was beating too fast. Galloping wildly like a runaway horse. Don’t say it. Don’t think it. Don’t say it. If Raine said aloud what Stella was pushing out of her mind so it could never be true, then Raine might make it true. She opened her mouth to tell Raine it was a big campus, but her throat closed, threatening to choke her.

  “Why would you have nightmares when you were such a little girl, a five-, six-and seven-year-old? Then again when you were a teenager? You were a teen when you began having those same nightmares again, Stella. You were in a foster home, in high school, getting good grades, powering through school, and suddenly it was happening all over again. You knew there was a serial killer before anyone else. The nightmares started when you were fifteen, but no one believed you but your foster mother. She took you straight to the cops.”

  “She was pretty cool. I don’t know what I would have done without her. My world had spun completely out of control when my birth mother committed suicide and I was put in foster care. She was the emergency home, but she ended up keeping me permanently. I don’t know why I was such a mess.”

  Stella hadn’t thought about those early days ever. She never let herself go back to the time when, at nine, she’d found her mother dead from a mixture of alcohol and pills. Anne Fernandez was wearing her best dress, her makeup and hair perfect. She even had on her favorite pair of silver heels and the jewelry she loved most.

  “My foster mother, Elizabeth Donaldson, had a dog, a great big bear of a dog, and she let him sleep in my room every night. She was the most amazing woman. By that time I didn’t trust anyone, especially adults, but she didn’t seem to mind when I refused to talk or give anything of myself to her. When I did start opening up, little by little, she always listened. She stopped whatever she was doing and acted like it was the most important thing in the world to hear me out. She never dismissed a single thing I said. Eventually, we had discussions. I didn’t know what a discussion was until she so very patiently taught me. So, to answer your question, when I told her about the nightmares, she believed me and took me to the cops. They didn’t believe me.”

  “Even though they knew who you were?”

  “Especially because of who I was. I was a girl in high school who wanted attention. What a perfect way to get it, right? Because what girl wanted to bring that kind of attention to herself?” Stella tightened her arms around herself. “I detest looking into my past. Others might have bright, happy memories, but mine suck.”

  “Not all of them,” Raine pointed out. “You had Elizabeth Donaldson as a foster parent. She sounds like she was a lovely woman.”

  Stella had to concede that point. She was guilty of trying to block those memories in order to close the door on her previous life, the life of Stella Fernandez. She had started her life in college as Stella Harrison and just moved forward from there. She hadn’t meant to leave Elizabeth behind. She’d only changed her name and used her trust fund after Elizabeth died from breast cancer. She’d stayed with her until the very end. It had been Elizabeth who had discussed the possibilities of legally changing her name. She owed everything to her foster mother and yet she’d left her behind.

  “I did have Elizabeth and have so many memories of her. Even when she was so sick, she was sick with such dignity and grace. I was terrified of losing her.” Stella blinked back the sudden tears. “Thank you for reminding me, Raine. I don’t want to lose any of the memories I have of her. She taught me so much.”

  Raine nodded. “I’m glad you had her, Stella.” She took a visible breath. “She faced life head-on and I see that in you. She gave that strength to you, didn’t she?” Her voice was very gentle, compassionate even, but there was no hiding from her observations.

  “I see where you’re going with this.” Stella rubbed at the goose bumps rising on her arms. “I’ve thought about the why of my nightmares a million times. Why one serial killer and not another. If it was just the close proximity, then yes, I should have dreamt of the one while I was in college, but I didn’t.”

  That familiar little chill went down her spine, the one she got when she knew she was on the right track— and she didn’t want to be. She bit her lip and avoided Raine’s eyes, her stomach churning again.

  “Obviously, I had a physical connection to Jose Fernandez, my father. I lived in the same house with him and he picked me up. We were a family,” she said.

  “There was no obvious connection to the second one, when you were a teenager, Stella,” Raine said. “I searched. I got into the FBI files and couldn’t find anything. I even went back to the original police files when your foster mother took you to them to report your nightmare. There was nothing to indicate you had any physical contact with the killer.”

