Rocky Road

by Josi S. Kilpack

  “I’ve got to go,” Sadie said, stepping toward the cabin. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  He paused but then quickly nodded. She would have loved more reassurance, but she felt he was giving her all the benefit of the doubt he possibly could.

  Sadie started moving down the hill. “Thank you,” she said over her shoulder. “I’ll bring lunch.”

  Sadie didn’t look back to see if he disappeared back into the trees. She needed all her focus as she lurched her way down the hillside, trying not to fall on her face. She was amazed that she’d run up this hill. The power of adrenaline.

  She encountered Caro halfway between the clearing and the cabin.

  Caro opened her mouth to say something, but Sadie put a quick finger to her lips. Caro became silent and fell in step with Sadie, glancing over her shoulder only once as if hoping to see what it was that had kept Sadie from coming down the hill sooner.

  Once they reached the cabin, Sadie broke into a jog, eager to get far enough away to tell Caro what had happened, get lunch, and come back as quickly as possible.

  Sadie was out of breath by the time they reached the gate. Caro was barely winded. They fumbled with the chain until they were able to get through the gate, and then put it back in place.

  When they were in the car, Sadie leaned back against the seat and tried to take a deep breath to reset her heart rate to normal.

  “You found him, didn’t you?” Caro asked as she backed the car out of the spot where she’d parked thirty minutes earlier.

  “I did,” Sadie said, opening her eyes and staring out the windshield. “I’m sorry I couldn’t let you come up. He’s like a scared kid, and he almost bolted when he heard you.”

  “I didn’t know,” Caro apologized.

  “It’s okay,” Sadie said. “And it worked out. He’s letting me come back, but I need to get him some lunch first.”

  “Lunch?”

  “He didn’t get any food from the store yesterday. He’s got to be starving. He said I can come back if I come alone, and he seems open to telling me what caused him to leave in the first place.”

  “Alone?” Caro obviously didn’t approve. They took Lloyd Canyon Road back to Main Street. At that point, Sadie’s phone chimed to alert her that she’d received a voice mail. A second chime told her that she’d received two voice mails. Apparently the cell service stopped at Main Street.

  “I think you can hide in the backseat when we go back,” Sadie said as she picked up her phone to check the calls. Officer Nielson was the first one. Shoot. The second call was from Lori. Sadie swallowed, unsure what to tell either of them. “I’m glad to have the time to think about what to ask him.”

  Caro nodded. “Isn’t there something I can do?” she asked.

  Sadie frowned and tried to think of something. “I don’t know—what do you think? We still need background information on people, but you’d have to stay at the motel to work on that.”

  “I don’t like the idea of you going to the cabin alone.”

  “I don’t, either, but he seemed pretty harmless—and I felt a lot better having the Taser with me.”

  “Still, I’d rather be in the backseat than at the motel worried sick.”

  Sadie nodded. “Let’s head straight to the store, then. I noticed a sign that said it was Fresh Mex Thursday—sounds like just the thing.”

  They pulled up to the store, and Caro opted to stay in the car and call Tess back. She’d turned off her phone earlier after Tess had called. “I’d better see what she needed,” Caro said.

  “Okay,” Sadie agreed, shutting the passenger door behind her. Robert was behind the counter when she entered. He asked if they’d found Wednesday Man, and Sadie told him that they were still looking. “Is the lunch special ready yet?” Sadie asked, even though she could see the “Now Serving” sign above the counter.

  “Sure is, how many would you like.”

  “Three,” Sadie said, thinking of her, Caro, and Dr. Hendricks.

  “Three?” Robert repeated with his eyebrows lifted.

  Oops. “Well, how big are they? I’m so hungry I could eat two, depending on the size.”

  He laughed. “They’re a pretty good size—I can’t imagine you could eat two.”

  “Okay, then just two—one for my friend and one for me.”

  “Sounds good,” he said, heading toward the counter and calling for someone named Pam.

