Chapter 5 #2
“My head hurt really bad, so I took some migraine medicine and went to sleep.” Her cheeks flushed faintly. “When I woke up this morning, Laura wasn’t there. I figured she went back with Tyler to his tent for the night.”
Ophelia’s tone didn’t change. “Who’s Tyler?”
“A guy in our group who she’s been hooking up with lately.” Candy shifted, clearly uncomfortable. “But they got into a fight last night, and when I checked with him this morning, he said he hadn’t seen her.”
Brock crossed his arms.
“He said he left the bar around midnight,” Candy continued. “That Laura was still here partying with some tourists. Older guys. They were all wearing flannels.”
Amka listened from behind the bar.
“Is it possible she left with one of them?” Brock asked.
Candy shook her head hard. “No. I don’t think so. She likes Tyler, and Laura wouldn’t just go off with strangers.” She paused as she obviously thought it through. “She would’ve only left with Tyler. I’m sure of it.”
Brock’s tone flattened. “All right.”
Candy’s eyes darted across the tavern. Then she froze, pointing toward the fireplace. “Hey. Those guys talked to her a little early in the night and asked her to play pool with them. She might have after I left, I guess.”
Three men sat around a table scattered with maps. One of them looked up, then the others. They were older than Candy’s group, maybe in their thirties or forties, dressed in flannels despite the warm morning.
Brock stood. “Candy, you have a picture of your friend?”
“Yeah.” She pulled her phone from the back pocket of her shorts, fingers fumbling as she scrolled. “Here. That’s Laura.”
Brock studied the image briefly and then took the phone, moving toward the men, Ophelia a silent shadow at his side. The tavern quieted again, tension tightening across the room.
Ace watched from his stool, easily hearing the conversation since the tavern remained mostly vacant at this hour.
“Morning,” Brock said. “Did any of you see this woman last night?”
The men looked at the phone.
“Yeah,” the first one said. He wore a blue flannel and jeans.
“We played pool and darts with her.” He extended a hand.
“I’m Mick Thompson. These are my brothers, Greg and Tommy.
” He pointed to Greg, who wore a green flannel, and to Tommy, who wore red.
They all had lighter brown hair, various shades of brown eyes, and rather full looking beards.
“Where are you from?” Brock asked.
“Southern California,” Mick said easily.
Brock widened his stance. “What brings you here?”
“We’re waiting for our guide to go fishing after the storm passes,” Greg said. “He said we’re heading toward Bear Creek later this afternoon.”
Brock glanced at the phone. “Tell me about last night and Laura.”
“We bought her a couple drinks,” Tommy added. “Then we played pool and darts with her. She seemed out of sorts because of a fight with some dude named Tyler, who kept glaring at us from across the bar. Looked like a rich kid pussy, if you know what I mean. Laura is a cute gal who’s pretty funny.”
“Then we headed back,” Mick said. “She was still here when we left.”
Brock’s eyes narrowed. “Where are you staying?”
“We rented a house up at North Reach Alcove from a lady named Delores Jerky.” Greg folded a map. “Why do you ask?”
“Because no one can find this woman,” Brock said.
A flicker of unease passed between the men.
Tommy’s eyebrows rose. “Missing? That’s not good. We didn’t leave with her. I’m married, man.”
Greg lifted a shoulder. “Ditto.”
Concern filtered across Mick’s expression.
“I’m not married.” His tone stayed almost cheerful.
“I asked Laura to come back with us, to be honest. She said no and told me her mind was still into Tyler.” He shrugged.
“I thought that was odd that she said mind and not heart. The new generation, man. I can’t figure them out. ”
Ace could totally agree, even though he was only in his late twenties. Maybe early thirties. Who knew for sure? There hadn’t been any records recovered when he and his brothers had been rescued after the avalanche and adopted by Hank.
Brock’s mouth flattened. “So Tyler didn’t approach you at all?”
Mick scratched at his jaw. “No. I think he got into some kind of scuffle earlier. The guy had a hell of a shiner.”
“With whom?” Brock asked.
“I don’t know.” Mick shook his head. “We played pool with Laura and talked about the Olympics. Hockey. That’s about it. We didn’t get into her love life beyond that Tyler mention.” He spread his hands. End of story.
