CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR #2
I wasn’t so sure about that. I also wasn’t sure what would break through when it came to Pete.
But he hadn’t been faced with true loss.
His caseload had mostly consisted of poachers, illegal grow sites for marijuana, and a couple of arson investigations.
He’d had one accidental death—a rock climber.
But he hadn’t been the one to notify the family.
Maybe time with this family would change things for Pete.
As I moved inside, I could feel the grief. The air was thick and stale with it. The lights were dim, whether from its residents just forgetting to turn some of them on or not being able to deal with the brightness, I wasn’t sure.
A woman and a man who appeared to be in their fifties sat on a couch with a delicate floral pattern. The woman gripped the man’s hand with such ferocity that her already pale skin was white around her knuckles. Another man, who looked to be in his late twenties, paced behind them.
The moment I stepped into the living room, his gaze cut to me. His green eyes blazed with anger. “Let me guess. You’re here to ask the most stupid-ass questions when you could be out there looking for my sister.”
“Dustin,” the woman warned, but her voice held no heat, only a tremor of emotion.
“This is Special Agent Archer and Special Agent Simpson,” Roger said, introducing us. “They work as investigators with the Forest Service. They will be coordinating their officers to aid in the search.”
I didn’t miss that he’d left out what case we thought this might be related to. That was smart. These people didn’t need that swirling in their heads.
“This is Cal and Sarah Ingram, Heidi’s parents. And her brother, Dustin,” Roger went on.
Dustin glared at us. “If you’re aiding in the search, why the hell aren’t you out there?”
I lowered myself onto one of the floral chairs opposite the couch. The back was unbearably straight, but I wanted to be on the parents’ level, not looming over them.
“I will be out there. But we need information from you to make sure we’re looking in the right places,” I assured them.
We’d followed the ATV tracks to a parking area a few miles away from the abduction site yesterday. It looked like whoever had taken Heidi had used the all-terrain vehicle to take her to a larger vehicle. Roger had pulled camera footage from the road, but the techs were still going through it.
Sarah gripped her husband’s hand even harder. “We’ll tell you anything you want to know.”
I nodded. “In these cases, the first thing we have to do is clear the last person to see the victim. So I have to ask: Were there any issues between Heidi and Garret?”
Cal’s jaw tightened, a muscle flickering there at the mention of Heidi’s boyfriend. “She never should’ve gotten involved with him. A goddamned hippie. Only works to pay for camping gear and gas to get to the national parks. Doesn’t save or plan. Life just passes him by.”
“Our Heidi is a hard worker. A nurse at the hospital,” Sarah explained. “They just didn’t seem like a match.”
Dustin scrubbed a hand over his face. “There was no tension between them. An occasional fight, sure, but he’d never hurt her. He’s a freaking vegan because he doesn’t want cows harmed in the milking process.”
I was pretty sure there were still vegan murderers out there, but I got what Dustin meant. And Garret hadn’t raised any flags for me as a likely culprit. His distress at the campsite had seemed genuine, and we had the ATV tracks.
“Was anyone else giving Heidi trouble or unwanted attention?” I asked.
Sarah shook her head. “No. Not that she told us.”
“Heidi would’ve told Mom,” Dustin said quietly. “They’re tight.”
I didn’t miss how they all spoke of Heidi in the present tense, their hope for her bleeding through.
“Please,” Sarah said, her voice breaking. “Find our daughter. She’s … she’s everything to us.”
She broke down then, sobbing into her husband’s shoulder as he held her, his own tears flowing silently down his cheeks.
My jaw clenched, teeth grinding reflexively. How many times had my own father put families through this? Living in the hell of unknowns until they got the worst possible news: that their daughter or sister or friend had been brutally killed, tortured by a monster.
Swallowing hard, my gaze swept over the Ingrams. “We’ll do whatever we can to find Heidi. I promise.”
I didn’t wait for a reply. They didn’t owe us one. I simply pushed to my feet and started for the door. The moment I stepped outside, I sucked in air. Fresh. The scent of pine clinging to it. No grief here, no choking staleness.
“We should tell them we think it’s connected to the Travis Moore case,” Pete complained, stepping out the door behind me as Roger followed.
My gaze cut to him. Apparently, grief and pain didn’t reach Pete, either. “For what purpose?” I demanded. “To torture them further? Did you see them in there? They’re falling apart. Their worst nightmares are coming true. And you want to add to that?”
Pete flushed. “I just thought they deserved the truth.”
“They do,” I ground out. “But that isn’t the truth. It’s conjecture.”
Pete snapped his mouth closed, his gaze dropping to the ground.
Roger cleared his throat as he rocked back on his heels. “Livie’s trying to fast-track the evidence, but you know how the crime lab is.”
“Understaffed and overworked,” I muttered.
“Understatement of the century,” Roger agreed. “She did find a fiber that didn’t look like it matched anything Heidi was wearing. Green. Not sure what that will get us unless it miraculously has DNA, but she’ll do her best.”
I nodded.
Roger was quiet for a moment, but I could tell he had something else to say. So I waited.
He cleared his throat again. “We need to talk to Nova again—”
“No.” The single word whipped out.
“We need to see if she remembers anything new,” Roger protested.
“No.” It was all I could say. I wasn’t putting her through that again.
“What if it saves this woman? Someone who could still be alive—just like Nova was,” Roger pressed.
I stared back at him. He knew the right buttons to push. “Fuck you,” I muttered, though without heat.
“You know we have to do it,” he said quietly. “It can be just you and me.”
“I’m working this case, too,” Pete spat.
If he thought he was getting within a mile of Nova, he was dead wrong. My gaze met his, and I knew he read the coldness in it when he took a step back.
“You will ask Nova nothing. You will not be present at any questioning. You will not go around me to do it on your own. You have shown zero empathy for victims and their families.”
Fire blazed in Pete’s eyes. “You seem pretty damn protective of her. You think Sherri needs to know about that?”
The muscle along my jaw fluttered wildly.
“You didn’t see her. You weren’t the one who found her, so close to death you could feel it in the goddamned air.
You weren’t the one who kept her alive. Who breathed for her when she couldn’t do it on her own.
So, yeah, I’m fuckin’ protective. Because she shouldn’t have to live through even one more ounce of pain in this life. ”
A hint of doubt flickered in Pete’s expression, and I thought I might’ve broken through, but then he doubled down. “Sounds like you’re a little too personally involved, Kol. Might be time for a reassignment.”
It took everything in me not to punch him. The only thing that held me back was the fact that doing it would get me suspended. But if they found out just how close I’d gotten to Nova? They’d fire me for sure.