  The bell on the front door of the store signaled the arrival of a customer. Sadie turned to give whoever it was a “hello” smile only to see Caro standing inside the door, her face pale as she stared at Sadie. Without saying a word, she motioned Sadie outside and then turned and went back outside.

  What could have happened?

  “Robert, I’ll be right back.”

  “Okay—the salads will be ready in a jiffy.”

  Sadie hurried out of the store. Caro was already back in her car, and Sadie quickly slid into the passenger seat. “What’s wrong?” she asked, truly concerned for her friend.

  “It’s from Tess,” Caro said, as she lifted her phone and turned it to face Sadie. Sadie looked at the screen. A text message? When she read it, she felt the blood drain out of her face.

  Anita Hendricks is dead!!! Call me ASAP

  Chapter 26

  One beat. Two beats. Three.

  It took that long for Sadie to process what she’d read. She looked into Caro’s face. “Oh, my gosh, what happened?”

  “I don’t know—I haven’t called Tess yet. I turned my phone on and saw that I’d missed three calls from her. Then I checked my text messages.”

  “Call her back,” Sadie said, gesturing toward the phone. Her chest was on fire. Anita was dead? How? When?

  Caro put the phone on speaker a split second before Tess answered.

  “Caro?” Tess almost screamed. Sadie and Caro shared a look.

  “What happened?” Caro asked.

  “Where have you been? I’ve been trying to reach you for an hour!”

  “I had my phone off. What happened?”

  “She’s dead, Caro. I just ... Oh, my gosh, it’s so awful. A lady from the office found her.” Tess’s emotion turned to full-blown tears, and Sadie could pick up only a few words here and there: “fall” and “when she went to the house” and “blood everywhere.”

  Caro attempted to calm Tess down, assuring her that it was okay and reminding her to breathe. Finally, Tess was able to get a hold of herself. “When are you coming back?” she said when she was breathing regularly enough to form comprehensible sentences. Caro looked at Sadie.

  “Do you need us to come back?”

  “I really need you to help me with this. I don’t know what to do.”

  “I don’t think you need to do anything,” Caro said. “Just try to calm down. I know this is really scary ...” She continued to speak calmly, but Tess was too worked up to even listen. Meanwhile, Sadie picked up her phone from the console between the seats and called her voice mail.

  “Sadie, this is Officer Nielson. There’s been a development. Please call me as soon as possible.”

  Sadie frowned as she considered what she should tell him. What could she tell him? Where did her loyalty lie, first and foremost? She was pondering her options when the next voice mail played.

  “Sadie? This is Lori Hendricks. I’m sorry I didn’t return your call yesterday, but I just talked to Tess, and she said you’re looking for Trent and ... uh, I really need to talk to him. Please call me back at ...”

  Sadie listened to the entire message, then repeated it and listened again, her frustration with Tess growing. Tess had felt like a liability from the start. Why would she tell Lori they were looking for Dr. Hendricks? Sadie had specifically told her not to talk to anyone.

  Sadie hung up her phone while Caro was still speaking to Tess—almost arguing with her now. She needed more time to process what had happened before she decided what to do about it. She let herself out of the car. The salads wer
e probably ready by now.

  Sadie tried to act normal as Robert told her about Café Rio, a restaurant chain that had started in St. George—these salads were a knock-off version of their creation. On any other day, Sadie would be very interested in this story. Today she could barely listen. When the salads were ready, she paid for them and thanked Robert for his help.

  When she returned to the car, Caro was still on the phone with Tess. Sadie had decided what to do about the calls she had received. She wasn’t going to call Officer Nielson until she’d heard what Dr. Hendricks had to tell her—Tess had talked to Lori, and Sadie saw how complicated things could become if information was shared prematurely. As for Lori, Sadie would ask Officer Nielson what to do about that.

  Caro finally said she’d call Tess back in just a minute. When she hung up, she stared at the phone. “She is completely freaking out.”

  Sadie forced herself not to vent about Tess’s blabbermouth and kept her attention on Anita’s death. It still felt so unreal. “Did she tell you what happened?”

