Capturing the Huntsman

by C. J. Miller

  She played the messages. The first two were silence followed by hang-ups and the third was Roger Ford, asking her or Nathan to call as soon as possible, an urgency underlining every word. She relayed the message to Nathan and handed him the phone.

  Her heart thumped hard. If Ford was calling, it wasn’t good news.

  Her financial issues took a backseat to the problems with the Huntsman. When he was caught, she’d work to bring people back to the Trail’s Edge.

  Nathan made the call to Roger Ford while sitting on the couch. He listened for a few minutes, making sounds of acknowledgment. When he disconnected, his face was grim, his shoulders tight. “Ford wanted me to know they have a positive identification on the victim. It was a woman, early thirties, named Sandra Corvaldi. They are releasing her name to the media once the family has been notified.”

  Sandra Corvaldi? Autumn knew her, but not well. Should she tell Nathan that the Reeds had ties to her? She could trust Nathan, couldn’t she? Once her name was released, Daniel would probably remind everyone that Blaine had been involved with Sandra. “Sandra dated Blaine in high school,” Autumn said.

  Autumn’s stomach dropped. It wouldn’t take long for the FBI to connect her brother to Sandra. Once they did, it was another piece of evidence that pointed at Blaine.

  Nathan plowed his fingers through his well-cut hair. “What was their relationship like?”

  A fierce headache split through her mind. “What’s any high school relationship like? Too much drama and lots of ups and downs.”

  It was how Sandra’s friends and parents would remember the relationship, and they wouldn’t be shy about sharing that information with the FBI.

  “Did he tell you anything else?” Autumn said. Had a warrant been issued for Blaine’s arrest?

  “No. He shared the information because it was about to go live anyway. He wants to come back to the Trail’s Edge to talk with you.”

  Autumn had to find something, anything to point away from Blaine before she spoke to Roger Ford. She wouldn’t lie to him, but she couldn’t throw more suspicion in Blaine’s direction. “We’ll go tonight to the coroner’s office and talk to Natalie.”

  Nathan glanced at her knee. “You need to rest tonight. We can take a trip into town to see her tomorrow.”

  Autumn shook her head. “No. The medical examiner’s office is closed Friday through Sunday. I don’t want to wait.”

  “It’s closed three days a week?”

  Autumn shrugged. “It’s a small town. Not much for them to do. At least, not much until now.”

  She thought again of Blaine. Why hadn’t he called? It was impossible for her to guess where Blaine was on the trail. He could have taken a long detour or he could have kept a steady pace straight through.

  “We’ll find this guy. He’ll make a mistake and we’ll be ready for him when he does,” Nathan said.

  Autumn swung her legs to the side and stood, hobbling to the closet to get her knee brace.

  “You could have asked me to get that.”

  Autumn sat and strapped the brace around her knee. “I’m used to doing things myself.” She wouldn’t rely on Nathan. He would leave and then she would be alone again. They were the cards she had been dealt and she wouldn’t fixate on the situation too much. If she did, she would be lost. She couldn’t walk away from the Trail’s Edge. She was upside down on a mortgage and had few other marketable job skills. Where did that leave her?

  “Hate asking for help?”

  Autumn positioned the brace. “Not that I hate asking for it. Usually there isn’t anyone around to ask. Thor’s great, but he’s not the best if I need something minus the slobber.” A joke to make her loneliness sound less serious than it was.

  “You don’t get many visitors here? Besides the people who rent the cabins, that is?”

  Autumn jerked her pants over the brace. It sounded pathetic, but no, she didn’t have many friends who visited her and she hadn’t dated anyone since Daniel. “I’m busy. I have a lot to do.”

  Nathan didn’t say anything in response and his silence smacked of judgment.

  Autumn pushed herself to her feet. “I know you’re thinking I live like a hermit, but I don’t. I’m social when I need to be. Just the other night, we went to dinner.”

  “I wasn’t thinking you were a hermit. You didn’t like being out. You couldn’t wait to return to the Trail’s Edge.” Though the words were frank, they lacked any hostility or accusation.

  What he’d said wasn’t entirely true. At first, she had been hesitant to go, but once she’d been out with Nathan, she’d had a good time. She glared at him, trying to derail this conversation. She didn’t want to discuss her social life. “I had fun.”

  “Glad to hear it. But you should practice not glaring at me. Our story about being involved goes right out the window if you’re hostile to me in public.”

  “We’re not in public now. And couples fight,” she said. Why did he make her feel so defensive? She liked her life the way it was and nothing was wrong with keeping to herself.

  “How do you want to play this out at the coroner’s office?” Autumn asked. She had initially suggested Nathan flirt with Natalie, but now she was even less enthused by the idea. Natalie was sexy and feminine and could easily grab hold of Nathan’s attention. As much as she tried to keep boundaries, Autumn liked Nathan’s interest in her. She liked the sizzle and crackle of the chemistry between them.

  Nathan rolled his shoulders. “We’ll go in together. I can convince her to talk to us.”

  “Might not be that easy.”

  “I convinced you to help me. I convinced you to go out with me.”