Brock moved toward Amka, holding out the phone. “Do you recognize her?”
Amka nodded immediately, her expression tightening. “Yeah.” Her eyes flicked briefly toward Ace. “She was here last night. Along with Candy and that whole Montana group.”
“Did you see her leave?” Ophelia asked.
Amka bit her lip. “No. We were slammed with tourists well past midnight.”
Brock gestured subtly toward the Thompson brothers. “What about them?”
“I remember them,” Amka said. “They tipped well and left.”
Ophelia glanced at the men, who were obviously listening. “Did Laura leave with them?”
“Not that I noticed,” Amka said.
Ace leaned forward to stare at the photo still displayed on Candy’s phone. Oh, crap. Laura was the pretty blonde with bright blue eyes. Hard to miss. “Damn it.”
“You recognize her?” Brock asked.
Ace straightened. “Yeah.”
Ophelia’s attention snapped to him. “You do?”
Ace remembered back. “I got into that scuffle with Tyler about her. Two scuffles, actually.”
“Seriously?” Ophelia planted her hands on her hips.
“Yeah.”
Brock’s jaw flexed. “When did you leave the bar?”
Ace regretted messing with that jerk. “I took off a little before ten last night, after my second run-in with Tyler, although Laura had moved on to talking to the flannel trio by then.” That had been when he’d gone to see May.
Ophelia’s brows lifted. “Did Laura leave with you?”
“No,” Ace said.
Brock seemed to vibrate in place. “Where’d you go?”
Ace so didn’t want to go into this, but he wasn’t lying to his brother. “I went to see the doc.”
Silence hit the space between them.
“You went to see May at ten o’clock at night?” Ophelia asked.
Ace’s jaw tightened. “Yeah. I had a question for her.”
Ophelia pursed her lips. “What was your question?”
Tension struck at the base of Ace’s skull. “Sorry, that’s private doctor and patient information. Privileged and all of that.”
“You went to see the doctor at ten at night for a private matter? I can see a cut above your eye and a smaller one on your lip. Is that why?” Ophelia asked.
“No. The cut above the eye happened earlier in the day when Tyler hit me, and I hit him back. The cut on the lip happened around nine last night, when Tyler was pissed Laura had moved on to the flannels, and he got snarky. He punched my mouth, and I tossed his ass outside. If he came back after I left, I’m unaware of that. ”
“How long were you at May’s?” Brock asked.
Ace thought back. “I was there for about half an hour, and then I left. That’s all.”
“And then?” Ophelia prodded.
“Then I went home. I didn’t see Laura after I left the bar,” Ace said.
Amka nodded slowly. “That’s true. Laura was still here after Ace left.”
Candy shifted anxiously beside them, wrapping her arms tight around herself.
Brock exhaled and handed back the phone. “All right. I’ll start canvassing, and I need to speak with people at the campground. She might’ve wandered off. If we don’t get good answers, we’ll have to start a search.”
Candy’s head jerked up. “Laura wouldn’t have wandered off.”
Ophelia shoved her phone back into her pocket. “Is there any chance she slept in your tent and left early?”
Candy shook her head. “Her sleeping bag wasn’t touched. My migraine meds do knock me out, and if she’d come back, I might not have heard her. But her sleeping bag wasn’t touched. Nothing was. She definitely did not come back to our tent last night.”
Ace’s stomach dropped. Alaska was a terrible place for a person to get lost.
Brock’s radio crackled at his hip. He lifted it. “Yeah. It’s Brock.”
“Sheriff.” Panic edged the entire word. “It’s David Laurence.”
Every muscle in Ace’s body locked.
“Hey, David,” Brock said quietly. “What’s going on?”
David’s breath panted out loudly over the radio. The guy was in charge of all road maintenance for the town, regardless of weather. “I was out walking my dog near Two Trout Creek, and I found a body.”
The tavern went completely silent.
Brock closed his eyes briefly and then reopened them. “Is it a young blonde woman?”
“Yes, Sheriff.” Another pause from David was punctuated by his ragged breathing. “And it doesn’t look good.”