* * *
Search-and-rescue arrived on all-terrain vehicles. A red helicopter hovered overhead. Thompson shouted orders into his radio. Beth had gone into shock and was lying on her back with her arm, scraped and bleeding, across her chest. Her teeth chattered as one of the rescuers put a blanket over her. Somewhere behind them, Hailey was complaining on her stretcher.
“I can walk. I have to get my dog.” Chopper blades whooshed through the air as they flew Vaughn out of the woods. If he was being airlifted, he must be in rough shape. Beth was worried that he might die. They’d never get answers. Never see him punished.
“The searchers have already found your dog.” Thompson’s voice was thick and nasally through his swollen nose. “They’re giving him first aid.”
“He’ll run away.”
“He’s too weak.” Beth was in a neck brace and she only had a view of Hailey’s legs, which were kicking as she tried to twist off the stretcher.
“He’s probably bleeding to death! I told you not to leave him.”
“I had to save you!”
“I didn’t ask for help!” More sounds of a struggle. “Let go of me!” The rasp of ripped fabric, a man’s voice, yelping in pain. Flesh hitting something. Hailey was fighting a paramedic.
“Stop!” Thompson’s voice.
“Wolf needs me.” Grappling noises, a frustrated yell from Hailey, then a confusing silence. Beth waited, thinking that Hailey was planning her next move, but her legs were still.
A female paramedic knelt beside Beth, adjusted one of the straps, and said, “They gave her something so she can rest. She’ll be okay.”
Beth closed her eyes. They could both rest now.
* * *
Beth shuffled into Hailey’s room, dragging the IV pole alongside her. She’d adjusted her hospital gown to cover up as much of her bruises as possible—underneath the thin fabric she looked like she’d rolled in purple and blue paint. At least she hadn’t broken any bones. Not hers anyway. Vaughn was a different story.
Hailey sat propped up against pillows, arms crossed over her chest. She frowned as Beth came in. “I’m too tired to talk. The nurses keep waking me up.” They’d been in the hospital for two days, and from what Beth had overheard, Hailey fought the nurses about everything, wouldn’t take her medications, and refused to see her aunt. The latter had surprised Beth. After a year, why didn’t she want to connect with her family?
“I just wanted to know if you’ve spoken to Thompson.”
“He’s been here every day. It’s annoying.” Hailey was looking at her with her chin up, like she was daring Beth to say different.
“They arrested Vaughn.” Beth paused. “But I guess Thompson already told you.”
“Yeah.”
Beth didn’t know what else to say. She didn’t want to go back to her lonely room. She glanced around Hailey’s. It was the same size, but Hailey had more flowers, bunches of bouquets. Maybe they were from Jonny.
He’d texted Beth once since she’d been in the hospital. I can’t believe you ran over Vaughn. You’re my hero. Then, moments later, in another bubble, as if he’d had to think about it first, he’d written, If you need anything, let me know.
Like Beth was a neighbor who wanted him to water her plants while she was on a little vacay at the hospital. She didn’t text back.
Hailey’s bag was on the chair. Beth wondered where the clothes had come from and realized Jonny must have gotten them. She remembered how he had done that for her.
Wait. Was Hailey’s bag half unpacked, or half packed? Beth glanced at Hailey and caught the wary expression in her eyes. Now Beth got it. It wasn’t that Hailey was unhappy to see her, she was unhappy about Beth being in this room.
Beth looked around again, slower. Hailey’s IV dangled loosely from its pole—her hand resting over her wrist. Her dinner tray was empty. The pudding cup sat on top of her duffel bag. Beth moved over and quickly dug around—forks, knives, a juice box, a hunk of bread.
“Hey! Get out of my stuff.” Hailey was off the bed now, pushing her away.
“Are you trying to leave?”
Hailey yanked the bread out of Beth’s hand. “That’s none of your business.”
“You’re running away again.”
“I’m not running anywhere. I’m going home.”
“The doctors haven’t cleared you, have they?”