  Nathan stepped closer to her. His eyes wandered down her body, lingering a moment longer on her lips and her breasts. The suggestion was clear and it affected her the same as his hands and lips would have.

  “You are a convincing man,” she said.

  She read the kiss in his eyes before he leaned forward to deliver it. When his lips touched hers, she melted against him, her hands going to his chest and her fingers fisting into the fabric beneath them. He had technique and heat, and the slow laziness of the kiss was thoroughly enjoyable.

  He broke the kiss and she kept her eyes closed for a few extra beats, letting her lips tingle and her body ache for more.

  With that, he left her hungering and scared of what that meant. Autumn’s phone rang and she tore her eyes from Nathan and reached for the phone. “Hello, Trail’s Edge.”

  “Autumn?” A voice from the past. She almost dared to hope the caller was not who she sounded like.

  “Who is this?” Autumn asked, half hoping she had jumped to the wrong conclusion.

  “It’s your mother. I’m outside. Is it okay to come in?”

  Her mother hadn’t come to her father’s funeral. She had called and left a message extending her sympathies. Before that, her mother had only bothered with a phone call a couple times a year to check in with her and Blaine. Anger surged inside Autumn. “What do you want?” Autumn heard the hostility in her voice. Her mother must have, too.

  “I read in the news about the killing at the Trail’s Edge. I’m here to see if you and Blaine are okay.”

  Did she care? Her mother hadn’t been around for most of her life or for any of the important stuff. Why show up now and pretend to be concerned?

  “Autumn?”

  “I’m here,” she said, still not making up her mind about how to handle her mother. Could it be a trick? Some mistake?

  A knock on the door.

  “Do you want me to answer it?” Nathan asked, touching the gun at his side almost as a reflex.

  “I don’t know,” she said, still clutching the phone.

  “Autumn? It’s cold out here and I almost died driving up these slick paths in the
rain. Can I come in?”

  Nathan took the phone from Autumn. “Who is this?”

  Protective and strong. Autumn could hear only what he was saying.

  “I don’t know if she wants to see you or not.” Several beats. “That’s something you should have thought of before showing up. Wait on the porch. I’ll be out when she’s made a decision.”

  Nathan disconnected the phone. “Autumn? Are you okay? I don’t know what’s going on with you and your mom, but if you want me to tell her to leave, I will. You don’t have to see her if you don’t want to.”

  Autumn’s mouth was dry and her head felt foggy. Her mother. How often had she wanted to see her? How many nights had she prayed her mother would return to be part of her and Blaine’s life? Those long-ago wishes had been fractured by time. “It’s okay. She can come in.” Autumn knew who her mother was. She was the person who’d given birth to her, but who hadn’t thought it was important to stick around.

  Nathan pulled open the door and Autumn’s mother stepped through. Autumn took a deep breath, steeling herself against the battery of emotions. Her mother looked nothing like her. Even with a little rain on her shoulders from running from the car to the porch, she was glamorous and gorgeous, free-flowing hair and carefully applied dramatic makeup and form-fitting jacket and pants. She looked like the few pictures Autumn had of her, only older and happier.

  Though she had every right to be angry, Autumn felt insecure and small. Her mother was happier because she wasn’t part of Autumn’s life. She had made a life somewhere else without her family. Old wounds ached.

  “Autumn, you look beautiful,” her mother said.

  Autumn had trouble finding words. No one called Autumn beautiful, that is, except her father, who had seemed convinced his daughter was a ravishing beauty. “After all this time, you show up and comment on how I look?” All she could think were words of rage. No matter what her mother said, Autumn would take them as fighting words.

  Her mother fiddled with the end of the glittery scarf she had wrapped around her neck. “I told you, I came to see how you and Blaine are doing.”

  Bitterness swamped her, poisoning every thought in her head. “You don’t get to show up after a few sporadic phone calls and pretend you care. You didn’t care when Dad died. You didn’t care when Blaine and I cried every night for you. Why do you care now?” Tears threatened, but Autumn refused to cry in front of her mother.

  The woman lifted her chin and firmed her jaw. “I know I am not mother of the year. I know I don’t get to be your mom. I have reasons why I did what I did.”

  Her mother didn’t deserve an inch. “I don’t want to hear them,” Autumn said.

  A lie. She wanted a reason from her mother’s mouth as to why it was acceptable for her to walk out on them.

  “Maybe one day you will feel differently and you’ll listen to me. I’ve wanted to get in touch with you. I thought at first it was easier if I wasn’t around and by the time I’d realized it was a mistake, I knew you and Blaine hated me.”

  Hate was a good word. A defensive word. “That sounds like an explanation.”

  “It’s not the whole explanation. There are things you don’t know. There are things that happened in the past that you need to understand.”

  “I don’t need you to lecture me about what I do and don’t need to understand,” Autumn said.

  “When I read about the murder, I had to come and see you. I took it as a sign.”

  Autumn snorted. Nathan was standing near her, watching but saying nothing. Though he was quiet, she felt his support. He wouldn’t take sides against her or ask her to calm down. How she knew that, she couldn’t say. She just did. “I don’t believe in signs. I believe in people showing their true colors and holding themselves to those colors. I believe the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. I believe once you have broken trust, it is fractured beyond all repair.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” her mother said. A long, empty silence. “Is Blaine here?”

