Mountain Danger

by Vanessa Vale

  12

  SHANE

  * * *

  “Okay, I’m here.”

  I dropped into the chair in one of the interrogation rooms of the police department.

  Crossing my arms over my chest, I slouched.

  The drive into town had been silent. What could I say? What should I say? He hadn’t mentioned the need for a lawyer, but if they had video proof I had sex with Erin Mills, then I wasn’t sure what legal counsel could do.

  I may have had sex with a number of women in Cutthroat, but not Erin Mills. She was Lucas’s little sister. I’d grown up with her, remembered when she was a kid. Not only was there some kind of guy code about fucking a friend’s sister, but I’d never been interested.

  Erin had been vain. She’d been into the whole rich Cutthroat circle that I avoided like the plague. She’d never been my type, although I hadn’t realized what my type was until I met Eve Miranski. She was my type. If Erin were still alive, she wouldn’t turn my head, no matter how pretty.

  Nix took a seat across from me, dropped a notepad and pen onto the table, pressed a button on the machine set to the side.

  “This is Nix Knight. Interview starting at twelve thirty-seven. Please state your name for the record.”

  I stared at him for a second, then took a breath. “Shane Nickel.”

  “Did you know Erin Mills?”

  “Yes.”

  “Explain your relationship.”

  “We didn’t have a relationship. I’m friends with Lucas Mills, her brother. She is… was a few years younger. Just like you, I spent time at their house, so I saw her there. Also around town. Skiing. At a summer festival or something, but we never went together.”

  “You never had any kind of personal relationship with her?”

  “You mean did we date?”

  “You describe it.”

  I liked Nix better when he wasn’t being a fucking detective. “I did not date Erin Mills.”

  “A fling then.”

  I thought of Eve and how she’d wanted no strings.

  “No fling, no dates, nothing. I don’t think I was ever alone with her.”

  “So you didn’t have sex.”

  I glanced up at the ceiling tiles, took a moment. “I never had sex with Erin Mills. I never touched her with her clothes on, her clothes off or anywhere in between. As I said, I don’t think I was ever alone with her.”

  “For the record, you never had sexual intercourse with Erin Mills.”

  I widened my eyes and stared at Nix. Really? How many times could I answer the same question.

  “No.”

  “When was the last time you saw Erin?”

  I paused, considered. “Maybe over the summer at one of my sister’s parties. Only in passing. I didn’t speak with her, and that’s why I can’t remember exactly.”

  “That’s about six months or so?”

  “Yes. Okay, I answered your questions, now tell me what the hell is going on.”

  “We have video of you and Erin Mills having sex.”

  “Impossible.”

  “More than once.”

  “Again, impossible.”

  “You offered her a spot in one of your father’s movies in exchange for sex.”

  I sat up, set my forearms on the table, looked really closely at Nix so he could understand. “There is no way I would have offered her a spot in an Eddie Nickel film.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Because I’ve never done it. Not once. Never. I hate my dad. I wouldn’t send anyone I knew his way. Especially a woman.”

  “Why’s that?”

  I took another deep breath. I’d never shared my family history. Finch knew, but he’d seen my dad go off in a rage when we were younger.

  “Eddie Nickel might come across as a nice guy, but he’s a monster. He used to beat us. Me, Poppy. For years. I’d never send a woman in his direction because if he beat his own kids, I wouldn’t doubt he’d beat her too.”

  Nix pulled his cell from his shirt pocket, fiddled with it, then set it on the table. A video played. I looked down at it, saw a porno. I picked it up, recognized it as Erin Mills. It was a strange video, as if someone had taken a video of their laptop that had a film of Erin Mills having sex on the screen. A video of a video. “For the record, I’m showing a clip of Erin Mills having sex with Shane Nickel.”

  I winced, not interested in seeing Erin naked. “It’s not me. I never had sex with her.”

  “Is that your bedroom?”

  It was hard to get past the fucking to see the bed and walls behind, but I recognized the placement of the doors, my bedspread. “Yes.”

