Chapter Twenty-Four
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
April 2028
THE TRAIL UP TO the peak of Mount Achor is my favorite when I need a little space—a little me time—but moving added about forty-five minutes to the already hour-and-a-half drive. Still, after the week I’ve had, some alone time on the trail seems the perfect way to clear my head. Approaching the trailhead, I notice the only other vehicle in the lot on the dead-end road and my heart stops. There’s no way. I pull up behind the old Wrangler parked at the far end—cream body, brown top. My body buzzes as I slowly step out of my Wrangler. Despite my mind yelling at my hand to let go of the door so I can walk forward, it doesn’t, maintaining a death grip on the silver-colored body. I’m scared to approach it. Afraid of what I might find.
“What are you doing out here?” I whisper.
Why hasn’t anyone reported this being out here? They put a BOLO out on it. Surely someone had seen it and thought it was suspicious a car had been sitting there for days. Then again…not many people hike Achor, especially right now, when it could still have snow in some places. It’s one of the harder trails and not most people’s first pick. Maybe no one has come out here recently.
I dial the number of the first person who comes to mind. The call rings and rings until finally, “Nina?”
Walking up to the old Wrangler, I finally look inside the window, at least if there’s something in there, I won’t be alone (per se).
Nothing appears out of place—it’s clean as a whistle, the way Nick always keeps it. His Boston University sweater is tossed on the passenger seat, which seems weird. He definitely would’ve folded it first.
“Beau, I found something,” I say.
“Where are you?” I can hear him sit up in his chair on the other end of the line as I tug on the handle and freeze when it opens. Did Nick leave it unlocked? As if he’s standing right next to me, Beau says, “Don’t touch anything.”
He’s right. If there is something in here, I don’t want to compromise it.
“Where are you?”
“Achor.”
“Achor? Shit!” He sighs. “That’s out of my jurisdiction. Just…Nina, give me a few minutes, I have to call Puck County. Do you see any sign of him?”
“Only a sweater.”
“Don’t touch anything, Nina. Wait for one of us to get there.”
I almost snap back at him “I’m aware of how this works,” but don’t because I almost did touch something. Without acknowledging him, I start to end the call, but he calls out to me. I sigh. “What, Beau?”
“This is good.” I can almost picture him nodding as he gathers his stuff to run out the door. “It’s a sign. It gives us something to go off now. It narrows down the location.”
I hang up without saying anything. This might give us an idea of where Nick went, but that doesn’t make it a good sign. It’s been over a week, and who knows what the weather has been like out here compared to back home, where it’s been on the mild side. Climbing back into my Jeep, I stare at the old car, almost willing Nick to pop out with a laugh and a Gotcha!
But he doesn’t.
No matter how hard I wish for it…it never happens.
Why would he come here? He’s only been to Achor once (maybe twice) with me, usually preferring to stick to the trails closer to home. He could have gone anywhere but chose the trail he knew the least—one of the hardest ones. Why?
There hasn’t been any sign of life in the last thirty minutes. How much longer until someone gets here? I pick up my phone to call Beau when I see a black F-150 creeping down the highway before it pulls into the lot. Puck County Sheriff is printed on the side.
An older man climbs out of the front seat and settles a cream-colored cowboy hat on his white hair as his feet hit the ground. Wide, black aviator glasses hide his eyes, resting on his nose above a white mustache. “Mrs. Villa?” he asks when he approaches me, and I nod. “Sheriff Rhett Wilson, it’s nice to meet you, ma’am.”
“You can call me Nina.”
“Turner over in Spruce told me a bit about what’s going on, said we have your missing husband’s vehicle here.”
“Yes, sir.”
Sheriff Wilson points toward the old Jeep and I nod. “That’s an ’87, isn’t it? Real good condition.”
Is he really commenting on the car right now?
Why am I surprised? Everyone does when they see it. Daddy always loved it and was so excited when Nick fixed it up during our first summer together in Haven. It gave him one final opportunity to drive it before…Well, you know.
I frown. There’s something about this man I don’t like, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. Or maybe I’m just annoyed he’s too busy being enamored with the vintage car instead of worrying about the case.
“’85, actually.”
“Oh, right. Said that in the BOLO.” Wilson nods, walking back to his truck and digging through until he finds a pair of gloves. He continues searching before he looks over his shoulder. “You have a spare set of keys?”
“It’s open. I accidentally pulled the handle when I saw it.”
He pulls the gloves over his hands and says, “Well, let’s take a look, shall we?”
Before he starts to search the vehicle, another car pulls into the lot, and the sight brings a wave of relief crashing over me. Spruce County Sheriff it reads on the side of the SUV and Beau doesn’t waste time. He jumps out, still dressed in civilian clothes from earlier at the station. Rhett says something like “Nice of you to join us,” but Beau ignores him, beelining for me. “You okay?”
I nod, I’m just grateful he’s here. I don’t think I could handle this alone with Sheriff Wilson.
“Anything, Rhett?” Beau calls when we approach the vehicle.
“Clean as a whistle!” Sheriff Wilson yells from inside the cab.
The way Nick liked it.
Beau pulls the Jeep’s BOLO up on his phone. “The license plate matches, so we know it’s theirs.”
“But we don’t have anything connecting it to him.”
I roll my eyes. “Who else would have driven it out here?”
“There were a handful of other guys with him last weekend, huh?”
