Aim: A Society X Novel

by L. P. Dover

  “It wouldn’t work, even if I tried.” Sadly, it was the truth. My brother was a do or die kind of guy, no different than the rest of us.

  “I just want him to be safe. Those mafia boys are a different breed.”

  I scoffed. “I know. He’ll be okay, though. Bryce is smart.”

  “That he is,” he said, voice sad. “I’m assuming that’s why your numbers went down over the last couple of weeks? Peter said you haven’t hit a mark on the list in a while.”

  The list was a database of target names for us to hit. Every time we made a kill, we took them off the list. Peter Johnson was my superior, and the leader of the Circle of Justice, now that my father had retired.

  “I haven’t,” I admitted. “I wanted to focus on Bryce since he needed my help. And now, I have another problem.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “There’s been a few disappearances in Montana, and I just found out that we’re missing eight people here too. Grace Myers is one of them. Her father is the chief of police.” I released a heavy sigh. “I know her pretty well.”

  “And you want to help find her?” he asked curiously.

  I stared down at her picture. “I do. I know I wasn’t assigned to the case, but she’s a good friend of mine. I promised her father I’d help. There’s something sinister going on out here, and we need to put a stop to it.”

  “Do what you feel is right, son. The COJ will be fine if you take a break.”

  Holding his laptop, my brother appeared in the doorway. “Reed can always pick up my slack in the meantime,” I said, smiling wide.

  Reed snorted and sat his computer on my desk. “Always doing your dirty work,” he grumbled jokingly. He’d only been a part of the COJ for a year, and he’d already killed thirty targets. His passion was finding things no one else could. That was what made the Chandler family a force to be reckoned with. We were notorious among the FBI ranks.

  “Either way,” my father spoke, “you both stay safe, and I’ll talk to you soon. Let me know if you hear anything else from Bryce.”

  “Will do.” I hung up and leaned forward, turning Reed’s laptop so I could see the screen. “Find anything?”

  Reed grinned, nodding at the computer. “A few things, actually. When I tried to hack into the video surveillance program at the hotel, there was nothing there, just like Colton said.” He held up a finger. “Luckily, I tapped into another video feed. Take a look.”

  On the screen was a long shot view of the hotel parking lot. “What camera is this?”

  Reed sat back in his chair. “It’s from the grocery store across the street. The video’s a little grainy, but you can kind of see what happened.”

  A few minutes ticked by and I watched Grace exit the hotel with two other men. They got into the red sports car beside her SUV and drove away. She got in her own car, then hopped right back out and made a beeline into the hotel. Not long after, she walked out and went straight to her car. That was when a figure in black came up behind her.

  Eyes wide, I moved closer. “What in the hell?” The man hit her over the head, and Grace fell motionless in his arms. “Son of a bitch.” The video wasn’t clear, but by the looks of the assailant, he had dark hair that was shaved close to his head.

  Reed tapped the computer. “He drives away in a black truck. To me, it looks like a Ford F250. I couldn’t zoom in to find out for sure.”

  The truck sped by and I nodded. “You’re right. It is a Ford. We have something to go on now.”

  Picking up my phone, I called Colton.

  “Hey,” he answered on the first ring.

  “Reed found something you need to see.”

  “I’ll be right there.” He hung up quickly and I focused back on the computer.

  Reed circled around my desk and typed away. “Look what else I found.”

  Another screen popped up, showing dozens of old profiles. Judging by the hairstyles and clothing, they were from many years ago. “What’s this?” I asked.

  “Those are people who went missing forty years ago, all reported as missing hikers in the Grand Tetons. They’re all dated around the same time frame. Only three of the bodies were found, but they were unrecognizable. DNA tests were done to prove their identities.” The records said they were mauled by bears and found by Larry Bradfield, who was the chief of police at that time, along with some of his deputies.

  “Motherfucker.” I stared at each picture, all men. “The same shit’s happening now.”

  “Exactly,” Reed agreed. “We just have to figure out why.”

