Chapter 1 On the Run #3
She tapped some more on her phone screen. Then she held it up to him again. “This is where she was when it happened. I drove out to the exact spot and couldn’t find any sign of her. Then I drove straight here, hoping to catch you before you took off.”
The map she’d pulled up on her cell phone showed the old highway bypassing Heart Lake.
It was the road most drivers took to avoid slowing down for the small-town speed limits, stoplights, and roundabouts.
Even more disturbing, it was the same stretch of road where Tiana Dakota was last seen, and now another college girl had gone missing there.
Kaya watched him closely. “You recognize the spot, don’t you?”
“I do.” His jaw tightened. There was no point in denying it to a law student, especially one who was knee deep examining Tiana’s case files.
“It’s where your aunt was last seen.” Her bicycle had been propped against the embankment.
There was no sign of a struggle, according to the lead detective on the case.
No blood spatter, and no footprints leading away from her bicycle.
It was possible someone had pulled over to offer her a ride.
Worse yet, someone might’ve pulled over and forced her into their vehicle.
Bear had a few guesses about what had happened to his sister that day, but that was all they were. Guesses.
He scowled at his niece. “What was Tiffany doing out there alone?”
“I don’t know. I’ve asked myself that same question a dozen times already,” Kaya mourned.
“Maybe she discovered something new and wanted to check it out. It’s just strange she didn’t tell me about it first. The only reason I even knew she went out there was because I tried to call her a few times, and it kept going to voicemail.
Naturally, I tracked her location, and there she was. ”
He held up a finger. “That means she stopped answering her phone before the tracking app went dark.”
“You’re right.” A wrinkle formed in the middle of his niece’s forehead. “Maybe because she couldn’t?”
He didn’t have any answers for her, only more questions, so he didn’t say anything.
“It doesn’t feel like a coincidence,” she continued in an agitated voice. “Tiff and I started looking into a cold case. Then she went missing on the same stretch of highway as my aunt, right after spending our entire Spring Break investigating, er…researching that very spot.”
It sounded to Bear like his niece and her roommate might’ve accidentally stirred up a hornet’s nest. “What exactly have you two been doing on that highway, kiddo?”
Kaya paled. “I’d rather not get you involved. Everything I don’t say or do can’t be used against us in a court of law.”
He snorted in derision. She could employ all the lawyer talk she wanted with her vainglorious academic advisor, but not with him.
“Here’s what I think. I think you and Tiffany are the ones who found the bones that everyone’s in such a lather about.
” The story was spreading like wildfire around Heart Lake and the rez.
A week ago, someone had deposited a few human bones in the overnight drop box at the Heart Lake Police Department. A week ago was also when Kaya Dakota and Tiffany Masterson had shown up in town for Spring Break.
“Uncle Uri,” his niece groaned. “I’m trying to help get our family justice. I really am.”
Hoh, boy, I was right! He hadn’t wanted to be right. Reaching up to remove his baseball cap, he ran a hand through his hair. It was weird feeling how short it was — a good kind of weird. “You and Tiffany aren’t the ones who dropped off the bones with the police, though, are you?”
She shook her head. “For a guy who doesn’t own a cell phone, you’re frighteningly well-informed.” She frowned and took a closer look at him. “What happened to your hair?”
“I cut it.” He mashed his baseball cap back on. “As for staying informed, it’s part of my job as a small business owner.” With no phone or television to rely on, he depended heavily on word-of-mouth communication, especially for client referrals.
He spent a good amount of his downtime jawing around the proverbial water cooler at the grocery store, post office, and the Longhorn Grill by the exit gate.
The Grill was where he kept the signup sheet for his wilderness tours, which Kaya had altered without his consent.
He paid the owners of the restaurant to keep track of it at the hostess booth.
Or tried to. They always waved away his money, so he always left generous tips to make up for it.
From what he understood about the bones, the person who’d dropped them off at the police station had been male — a man who roughly matched his own height and build.
Lucky me. The identity of the bones had yet to be determined, and whether any foul play was involved.
It wouldn’t surprise him, however, if the rez police showed up soon to question him about the incident.