  Jesus, what the fuck? That was my bedroom.

  “Is that Erin Mills?” Nix asked.

  Obviously. “Yes.”

  “Explain.”

  “Where did you get this?”

  “Detective Eve Miranski found it.”

  “Where?”

  “In your bedroom.”

  “Are you kidding me?”

  Nix didn’t mention why Eve had been in my bedroom to find it. I wasn’t going to put that on the record. I had to guess he was intentionally keeping her personal life out of public case records, and I was thankful for that.

  “Cut the recording, Nix.” He didn’t do anything. “Please.”

  He pushed the button on the table.

  “Thanks. You know I’m in a relationship with Eve.”

  “Yeah, and that’s why this freaks me the fuck out. There’s a different video of you having sex with Erin when she was sixteen. Took her virginity.”

  “Holy fuck.” I shook my head. “It wasn’t me. Jesus, it wasn’t me.”

  “Then let’s figure this out.” He grabbed his cell, turned off the clip of Erin. “I shouldn’t be doing this, but even with all the evidence Eve found, I believe you.”

  “Eve found what, a memory card or something this morning?”

  “She found a hidden camera behind the picture over your bed.”

  My mouth dropped open. “Are you shitting me?”

  He shook his head.

  “With it were memory cards of conquests. Hundreds of them. Including Erin Mills seven years ago and also three days before her death.” He tipped his chin toward his cell. “If you watch the rest of that video, Erin reminds you of the recording you did of her when she was younger, that she didn’t get a movie deal. She threatens you, stating you give her a film role now or she’ll out you for underage sex.”

  My head was spinning. I stood, paced.

  “There was a hidden camera in my bedroom.”

  “Yes.”

  “There are hundreds of videos of sex happening there. Holy fuck. Do you see me in the films?”

  He shook his head. “No. The camera is positioned so that only the women are visible. Your legs are shown a little. Thighs. Dark leg hair. A little bit of groin.”

  I flinched at the picture he made. “I never stay there. Finch can account for that. Last time was over the summer. I pretty much live out at the cabin where you picked me up. The house in town sits empty. Any of my friends know that.”

  Nix nodded. “I remember you mentioning that in the past.”

  I sighed, glad I wasn’t losing my shit. “This has been happening for years?”

  “How could you miss sex happening in your own bed? I mean, if I went on vacation and people used my bed while I was gone, I’d know when I got back.”

  “Would you? If someone cleaned up after themselves… like a hotel. I don’t want to think about how many people fuck in the beds we stay in.”

  Nix pursed his lips at the thought. “Then who?”

  I froze. My thoughts quieted. Focused. My stomach dropped. “Holy fuck.”

  “What?”

  I looked at Nix. “There’s one person who has women dropping at his feet. One person who has a movie deal bargaining chip in his power. One person who knows I don’t stay in the house. One person who would love knowing he pulled one over on me… for ye
ars, by fucking his conquests in my own bed.”

  I could tell the moment he caught on. “Seriously?”

  “My father is an asshole. He’s a narcissist. I wouldn’t put this past him. God, it all fits. I’m sure I can give alibis for at least some of the dates on those videos. No one’s checked for prints in my house because, well, who would think to test? I bet my dad’s prints are all over that room.”

  I ran my hand over my hair. Fucking pissed. My father had fucked women, and underaged girls, in my bed.

  “Holy shit, he killed Erin.”

  Nix stood, his chair scraping across the floor. “I think you’re right.”

  After he grabbed his cell, he opened the door and went out into the hall. I followed. He looked across the room. “Where’s Eve?” he asked someone at a nearby desk.

  The man shrugged. “Haven’t seen her.”

  I looked to Nix.

  “She was going to come in while I went to get you. Interview you. She can’t do it since there’s a conflict of interest.” He cleared his throat and offered a raised eyebrow.

  “There sure as fuck is a conflict of interest. Now where’s my woman?”

