"Probably a coincidence," Sam said, sounding skeptical. "I doubt her note had anything to do with the tennis shoes."
"Was it also a coincidence that Hazel was in the RV helping Sandy the day before she disappeared?" Blair persisted.
Matt blew out a frustrated breath. "This kind of speculation isn’t getting us anywhere."
"It’s not speculation, it’s a reasonable theory. Sandy was a small, frail woman," Blair countered, a growing sense of conviction swirling in her gut. "There's no way she wore a size nine."
A cold silence fell over them as the implication sank in. If neither Harvey nor Sandy wore a size nine, then the shoes must have belonged to someone else.
Blair rubbed her throat with shaking fingertips. "Maybe there’s a third person in the RV. Harvey and Sandy could have been hiding someone. We never actually searched it, what with Sandy dying and all."
"Now you’re really beginning to sound irrational. Why would they be hiding someone?" Matt asked.
Blair gave a helpless shrug. "I don’t know. I’m only thinking out loud. A grown kid with issues maybe, or something like that. It’s just that Harvey was very reluctant for anyone to go inside."
"Issues?" Sam echoed, scratching his forehead.
Matt stared intently at Blair, a gleam of understanding in his eyes. "Sociopathic tendencies. Is that what you’re hinting at?"
She gave a despairing shake of her head. "No, you’re right. It’s too far-fetched. There’s nowhere to hide anyone for days on end anyway. We’d have spotted them by now."
A collective silence fell over them as they eyed the shoes in Matt’s hands.
After a moment, Sam let out a sigh. "They were likely left in the RV by a friend or a family member. Harvey’s just clearing out."
Matt shot a quick glance up and down the road. "Let’s get this trash back in the dumpster before anyone sees us."
Blair snatched the shoes out of his hands and stashed them inside her coat. "I’ll hold on to these in the meantime—in case there’s more to it."
Matt shrugged. "Whatever."
They tossed the trash bags back into the dumpster and turned to go just as angry shouts drifted their way.
"Is that Logan?" Blair asked, her eyes darting to Matt.
His expression hardened. "Sounds like him, but I don't recognize the other man’s voice. It doesn’t—"
A piercing scream cut him off mid-sentence.
"Whitney!" Sam yelled.
Terror and confusion melded as one in Blair's rib cage as she pounded down the road after Sam and Matt. A series of random questions fired in rapid succession in her brain. Had Logan escaped again? Was he holding a knife to Whitney’s throat? And who was the other man they’d heard? Maybe Rob had returned with his brother. They might be holding the others at gunpoint.
They tore around the corner and came to a screeching halt at the sight that greeted them. Twenty feet away, a tall, lean, wiry-haired man with an unkempt beard dressed in camo from head-to-toe stood in the middle of the road pointing a rifle at Logan who was on his knees, hands still zip-tied behind his back. A few feet from them, Whitney was sobbing and screaming hysterically, knuckles pressed to her mouth.
Blair’s stomach lurched. There was no sign of Harvey anywhere. Had the stranger already killed him? It appeared Logan was next in line unless they did something, and quickly. This must be the tall figure she’d seen skulking from the dumpster earlier. A wave of guilt crashed over her. They’d suspected all along that Logan was the killer, or at least that he’d had something to do with Hazel’s disappearance. They’d tied him up and left him vulnerable, at the mercy of this unhinged individual—the killer they’d lived in fear of for the past two days.
Her eyes slid to Matt who was reaching for the gun concealed beneath his jacket.
Whitney darted over to them, shrieking frantically. "Do something! He's going to kill Logan!"
Matt faced the stranger, legs astride. "Who are you and what do you want?"
The stranger’s nose twitched as he scrutinized Matt, silently weighing him up. Blair wondered if he could tell that Matt had a concealed weapon beneath his jacket.
"How about I ask the questions?" the stranger growled. "Why was this man tied up in my camper?"
Blair’s heart slugged against her chest. The elusive owner of the camper van had finally returned. Of course, they only had his word for it, but why else would he have made a beeline for the camper van and not any of the other trailers?
