Snow Stalker

by M K Dymock

  “I always tried to read them, especially the exposés.”

  “Exposés?”

  “Yeah, his articles actually kicked off investigations that put people in jail.”

  Everything Mina had read about Phil had been positive, even the article by Grayson. “Can I email you a couple of photos and see if you recognize anyone from his stories?”

  “Sure.”

  Not ten minutes after Mina sent a few images of everyone at that the campsite and Cate and James, her phone buzzed with a text. I don’t know about most of them; I’ll keep looking. But the other guy I recognized immediately. Here’s a link to the latest article.

  Mina clicked on the link, expecting to see the same article on Phil. The headline that filled her screen caused her to gasp. “Sol!” she yelled out. “You need to see this!”

  SEATTLE START-UP FOUNDER IMPRISONED FOR BILKING BILLIONS

  Mina scrolled through the article on her phone while Sol brought up the link on his computer.

  The first paragraph read:

  Seattle start-up founder Jim Hardaway was sentenced to five to eight years on Thursday…

  Mina scrolled back to the top, looking for a date. “Three years ago, January; James should still be in prison. Did he escape?”

  “We have a name now.” Sol pulled up his computer with Mina hovering behind him. “Judge granted him a new trial and released him on bail a few weeks ago. Maybe he goes after the reporter for revenge.”

  “He didn’t drive up until the week after Grayson died,” Mina argued.

  “That’s what he told you. But he was released a full four days before the first attack. No telling how long he’d been here.”

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “Get a hold of the prosecuting attorney and find out if either Grayson or Phillip were part of the original trial,” Sol said. “I’m going to see about getting a warrant for his arrest. I doubt the conditions of his bail allowed him to leave the state. I want him in jail tonight.”

  51

  Ryan jumped in Sean’s pickup before it came to a complete stop. “Thanks, I appreciate the ride.” He’d explained the situation.

  “You think I’m related to this Cate person?” Sean asked.

  “Her maiden name is O’Brien.”

  “A lot of O’Briens in this world, but if she’s in this town, we are probably family. Although the name doesn’t ring a bell, and I don’t recall anyone moving back lately. That would’ve meant a barbecue at the very least.”

  “What’s with the snowmobile?” Ryan gestured to the sled propped in the truck bed.

  “Checking some fence lines this week. It’s easier to keep it loaded.”

  They passed the road marked with a street sign matching the address Cate had given him when she’d mentioned having him over for dinner. “That was it,” Ryan said.

  Sean pulled off onto the shoulder to turn around when an SUV pulled out, carrying James. The same SUV where Ryan had left the box.

  “There he is. Can we follow him?”

  Sean shot him a cross look. “Why don’t you just call him?”

  “I did. No one answered.” Ryan pressed on at Sean’s incredulous look. “Listen, I stole that box out of Phil’s house, and I need to return it. It belongs to his daughter, and she should decide what to do with it.”

  Sean wrenched the stick into first gear and pulled out. “What’s your plan? He’s not heading toward town.”

  Ryan always had a plan, but he hadn’t since Mina had crashed into his car. “If he stops someplace public, I’ll act like we ran into him and ask about the box.”

  “And if he doesn’t?”

  “Let’s just see where he goes.”

  Where he went was miles down the highway before pulling off to head down a snow-packed side road.

  Sean pulled off again.

  “I know,” Ryan said. “We can’t follow him down.”

  “The hell we can’t,” Sean said. “That’s my family’s private property. I’m responsible for it, and I keep track of who’s going up there. And nobody is supposed to be up there.”

  “Where does it lead?”

  “Our hundred-year-old cabin that can only be accessed by snowmobiles, which he doesn’t seem to have. You can go a few miles until a canyon, where you have to stop and sled in. I’m following him.” Sean engaged his four-wheel drive. “You in or you out?”

  “I’m in.” They pulled off the black pavement onto snow.

  52

  Mina read though all the articles about James Hardaway, starting with the latest.

  The technology James had invented was supposed to change the world. Anyone with a smartphone would be able to check their temperature, blood pressure, cholesterol, and a host of other things. Your phone would send an alert to you and your doctor at any alarming change. There’d be no waiting for the heart pains to tell you were about to die from a heart attack.

  He would’ve revolutionized healthcare, if only it had worked.

  Instead, the entire company and its world-changing technology was nothing more than mirrors reflecting back what others had already done. Mina found Facebook pages filled with angry investors wanting their money back—desperate for their money back.

  Modest estimates of the capital raised started at $500 million, with some believing at least a billion had been raised. When she read that, Mina leaned back in her chair, trying and failing to grasp that kind of amount.

  At least a half a billion. Supposedly raised to fund research, development, overhead, and a whole lot of expenses a new company requires. The question became whether James had set out to build a product or fund a shell company.

  When a company fails, investors lose their money. But did these investors lose their money to bad luck or a dishonest founder? The early articles at first questioned the promises of James; then they questioned James himself. One reporter visited the company’s headquarters, incognito, and reported one floor had been done up with offices, meeting rooms, and a flurry of employees typing on computers and writing on whiteboards. He’d slipped away from the tour to discover the rest of the building was floors filled with empty cubicles.