  Stella pressed her fist against her chest. Admitting it aloud meant that she knew this serial killer. That she’d touched him. She’d known it, of course, somewhere deep down, but she hadn’t wanted to admit it to herself just yet.

  “Elizabeth loved her coffee and she would take me to this one shop all the time. It was where we would go for our discussions, as she always called them. I think she wanted to make them fun, so it was always an outing. He was a customer there. He was there a few times when we were there. I only noticed him because he dropped his wallet going back to his table. I had been in line behind him. I picked it up and brought it to him. When I put it on his table, he thanked me, and when I went to turn away, he caught my arm and asked if he could buy our coffee. I thought that was sweet, but said no and thanked him for the offer. So, he had touched me. It wasn’t much of a connection, but there had been physical contact.”

  “You said you saw him more than once in the coffee shop. Did you ever have physical contact again?” Raine asked.

  Stella nodded. “He wasn’t there often when we were. Maybe four or five times. Elizabeth never spoke to him. I don’t think she even noticed him. But I slipped on some spilled coffee when I went up to get our drinks and he caught me, kept me from falling. I remember laughing and saying we were even for the wallet.”

  “That was before he started killing?”

  “As far as I know. It was before the nightmares started, at least a year before. Elizabeth was diagnosed and our world was turning upside down.” She swallowed hard. “We thought she had beat it. She had a double mastectomy, did chemo, and we were told she was good to go. She followed up, but everything looked good.”

  “I’m so sorry, Stella. I can see why you wouldn’t have even thought about having ever laid eyes on the killer.”

  “He looked different at the time, but I recognized him after they arrested him. I never saw him in one of my nightmares. I just didn’t think it was pertinent to tell the FBI that I’d seen him in a coffee shop after he was arrested. I just didn’t care, not with Elizabeth so sick. All that mattered to me was getting her better.”

  Raine sighed. “The serial killer here has to be someone you physically have come in contact with.”

  Stella nodded. “Unfortunately, that’s most likely the case, but I come in contact with a lot of people during the season, Raine.” She tacked on the last because this killer wasn’t one of her friends. It absolutely wasn’t. She had to believe that.

  “You’re certain it’s a male.”

  “Yes.”

  “And he’s not Sam.” Raine didn’t take her gaze from Stella’s, looking her steadily in the eye. “You’re absolutely certain the killer from this dream isn’t Sam.”

  Stella didn’t hesitate. “I’m absolutely certain. Sam would prote
ct me with his life.”

  Raine visibly relaxed, taking her at her word. “You have good instincts. I’m grateful you have him, because he’s a huge asset to you. So far, who have you told about this?”

  “I still have to bring Shabina and Vienna in. I’m trying to go slow and tell only those who need to know so there’s no chance of tipping off the killer. I have no idea who he is, but even if he doesn’t live and work here, if he’s a temporary, he’s still here. It’s hard to keep one’s facial expressions from showing anything if you know ahead of time it’s murder and not an accident.”

  Her greatest fear was that the killer was a local, someone they all knew.

  “You have to bring Vienna into the loop. She’s head of Search and Rescue, Stella. She has to know, if she’s called, what she’s facing.”

  Stella rubbed her suddenly pounding temples. “And then what? She treats it as a crime scene instead of an accident? What if the killer is watching? What if he’s close enough and that makes her a target? I don’t want him suddenly putting his sights on her.”

  “Vienna always treats every accident as a crime scene, you know that. She’s careful. Everyone knows that about her. She’s going to be first on scene if we can’t save these people. She’ll know what to look for. She’ll be able to preserve evidence. We have to trust her.”

  “I trust Vienna implicitly,” Stella assured. “She’s always putting herself at risk, Raine. Of anyone, her life is on the line on these rescues. She’s the one hanging off a cliff when some idiot climbs way beyond their level. She goes out in a snowstorm, risking her life, to find a family who should never have gone for a drive in the snow. I know what Vienna is willing to do to keep others safe. She doesn’t keep herself that safe. The minute I tell her what’s going on, she’ll find a way to be on Whitney.”