Hailey rolled her eyes. “I’ll be fine. They fixed what needed to be fixed.”
“What about Wolf?”
“He’s recovering with Jonny.”
“So now you’re going to walk out on everything? What about the court case?”
“They have enough evidence. They don’t need me.”
“You sure about that?”
“I have to get out of here. I can’t breathe with all the noise. Nurses coming in and out. Visitors.”
“You mean people?”
“Yeah, fucking people.” Hailey was sliding on her jeans, turning around to remove her hospital gown and tug a shirt over her head. “We’re not the same—you and me. You have a family to go back to. You still have your parents.”
Was that the problem? Hailey couldn’t see a future for herself?
“You can’t go back to the miner’s cabin. Everyone knows that’s where you were living. They won’t leave you alone. They’ll want to take pictures of you, with you. You’ll hate it.”
Hailey wasn’t listening, just grabbing at things—the blanket from the bed, rolled into a ball. Now she was studying the electric cords like she was thinking about how to use them.
“The nurses will call the police.”
“I’m not under arrest.”
“The cops want you to stick around.”
“I don’t care what they want.”
Beth was getting angry. How could Hailey be so blind? Didn’t she see what this would mean? “What about Jonny?”
Hailey shrugged herself into a hoodie and jammed her feet into the dusty work boots she pulled out from under the chair. She swung the loaded bag onto her shoulder, pressed a baseball cap onto her head, and began to move toward the door.
“He’s safe now that Vaughn’s gone.”
“Except that you’re ruining his life.”
Hailey spun around. “That’s not true!”
“He’s turned down racing opportunities, a chance to travel! You’ve seen the maps all over his bedroom walls. You think those are just because he likes looking at them?”
“He hasn’t missed anything. He would’ve told me.” But Beth could see the doubt growing in Hailey’s eyes. She was wondering if Beth was right. Maybe Jonny had his own secrets.
“You know how loyal he is. He’s the reason you can keep living on the mountain. While you’re doing what you want, you’re stopping him from having anything he wants.”
Hailey looked down at her boots. Beth moved closer and stood in front of her.
“He will never leave you alone out there.” She softened her voice. “You need to think about that. Whatever you decide? You’re deciding for the both of you.”
Hailey just shook her head. Beth couldn’t see her face, whether she was crying or whether she was angry. She didn’t know what else to say to reach her.
“I’m going to go,” she whispered. Hailey didn’t glance up. She stood motionless. Beth could tell she was thinking hard. She wanted to tell her everything would be all right. But how could Beth really know? Hailey would see through her words and recognize them for the half-truths they were. Neither of them knew how this was going to work out in the end.
Beth quietly left the room. She didn’t turn to see if Hailey slipped into the corridor, her bag over her shoulders. She didn’t wait to hear the sound of her boots striking linoleum.
What happened next was up to Hailey.
CHAPTER 40
Hailey
I put the last of the coffee grounds into the maker, pressed brew, and listened to the steady dripping sound. Soon the kitchen smelled of fresh
coffee. I found two mugs, filled them both, and left one on the counter while I doctored mine with sugar and cream—a luxury. The fridge was dismal, but I found some cookies in the cupboard. I sat at the table, quietly munching and sharing pieces with Wolf, who was partway under my chair and had his head resting on my foot. Every once in a while he’d give me a complaining huff and a nudge with his snout. His leg was shaved, the bullet wound stitched neatly in a long line. I told him he’d have a cool scar.
The toilet flushed at the end of the hall. Thompson was awake. He walked into the kitchen, rubbing his hand over the top of his hair and squinting in the dim light. Thankfully he was wearing pajama bottoms and a T-shirt, or the upcoming conversation would be awkward.
At the counter, he fumbled for his glasses and shoved them onto his face. Another yawn, and he reached his arms up in an overhead stretch. His back cracked. I sipped silently at my coffee. Wolf was wagging his tail, a soft whisper on the floor, as he tracked Thompson.