  Caro pulled out of the parking lot of the store and crossed the street to the motel. “No one knows what happened—Anita didn’t show up for work, and so someone went to the house to check on her. They think she fell and hit her head or something, but no details have been released—Tess only knows what people are saying.”

  “I can’t believe she’s dead,” Sadie said as Caro pulled to a stop.

  “I know, and the timing is ... scary.”

  They looked at each other, and Sadie knew what Caro meant. Was it is a coincidence that Anita Hendricks died a day after their investigation began? The idea made Sadie sick. It reminded her of other times she’d felt responsible for terrible things that had happened. “What do we do?” Caro said.

  “Dr. Hendricks is waiting on me,” Sadie said, turning to face her friend. “Could you stay here and see what you can find out about everything? Anita’s death, for sure, but we also need more information on Kyle Edger.”

  “And send you back to the cabin alone?”

  “You’ll know where I am, and I don’t see how we have time to waste in either arena right now. Tess told Lori we were looking for him, and Lori left me a message—she wants me to help her talk to him.”

  Caro blinked. “Tess told her?” Sadie felt slightly smug about Caro’s reaction. It told her she wasn’t the only one who saw that Tess was out of line. It also fueled Sadie’s frustration.

  “We can’t tell Tess anything else, especially now that Anita’s death has her worked up. She’s obviously talking to people—who knows who else she’s told things to.”

  “I’ll talk to her,” Caro said. “I’m sure she just didn’t realize the importance of keeping stuff quiet.”

  Except that we told her to keep it to herself, Sadie thought. But she didn’t say it out loud. “Regardless, we can’t risk that again—don’t tell her anything about what we’ve done today.”

  “Okay,” Caro said. She looked at Sadie once she’d parked the car. “You really think going to meet with Dr. Hendricks on your own is a good idea?”

  “I’ll drive right up to the cabin, and I’ve got your Taser.” She patted her front pocket.

  “If you’re not back in forty-five minutes, I’m calling the police.”

  “An hour, just in case.”

  “Okay, one hour, but not a minute longer. There are big things happening right now, Sadie—we can’t be taking chances.”

  Sadie nodded in agreement and opened the car door. “It’s almost checkout time,” she said. “Will you get us another night here so that we can stay a little longer?”

  “Yeah,” Caro said as she turned off the ignition. Before Sadie stepped out of the car, Caro said, “Tess wants me to come back to St. George.”

  “Me,” not “us.” “Oh,” Sadie muttered, unsure of what else to say for fear it would come across badly.

  “Should I?”

  “I guess it’s up to you,” Sadie said, although she hated the fact that Tess had even asked this of Caro. “I understand if you want to, though. I’m not sure there’s anything you can do here that you can’t do there.”

  “Except make sure you’re okay and that you come back when you’re supposed to.”

  “I can call you when I’m finished.”

  Caro bit her lip and looked out the windshield. “I’m not sure what kind of help I will be to Tess in St. George, but this stuff is so new for her.”

  Sadie felt a tiny bit of sympathy for Tess as she remembered how intense feelings could be in the face of such incomprehensible events. “I’ll call you as soon as I have cell coverage after I finish with Dr. Hendricks. If you’re halfway to St. George by the time that happens, I’ll understand.”

  Caro nodded and got out of the car. Holding the plastic bag with the barbacoa salads in one hand and her phone in the other, Sadie gave Caro an awkward hug. She got out of the car and then had to put the salads down again while she took her car keys from her pocket. It wasn’t nearly as hot as it had been the morning before in St. George, but it was still very toasty.

  “Be safe,” Caro said as Sadie got into her own car.

  “I will,” Sadie said. “I’ll call you in an hour.”

  She pulled onto Lloyd Canyon Road a minute later and thought about her top priority right now—it was time to get Dr. Hendricks’s side of the story. Sadie was more than ready to hear it.