“I’m sorry, Uncle Uri,” Kaya whispered raggedly. “Like I said, I never wanted to drag you into this. I certainly never meant to—”
A police siren wailed in the distance and grew closer.
Bear glared at her. “Never meant to do what?”
“We don’t have time to go into that right now.” Her head jerked toward the front door that she’d left open. “We need to leave. Now!”
“And go where?” Running only made a person look guilty.
“I’ll explain everything after we get out of here.” She leaped into action, snatching up bottles of water and tossing them into her own backpack. “You know you’re innocent, and I know you’re innocent, but an eyewitness is claiming otherwise.”
“Eyewitness to what?” He had no idea what he was even being accused of.
She slammed the front door shut and shooed him frenziedly toward the back door. “I think you’re being set up, Uncle Uri, and it’s happening quicker than I imagined.”
Though dodging the police didn’t feel right, Bear looped his backpack over his shoulder and started moving. He wasn’t in the mood to be interrogated about a crime he hadn’t committed.
He sped down the porch steps with Kaya on his heels. They broke into a run as the police sirens grew closer. Fortunately, the backyard butted up against a thick line of trees. Beyond the trees was raw, untamed wilderness.
They ran in silence for several minutes. Kaya waited until the sirens faded behind them before saying anything. “The so-called eyewitness is saying you deposited the bones in the drop box, so people are freaking out over the possibility you might’ve murdered somebody.”
“Murdered!” He glared at her. “I can’t believe a future lawyer has her uncle running from a murder investigation. Literally running!”
“They don’t know that,” she pointed out slyly. “They’ll assume you’re on one of your wilderness retreats, which will buy us a little time to figure out what’s going on.”
He hoped she was correct, because running not only made a guy look guilty, it also made him feel guilty. Police Chief Adriel Montana was a personal friend. Never before had Bear been in the position of avoiding him. It didn’t feel right.
“They won’t come looking for you.” His niece spoke in a relatively normal voice despite how fast they were running.
On top of being smart, she was athletic.
She’d run track and cross-country during high school, as well as her first four years of college.
Nowadays, she only ran to stay fit. “They wouldn’t know where to even begin.
You’re as unplugged as it gets. No internet.
No cell phone. They’ll have no choice but to wait until you show up again. ”
He wasn’t as unplugged as everyone assumed, but that was a different topic. He gritted his teeth. “Are you ready to tell me what you think is going on?”
He had no trouble keeping pace with her, though he was surprised to note she was leading them toward the highway where Tiana and Tiffany had disappeared.
Kaya’s breathing became labored. “Yes. For reasons I don’t yet understand, I think someone is setting you up for a murder charge, but you aren’t the only one they’re setting up.
I think Tiff and I were set up, too. The bones we dug up had recently been moved.
The only reason we found them at all was that we saw a dog trotting around with a bone in its mouth. That’s all I know.”
He was brimming with more questions than ever. “Who turned in the bones to the police? I know it was a man.”
“He’s a friend of mine.” Her expression grew cagey.
“Can we please-please-please just worry about finding Tiff right now? Nobody knows the local terrain better than you. My gut says they won’t have taken her far.
Not yet, anyway. They’d want to figure out what she knows first, right?
” She slowed her pace, and he did the same.
He avoided the question, not wanting to give her false hope. “Where exactly did you find the bones?” He was still piecing together her story, and the only way to do that was to keep her talking.
She gave him a bleak look. “Beneath the dirt floor of a dilapidated barn on Callie Haywood’s property.
Long story short, Tiff and I ran across a statement from the lead detective buried deep in Aunt Tiana’s case files.
It was a single-sentence referencing severe damage to the sidewalls of her bike tires. ”
“Interesting.” It was the first time Bear had heard of the damage to his sister’s bicycle. It had been impounded as evidence and never returned to her family. He’d all but forgotten about the rusty old bike.
“Very, very interesting.” Kaya finally stopped running and started stretching. “That’s why we visited the spot where Aunt Tiana’s bike was found. We searched the area for anything that might’ve damaged the sidewalls of her tires.”
“And,” Bear prodded impatiently, turning to face her. He estimated they were two miles or more away from his rustic little home on wheels.