  I checked my cell. Nothing. Nix did the same. “There’s a voice mail.”

  He put the phone to his ear. Listened. I knew the second something was wrong by the look on his face. He glanced down at the screen.

  “She called twenty minutes ago.”

  “Let me listen to that.”

  He pushed a button, then held the phone out for me to take.

  I missed the very beginning in the handoff. “—and I went back and looked at the videos. I was wrong. It’s not Shane. God, it’s so scary. There’s a hand that comes into the film with Erin right before her murder. There’s a ring. A ring that Eddie Nickel wears. It’s all over social media photos. I went back to the old film of Erin, and he touches her then, too. The ring’s there. I found it in one more clip, too. Another woman I don’t know. It’s him. It’s Eddie Nickel. I’m going to the ranch to question him. I need you to come. Bring backup because I want this legit. I don’t want him getting off on a technicality because I’m in love with his son.”

  I looked up at Nix.

  “Holy shit.” She was in love with me, and she told Nix on a voice mail.

  “Yeah, holy shit,” he replied. “That was twenty minutes ago, and she’s confronting a murderer.”

  Eve was going to see my father. The one man in the world I hated. Until today, for what he did to me and Poppy. And now? Now he had so many more sins. The woman I loved was going to be alone with a murderer, and I never had a chance to tell her how I felt.

  “Finch is at his ranch. He’s closer than we are.”

  “He’s not police,” Nix said as he ran down the hall toward the front entrance.

  “Like I give a shit,” I told him, keeping pace. “We’ll call him on the way to get his ass over there.”

  13

  EVE

  * * *

  Voice mail. I’d gotten Nix’s voice mail. I should have called it in, but I knew he’d get here quick. I couldn’t believe I’d thought Shane had been with all those women, done those awful things with them. Used them. And Erin… God, how could I have thought him capable of murdering her?

  It had all been right there on the films. But it hadn’t been him.

  I pulled up in front of Eddie Nickel’s huge mansion. It was the biggest log cabin I’d ever seen. Two stories with wings and a separate garage with five stalls. The landscaping was buried under two feet of snow, but I was sure it was gorgeous in the summer. There was a circular driveway in front, and the pavement was heated. A rarity in Montana since it was costly, but it kept the driveway warm so it didn’t need shoveling. Something a guy like Eddie Nickel would have.

  I climbed from the car, went up the front steps and rang the doorbell.

  My breath was caught in my throat, and I let it out. Took another deep breath, yoga breathing, to calm my racing heart. I remembered what I saw, knew the guy I was confronting had done all that.

  The door opened. No butler, but Eddie Nickel himself. I’d seen him in movies, occasionally around town, but at a distance. He looked just like in the films, although admittedly a little better. Midfifties. Black hair with a little gray threaded in at the temples. If he colored it, I couldn’t tell. If he had Botox to diminish wrinkles around his eyes and across his forehead, I couldn’t tell that either. He looked naturally good in a pale blue dress shirt and jeans.

  The ring I’d seen in the films was on his finger. Adrenaline kicked in at the sight of it. That gaudy thing was his downfall. The difference between freedom and a jail cell.

  A stupid gold ring.

  He smiled at me, then looked me over, completely unaware he’d been caught.

  Yeah, he’d used all those women. I felt skeeved out by that quick perusal. He’d never met me, didn’t know who I was, but was assessing me to fuck.

  I took a deep breath, faked a smile and said, “Hi, Mr. Nickel, I’m Eve Miranski.”

  “Come in.”

  He stepped back and allowed me entrance, having no idea why I was here. He didn’t care.

  He headed toward the back of the house, and I followed, passing a sweeping staircase and a den. Pictures of himself were all over the walls. Photos, paintings and posters of his movies covered every surface. I didn’t see one family photo.

  The great room was sunken. He took two steps down to the large seating area that faced a massive stone fireplace and enormous windows with views of Montana. I could probably see to Utah from here.