  Chapter 27

  As Sadie’s car approached the cabin, only her eager anxiety kept her from being overcome by the smell of the two barbacoa pork salads on her passenger seat. The heady aroma from the sweetness of the slow-cooked pork and the still-warm tortilla was almost enough to distract her from thinking about what had happened and what might happen next. After unwinding the chain on the gate, she drove through and then chained it back up again. She began the slow, careful drive down the private lane that led to Kyle Edger’s cabin.

  The sun was high in the sky, but the trees had created large patches of shade that Sadie appreciated when she let herself out of the car. It wasn’t the temperature that was causing Sadie to sweat—it was her nerves. How would she tell Dr. Hendricks about Anita? The thought made Sadie’s blood pool in her toes.

  With what Dr. Hendricks had said earlier—and what Sadie had seen of Anita the day before—Sadie couldn’t begin to guess what her death might mean to Dr. Hendricks right now. Not knowing how to anticipate his reaction, she had no idea how she would handle it. If she told him about Anita, she may not get any more information about why he’d left. Was that a reason to put off telling him his wife was dead? What was her goal for this meeting, anyway? Yes, she wanted to know why he’d left in the first place, and she did want to help him if she could, but what were the ramifications of all of that? Maybe she should have told Officer Nielson she was coming here.

  Not being certain of her purpose made Sadie’s chest feel tight, but she continued walking toward the cabin. She wished she had cell coverage—for peace of mind, if nothing else.

  Dr. Hendricks hadn’t specified where they would meet, but because she’d encountered him behind the cabin before, that was the direction she headed. She waited for nearly thirty seconds and was turning back toward the front of the cabin when she heard movement to her left. She whipped around, the plastic bag with the salads hitting her in the hip. Dr. Hendricks stood only a few yards away.

  “I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said, but his eyes were on the bag she held.

  Sadie attempted a smile. “You didn’t ... much.”

  He didn’t smile, but she wasn’t sure if she’d know if he did because his facial hair was so thick. She would never again underestimate the importance of diligent beard trimming. “Can we meet back here?” he said, pointing a thumb over his shoulder. “I try to stay away from the cabin as much as possible.” He nodded at the bag, and Sadie wondered if he could smell that sweet pork. “Is that lunch?”

  Sadie lifted the bag. “It’s Fresh Mex Thursday at the lodge. These are
barbacoa pork salads. I hope they’re as good as they smell.”

  She fully expected him to return her smile, but he looked from her to the bag, seemingly uncertain.

  “You have to take a bite of everything first,” he said.

  “You think I poisoned them or something?” She wondered why he would care—he had admitted to being suicidal—but she wouldn’t ask. He might misinterpret the question as a threat, and that wouldn’t help.

  He didn’t say anything.

  Sadie looked at the cabin. Why would he avoid it? Surely there was a table inside that would be lovely to sit at. But she looked at him and nodded. “I’ll follow you.”

  He turned, and they walked away from the cabin until they came across a path that was darkened by shade from the thick pine trees lining both sides. The path turned uphill, and Sadie trudged behind the doctor for at least five full minutes, her anxiety rising along with the elevation. “How far are we going?” she asked. Caro expected her to call in fifty minutes.

  “Not much farther,” he said over his shoulder. A minute later, he left the trail and began walking through the brush. Sadie hesitated, and after a few yards he stopped and looked back.

  “I’m getting a little uncomfortable with how far we’re getting from the cabin.” If they left the path, would she be able to find her way back?

  “I have a kind of campsite up here,” he said, coming toward her and putting his hand out for the bag of salads. They’d gotten heavy, and she was happy to hand them over. She was also glad to see that he’d softened a little bit and didn’t seem quite so suspicious of her. She chose to believe the change had nothing to do with the fact that she was far enough away now that no one would hear her scream. “And it’s not safe to stay close to the cabin,” he added.

  Safe? Sadie looked around. She couldn’t imagine that the cabin was less safe than this. When she looked at Dr. Hendricks again, she realized her protests wouldn’t make him change his plan. If she wanted to talk to him, she would need to do it on his terms. She didn’t feel threatened, and she still had the Taser in her pocket, but all the same she said a little prayer as she stepped off the path.