Chapter 5 #2
Where was Kayla? Annie thought back to last night.
She’d last seen Kayla in the activity center around eleven.
Had she bunked up with her former bestie Heather?
Annie backtracked and knocked on the adjoining door.
Nothing. She eased it open far enough to see Heather alone and asleep, one arm flung over her eyes.
No sign of Kayla.
Annie eased the door shut, her mind racing. Kayla had been flirting heavily with Preston, but he was staying in Cabin 3 with several of the guys from the football team. If the two of them had wanted time alone, they wouldn’t have gone there.
Something was wrong.
The cut on Annie’s arm blazed with a phantom pain. She raced down the staircase.
Tate sat with a cup of coffee at the small table tucked in the corner of the kitchen.
Another mug waited near his elbow. He flashed her a smile when she entered.
“Hey, I poured you a cup too, although I wasn’t sure how you like it—” He must’ve registered her concern, but his smile fell. “What’s wrong?”
“Kayla’s not in her room, and it looks like her bed hasn’t been slept in.
” She explained her thought process, including how Kayla might have slept somewhere else.
“Her laptop bag and cell phone are upstairs, so at some point, she came back here from the activity center. Although there’s no way to know when that was.
It could’ve been any time after we spoke to her. ”
Annie hadn’t been paying much attention to Kayla’s comings and goings. She’d been more engrossed in chatting with Tate and catching up with old friends. “It could be nothing, but given the attack last night—”
“No, we need to assume it’s serious.” Tate rose. “You’re right that Preston and Kayla were flirting a lot last night. If they wanted some time alone, where could they have gone?”
“Maybe an unused cabin?”
“Do you keep them locked?”
“No. There’s no need, honestly. There’s nothing of value in them, and it can be a pain for the staff to hunt down the keys every time they need to make repairs.
” Some of Annie’s worry ebbed. “Maybe they wanted some alone time and fell asleep. I’m sure neither of them was eager to head out into the ice storm once it started. ”
“Probably so. Give me a sec.” Tate strode from the kitchen and came back moments later with a sheepskin jacket. “I’ll check out the cabins closest to the activity center.”
“I’ll go with you.” Annie moved toward the back door and shrugged on her heavy coat. She dug her gloves from the pockets and pulled them on before shoving her feet into a set of work boots. Snatching her scarf for good measure, she wrapped it around her neck and zipped her coat to her chin.
Tate watched with amusement. “Going to the Arctic?”
“It’s freezing out there. Not all of us like the cold.”
His chuckle followed her out into the yard. Ice sheathed the grass and painted the tree limbs white. Thick gray clouds promised more rain. The air was biting. Annie’s lungs burned with each inhale. She shivered as the wind ruffled her hair.
Unlike her, Tate wasn’t the least bit bothered by the weather as he walked beside her.
He didn’t even tuck his hands into his pockets.
His dad—a colonel in the Army—had been stationed all over the world.
Tate had spent large swaths of his childhood in Scandinavian countries and in the northern United States. This wasn’t cold to him.
He squinted up at the sky. “I checked the weather this morning. They’re expecting more rain, but the temperatures could rise, so we may not get any more ice.”
“Let’s hope that’s true. We don’t normally get this kind of weather here, and it can wreak havoc on the roads.
Some people refuse to shelter in place.” Annie’s boots crunched across the frozen grass.
She sucked in another breath. Movement, along with her layers, was keeping her warm enough that she could appreciate the pretty view.
“I have to admit, it’s nice though. Very Christmasy. ”
Tate nodded. “I remember one year we were living in Vermont, and the snow was up to here.” He held a hand over his head.
“My dad and I shoveled the walk, and then we went sledding with Jenna. Afterward, we had hot cocoa. My mom made a huge meal, and we watched A Christmas Carol together. It’s one of my favorite memories. ”
A tinge of sadness colored his voice. “It doesn’t get easier, does it? Grieving them.” She still had her mom, but losing her husband had given her an intimate understanding of the raw heartbreak that followed death.
“Easier? No, but it shifts. I can remember the happy times now without feeling crushed by them.” His breath fogged in the air between them. “And I’m grateful for that.”
Annie understood exactly what he meant. “I feel the same way about James.” She glanced at him and added, “My late husband. It took a lot of time and prayer to get there, but it’s healing to remember how much we loved each other.”
They were delving into the deeply personal, and if Annie was on a mission to keep things light-hearted with Tate, she wasn’t doing a good job. She pressed her lips together and said the first thing that popped into her mind, “Do you still play baseball?”
Ugh. What a ridiculous question. Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment. Annie may have changed a lot since high school, but she still had moments of social awkwardness. Apparently more so when she was desperately trying to ignore a budding closeness with an old crush.
He glanced at her, his brow crinkling at the sudden shift in conversation. “I played a bit in college after I got out of the Army, but not since then.” A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Still play the violin?”
She laughed. “No. And the masses are thankful.” Annie had hated the instrument and only stuck with it because the hobby looked good on her college applications.
She gestured to a cluster of cabins near the activity center.
“Some of the guests and staff are staying in those.” Annie turned onto a frozen path barely visible through towering pine trees.
A wooden sign pointed the way. “The other cabins—the empty ones—are down this way.”
She followed the path to a small clearing with four cabins.
The wooden structures were made to blend into the surrounding woods.
Each cabin held a living room and kitchen, along with four small bedrooms containing bunk beds.
Annie paused, pointing to the one at the end.
“Caleb Riggins is staying in Cabin 9. He specifically requested to be somewhere secluded. Why don’t you take Cabin 5?
” She waved at the cabin closest to them. “I’ll check Cabin 6.”
They went their separate ways. Annie knocked the ice from her boots on the front porch before opening the door. “Kayla? It’s Annie Jacobson. I’m coming inside.”
The cabin was dark and cold. She flipped on the light switch near the door, illuminating the small living area with its rustic furniture. Empty. Annie moved further inside, checking the kitchen before heading toward the hallway that led to the bedrooms. All clear.
She stepped back outside onto the porch, shivering as the cold hit her anew.
Tate hadn’t emerged from Cabin 5 yet. Her gaze scanned the surrounding area, the white of the ice leaching the color from the trees and bushes.
A flash of bright purple near a fallen log caught her attention. She headed for it.
The scrap of purple fluttered in the breeze. Annie was so focused on deciphering what it was that she missed a tree root and stumbled. She tipped forward, hands flying out to catch herself, and landed hard on the rotting log. Pain vibrated through her arms.
“Ow.” She pushed against the log to right herself. The purple item was next to her. It shimmered in the gray morning light.
Garland? It was caught in the bark. Annie twisted her head, following the tinsel, and a scream built inside her.
Kayla lay on the other side of the fallen log.
Her hair was splayed around her head, and her eyes stared vacantly at the sky.
A dark stain spread across the front of her designer jacket, and a slash of crimson traced her throat.
The gaudy purple garland was wrapped around her shoulders and draped along her midsection.
For one surreal moment, Annie couldn’t move. All of her law enforcement training failed her as her mind refused to accept what she already knew. Then reality crashed in. The unnatural stillness. The waxy pallor of Kayla’s skin. The ice crystals on her eyelashes and the blue tinge of her lips.
Her throat constricted as she scrambled backward. “Tate!” The name came out as a strangled whisper at first. Then she found her voice. “TATE!”