Chapter Five #3
His mouth twitches the way I remembered when he was trying not to smile. “Present company excluded. The point I’m making is that under normal circumstances, I would agree with the police. He probably left a bad situation in Coldwater, drifted into Fieldstone, then kept moving on, no explanation.”
“You said normal circumstances. So, you don’t believe he just moved on?”
“The thing is,” he leans back into the cushions and reaches around to scratch the back of his head. He’d always done that when he was thinking hard. He used to do it a lot back when I tutored him. “Matthew isn’t the first man reported missing in the area.”
The hair prickles at the back of my neck. “That’s what the Xs are? Men who disappeared.”
“These are the last reported sightings of men who vanished while in the area.” He taps the map with a blunt fingertip. “And they go back decades.”
“Holy shit,” I whisper, before meeting Hunter’s dark gaze. “How has no one noticed this before?”
Hunter shrugs. “Individually, there’s nothing strange. People go missing all the time; they owe money, have a mental health crisis, nothing to tie them to the area, and they start over somewhere else, but in this day and age, most people resurface, eventually.”
I nod at the map. “Did any of these people?”
“Some,” Hunter nods, thoughtfully, rubbing his chin with the back of his hand.
“Most of these people didn’t live in the area, and I haven’t looked into every single case, but there are enough men who just seemed to vanish into nowhere to be...
unusual. Add your friend’s disappearance just weeks after leaving Coldwater, well, it’s a pretty strange coincidence. ”
“You think something happened to him.” My voice scrapes, my mouth suddenly dry.
Hunter sighs and leans back from the map, sinking into the back of the sofa. “I don’t know if something happened to him. But I don’t trust coincidences, and I want to know what Fraiser had been doing in that town, what he’d been running from.”
A mix of relief and apprehension tangles inside me, but I’m not sure why. This is what I wanted: someone to take me seriously and believe that Matthew hadn’t just taken off, that something had happened to him. So why did the idea of Hunter digging into these disappearances leave me cold?
“What’s the next step?” I ask.
“I’m going to Coldwater for a few days to see what I can dig up about your friend, get an idea of what he’d been doing before he found his way to you.”
“Alone?” Did he not remember the men vanishing from the area? The last thing I wanted was for something to happen to Hunter while he was helping me.
“I want to talk to people who would have known him, get an idea of what was happening in his life, and maybe even what sent him running.”
“Yeah, that’s great, but you didn’t answer my question. You’re not actually thinking about going to this town where men have been disappearing alone, are you? You have partners. Take one of them.”
Hunter shoots me a pointed smirk. “You know I was a cop before I started this business, right? I think I’ll be fine.”
Of course I knew he was a cop. I also knew that he’d been shot and almost killed, and it didn’t take a genius to draw the lines between that and his leaving the force to start his own business. He’s not immortal. “I’m going with you.”
The words leave my mouth before I can really process what I’m saying, but once they sink in, I know it’s the right thing. “I can have Hannah watch the café. It’s slow this time of year, so she’d manage fine on her own.”
“You’re not coming with me,” Hunter says, interrupting me.
“Of course, I am,” I tell him. “If you go by yourself, as a detective, people might be less likely to open up to you. But if we go as a couple—”
“We’re not a couple,” Hunter says flatly.
“I know we’re not, but a man and his boyfriend trying to help a former employee is a lot less threatening than a private investigator, former cop digging for answers. People will be a lot more likely to talk to us.”
“You know that if whoever attacked you is in Coldwater, they’ll know we’re not a couple.” Hunter looks doubtful, but he hasn’t completely ruled it out. He’s still listening to me.
“Not necessarily. I introduced you as my boyfriend this morning. If whoever was in the apartment is watching the café, then they’d have no reason not to think we’re together.” Hunter remains thoughtful, but still unconvinced, so I add quickly. “I’m going no matter what.”
He glares at me. “I could still refuse to take your case.”
I shrug, pretending that I would be okay with him walking away, that the idea of Hunter exiting my life again, even after such a short amount of time, doesn’t make me want to grab on to him and beg him not to leave. “Then I guess I would go alone.”
Hunter lets out a long-suffering sigh and lifts his gaze to the ceiling, muttering what sounded like a curse. When his eyes meet mine again, they are hard and determined.
“Fine,” he grinds out. “But we do this my way, and you follow my lead.”
I nod. “Whatever you say.”
He looks doubtful. “We leave first thing tomorrow. Be ready.”