"Sorry, man," Matt said. "We thought it was abandoned."
"We were camping here when the mudslide happened," Blair explained. "No one had been near the van for days. We thought perhaps—"
She broke off, deciding against going so far as to say they’d assumed the owner had died in the mudslide. She cast a furtive look at Matt, trying to gauge his intentions. His hand was still inside his jacket, ready to pull out his gun the instant things started to go south.
"Do you think he's the killer?" Sam muttered under his breath.
"He looks deranged enough," Blair whispered back.
The stranger eyed them with a mixture of suspicion and aggravation. "You still haven't answered my question. Why’s this man tied up?"
"Because he hurt his girlfriend," Blair replied. She turned to Whitney. "Show him."
Whitney's eyes widened and she shrank back.
"I said, show him," Blair repeated, enunciating every word in an unequivocal manner. Under her breath, she added, "Do you want to get out of this alive or not?"
Whitney swallowed hard and then gave a tentative nod before tugging up her sleeves and inching toward the stranger. Shaking, she held out her wrists to him.
His frown deepened and he aimed the rifle at Logan's head.
"No!" Whitney screamed, dropping to her knees and attempting to cover Logan with her body.
"Easy man!" Matt took a step toward the stranger. "We’ve got this under control. We’ll get him out of your hair right now. We can accommodate him elsewhere. Not a problem."
Blair darted over to Whitney and hauled her upright.
The stranger prodded Logan with the muzzle of his rifle. "You heard the man! On your feet! Go!"
Logan rose unsteadily. He shot Matt a look of loathing before trudging over to him.
Matt squared his jaw and addressed the stranger once more. "I’m Matt Dawson. This is my wife, Blair, and my … friend, Sam. What’s your name, sir?"
The stranger stared back unabashedly for an uncomfortable length of time, his expression oddly devoid of any emotion.
Just as he opened his mouth to respond, Harvey came walking into view. "Thought I heard—"
He came to an abrupt stop, shock swirling over his face at the sight of the armed stranger in their midst. His eyes darted around the group as he quickly tried to assess the situation and the danger they were in.
The stranger took a step toward Harvey, his rifle pointed directly at him. "Do you know this guy?" he called out to no one in particular.
"Yes! It's okay," Sam responded. "Harvey’s with us. He’s in the RV next to you."
The stranger motioned with his gun for Harvey to join the others.
Logan took the opportunity to sidle up next to Matt who greeted him with a cursory nod. “Are you all right?"
Logan fixed a lizard-like gaze on him. "You almost got me a bullet in the brain from our neighborhood serial killer. You're going down for this, as soon as I get out of here."
"Not now," Blair urged, tugging on Matt’s arm. "Ignore him. We've got bigger problems to deal with."
She turned to address Harvey. "This gentleman owns the camper van. We were just explaining to him why we put Logan in there."
Harvey pursed his lips and cast a shrewd look at the stranger. Blair hoped he wouldn’t try anything stupid or make any sudden moves. Harvey was a big man, but the stranger had the upper hand with a weapon at his disposal. The last thing Blair wanted was for Matt to have to draw his gun in what was certain to become a bloo
d bath.
"You were about to tell us your name," she prompted the stranger, forcing a smile.
He blinked solemnly at her. "Billie Reed Henderson. You can call me Reed."
"Again, we apologize for inconveniencing you," Blair said. "It's just that we needed to separate Logan and his girlfriend, for her own protection, at least for as long as it takes for us to figure out a way out of here."
Reed adjusted the brim of his cap. "What do you mean?"
Blair's eyes widened. "You don't know about the road?"
A look of irritation crossed Reed’s face. "All I know is that the mountain caved with all the rain. Took me three days to get around the slide and back to camp."
"It washed out the access road into Bird Creek too," Matt explained. "We're trapped here until search and rescue locate us."
Reed’s jaw slackened as if trying to digest the improbable news.
