Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
“There’s nothing in this room,” Ryan whispered, his voice unsteady. He dropped his hand and stepped back. With so much history between himself and Charlie, it was hard to believe they were strangers now. But they were.
“Let’s take a look around the rest of the house.”
He nodded and followed her out the door.
Being careful not to disturb Doug’s work, he and Charlie searched the place without any results.
“What about the barn?” It had been a long time since Ryan had been in Pete’s barn. At one time, Pete kept horses for riding but in recent years he’d sold them. Ryan believed it was because Abby’s case dominated every spare minute of Pete’s life.
He and Charlie stepped out into the frigid evening. The last rays of sunlight were quickly fading. Soon, darkness would descend on the mountaintop. Normally, Ryan welcomed this time of day. He loved the peace that came with nightfall in the mountains.
But not now. Not with Charlie’s life on the line.
They tramped through thick snow gathered around the side of the house to the barn.
A small door at the side of the barn opened under protest. Ryan flipped the switch illuminating the large empty space. The only things in the building were Pete’s old truck, his side-by-side, and his snowmobile.
This was Pete’s refuge. While he didn’t keep horses anymore, he came here and tinkered with woodworking, creating birdhouses and Christian themed plaques.
The last rays of sunlight filtered through the spaces in the walls. Dust motes danced through the rays.
“I can almost picture him here.” Charlie trailed her fingers along the worn workbench.
Ryan could as well. He and Pete used to ride snowmobiles up here during the winter. They’d take a thermos of hot coffee and a couple of sandwiches for lunch and spend the day riding.
Ryan swallowed deeply. He’d never get to ride with Pete again.
Charlie began searching some of the cabinets around the barn.
Ryan stepped behind her. “If he hid something about Abby’s death, he wouldn’t leave it out in the open for anyone to find.”
She nodded. “You’re right. Then we start where someone wouldn’t think to look.”
Ryan found the keys to Pete’s old truck. He went over and unlocked the door. He opened the glovebox. Nothing but the usual registration and proof of insurance. Pete’s old Glock that he kept there in case of trouble.
A search through the center console revealed nothing of value.
He returned to the workbench where Charlie was searching through an old file cabinet next to it.
She opened the top drawer and looked his way. “Maybe the lockbox is in here?”
In his opinion it didn’t make sense. Why leave something of value in a file cabinet for anyone to find? Despite being locked it wouldn’t take much to jimmy the lock.
“What’s in there?” he asked instead of voicing his concerns.
Charlie opened the top of two drawers. A few pieces of paper were all it contained. She picked up the first. “It’s a receipt for work on this truck.”
The bottom drawer contained more of the same. “Nothing else,” she said in frustration. She straightened and looked around the barn. “Maybe we’re looking in the wrong place.”
The house was clear. If not in the barn, then where would Pete hide something important?
Without considering his actions, Ryan tapped along the side of another metal cabinet. A dull hollow sound filled the tense silence.
“You hear that?”
“I do.” Charlie came over.
Ryan opened the single drawer that contained nothing. He searched inside with his flashlight. “There’s something off about the bottom. Hang on.” He turned the cabinet on its side and noticed that the bottom looked the same from this end. Nothing unusual yet. . .
“What’s going on?” Charlie leaned closer to examine it.
“I’m not sure.” Ryan pulled the drawer out to examine the cabinet better. “It has a false bottom. This one definitely didn’t come with the cabinet.”
Her eyes locked with his. “Something’s in there.”
Ryan tried removing the false bottom by hand and it wouldn’t budge. “Can you hand me that crowbar?” He pointed to the tool hanging above Pete’s workbench.
She retrieved the bar and gave it to him.
Ryan positioned the chisel end against the edge of what appeared to be some type of tin.
After a couple of tries, he was able to wedge the bar beneath the lip of the wooden bottom that Pete had painted to match the rest of the cabinet.
It lifted to reveal an old tin box faded and rusted from time.
Ryan tossed aside the false bottom and then removed the box from the cabinet. He handed it to Charlie who carried it to the workbench.
Ryan rose and stood beside her as she slipped the key into the lock and heard it click open.
“My hands are shaking,” she admitted as she opened the lid. Ryan held his breath while praying they’d find something useful inside.
The box contained a single item. An old leather journal similar to the others Ryan had seen Pete writing in. Only this one was frayed around the edges from use.
Charlie opened the journal to the first page. Ryan immediately recognized Pete’s handwriting. Strong strokes just like the man himself. The words were clear and legible despite the scrawling urgency of some of the text.
One name jumped from the page at Ryan. Abby.
“Look at the date on the entry.” Two days before Abby went missing.
Abby came to see me at my house two days before she disappeared.
She told me she saw something that scared her at the old Owens place down from her house.
She wouldn’t say, only that she was afraid.
She made me promise not to tell anyone about what she said.
I told her I would investigate and asked her again to tell me what had her so frightened.
She refused, but I sensed that something else was troubling her.
I drove her home and then went to take a look around the Owens’ place.
There were signs someone had been there recently even though the place hadn’t been lived in for a year.
“I can’t believe it. He was investigating before she disappeared,” Charlie said in a whisper. She turned to him. “Abby knew something before she went missing and she came to Pete for help. He never said a word. I wonder why he kept this one separate from the others?”
Ryan picked up the journal. He had a theory. For the same reason Ryan had never mentioned the footprint in the snow near Charlie’s burned family home. It was his guilt to bear. “There’s no mention of it in the report either.”
Charlie shook her head. “Maybe nothing came of it. He probably investigated the angle, and it came up a dead end.”
“That’s a huge coincidence I can’t accept.
This is connected to her disappearance somehow.
” It didn’t add up in Ryan’s police mind.
According to everything Ryan had heard about the former lawman, Pete did everything by the book.
He would have at least noted something in the report even if he didn’t mention Abby by name.
“You think he may have found something that was damaging to someone close to him?”
Ryan could see the thought was a chilling one.
“Wait, didn’t Jason Owens and his father move to another part of town after Grant and his wife divorced? That would have been around this same time.”
Charlie’s eyes widened. “You’re right. Grant still owns that house, but he and Jason moved to a mansion near the ski lodge. According to Pete after Jason graduated, they moved to Denver and Grant remarried. Wasn’t Jason a few years older than us?”
“He was.” Ryan recalled what he remembered about the family.
The ex-wife had left town following the divorce.
He’d heard rumors she moved back east but no one ever heard from her again.
Grant was a county judge at the time like his father before him.
Ryan remembered Jason mentioning once that his future was all planned for him.
He’d go to law school and one day become a judge himself. Just like his old man.
“It might be worth having a talk with Grant and Jason. I believe they’re in town. I’m pretty sure I saw Jason at the coffeeshop recently.”
Charlie nodded. “You’re right. We should check that out.”
Ryan stopped her before she had a chance to head for the door. “Whoa, we aren’t going to do anything. You’re a target, Charlie.”
She swung on him. “Whoever did this killed my uncle because of what he discovered. I’m part of this, Ryan. And I’m not going to cower in a hiding place letting someone else fight my battles.”
Part of him admired her courage. The other worried it would end in her death.
“Let me check in with Boone and see what he can find out about the family.”
“Fine,” she ground out. She held the journal tight as they stepped from the barn.
As soon as he spoke to Will they’d returned to Boone’s cabin.
The last rays of the day had faded as they stood on the front porch.
Up above, stars dotted the dark sky. A chilling breeze circled through the trees around the place, sending snow falling from their branches and causing Ryan to turn up the collar of his jacket against its bitterness.
It carried something more tonight. A secret fifteen years in the making clawing and fighting to come to light.