  “We haven’t met. I’d have remembered you,” he said, turning to face me. “Sit, please.”

  He held out his hand, indicating a white sofa. I settled onto it, and he took a spot across from me, a glass coffee table the size of a car between us.

  “No, we haven’t met,” I replied. “I wanted to ask you a few questions about your relationships, specifically with Erin Mills.”

  His smile slipped a little, but he was a good actor. “Are you with the press? You know I love to give interviews, but usually they’re arranged with my publicist.” He shrugged and studied me. “You’re here, though, so I’ll forgive you.”

  If you let me fuck you over this couch, he was probably thinking.

  “I’m with the Cutthroat Police.”

  He cocked his head to the side as if he were a dog and heard me say, Walk.

  “You asked after Erin Mills. She was the event planner for the film that was shot here in Cutthroat over the summer and fall.”

  “You knew her well then?”

  He shrugged. “There are so many people on set. I knew her, of course.”

  “Did you ever meet her casually, perhaps for a date?”

  He grinned. “Did you see it in the papers? The tabloids?”

  I offered him a small smile. “No.”

  “Then I didn’t.”

  “Surely not everything you do is shared with the press.”

  “You got in my house, didn’t you?”

  “You let me in,” I countered.

  “I try to be a private person, but someone with my… exposure makes it difficult.”

  “You didn’t meet Erin then, in secret?”

  “No.”

  “Not even to offer her a role in one of your films?”

  “There are enough talent scouts out there to do that job. Besides, she worked for the film as the event planner.”

  “She didn’t want to be in the film instead of behind the scenes? She was pretty. I’d think the camera would have really liked her.”

  His eyes narrowed ever so slightly at that.

  “Why all these questions about that poor girl?”

  “I’m investigating her murder. It’s my job to find the killer.”

  “How’s that going?”

  I sat quietly for a moment. “Getting really close.”

  FINCH

  * * *

  “Are you fucking telling me that Eve is
at the house of a murderer. Alone?”

  I ran from the stable to the house, trying not to bust my ass on the path, which was covered in compacted snow. I’d used the snowblower to clear it, but it wouldn’t see bare ground for months.

  “Yes. We’re twenty minutes out if Nix would put his foot to the floor. You’re less than ten. Move it.” Shane’s voice was tense and sharp, as if it could cut glass.

  I shot through the mudroom and grabbed the keys to my truck off the counter, then headed right back out.

  “Explain to me what the fuck is going on.”

  I climbed into the truck, got it started and gunned the engine. Having a dually had its advantages, and I was glad for the extra wheels, the weight and power. The cell connection to the truck’s dashboard kicked in, and Shane’s voice came through the speakers. I dropped my cell into the center console and had a death grip on the steering wheel as I punched it down the driveway.

  “Eve found a hidden camera in my bedroom. It had memory cards with it. She checked them out and found hundreds of videos of him having sex with women.”

  “Why didn’t she just send in the cavalry? Why is she there alone?”

  “Because the video is just of the women. The guy’s hidden.”

  What the fuck was he talking about? “Explain.”

  He did. I drove as he shared how Eddie had positioned the camera so he was never seen. He had the women on top for all the sex. Nix cut in and added that it appeared the women didn’t know they were filmed.

  “It’s like a trophy,” I guessed. “Fucking a woman and keeping the record of it. He’d love the fact that they had no clue it had been done. And the kicker is, he did it in your bed.”

  “Exactly,” Shane replied. He went on to explain the clip of Erin threatening Eddie.

  “Jesus. He’s a sick fuck. He manipulated a sixteen-year-old girl, and when she finally had enough and got pissed about it, he kills her. Why is Eve all alone?”

  “She didn’t want to review the memory cards at the station,” Nix said. “She took them to her house and went through them there.”

  “Last night.” Shane’s two words prompted me to remember what we’d done together, in the same bed where all the films had been recorded. If Nix hadn’t known we were a thing before, he was well aware now. “And this morning. Just like the others.”