Blair silently observed his reaction. If she had to hazard a guess, his shock seemed genuine. And if he really had been making his way back to the campground for the past three days, that ruled him out as the killer. But Matt’s warning not to take anything at face value was still ringing in her ears. She’d harbored high hopes that this camping trip around the States would be an exercise in learning to trust again for Matt. Instead, it had become a cautionary tale for her to trust no one.
"Is this everyone camping here?" Reed asked, looking around.
"Yes," Whitney blurted out. "Well, there's Hazel but—"
Blair shot her a belated look of warning.
Reed’s expression darkened, his grip on his rifle tightening again. "Who’s Hazel?" When no one answered, he raised his gun and slowly panned the group. "Where’s this Hazel woman?"
"We don't know," Sam responded. "She disappeared from her trailer yesterday."
"They blamed Logan!" Whitney added indignantly. "They’re acting like he’s the killer."
"Shhh!" Blair hissed in her ear. "What if it’s Reed?"
Whitney threw her a horrified look before clamping her lips closed.
Reed's posture tensed, suspicion written all over his face. "I thought you said Hazel disappeared."
"She did," Matt cut in. "We don’t know what happened to her."
Undeterred, Reed continued to stare at Whitney. "You said, killer. Why?"
Whitney’s bottom lip trembled. "I … I didn’t mean to say that. What I meant was—"
"She meant to say killer, all right," Logan cut in. He turned around and looked at the others with a triumphant sneer on his face. "I'd say that guy with a knife sticking out of his belly was definitely murdered, wouldn't you?" He swung back around to face Reed. "They didn’t tell you there’s a killer stalking the campground, did they? That’s because they think it’s you! You can’t trust them. Look what they did to me."
"Don’t listen to—" Matt began.
"Enough! I’ve heard your side of things!" A thunderous look crossed Reed’s face. He jerked his chin in Harvey's direction. "You’re awfully quiet. What do you have to say about all this?"
Harvey slid a wary gaze from Reed to Matt.
"He just lost his wife … recently," Blair blurted out, praying Reed wouldn't probe any further. She didn't relish the idea of explaining that there was yet another body in the campground.
Harvey cleared his throat. "It's like Logan said. We found the man lying in the brush off to the side of the hiking trail that leads up to the lake—he’d been stabbed in the stomach." He smoothed a hand over his beard. "We figured maybe someone from the hunting party got into an argument, but—"
"Someone tried to make it look like a stabbing after the fact," Blair cut in, afraid Harvey was going to bring up Rob's name—another unexplained missing person. If they weren’t careful, Reed might start to think they were part of some cult that was knocking people off or something. Judging by the notebook they’d found in his van, he was susceptible to bizarre conspiracy theories. "Hazel was the one who noticed that the man had actually been strangled," she added.
A deep trench formed on Reed’s brow. "And that’s when Hazel disappeared?"
Harvey narrowed his eyes and gestured to Logan. “We think she was a private investigator, hired by Logan's wife to find out if he was cheating on her—which, it turns out, he was, with his sixteen-year-old babysitter, no less. I'd say that might have a lot more to do with Hazel’s sudden disappearance than anything else."
"That’s the other reason we tied Logan up," Matt said, taking him by the elbow. "We suspect he might have done something to Hazel, and we need to get to the bottom of it. I’ll move him into my trailer for now."
"I can't let you do that," Reed said, a chilling calmness solidifying in his voice. "Not until I figure out exactly what’s going on here and who I can believe. In the meantime, I’m going to need a hostage." A thin-lipped smile deepened the hollows of his cheeks as he turned to Logan. "Guess you're going to be bunking with me after all."
23
Reed marched a loudly-protesting Logan at gunpoint back to the camper van while Whitney whimpered in the background. Blair’s stomach knotted when the two men disappeared inside, and the door slammed shut behind them. Had they just sent Logan to his death?
Harvey scrubbed a hand over his jaw. "I reckon we found our killer."
"You mean he found us," Sam corrected him.
"I’m not so sure," Matt said. "There’s no question Reed’s an oddball, but that’s not enough to make him a killer. Why would he suddenly show up here if he’s been stalking our campground? I think he’s telling the truth about getting cut off by the mudslide."
