Chapter 14
“DO NOT TELL ME to calm down. Again.” Dawson met Moose’s gaze, and his cousin held up one hand. Backed away.
Dawson walked over to the map of the area, his hands folded together behind his neck, stretching, trying not to punch something.
The morning sun lit the conference room of the Copper Mountain sheriff’s office, sliding over the maps and statements and photos of the crash and anything they could grab hold of.
Keely had simply disappeared off the planet.
“All right, everyone, just grab some coffee. It’s been a long night, and we’re tired.”
Dawson shot Sheriff Deke Starr a look as the sheriff slid off the long table.
He wasn’t tired.
He was furious. And no amount of pacing seemed to quell the terrible roil inside.
“We’ll find her,” Moose said, handing him a cup of black coffee.
Beside him, Caspian sat up, whined.
“I know, buddy. You probably need to go out.” He took the coffee from Moose. “Just let me wake up a second, then we’ll take a walk.”
“Might do you good to air out your brain.” This from Moose’s brother, Axel, fellow Air One Rescue tech. He’d gone with Moose to pick up Wren, who was now at the clinic in Copper Mountain with her father.
Axel and Moose had met Dawson at the FBO when Dodge dropped him off, well after midnight.
They’d driven him to their parents’—his aunt and uncle’s—home, despite his protestations.
They did stop over at the sheriff’s office, and the deputy on duty said Deke had put out a BOLO to all the highway patrols but couldn’t do anything until morning.
Dawson had left a message to the tune that morning might be too late. But given different shoes, a different situation, he might have told a distraught family member to do the same.
Especially without any leads.
So, Dawson had spent the night on his uncle’s den sofa, staring at the ceiling, hating that evil always found a way to win.
Now, he looked at Axel, who leaned against a table in the conference room. “I should have known that it wasn’t Moose on the call. I felt it in my gut—”
“C’mon, Daws. Your gut isn’t infallible.” Axel leaned up. “I’m going to get Flynn from the Gold Nugget Inn. She said that Kennedy is being released today, so she’s on board to help with the investigation.”
He’d heard the story from Moose, about how Sully had gotten Kennedy out on a snowmobile, all the way to the highway, where a state patrol had met them. How she’d nearly died in his arms. So he understood if Flynn wanted to hang around her sister—
Axel might have read his mind because he clamped a hand on Dawson’s shoulder. “Trust me. She’s antsy after sitting in the hospital for nearly a week. She’s all in. We’ll find Keely.”
He stepped back then and offered a smile. “Although seriously, Bliss? You do know her last boyfriend was Chase Sterling, the actor.”
He stared at him, and Keely’s story needled in. Wait. Chase Sterling wasn’t the father of her baby, was he?
It didn’t matter. “Go get my partner.”
Axel headed out the door and brushed by Dodge, on his way in. Dodge carried a bag of donuts from the Last Frontier Bakery and set the greasy bag on a table. “Fresh cinnamon rolls from your aunt. On the house.”
Dawson walked over, looked in the bag, but had no appetite.
“So, how’s it going? Any leads?” Dodge stood with his hands in his leather jacket pockets.
Dark hair, grim slash to his mouth, he’d taken over Sky King Ranch bush services when his father started going blind.
Tragedy, although in the suffering, Dodge had also reconnected with his ex-girlfriend, Echo, and remade his life.
It also brought his other brothers home for a face-off with the past, not an easy reunion after a decade of silence. But Dawson had been there for the Great Fight that had decimated the family, so yeah, he got that.
He might walk away too, if he got betrayed like Dodge had been.
Now the man stared at the map littered with tiny pushpins. “What are these pins?”
“All the sightings of a Sorros brother over the past seven years.” Dawson grabbed his mug and stepped up beside him, the coffee dark and brutal, fortifying his bones.
“These are old mining camps.” Dodge pointed to a couple out west. “And this one was an abandoned Army communications building.”
“Apparently, they know this area as well as we do.”
“They have to know we’d look for them at their old haunts.”
Moose came back in with Deke, who walked straight to the bag. “Cinnamon rolls. Your mom is a gift to the universe, Moose.”
Flynn chose then to arrive with Axel. She walked right over to Dawson, her copper hair tied back in a bun, and pulled him into an embrace.
“Don’t fight it. Just breathe, boss.”
He managed one arm around her and a smile when she pulled away. “Axel briefed me in the truck.” She unzipped her jacket. “I’m going to need coffee.”
Shasta Starr, who worked reception at the sheriff’s office, came in and handed her a cup. “I just poured it. I’ll get another.”
