Chapter Twenty
Blood and Betrayal
Shadow woofed before the welcoming sight of headlights appeared over the nearby ridge.
“Good boy, Shadow. Let’s go get her.” Never were two Arctic Cats more of a welcome sight than they were right now.
The first one pulled up next to Caleb and the dog.
Rhett opened the door. Shadow barely waited for the door to open before leaping inside.
Novak and Harper got into the back next to Jace and Brynn Adler, another member of Caleb’s search and rescue team. Caleb slipped in front with Shadow whose body was coiled tight, ready for the search to bring Ava home.
“We have the coordinates,” Rhett told him as he put the machine into drive and used the GPS screen to guide him.
“The rest of the team is with our search and rescue members, Beck Holt and Grace Shaw. We have a couple of Redeemed agents in the rear Cat too, along with their dogs. Hopefully, the choppers and the rest of our backup will be able to lift off soon.”
Caleb watched the GPS and there was no doubt. They were heading straight for Black Veil Peak. “I don’t get it. There’s no way inside that mountain.”
“Not that I’m aware of,” Rhett told him. “I guess we’re about to find out.”
Please, don’t let us be too late. Caleb sat back in his seat and tried to relax. They’d need all the firepower they could get. Lack of sleep and the physical exertion they’d gone through weighed down his thought processes.
The Cat’s tracks moved across the deep snow effortlessly. The enclosed cab and heater kept them comfortable. Yet all Caleb could think about was the fact that Ava’s worst nightmare was coming true. He couldn’t lose her. Not to this monster.
Novak’s phone rang and he seemed surprised.
“Can’t believe we’ve still got service.” He answered the call and listened.
“You’re kidding. Yes, it’s coming in now.
” More silence followed and then. “That’s good to hear.
We’ll see you soon.” Novak ended the call.
Caleb looked back at him and knew something big had been revealed.
“We have a name for Wax. It’s Harlan Lockfield.”
The name sounded so normal.
“He owns the mine.” Caleb figured it out.
“Yep. We had to dig through numerous shell corporations before we found it. Lockfield’s mother abandoned the family when he was a kid.
His father disappeared thirty years ago.
Lockfield had him declared dead and claimed the mine as well as all the money for himself.
There was an aunt, his father’s sister, still living but she appeared to vanish as well. ”
“Or he killed her and his father,” Caleb said.
Novak nodded. “Maybe.”
“Maybe his father and aunt are his first victims.” Caleb tried to recall details of the statues. There’d been an older man but no woman around the same age.
“We’re closing in on the mountain. I’m seeing tracks.” Rhett leaned forward and pointed through the filtering snow falling in the headlights.
“He has an ATV, too,” Caleb concluded.
“Probably.” Rhett kept his full attention straight ahead.
“Good news is the weather has cleared enough for the choppers to get airborne,” Novak told them. “They’re ten minutes out.”
Relief flooded Caleb’s exhausted body. Please stay alive for me. I can’t lose you...
They’d come so close to sharing their feelings. He didn’t need to hear the words to know she loved him still just as he did her.
And he wasn’t about to let Wax take away both their chances at happiness because of some sick game.
◆◆◆
“I don’t want to hear your lies,” Ava hissed. But she did. She had to know why so many had died. Why he’d targeted her.
“Yes, you do. Because you’ve always known this moment would come despite the lies they’ve told you.”
She couldn’t answer. Ava sat transfixed while he held back the information, wanting her to beg.
When she didn’t, his expression turned dark and he paced the room, his attention occasionally landing on Rachel and then the vat of wax he’d prepared.
“Your mother. She was such a liar. She told me she loved me and that we’d be together forever. We had a ceremony. I married us.”
The gold wedding bands. If she were going to die here, Ava had to know the meaning of his clues. “How did you meet her?”
Wax’s smile softened. “While hiking. We both loved the woods.”
Was that why he left his victims in the woods?
“We were hiking up near Hunter’s Lodge when we met. We had so much in common. I invited her to Hidden Lake for a picnic. Even though it was cold, she agreed to join me.”
Two more pieces of the puzzle fell into place. “What was her name?” If she could keep Wax talking, she believed her people would locate them.
Please, God.
“Hannah,” he said with another whimsical smile. “I brought her here. We were happy together.”
Ava’s stomach turned. Wax had kidnapped her mother.
“We played chess. Oh, she was an excellent chess player. I gave her the music box and the chest with a key that fit it—the locket. I even put in a photo of her inside. She told me she was happy.”
Hannah would have told him anything to stay alive. But something had happened. She had to know what. “When was I born?”
His smile slipped. “Nine months after we became one. And after I showed her my passion. She told me she wanted to join me...” He frowned. “But of course, she lied.”
Ava couldn’t let him get off topic. “What about the swath of flannel, the gold in the vial? The backpack strap. Were they hers?”
His eerie smile returned. “Hannah’s? Of course, they weren’t hers.
They belonged to the first three victims I brought here.
” He pointed to three of the human statues.
“She told me she wanted to be part of it, but I could see the way she looked at me. She was disgusted.” He shook his head.
“I knew then, she wasn’t the person I thought she was. ”
But something happened. How else would Ava have been placed for adoption? “Did she take me and leave?”
He glared at her. “Yes, Hailey, she did.”
“Hailey, was that my name?” Keep him talking. Her frantic gaze went to Rachel who was visibly shaking.
“Yes.” The smile returned. “I wanted to call you Hannah after your mother, but she said that would be too confusing. So, we named you Hailey so that we could all have the same initials.”
HL.
“Then, I had to go away for a few days.” Ava could tell there was more to the story he didn’t want to tell.
“When I came back, Hannah had escaped with you. I searched for you both. She’d given you to her sister and her husband who claimed to be your parents.
I tracked her down first at the old mine where she was hiding out. ”
The glass fragments they’d found in the shack. The sagging wooden bench that held an old miner’s helmet, an old window frame missing its glass, and a sheet of newspaper stiff and covered in wax. He’d left those clues because of where he’d found Hannah.
“What about the newspaper?” Ava knew in time her team would discover its importance, but she wanted to keep him talking.
“It mentioned Hannah’s disappearance. A photo of her was given to the paper by her sister. I showed it to her before I made her pay. But I’m glad you got to meet your real mother after all this time. You pulled her from the lake.”
Ava’s stomach turned.
“Don’t listen to him, Ava. He’s a liar,” Rachel yelled.
Wax whirled around. “Shut up!”
Rachel jerked back as if he’d struck her.
Wax’s shoulders lifted and then slowly relaxed before he turned back to Ava. The smug smile was back in place on his face, but there was something else that scared her. A faint resemblance...to her.
“Why the blue cloth?” Her mind whirled over the evidence they’d found. Each had its significance.
“Taken from the dress I gave Hannah. After you were born, I presented her with the baby bracelet. She left everything—all my special gifts behind.”
She had to know the truth of what happened to the people she believed had abandoned her. “What about Hannah’s sister and husband?”
“I found them, but the impostors had given you up before I located them. They changed your name, so I had no idea where you were. No matter how hard I tried to make them talk, they wouldn’t give you up.”
“So, you killed them. You killed all of them.”
And this monster standing in front of Ava now was her father.