Blair cast a worried look at Whitney, standing off to one side, hugging herself. "Do you think Logan’s safe?" she whispered to Matt.
He squared his jaw. "I don’t honestly know. But I’m not opposed to someone else babysitting him for a change."
"I need to feed Duke and get my gear ready in case the climb’s still a go," Sam said, glancing up at the darkening sky. "Although it looks like the weather’s turning again."
Matt nodded. "We should all get something to eat. We can figure out our next move after that."
Blair gave a relieved nod. She was hungry, soaked through, and she needed to get rid of these tennis shoes inside her jacket. She would hide them in Matt’s truck for now. She couldn’t risk anyone seeing them and asking questions—least of all, Harvey.
Blair and Matt sat down to eat breakfast at the dining table, quietly exchanging a helpless look. The minute they’d come inside, Whitney had collapsed on the couch, weeping, and was refusing to join them.
"You can't really blame her for being mad at us," Blair whispered, picking at her toast. "We put Logan in this situation."
"No, Logan put himself in this situation," Matt muttered back.
"It’s not his fault he was in the camper van," Whitney piped up, pulling herself into a sitting position and glaring at them, eyes glistening with tears. "He didn't do anything to Hazel, and he doesn't deserve this. Reed’s crazy. Anyone can see that."
Blair wiped a hand across her brow. She couldn't appease Whitney's fears on that count. Undeniably, there was an air of unpredictability about the man. And that strange grin of his was particularly disturbing. She didn’t envy Logan being all alone with him and completely at his mercy. A shiver went down her spine. They had to get out of here before it was too late for all of them.
The plopping of raindrops on the roof startled her out of her reverie. She shot Matt a perturbed look. "Here comes the rain again. I wonder if Rob’s okay out there—if he’s found any trace of his brother."
Matt squeezed his fingers into a fist on the table. "He’s not our problem anymore. We can’t keep people alive if they won’t listen to reason. We told everyone to stick together, to go everywhere in groups from now on. He chose his own fate, as far as I’m concerned."
"Are we ever going to get out of here?" Whitney whined.
Matt pushed his plate aside and contemplated the blubbering girl for a moment. "Of
course we will. Sam can make the climb today, if the rain doesn’t get any heavier. Once he’s over the other side of the mountain, it won't take him long to hike down to the main road and hitch a ride. After that, it's only a matter of waiting for a search and rescue helicopter to find us. Worst case scenario, we’ll be out of here by tomorrow."
Whitney swallowed back a sob. "Tomorrow's my seventeenth birthday. I'm supposed to be having a party with all my friends."
"You can still have a party," Blair said, softening her tone. "You might just have to postpone it for a couple of days." She got up from the table and put the kettle back on the stove. "Anyone want more coffee?"
The words had scarcely left her lips before the distant thrumming of a helicopter reached their ears.
Whitney’s eyes darted between Matt and Blair. "Is that SAR?"
"Could be," Matt said, springing to his feet.
With one accord, they tore out of the trailer and raced down to the road, heedless of the rain.
Blair’s pulse thundered in her ears. Peering up into the clouds, she spotted a helicopter circling over the SOS they’d built.
"It’s the sheriffs," Matt announced, tenting a hand over his eyes. "They must be looking for you, Whitney. You just got the best birthday present ever."
She let out an ear-piercing shriek and began jumping up and down on the road, flailing her hands wildly.
Matt let out a snort. "Forget it! They can't see you from up there."
Moments later, Sam and Harvey joined them, bundled up in their rain gear.
"Took them long enough to find us," Sam said, the relief in his voice evident.
Blair grinned at him. "Guess you won't have to attempt that climb after all."
"Should we go up the hiking trail and wait by the SOS?" Whitney asked, chewing nervously on her nails.
Sam shook his head. "No, they’ll be gone by the time we get up there. Don’t worry, we’re safe now. The sheriffs will notify search and rescue and they’ll take it from here. They’ll helicopter us out of here as soon as they deem it safe."
You Will Never Leave: A psychological suspense thriller Page 16