Thompson noticed the coffee mug on the counter. He lifted it to his mouth and took a long drink, then turned around. “I like my coffee stronger.”
“I’m not a barista.”
“Clear on that.” He sat across from me.
I pushed a couple of cookies over to him. “You only have one piece of bread left. The cheese stuff.”
“You know I have a front door.”
“Climbing the tree was more fun. I get bored.”
“Get some better hobbies.”
“Should I take up knitting? Needles could be interesting.” I made a stabbing motion in the air. “Or maybe crocheting. Don’t they have hooks?”
“Enough. What’s going on?”
“Is Jonny in trouble?” When Thompson interviewed me in the hospital, I only filled him in on the basics: Vaughn threatened me when I discovered he was taking nude photos. I was scared, so I ran away, and hid my bike at the bottom of the ravine. My cell fell into the creek. I didn’t realize that it would look like I had been abducted. I was very, very sorry.
I told him that Jonny didn’t know where I was hiding, but then I couldn’t explain that I’d witnessed Vaughn planting the drugs without admitting Jonny and I did have contact.
“You swear he didn’t help you, and so far we haven’t found any stolen goods at your cabin, so we have no reason to believe that you are responsible for any of the local thefts.” Jonny had already gone up and cleared out everything. No one but me would ever know which items were stolen from my old house. The personal items were hidden, and Jonny recovered them all.
“What about the drugs Vaughn said he found?” I asked.
“The charges are being dropped.”
“Did you hack into Mason’s iPad and phone yet? What’s on them?”
“That’s part of the investigation. I can’t discuss it.”
“You wouldn’t even have them if I hadn’t given them to you.”
“We would have had them weeks ago if you hadn’t stolen them.”
“I had reasons.” Unfortunately, I hadn’t been able to hand them over without admitting that I had helped Beth, but I told him that when I arrived at the garage, she had already killed Mason. A plan we’d agreed on, whispering together in the emergency room after I woke.
Thompson let out his breath, looked up at the ceiling like he was trying to decide if he should trust me, or was asking God to get me out of his house. He met my eyes again.
“Vaughn was letting shipments of drugs go through the truck stop—for a price. Mason found out somehow, either witnessed it or heard about it. In exchange for his silence, Mason wanted Vaughn to take photos of girls for him. Likely it was a way for him to have power over Vaughn and minimize his own risk of being caught. It doesn’t seem like Vaughn was interested in the photos himself. He just wanted to keep his job, his family, and his cushy life.”
Money. That was what it all came down to? He sold our bodies for money. He’d walked around his big house and gone on expensive vacations that he’d paid for with things that didn’t belong to him. Our privacy, ourselves.
“Did he know Mason was the killer?”
“He says he didn’t, but we’re still going over each case. I think Vaughn had his suspicions, especially after Amber was murdered.”
I thought about all the cautions Vaughn had given me about riding my bike out to the lake. He knew I was on the killer’s radar because he had been feeding him photos of me.
Thompson took a sip of his coffee, set the mug down. “There’s something else you should know. Mason kept all his security video on a cloud. Looks like your dad caught him building that compartment in his camper, and there was an altercation. Your dad got away, but Mason followed. We found a damaged truck grille and front bumper in Mason’s garage. There were traces of blue paint. We think it matches your dad’s truck. We’re waiting on forensics.”
“Mason ran him off the road.” I said this slowly, absorbing the truth of it. I’d suspected that Dad had been trying to get away, but I hadn’t imagined that Mason could have actually caused the accident. He’d killed my father. Any lingering guilt that I had over taking another person’s life ended instantly. I had let Mason off easy. I should have made him suffer.
“Vaughn wrote up the accident report, so we’ll open that investigation again and check that it wasn’t part of the cover-up.”
