Chapter 23
The ride back from Lost Prairie Wilderness was quiet—not awkward, just heavy. Logan stared out the passenger window for most of the drive, his fingers picking at the dirt beneath his nails.
As we drove into town, he cleared his throat and looked at me. “Hey, can I use your phone? Mine’s dead.”
“Of course,” I said, unlocking it and handing it to him.
He tapped in a number, and the call rang once before someone answered, loud enough for me to hear what they were saying on the other end.
“Logan? Where are you? Are you safe? Why haven’t you—”
“I’m safe, Mom,” he said, cutting her off. “I’m not coming home yet though.”
“What do you mean you’re not … Logan, you listen to me right now. We’ve been beside ourselves wondering where you are. I want you to come straight home. You have a lot of explaining to do.”
“I know. We can talk more later. You and Dad don’t need to worry. I’m okay.”
“Tell me where you are.”
“I gotta go. I’m sorry.”
“Logan, please—”
He sighed, ending the call before she had the chance to say anything more, pressing the phone to his chest and closing his eyes.
I gave him some time, and then I said, “You know, you don’t have to hide what’s happened from your mother. It’s been days since she’s heard from you, and while she seems like a tough woman, you’re her son. I can’t imagine how worried she is right now.”
“I know,” he whispered. “But I know her. If I tell her what I told you, she won’t let me out of her sight.”
I decided not to push him further. Right now, he needed food, clean clothes, a shower, and to feel safe and supported.
We pulled into the driveway, then Logan followed me inside the house, Luka bounding up with an enthusiastic bark that made Logan jump. He took a moment to steady himself and then reached down, giving Luka a quick pat.
“Come on in and make yourself comfortable.”
He nodded, lingering just inside the doorway, as if unsure whether to step farther into the house.
I waved him in. “Come on, I’ll point you to the kitchen, and you can get yourself something to drink.”
We made our way to the kitchen, and I opened the refrigerator door. “Take anything you want. I’ll be right back.”
I found Giovanni in the study. He glanced up when I entered and smiled.
“Well,” he said, leaning back, “did you find the boy?”
“I did.”
“Is he all right?”
“He will be.”
I filled Giovanni in on the latest, and when I finished, he crossed his arms.
“You made the right decision bringing him here. No one will touch him while he’s in this house.”
I smiled. “I knew you’d say that.”
He brushed past me into the hall, like he’d switched into host mode, peeking into the kitchen where Logan sat at the table.
“Let’s get him into the shower and find him a change of clothes,” I said. “Then we’ll feed him. He’s so skinny, if a stiff breeze came along, it would knock him right over.”
While Giovanni grabbed a few things out of the closet, I led Logan to the guest room and showed him how to use the en-suite shower. Giovanni brought in several clothing options, which were oversized but would work for tonight.
We left him to get cleaned up, following the aroma of Giovanni’s spaghetti carbonara back to the kitchen. Logan joined us several minutes later, looking nervous, his hands clasped together, eyes darting around like he was about to be interrogated.
Which, to be fair, he would be.
But not yet.
Giovanni set a bowl of pasta in front of him, and I said, “Why don’t we eat dinner first and then talk after?”
Logan nodded, and when we joined him at the table, I guided the conversation elsewhere. Talking about Giovanni’s day, instead of Logan’s, seemed to help him relax.
Once dinner was finished, Logan and I moved to the den.
“Logan,” I began, “I don’t want to overwhelm you, but I still feel like I am trying to put together all the parts of the story. If you’re up for it, I’d appreciate it if you could start at the beginning. Why did you run? And what do you know about Anne and about what happened to Audrey and why?”
He drew in a breath, holding it for a moment. “It all started at the cabin. Audrey loved hanging out there. If she and her mother argued, she’d go there to cool off. That’s not to say they had a bad relationship. It was just normal mother-daughter stuff.”
I crossed one leg over the other. “You said it all started at the cabin. I’m guessing something happened one day when she was there?”
“Yeah, she found that locket. It was stuck between a couple of planks on the floor next to the bed. She wouldn’t have ever seen it, except she pulled the bed out one day to sweep behind it, and that’s when she made her first discovery.”
“I’m guessing there was a second discovery?”
“I’ll get to that in a minute. After she found the locket, she showed it to me. At first, we didn’t think much of it. But then she started searching the internet, and that’s how we learned about Anne.”
“What did she find out?”
He rubbed his forehead. “She came across some old articles about a woman named Anne Fontaine who’d disappeared from here. She also found a photo of a missing persons flyer, and in it, Anne was wearing the locket.”
“And Audrey made the connection.”
“Yeah, but it went way beyond that,” he said.
“Audrey became obsessed with what happened to Anne. I told her she needed to drop it, and she’d told me she’d let it go, but she didn’t.
She kept digging, looking for information on anyone who lived in Cambria back then.
She thought someone local might have killed Anne. Someone who still lives here now.”
“What else did Audrey find out?” I asked.
He paused, then said, “One night we were at a party, and she was acting a lot different than usual.”
“Different how?”
“She believed someone knew she was digging into the case, but she didn’t know who.
She said she wasn’t safe, and she was afraid I wasn’t either.
I told her she either needed to go to the police or to drop it and leave it alone for a while.
She thought it was time to involve the police, but then she was murdered. ”
“Why didn’t you go to the police?”
“I didn’t know where the locket was, and I wanted to find it first,” he said. “I thought it might be in her room, so I went to her parents one day and asked if I could spend some time there. They agreed. I never found it.”
“I did.”
Logan glared at me, shocked. “You did? Where?”
“Stuck between the bottom of a planter and its saucer. I took it to the police, and we found a strand of hair caught inside. They’re testing it now.”
“Maybe her death … maybe it won’t all be for nothing,” he said, wiping a tear from his eye.
“It won’t be,” I said. “I’ll make sure of it.”
“I know I told you I left town because I thought someone might come after me, and I did. It’s just … I don’t think someone is after me, I know they are.”
I leaned forward. “Go on.”
“A few weeks after Audrey died, I found a note on my truck. I’ll show you. Be right back.”
He left the room, returning a minute later, reaching into his dirty, half-zipped backpack, and pulling out a crumpled slip of paper. He smoothed it over the best he could and then handed it to me.
LEAVE THE PAST BURIED OR YOU’LL END UP JUST LIKE HER
I swore under my breath.
“And you didn’t go to the police?” I asked.
Logan shook his head. “I didn’t trust anyone. Not after what happened. If someone killed Audrey to hide a secret, then that someone could be anyone in this town. Anyone with power. Anyone with a badge. Anyone.”
Giovanni entered the room, taking a seat next to me. “You’re safe here with us, and you’re welcome to stay here for as long as it takes to solve this case.”
“He’s right,” I added. “But now that you’re with us, I want you to be straight with us about everything from here on out. No more half-truths.”
He went quiet for a time, and then said, “The place I’ve been camping, I took Audrey there a couple of times. The last time I spoke to her, she referred to it as our safe place, a place where secrets go to hide.”
Before I could respond, a sharp knock rattled the front door—loud, urgent, and unexpected.
Logan froze.
Giovanni stood, his jaw tight, eyes narrowing—not alarmed, just alert.
Old habits.
Old instincts.
Then he made his way down the hall to greet our unexpected visitor.