  His teams of lawyers would argue bad luck and bad press had led to the company’s downfall. Eventually an investigation would reveal James had been a glorified snake oil salesman.

  The arrest warrant of James Hardaway arrived. Mina sat on hold with the FBI, trying to reach their contact about Phil’s murder. They’d officially crossed the line into stuff the feds care about.

  Sol buttoned his coat. “I’m not waiting for someone else to die or for him to realize we’re on to him.” Mina grabbed her own coat, but Sol stopped her. “I need you to stay here and make contact with an agent. Plus, you don’t have the training yet to make an arrest.”

  “You’re not going by yourself?”

  “Nope, I’ll pick Clint up on the way out.” The wind slammed the door shut as he left.

  Not much later, the phone rang with a Seattle area code. The district attorney prosecuting the case against James had finally returned her calls.

  “You have James in custody?” The strident voice belonging to a woman named Anne didn’t allow for any excuses.

  “The sheriff has gone to arrest him, barring any problems.”

  “There shouldn’t be. Each time we brought him in, he came peaceably, albeit with a team of lawyers. I am surprised he left the state, though. He didn’t strike me as a runner, and the most jail time he’s facing is five years if we can get a conviction. Not worth being a fugitive for.”

  “You said if. You think there’s a chance he’s innocent.”

  Anne laughed. “No, that man is as guilty as Cain, but he has very good lawyers. And the penalties for financial crimes aren’t as strict as they should be. A lot of these guys see a few years in a white-collar jail as a small risk for a big reward.”

  Mina stared at her computer and the article she’d been reading about James and Cate’s great gift to ch
arity. It had been written pre-arrest and featured the handsome couple in formal wear and holding glasses of champagne. “Do the names Phillip Griffith or Grayson Moore mean anything to you?”

  “Phillip maybe sounds familiar, but I know Grayson was one of the reporters covering the first trial. He’d call now and then for a quote.”

  “Was he a big part of the investigation or a source?”

  “Oh no, it was another reporter who first broke the story and brought it to the authorities’ attention. Grayson came in on it late.”

  Mina explained about the two deaths. “You don’t think killing him would change the outcome of the second trial?”

  “No, he’s not a witness or a part of it. James is the kind of guy who’s always one step removed from the dirt. It’s why we’ve had a hard time getting charges to stick. I am sorry to hear about Grayson, though. He said he wanted to take the story in a new way.”

  “What do you know about James’s wife?”

  “Loyal, that woman is not. As soon as we arrested James, she took off. Most women do the whole ‘Stand By Your Man’ thing, at least until the guy goes to prison. She’s smarter than average.”

  Cate was much smarter than average. “What about the money? Who ended up with that?”

  “We put a freeze on all accounts and passports as soon as the investigation started. They lived fairly high on the hog with a mansion, private jets, and keeping up the appearances of a functioning company. The money was accounted for, if all spent. And a lot of the fortune was in paper money, stocks. Once the company went belly-up, that vanished.”

  “None of this makes sense,” Mina said more to herself than the reporter.

  Typing came from the other end of the phone. “Hey, I figured out where I heard the other guy’s name, Phillip. He was a partner in an equity firm that was one of the earliest investors. They lost millions, as in hundreds of.”

  “But he was one of many?”

  “Yep; we’ve identified about a hundred different investors.”

  Mina hung up the phone, more perplexed than before. James had no reason to murder Grayson, while Phil had more reason to murder him.

  Why had Cate run away? To get away from James, from the scandal? Up until a few weeks ago, he’d been in jail.

  Not twenty minutes after Sol left, he called. “Call in the state police, get all the deputies, and meet us at the trailhead where Phil was murdered.”

  Mina grabbed a jacket and her police belt. “What happened?”

  “James took the twins into the mountains. Cate says she told him to move out, and he went nuts.”

  “Where are you going?” She slipped on her belt. The weight of the gun and taser tugged on her pants.

  “We found his truck at the trailhead. Clint and I will start making our way up. You get everyone to the trailhead.”

  “Is Cate with you?”

  “No, she’s—”

  “Sol?” The phone had cut out.

  Mina called in every reinforcement she could think of and ran out the door for her Jeep.

  53

  The snow blew across the highway as Mina drove to the trailhead. By the time she’d make her way back, there would be foot-deep drifts to push through. If and when they made their way back. Her phone buzzed, and Cate’s name flashed on the screen.

  “Are you okay?” Mina asked by way of greeting.

  “Mina!” Cate shouted out of the phone as if walking through a wind tunnel—which, considering the weather, wasn’t too far off the mark. “James just called me.” Wherever she was, the background noise softened, and so did her voice. “He’s got the kids. He said it was time we became a family again, and he wants me to meet him.” Her voice broke at the end.

  “Are the kids okay? Sol said—”

  “James said they’re fine, but ever since he came home…”

  “We know about his sentence, Cate. The FBI is on their way. Where are you supposed to meet him?”

  “He said he wouldn’t go back to prison,” the broken woman said.

  “Where are you meeting him?”