  Grace

  The barn had chilled down and I could smell the rain as it pounded on the roof, along with the scent of smoke. It permeated the air. I felt groggy and not myself. Whatever drugs I was given, made my head heavy and my speech thick. The only thing I knew for certain was that my time was running out. Even with the blindfold over my eyes, I knew it was night by the sound of crickets. It was a sound that used to soothe me as I sat on my back porch. Not tonight. Possibly not ever again.

  I had come to the realization I needed to fight. If I didn’t get away before the hunt, I was dead. But my muscles were sore, and I could barely feel my fingers. The odds were stacked against me.

  I’d focus on the positives. Even though it’d been years ago, I’d played around with my father’s handcuffs hundreds of times. Mya and I used to have competitions on who could get free the fastest. Being the daughters of police officers, we’d learned many tricks. The only problem was, those times were long behind me. My body wasn’t as limber as when I was nine.

  Rolling my shoulders, I took a deep breath and stretched my legs as good as I could with them being tied up. I knew what I had to do, I just hadn’t done it in a long time. Laying down on the floor, I pulled my knees to my chest, but then a car door slammed just outside of the barn.

  My stomach clenched when I heard the captor speak, his voice sounding different from before. He was almost panicked. “Hey. What are you doing out here in this weather?”

  “Do you have her?” the other man growled angrily. I’d heard that voice a million times. It was Charles Beckett, owner of Snow Creek Resort, and the man who was supposed to give me a promotion. I felt sick and betrayed.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the captor snapped back.

  Holding my breath, I laid completely still. What the hell was going on?

  Charles’ voice boomed, making my whole body shiver. “Don’t lie to me, boy. I know the kind of stuff you’re up to, and I want to know what you’ve done with Grace.”

  “You’ve lost your fucking mind. Now get the hell out of here before I call the police.”

  Charles burst out laughing, but there was no humor in it. “Go ahead. I’m curious to see what they find. All I know is that people are missing, including Grace. And I’m not going to let her be a part of this sick game. I thought it ended forty years ago. So, whoever wants her dead will have to go through me.”

  It was too much to take in all at once. A part of me was relieved Charles had come to rescue me, but then again, he also knew what was going on. I’d never be able to look at him the same ever again. Everything went silent, only the rain pattering against the barn made any noise. Hope flooded through my veins, then disappeared with what happened next.

  “Sorry, old man, but that’s not going to happen.”

  Charles grunted in pain, and soon after, there was a scuffle, followed by sputtering, choked breaths. I wanted to run out there and help him. Hot tears soaked into my blindfold and I held in my cries. Heavy footsteps pounded in the mud, heading away from the barn. A car door slammed, and then another, before the engine roared to life and slowly drove away. Whatever happened to Charles, I knew it wasn’t good. If he died trying to save me, I’d never be able to forget the sounds of his last breaths.

  Heart racing and adrenaline pumping, I knew I had to use the endorphins to my benefit, and get the hell out of there. Pulling my knees to my chest as hard as I co
uld, I stretched my arms, fighting the pain as the ropes tore into my wrists. All I had to do was get my hands in front of me, so I could untie my ankles and take off the blindfold.

  The skin around my wrists was on fire, and my shoulders felt as if they’d dislocate at any moment. Clenching my teeth, I stretched my arms harder, barely squeezing them over my ass. Once my arms were in front of me, I breathed a quick sigh of relief, then ripped off the blindfold. Not wasting any time, I worked on the binding around my feet. Thankfully, they’d made it an easy tie to undo, as they probably weren’t anticipating my arms getting free.

  I stood slowly, feeling the blood rush down to my feet. My head throbbed and I swayed, steadying myself against the side of the stall. It was so dark, I could barely see. Once my eyes adjusted, I was right in my assessment. The barn was old with ten stalls. It made me wonder how many other people had been stored inside them. The stall door creaked when I opened it and I cringed, waiting for someone to come storming inside the barn.