Flynn held it in two hands, breathed in the smell. “Had breakfast with Nora, but there’s just something about police station coffee.” She winked at Dawson.
And weirdly, the clench in his chest released, just a little.
“Okay. And you’re sure it’s the Sorros brothers after her?” She turned to study the map.
“No. But the puzzle pieces make sense. Keely said that a man named Thornwood was after Wilder. Who got on that plane to go to Anchorage enroute to testify against Conan.”
“We got a report a while back about Conan,” Deke said.
“He was in Goose Creek until they transferred him last month. Escaped during transfer. Been at large since.” Deke took a bite of his roll.
Made a noise of appreciation. “The US Marshals were tracking him in Anchorage, so we didn’t suspect he’d be back here, although we did have a BOLO out.
Maybe that’s why they asked Wilder to get on a plane—to make sure they could keep him safe. ”
“Do you think he knew Conan was out?”
“I don’t know,” Deke replied. “You’d think they would have told him that before he got on the plane, but maybe they thought he’d spook and go into hiding.”
Not a terrible idea. “And Mars?” Dawson asked. “What’s his last known location?”
“He went off the map last summer, after a big bust of a local militia camp. We had him on a BOLO list.” He pointed to a picture of both the brothers on the wall.
Dawson walked over to it, along with Flynn.
“Mars is real pretty,” she said, sipping her coffee. “A forehead tattoo. What is that, a star?”
“I think it’s barbed wire.” Dawson pointed to the other picture. “Echo said that scar on Conan’s cheek is from a fight with Jago when he was a kid.”
“Sounds like a fantastic family.” She turned to him. “You know them?”
“Not really. I went to school with them as a kid.”
Flynn stared at him, frowned, then turned back to the map on the wall. “They still live here?”
“I don’t know,” Dawson said. “I’ve spent most of the last decade in Anchorage.”
Dodge had found himself a donut. “They moved away with their mom before high school. But I saw them in the summers with their dad, and I remember a particular fight Jericho Bowie had with one of them the summer after our senior year.”
Dawson took a sip of coffee. “I remember that fight. I just didn’t remember it was with the Sorros brothers.” He met eyes with Deke, who also nodded.
“What about their dad, Brand?” Flynn asked. “He still around?”
“No,” Deke said. “He went to prison a few years ago after a drug bust.”
“He still there?”
Silence.
“Someone check on that,” Flynn said.
“Where’d they live?”
Dodge studied the map, then pointed to an area north of Copper Mountain. “I think in this area.”
“Their old house is not far from the Boy Scout camp I attended,” Dawson said. “Just over the river.”
“Anyone check the place?” Flynn took a sip of her coffee.
“It was sold,” Deke said. “A number of years ago.”
“To who?”
Deke finished his cinnamon roll. “Idaho.”
Dawson looked at him. “The poacher who was arrested a few years ago?”
“Mmhmm.”
“He’s not allowed back in Alaska,” Dodge said.
“So, it’s been sitting vacant for a few years?” Flynn glanced at Moose. “It’s worth a flyover, to see if there’s been any activity.”
He nodded. “I’ll head out to the FBO.”
“I’ll go with you,” Dawson said.
Caspian, however, whined again, this time from the door. Aw. “I need to take him for a walk.”
“Listen,” Moose said. “Even if I see something, the forest there is too dense for me to land. I’ll keep in touch. You be ready to deploy.”
Dawson nodded, then whistled to Caspian. He should have a leash, but he’d lost it long ago. Still, Caspian fell into stride with him. Dawson picked up his parka as he hit the door and headed outside.
The wind swirled off the river, past Starlight Pizza, now closed, and Bowie Mountain Gear, all the way down to the bakery and the Midnight Sun Saloon.
Dawson shoved his hands into his pockets, the sky clearing, finally, blue and pristine.
The chill captured his breath in small puffs.
Caspian sniffed and then set out in a jog down the street.
Found the right place between buildings—good dog—and emerged a few minutes later.
He’d have to walk him out of town a bit because he’d forgotten a cleanup bag.
He headed down the street, the smells of the early smoke from the ribs in the Midnight Sun’s smoker haunting the breeze. Vic started them early, to smoke all day and emerge dripping and juicy by dinnertime.
God, please let Vic meet her daughter. Maybe Keely didn’t want to see her, but . . .
It couldn’t end this way. His throat tightened, even as Caspian spotted someone and barked, as if alerting.
Vic. She stood in her parka and a pair of mukluks, on the stoop of the building, staring out into the sky.
Even from here, he spotted darkness in her expression.
He caught Caspian’s collar. “Hey, Vic.”
She seemed to see him then, drew in a breath. “Dawson.”