Chapter Eleven
Quiet Things
Rachel’s eyes locked with Ava’s. “You think he’s moved on to his next victim?”
Ava didn’t want to say the words aloud because she felt as if she were giving up on victim two. “I sure hope not.”
Shadow pressed against her leg, ears pricked forward, a reminder of what lay ahead.
His breath puffed white, his body trembling, not from fear, but anticipation.
Ava crouched and whispered, “Almost, buddy.”
Caleb returned. “All the teams are lined out on their search areas. All of them are wearing snowshoes. Grace will be with us.” He nodded to his teammate. “We’re ready when you are.”
Suddenly, Ava wasn’t so sure she was ready to face off with Wax again. Fear crept in, and she forced it back. She took her time putting on the snowshoes before straightening with her resolve firmly in place. “I’m ready. Let’s get started.”
Dawn cut a thin slice of light across the backbone of the ridgeline as Ava watched the team split up, each knowing their search areas and being led by a member of Ava’s Redeemed Unit.
A bitter cold mist rose from the frozen meadow like ghosts returning to their haunts.
Deep snowdrifts covered the land, hiding the breathtaking meadow that, in spring, would be ablaze with radiant colors.
“Deputies Vaughn and Archer, I need you here at the staging site. You’re our command post. We’ll be transmitting our findings back to you.”
“Copy that,” Deputy Vaughn spoke for him and his partner.
“Everyone, be on alert. I have a feeling he’s close. Watching.” She turned to Caleb. “We’ll head for the laurel grove. I believe it’s important.”
Caleb nodded while shouldering his pack.
Ava let all the K-9s sniff the cloth in preparation for their search. After the teams were in motion, she held the fabric under Shadow’s nose and gave the order to hunt.
The dog barely waited for the command to leave her lips before he was on the move guiding them through the deep snow. Caleb, a seasoned guide, found himself gasping for breath after the trek through snow almost up to their knees.
After they’d been at it for hours, Caleb halted the team. “Let’s take a second to get our breath back and get some water. That was deeper and harder than expected.”
“Agreed.” Ava pulled in several labored breaths before retrieving her water bottle. She’d packed Shadow’s dish and poured water into it before asking, “Which way from here?” It had been years since she’d used snowshoes in deep snow. She’d forgotten what a struggle it could be.
“Straight through there,” Caleb told her. “The laurel grove is about another mile or so out.”
Not exactly the news Ava wanted to hear, but she couldn’t lose sight of why they were here.
“It feels as if he’s shifted his MO a little this time.”
Caleb’s words pulled her out of her thoughts. “In what way?”
He closed his water bottle and replaced it in his pack. “Were there any older pieces of evidence found? When you reviewed the previous cases and the findings related to the victims, I don’t recall anything but wax and candles. Some vegetation.”
He watched her carefully.
“You’re right. There has been a shift from three years earlier. It’s almost as if he wants to reveal something from his past. And...I’m worried, Caleb.” She lowered her voice. “I’m worried there will be more than three victims this time.”
Caleb moved closer and touched her arm. “Hey, we’ll figure it out. You’ve got the best people possible on your side. He’s not getting away this time.”
Ava touched his cheek. “I sure hope you’re right. We should probably get moving. It’s going to be a long hike in and out.”
He swallowed several times. “You’re right. And we have a killer to catch.”
She smiled. “I want to believe it will be that easy.” She cleared her throat. “Alright everyone. Let’s keep moving.”
They started walking again. It felt like it was forever before they reached the site. Shadow stepped into the density of the grove that kept snow from piling too densely under the mountain laurels.
Caleb had been right. The walking became far more difficult, slowing them down tremendously.
Laurel branches laden with snow brushed against Ava’s sleeves, coating her in additional white powder.
Breathing sounds echoed around them as the team struggled to move through the heavy snow.
“I can’t get over the feeling we’re being watched,” Ava whispered to Caleb. “I’m not sure if it's real or just my imagination working overtime.”
“I feel the same way. Knowing that he was there watching at the first scene when I didn’t have any idea is just plain creepy.”