  Everything was eerily silent and the rain had stopped. When no one came, I slowly made my way to the door, tugging it gently to see if it was locked. It wasn’t. Sucking in a breath, I opened it slightly and looked around. There was total darkness, but if I had my guess, it was probably a wall of mountains and forest. A faint light shone around the corner of the barn so I snuck a peek to see what it was. In the distance, there was a house, but I couldn’t tell what it looked like. The only thing I knew was that I wasn’t going to get close to it.

  Taking a deep breath, I looked out into the dark. If I was going to die, I sure as hell wasn’t going to give anyone the satisfaction of killing me. I’d rather take my chances with the wilderness.

  Ian

  The entire night, I drove around the city, seeing if I could spot the black truck. There were numerous black pickups on the road, but none of the drivers fit the description of the man in the video. I’d even parked in the hotel lot for a while, and nothing.

  With no luck, I walked through my front door as the sun started to peek across the horizon. Reed was in the kitchen fixing breakfast. “Any luck?” he asked as I sat down at the bar.

  “Not a fucking thing.” He set a plate of eggs and bacon in front of me. “Thanks,” I said. My stomach growled and I ate it all. Each of us Chandlers knew how to cook some delicious food.

  “Has Colton called you?” Reed asked, taking the seat across from me.

  I shook my head. “We passed each other on the road last night. He was probably out looking for the truck like I was.”

  “Speaking of looking around, I pinpointed the locations where those three bodies were found years ago. We can get to there by the Hidden Falls trail.” He finished his food and placed his plate in the sink. “Maybe we can get an idea of how they wound up in those spots.”

  Nodding, I glanced down at my watch. “Sounds good. Let’s get our backpacks filled up and we’ll head out.”

  I grabbed our hiking gear out of the hall closet and packed a few bottles of water and snacks. With it being early May, there’d still be over five feet of snow at the falls. Once our bags were stocked, we hopped in my old, blue truck and headed down our gravel driveway. We didn’t get far before my phone rang. It was Colton.

  “We have a problem,” he said as soon as I answered.

  I stopped my truck. “What happened?”

  “I need you to meet me at Old Mill road. There’s something you need to see.”

  Pressing the gas, I spun out of our driveway. “Be right there.”

  “What’s going on?” Reed asked.

  I shrugged. “Don’t know. Colton wants us to meet him at Old Mill road.”

  “Has he said anything about this same shit happening forty years ago?”

  “He hasn’t,” I replied, glancing over at him. “I’m shocked the media hasn’t brought it up, especially now that word’s out about the missing people.”

  It was all a huge, mysterious clusterfuck. I couldn’t wrap my head around it. If the police or the FBI couldn’t solve the case all those years ago, how the hell could I?

  When we arrived at Old Mill road, there was a fire truck and multiple police cars. “What the hell happened here?” I said, pulling over to the side of the road. Colton hurried over just as the tow truck pulled a blackened sports car up from the ravine. It was burnt to a crisp, but there was no mistaking the charred body still inside. “Jesus Christ. Whose car is that?”

  Colton scrubbed a hand over his face. His eyes were red and it looked like he hadn’t slept in days. “It’s Charles Beckett’s car. I’m assuming that’s him in the driver’s seat. He lives about a mile down the road.”

  It only took me a second to realize why the name sounded familiar. At some point, Colton had mentioned it was Jared’s father. “Charles is the owner of the hotel Grace works at.”

  Colton nodded, his face growing paler by the second. “I don’t like this, Chandler. First, people go missing. Then, my daughter is nowhere to be found and her boss winds up dead.”

  A woman toppled out of a cop car behind us and made her way to the tow truck. Halfway there, she screamed and fell to the ground. It took me a second to realize the woman wearing a light blue robe was Charles’ wife. Jared and a woman I’d never seen before tried to console her. Colton jerked around and hung his head with a sigh.