  Autumn curbed the urge to swear. “He is not. He is hiking the trail.”

  “While the Huntsman is looking for more victims?” her mother asked.

  “That was not his plan when he set out. I am aware of the danger. I’ve been trying to contact him. I am hoping that because he doesn’t match the profile of the other victims, he’s safe.”

  Her mother looked between Autumn and Nathan. She introduced herself as Blythe Ferguson, her maiden name, and Nathan gave his name, but not why he was with Autumn and not that he was an FBI agent.

  Autumn didn’t know where to take this conversation. “This is a bad time. Nathan and I have somewhere to be.”

  “Can we have breakfast tomorrow? Or lunch?” Blythe asked.

  Autumn needed more time than that. “I’ll let you know.”

  Her mother looked in her handbag and withdrew a card. “Call me. Please. We have much that we need to talk about.”

  Autumn threw the card on the counter. “I’ll see if I have time.”

  Blythe nodded and swallowed hard. Though the initial charge of fury had passed, Autumn refused to feel bad about her rude behavior. Her mother had abandoned her and Blaine. Was Autumn wrong to be suspicious that her mother was at the Trail’s Edge for a selfish purpose?

  * * *

  Nathan drove into town under the guise of needing camping supplies. After his and Autumn’s night out, his appearance would draw attention. He guessed patrons of outdoors stores would be looped into what was happening at the Trail’s Edge and on the Appalachian Trail. He was curious about Autumn and she seemed hesitant to tell him much about herself and the campground.

  Along Main Street, a camping store called The Out House seemed like a good option. Nathan entered the store and strode to the checkout.

  A woman was flipping through a magazine. She stood straighter and smiled when she saw Nathan. “What brings you in today?”

  “I’m staying at the Trail’s Edge. I need a few things to hike the trail.”

  The woman stared at him for a few seconds. “You’re planning to hike the trail?”

  “Yes.”

  “You’ve heard the news, right?” she asked.

  “About the Trail’s Edge?”

  “About the Huntsman. And a body.”

  “I heard.”

  The woman circled the counter. “I would suggest hiking elsewhere. It’s not safe.”

  “That’s what Autumn Reed said, too.”

  “She would know. She never comes down from the trail. I mean, maybe now and then for supplies, but otherwise, she’s a hermit.”

  “Why do you think that?” he asked.

  Though they were alone in the store, the woman—Linda her name tag said—leaned closer. “I think it’s because her mother left her when she was a child. Blythe couldn’t stand living there with her husband and his brother. Then after Autumn’s father died, her brother left. She’s basically alone in the world. Poor girl.”

  “She seems fine to me.”

  “That’s the weird part. Everyone who stays there says the Reeds are so nice and accommodating. But to me, they are all crazy.”

  Autumn seemed levelheaded to him. What did this woman mean by crazy? “Because she lives alone?”

  “In part. But she also used to date the sheriff and he says that she’s broken. She doesn’t connect with anyone. She lives alone and keeps everyone out.”

  Linda seemed to know a lot about Autumn. “Are you two friends?”

  The woman waved her hand. “I was a year ahead of her in school. I just hear stuff, you know?”

  He did. He knew that rumors could be soul-crushing and that Autumn was doing her best to hold it together. If half of what Linda was telling him was true, then he gave Autumn credit for maintaining her sanity. Ever
yone who loved her had left or passed away, leaving her to fend for herself with a killer stalking women on the trail.

  * * *

  Nathan pulled into the gravel parking lot of the medical examiner’s office. He could practically hear Autumn thinking about what had happened with her mother. She might open up and talk about it or she could seal off her feelings and shove them to the side.

  Before they went into the ME’s office, he and Autumn had to get on the same page and Autumn needed to relax. Under the circumstances, it was a tall order. He parked the truck and Autumn unlatched her seat belt. Before she pulled the door handle, Nathan touched her arm. “Wait a sec, Autumn. Are you okay? You haven’t said much since your mother left.”

  Autumn looked away, but not fast enough for Nathan to miss the tears in her eyes. “Nothing has been okay about this. I’m not sure I’ve even processed her showing up.”

  He didn’t know the details of her relationship with her mother, but he had gathered enough to understand it was bad. “She seems to care about you.”

  Autumn rolled her eyes. “I don’t believe that. She left us. She’s contacted us a few times over the years. That is not caring about someone.”

  “She seemed like she wanted to make amends. Not that she can easily, but she’s trying.”

  “I can’t think of any reason that would be good enough to excuse her,” Autumn said.

  “Not excuse, but she could give you closure,” Nathan said.

  Autumn sighed. “I thought you were on my side.”

  “I am on your side. I am on the side that means you get to stop hurting. I’m on the side where you get to feel better about something that happened years ago. I’m on the side that makes you happy. My sister and I had our share of problems. When she died, she had just gotten out of treatment for the third time for alcoholism. I wish I had been more patient with her. I wish I had told her more often that I loved her. Instead, I mostly think about the fights we had about her drinking.”