  “He just texted me directions to some cabin. If he sees me come up with anyone, I’m afraid of what he’ll do.” A sob broke out. “I thought coming here would be a fresh start. We could put the past behind us.” Her voice grew strong. “I’m going to meet him; I have to believe he won’t hurt us. I just needed to tell you in case, in case… Goodbye, Mina.” The call ended.

  Mina stared at the phone and the last line. Tracing the location wouldn’t do a bit of good. It would take too long and, in the end, would only ping off the one tower servicing Lost Gorge.

  Sol had said James took the kids into the mountains. Now Cate was saying they went to some cabin. Mina pulled off the road and into a drift; her calls to Sol went unsurprisingly unanswered. She sent a text to his GPS, which may or may not go through.

  Where was the family? Why had Cate not given her the information? Cate was smarter than that. Mina didn’t understand how she could be so… She wouldn’t be. She said every situation could be turned to her advantage. How was this to Cate’s advantage?

  The prosecuting attorney had mentioned Grayson wanted to take a new angle in the story. What if that new angle was Cate?

  Mina pulled out her phone and called Grayson’s sister. Grayson’s laptop, she said, had disappeared with him, but he’d gifted his old one to his niece for school. “He cleaned off the hard drive before he gave it to her. You won’t find anything on it.”

  “How did he back up his files? To the cloud?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Can you look for some icons like—”

  “Wait, I found something.” Mina held her breath as she waited for the answer. “It looks like a ton of work stuff.”

  “Send over anything with the Hardaway or the HealthE Solutions name.”

  Mina sat on the side of the road in a Jeep no longer warm, sorting through files on her iPad. To anyone else, the terms and numbers wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense. To Mina, who’d interned her senior year in the law department of Goldman Sachs, they came through as clear as the sky after a blizzard.

  James and Cate had a whole lot of reasons to want Grayson Moore dead—25 million of them. She also had a name she kept hidden, O’Brien. With that, Mina had an idea of where Cate was headed.

  That never-earned law degree was finally paying off.

  54

  The SUV sat parked at the base of a small canyon only wide enough for a single-lane road now covered in snow. As Sean pulled off to the side, Ryan jumped out and looked through the back window of the SUV. They’d taken the box out. Another SUV with an empty trailer was parked next to it.

  Sean stomped around the truck. “The cabin is another mile in. I’m going to take the snowmobile up and figure out what’s going on.”

  “What’s your big worry?” Ryan’s need to get the box back receded with each mile they followed a family taking a long weekend.

  “We’ve had people breaking in and damaging the place. Then, last summer, someone who got a key from someone came up to stay the same time a family member came up. It turned into a brawl. I’m trying to control it; technically my immediate family owns the deed.”

  Sean dropped the tailgate to unload the snowmobile. “My grandfather built it during World War II, sure that the Japanese were on their way. He made it to be sturdy and hidden. We keep it stocked with firewood. A woodstove heats the place, and a generator runs the lights.” Ryan helped Sean place the ramp on the tailgate.

  “You can wait here. I won’t be more than an hour,” Sean said.

  “No, I’ll come with.” Ryan was curious to know why Phil had those documents.

  They sped up the canyon with walls so high light would only reach its floor at noon. They parked at a small tin shed; its front doors open, revealing a snowmobile parked inside. The canyon opened up into a meadow surrounded by thick trees.

  “Wait here. The house is about 100 yards up,” Sean said as he jumpe
d off the machine. “I’m going to knock on the door and see what’s up.”

  Ryan acquiesced, not wanting to get in the middle of a private family situation. He’d have time to ask his questions after Sean settled things out. He waited on the leather seat of the snowmobile, the engine block keeping him warm.

  How much time had passed since Sean left? Ten minutes, twenty? He checked his phone for the time, but it had shut off in the bitter cold. The wind blowing through the canyon muffled any sound from the road. Though still technically daylight, the canyon’s shadows grew long and dark. The engine grew cold, and so did he.

  Ryan jumped off and stepped into Sean’s tracks. He’d go up to the cabin and see what was going on.

  A gunshot literally stopped him in his tracks.

  55

  Mina tried again to reach Sol, but still no answer. She sped down the highway, leaving snow blowing across the pavement behind her. The turnoff to the cabin was about a mile from the mouth of Lost Gorge canyon. She’d visited there once a few summers ago during one of the on portions of her relationship with Patrick.

  Lights flashed on a warning sign on the highway: the high winds in the canyon were creating drifts, requiring vehicles to have four-wheel drive or chains. That would slow down any help that would be coming from the state and feds.

  When they did arrive, all help would be going to the trailhead Sol went up. Before she diverted everyone, she needed to know for sure if Cate had gone to the O’Brien cabin.

  Fresh sets of tracks on the unpaved road signaled someone had driven down. Her Jeep plowed through snow as she hit the gas. Two SUVs and a truck she recognized as belonging to one of the O’Briens were parked at the mouth of the canyon. She jumped out to check the cars—empty. Snowmobile tracks showed where everyone had gone.

  Mina carried a radio that reached no one at this distance. She would have to return to the highway to call in reinforcements.