  He pointed to the grieving trio. “You already know Jared, and Charles’ wife. The young woman is Charles’ daughter, Lauren. She was on her way home when she saw the fire in the ravine. She’s the one who called it in, not realizing it was her father in the car.”

  I couldn’t imagine seeing something like that, only to find out later it was a loved one. “What do you think made Beckett run off the road?” I wondered out loud.

  Colton shrugged. “Not sure, but I’m sure we’ll find out. Right now, my focus is on Grace. I can’t worry about this other shit right now.”

  I placed a hand on his shoulder. “I don’t blame you, but please . . . I have a question.”

  His brows furrowed. “What?”

  “Did you know this same thing happened forty years ago? Twelve people went missing, here, in this very place.”

  His eyes widened in shock. “What are you talking about? How did you hear about this?”

  Reed held up a hand. “I found it in our FBI database. However, back then, three bodies were found by Larry Bradfield and his team. Larry was the chief of police at that time.”

  Colton nodded and glanced back and forth at us. “I know who he is. He’s long since dead. But it’s funny. When I moved here and saw him around, he never said a word about it.”

  “That’s why we’re going to do our own searching,” I claimed.

  He shook my hand and I could feel it trembling. “Thanks, Chandler. I appreciate you doing this for me. I know you probably need to be handling other things.”

  “I’m happy to help,” I replied.

  Taking a deep breath, he looked over at the carnage. “I’ll continue looking for the black truck. It’s been almost two days. The chances of finding her grow slimmer every day.”

  I squeezed his shoulder. “We’ll find her. She’s a fighter.”

  A sad smile spread across his face. “Yes, she is. I made sure of that.”

  We made it to the Hidden Falls bridge in record time. I’d been right when I guessed there was five feet of snow still on the ground. At the end of the bridge, there was a wall of snow. Everything on that side of the bridge and beyond was buried under it all.

  I climbed onto the bridge’s wooden rails and up onto the snow. There were holes in various parts of the snow where you could see the tops of the fence beneath. One wrong step and you could easily get trapped below. That was one of the reasons tourists were told not to hike when the snow was that deep. However, there were still footprints from where people had attempted to continue on.

  Reed stopped and opened his map. There were three red dots where the bodies were found. He pointed north, past the falls. “One was fo
und half a mile that way, and the others are a little further.”

  There wasn’t a trail leading to those spots, so we trekked carefully across the forest floor. I didn’t want to damage the natural beauty of the park. It pissed me off when people stepped off the paths at Yellowstone just to get a closer look.

  Once we got to the coordinates of the first victim, nothing odd stuck out. And then again with the other two sites. How the hell did they get there in the first place? Brows furrowed, Reed focused on the map.

  “You thinking what I’m thinking?” I asked him.

  He looked up at me. “Probably. Just wondering how the victims got here. Makes no sense.”

  “Can I see the map?” He handed it to me and I studied it. The Grand Teton National Forest covered 310,000 acres of land, being forty-five miles from north to south, and twenty-six miles in width. If only we knew which way the victims came from. There were a lot of different scenarios.

  The sun grew fainter by the minute. “We need to head back,” Reed suggested. “Unless you want to be stuck out here all night.”

  I gave him the map back and we headed toward the main trail. “We live on the eastern side of the park. The victims could’ve easily ventured inside from the south or the west.”

  I glanced back at Reed and he shrugged. “It’s possible. They would’ve had to travel about ten to twelve miles of forest to get where they were. Not everyone could do that.”

  “Obviously, considering only three were found. Maybe they were the most fit out of the other victims.”

  “They were also the first three to go missing,” Reed added.

  Stopping mid-step, I turned around to face him. It was as if the clues clicked into place. “Sounds like they were true hikers that got lost, or maybe the killer was sloppy in the beginning.”

  Reed nodded. “True. Most serial killers evolve.”

  “And that might be why none of the others were found.”

  “It’s a good theory,” he said with a sigh. “Too bad it doesn’t get us anywhere.”

  Unfortunately, it didn’t.