“You cannot be serious.” I huff, earning a warning look from Beau. “Yes, eight or nine of them, including Nick.”
“Well, which is it? Eight or nine?”
I look at Beau, who pleads with his eyes. “Nine.”
“So, any of them could’ve—”
“No, any of them could not have brought this out here! The others are all accounted for, the only one not is my fucking husband, Sheriff Wilson. And the sweatshirt sitting on the passenger seat is one of his . That leads me to believe he was the one driving the vehicle.”
Sheriff Wilson shares a look with Beau, who offers him a small shrug, but I see the smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. For someone who’s just as much at fault for this, he’s enjoying the show a little too much.
“If you check the glove compartment, you might find his wallet. He used to leave it there when on the trail.” Even though I always told him not to.
Wilson walks around to the passenger side, opens the compartment, shoves his hand as far as it will go, and comes out…empty. A second later, his eyes narrow toward the center of the cab. “Wait a minute. I might’ve found something.” Sheriff Wilson’s words sink like a rock in my stomach. That can’t be good…Can it? I look at Beau, but he hasn’t taken his eyes off Wilson’s back since he dove back into the car. The older man comes out and drops something into the palm of his hand, examining it before he encloses the object in a tight fist. “Can you describe your husband’s wedding ring, Mrs. Villa?”
When I look at Beau for confirmation, he nods, urging me to answer the question. “It’s a silver band, with a stripe of black titanium. The titanium would be scratched to hell because—”
“Can you think of any reason your husband would leave his ring in the car?” Wilson lifts the object he’d been toying with moments before, holding the circle between his thumb and index finger. “Seems a little suspicious, don’t you think, Turner?”
Beau stands with his hands on his hips, chewing on the thought. His gaze moves from me to the ring and back. “Does Nick normally take his ring off to go hiking?”
“After I got mad when he scratched it up, he started swapping it out with a silicone band,” I say.
“Sounds more like a classic getaway, if you ask me.” Wilson chuckles.
“Well nobody asked you.” My words are laced with enough venom to drop an elephant if I choose to strike, but Beau steps in front of me, shielding the other sheriff.
“Nina,” he warns, pushing me back a few paces. “Keep your thoughts to yourself, huh? This isn’t just you and me talking. This is a different ballgame now.” I refuse to answer, but I know he’s right. I can’t lose my cool. If I want to find Nick, I need to keep it together, but as soon as we do, all bets are off. “So, no wallet, right?” Beau asks, turning back to Wilson who shakes his head. “Thank God,” Beau says, earning a confused look from me. What does that mean? “Look, if Nick has his wallet and ends up in a hospital or something, they can identify him.”
The older sheriff looks out over the tree line across the road. “Or if someone finds him on the—”
His words falter when Beau shoots him a glare that says Shut up . Like I don’t already know what Sheriff Wilson is thinking. It’s been a week, and assuming the weather hasn’t been the best, someone is more likely to find Nick’s remains on the trail. And if he happens to have his wallet on him, we won’t have to rely on physical appearance, or what’s left of it, to identify him.
“How soon can we organize a search of the area?” Beau asks.
“I’ll make a few calls,” Sheriff Wilson says, returning to his truck. “I can probably get everyone out here first thing in the morning. Gonna have to call State now that it’s crossing county lines.”
“I called them already, got ahold of Warren.”
“Just what we want. State breathing down our necks.”
Beau shares a knowing chuckle with his counterpart before he looks at me. “Stay put, I’m gonna make a few calls, too.”
A bird calls from somewhere up the mountain, catching my attention. Another squawks in reply before a black cloud swarms the sky as the flock takes flight from the trees. I watch them until a small movement below catches in my peripheral. My gaze sweeps across the tree line, following the dirt path through the overgrown field and a small opening in the tree line, but I don’t see anything. There’s absolutely no movement, everything is deadly still, which seems…odd. Come to think of it, there hasn’t been much movement or even the normal sounds of nature the entire time I’ve been here. Those birds are the first sign of life I’ve noticed all day. The wilderness calls to me like a siren song, but something tells me not to go. And this time, I heed the warning.
A touch on my shoulder sends me five feet in the air, my fist poised and ready, but I stop when I realize who it is.
“Whoa, there!” Beau puts his hands up. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“Sorry! Sorry, I was just—Sorry.”
Sheriff Wilson rejoins us. “Alright, folks, we’re all set to start first thing in the morning. Turner, I assumed you’d want to be here, too, so I told the guys we’d have some extra hands in the field.”
“You’ll have me and as many deputies as I can spare,” Beau confirms.
“And me,” I say.
Wilson looks between me and Beau before a smile creeps up on his face. He rubs at his stubbled jaw. “I appreciate your enthusiasm, Mrs. Villa, but we don’t need you out there getting hurt and causin’ any—”
“I said, I’ll be here. I’ve been on every one of the searches up until now and that’s not going to change because we’re in Puck County.”
“That’s right, you are in Puck County, and I don’t know what kind of show y’all run over in Spruce, but we don’t let civilians run the roost around here.”
“Alright,” Beau says, stepping between us. “You both can put the rulers away. Rhett, if Nina wants to come along on the search, she can stick with me. That’s worked out fine the past few days anyway. And Nin”—Beau turns to me with a tight-lipped smile—“just try to behave, okay? We’re making progress. It may not seem like it, but this is good. We’re one step closer to finding him.”
This may be one step closer to finding him, but in what capacity?