Even Shadow appeared to be struggling in the snowdrifts.
Despite the handicap, Shadow continued to cut a path ahead with full attention remaining on the hunt—proving at some point, Wax had been down this path.
Ava wondered if it was just a ploy to throw them off or if they would find another deadly clue before the second victim’s body was discovered.
She checked in with Harper’s team to see how they were faring.
“Koa’s following a scent,” Harper told her. “We’ve been heading into the woods now for about half an hour.”
Ava’s heart sank. She wondered if it was all another hoax. “Shadow is on scent, too. I’m sure Wax has done this to throw the dogs off. He’s enjoying himself.”
“You’re kidding? So now what? Do we keep going or regroup?”
Ava told her to keep going for the moment. “It’s possible he left clues behind. I’ll check in with our two remaining teams and let them know.
After speaking to Jace and Micah with the same results, she wondered if Wax had sent them on a wild goose chase. She shared her concerns with Caleb.
“To what end?” he asked. “So far, we haven’t run across a single clue.”
That much was true. But Ava believed they were out there. Wax was stepping up his game. Making his clues more challenging.
She thought about the chilling poem Wax had left for her.
You were the spared, Ava...
And Wax had never forgotten. The only question was why? She couldn’t understand the connection a killer had with her. Why all of a sudden was Wax reaching back into the past with clues that didn’t relate to the current victims at all? None of it made sense.
Shadow pulled more aggressively, picking up a distinct scent that appeared different from before.
Ava glanced around their surroundings uneasily. Was Wax watching them now? Enjoying the game or waiting for their reaction to his latest victim?
The wind shifted and Shadow stopped abruptly, halting the entire team. He inhaled several times before veering to the right.
“Show me, boy. Show me.” Her heart kicked out a frantic beat. From the exertion, sure. But more from the prospect of what lay at the end of Shadow’s hunt.
The dog tugged her harder toward a break in the brush and laurels. Several old fir trees appeared to be interlopers among the laurels, their branches spread out over the trail and needles littering the ground.
Suddenly, Shadow halted and held his position signaling a find. This was it.
Caleb knelt and brushed aside needles revealing a set of heavy boot prints. “Seems as if someone’s been here recently.” He studied the prints. “They’re deep, almost labored. As if he’s carrying a substantial load.”
“Like a body.” Ava’s gaze flickered to the prints. “Tag it. Let’s keep moving.” She and Shadow started forward while Larabee snapped into action. He planted an orange reflector while Shackleford photographed and cast a quick impression.
If Wax were going to display his latest victim out here, why would he pick such a distant location that would make it difficult for him to reach?
He was deliberately making the puzzles harder, testing her.
Shadow continued pulling Ava along while her brain went into overdrive.
She no longer knew what to believe. Caleb was right about the changing MO.
Before it was all about the victims and taunting her.
Now, in addition, he wanted to give her a history lesson.
Maybe he was trying to tell her how he’d become a monster.
She went over the details in her head. An old swath of flannel. An antique key and a locket with a photo that had her wondering if the woman in the locket was the one in the lake and somehow related to Ava. Now, he’d added a music box that played a song that was hauntingly too familiar to Ava.
“He has something,” Caleb said, grabbing Ava's attention right away. The dog sat with a bark, indicating he’d found another clue.
As Ava neared, she realized it was a candle. She breathed in the scent of vanilla and something else burning. With the odor still so strong, it indicated Wax had been here recently, proving they were on the right path.
“You smell that?” she asked Caleb.
He nodded. The paraffin scent seemed to bleed into the cold air.
But it was what was threaded beneath it that teased at the back of Ava’s throat. Smoke.
“Something’s burning.” Ava jerked around searching for a possible fire.
“There.” Caleb pointed to a small piece of wood that had been charred recently. “That’s not from any lightning strike.”
Shadow stopped at the edge of a small clearing ringed with fir trees. Ava raised her hand to halt the team.
The sight before her was every bit as gruesome as the ones from the past.