Vaughn was the one who told me about the crash. Over and over he implied that it was my dad’s fault that I was alone. He’d wanted to break our bond. Vaughn had destroyed so much, but my dad was something he could never steal from me. Dad was with me all the time. I saw him as I watched Wolf catch fish. I thought of him as I built a fire on a cool morning. Every move I made had in some way been shaped by my father. I imagined him standing on a cliff overlooking the river, his arms raised to the sky, cheering that Vaughn had been caught.
“Beth says that you need my statement. That I have to testify.”
“We need everything we can to build a solid case against Vaughn.”
“What about Emily?”
“So far she is denying everything. Your aunt wants to help but she doesn’t know much. She was horrified when we found the hidden camera in your bedroom. She wants to talk to you.”
“Yeah, so she can tell me that she hates me for ruining her life.” How was I going to face my little cousin Cash? Would he cry or ignore me? Vaughn had been the only father figure in his life. Lana had been so happy. She’d lose everything now. She’d have to start over too.
“I don’t think you’re giving her enough credit. She’s just glad you’re alive.”
“It’s not that simple.” Lana would have questions. She’d want to understand things I didn’t even understand. I fed Wolf more crumbs, stroked his muzzle. The velvet of his ears.
“You want to run away again.” Thompson gave me a steady look. “That’s what this is about. You’re trying to tell yourself that no one cares about you, so then it’s okay.”
“So, what, you’re a shrink now?”
He leaned forward. “We need to make sure these charges stick, or his lawyers are going to find ways to get him off. You called me when I was still at the scene of Amber’s murder. You saw him go into Beth’s motel room. I need to know everything, Hailey. Dates, times, places.”
“It’s hard.” I rubbed at my hair, the short strands. Talking meant feelings.
“Yeah, it is. You went through a lot. But Vaughn can’t hurt you anymore.”
I gazed down at Wolf. He set his chin on my knee, leaned his weight into my leg, and met my eyes with a little huff. He always knew exactly what to say. I turned back to Thompson.
“I’ll do it.”
“Great. We can go down to the station. I just need a shower.”
“I want to tell you now. When you aren’t in uniform.”
He stared at me across the table. I stared back. He got up, refilled his coffee and mine. While I added sugar and cream, he pulled out his phone and set it on the table.
He swiped his
finger across the screen, opened the recording app. “This is a victim statement with Hailey McBride. August fifteenth, 2019.” He nodded at me. “Whenever you’re ready.”
One breath. Two breaths. I wasn’t in that kitchen. I was stalking across an open field. I had a rifle on my shoulder. I lowered my eye against the sight, focused in on my prey.
“I was coming home from the lake. It was dark. I heard a truck behind me.…”
CHAPTER 41
Beth
Beth came to a stop, a dust cloud behind her tires. She’d parked beside Jonny’s truck. His front door clapped. Hailey appeared on his porch, Wolf beside her. She limped down the few steps with Wolf at her heels. Jonny was over by the barn, working on a dirt bike—another one beside it. He paused to watch Beth get out of the car, wrench in his hand.
“Thought you left town.” Hailey crossed her arms over her chest. Wolf trotted to Beth, tail wagging. He sniffed her hands. She ruffled his ears, rubbed his head. Hailey was silent, observing. Beth took another moment to scratch Wolf.
“Thompson told me you were here. I wanted to say goodbye.”
Hailey looked past Beth to her car, where the trunk was partway open and tied down over her camping gear. “You pack about as good as you set up camp.”
“I see you haven’t lost your sunny personality. How’s the return to civilization?”
Hailey shrugged. “I’m getting used to it.”
“Big adjustment.”
“I’m not an animal.”
Beth raised an eyebrow. “You sure about that?”
Hailey laughed—the sound surprising Beth. She’d never heard her laugh before. She’d never even seen her smile. Hailey looked more like the girl on her “missing” poster now. Her hair was back to its natural color and smoothed into a boyish cut that glowed copper in the sun. Faded jeans shorts hung on her small hips, and a white tank top showed her tanned arms. The bruises had faded. Hailey took the last few steps, stopped at the bottom, and leaned against the railing.
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