The Secret Cabin

Copyright © 2025 by Elle Gray

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

Sheriff Eve Wicker

By the lights of the Christmas tree, Eve was bent over a pile of case files and papers. The red and green bulbs with an occasional flash of gold dimly lit the lists of names and portraits of drug smugglers, human traffickers, and wanted felons. It was that time of night and year: post-dinner, too full, no knowledge of what day it was or how much time had passed since Eve and Roman had arrived just outside of Hurricane, West Virginia.

The Marek Ranch had accepted Eve with open arms. There was no snow. It was very different from Christmas in Colorado, but Eve was thankful to be here. She was thankful to be with Roman’s family in person and to have the time and space to think and to read.

Roman and his mother whispered in the next room, giggling over tea with Bailey’s. Through the massive window behind her, Eve could see Jules outside, playing with his niece, trying to show her how to feed the cows. Natalie watched them from the fence with a smile on her face and her husband’s arm wrapped around her. Arthur approached them on his horse, and Jules passed the little girl to his brother. Arthur took her in his arms and rounded the field with a soft gallop. Violet cried out with a giggle that lit up the faces of all the Mareks watching.

Heavy boots climbed up the stairs. A door opened. Martin stood in the entrance to the living room. He stared at Eve. This was Roman’s eldest brother. He was the head of the household and the farm since the death of Mr. Marek, and Eve had never been so intimidated by a man, not even Assistant Director Jamison. Martin was everything Roman was but to an extreme. More aggressive, yet with an underlying stoicism and calm. A presence that the family looked to for guidance and strength, especially their mother, who, because of her age, had struggled with cooking Christmas dinner. Eve had done her best to help, but Martin had backed her off with one look and a quick, deft carve of the massive turkey.

“You never stop, do you?” Martin said.

“I’ll stop if you do,” Eve replied.

“Never.”

Eve grinned and Martin flashed her a smile.

At the sound of his brother’s voice, Roman entered the living room with two coffee mugs in hand. He placed one next to Eve and gave her a kiss on the head.

“Fix that pipe?” Roman asked Martin and passed him his mug.

“Think so,” he replied. “I replaced it with PVC. Should do the trick. At least for now.”

“This place is old. Needs maintenance.”

“Yeah. We’re old too.”

“How true…” Mrs. Marek said, coming in from the kitchen. She was tall and portly with dark hair that was always piled up in a bun so it was hard to tell how long it was. Her face was worn by sunshine and hardship, but she wore it all with strength. To Eve, she was one of the most beautiful women she had ever seen, with dark eyes that seemed to catch every movement and light.

“A few more grandchildren would help with that,” she added with a chuckle and sat down on the couch.

“How about that, Martin?” Roman quipped.

“Wife first,” he muttered.

“One step at a time…” Roman said. “How’s that progress?”

Mrs. Marek laughed. “He’d have to leave the ranch to meet a girl.”

“And leave you to your devices, Mom?” Martin shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

“I’m just as capable as you,” she countered. “Who do you think taught you all this? This place wouldn’t last a day without me…”

She waved a hand around the room.

“I know,” Martin cleared his throat. “It’s just too busy all the time.”

“You’ll always be too busy,” Roman said. “That won’t change—”

“I know!”

The room went quiet. Martin was clearly tired of this conversation.

“It’s good to have an understanding of yourself before meeting someone,” Eve said diplomatically, standing up and brushing off her pants.

“Eve here is very busy too, Martin…” Mrs. Marek continued. “And look at her. She’s found time for love.”

“Not really by choice…” Eve murmured and Roman flashed her the same smile Martin had given her. One thing most of the Mareks had in common was their smile. It seemed to all come from their mother: a dashing, slightly crooked grin.

“That’s the best kind,” Roman replied.

Martin shifted in his boots.

“Any progress?” Roman asked Eve.

“I’ve called every gas station from Chesapeake Valley to Santa Fe.”

“For Georgia, you mean?”

“Just for something… Someone must have seen her. I can’t believe that she went by so undetected. I haven’t been able to crack any kind of lead on this…”

“It happens all the time,” Martin said.

Eve looked at him and said, “Not like this. This was targeted and strategic.”

“And all of this is… Georgia?” Roman gestured to the papers.

Eve bent down to close the files. “It has to do with her too.”

She didn’t need to unpack the Vine and Elijah Stern in front of Roman’s family. They had already piled on the questions at dinner, and Eve had had to skirt around some topics to keep them surface-level appraised. She didn’t need to mention that she was actively trying to memorize every single person and face who had ever been affiliated with Stern and his trafficking business. There were limitations on the case files she had access to, and unless she joined back in on the federal level, it was going to continue to be that way.

“And what about her brother? Keith, was it?” Mrs. Marek asked.

“Ken,” Roman corrected.

“That’s right. Kenneth. He was so helpful around here. Such a nice boy. How’s he holding up?”

“He’s…” Roman looked at Eve. “He’s managing.”

Mrs. Marek sighed. “We all know death is not an easy thing.”

Several solemn nods went around the room.

Eve got one sip of her coffee and Bailey’s when her phone buzzed in her pocket. The number on the screen was Jamison’s, and despite Roman’s disgruntled glance, she couldn’t miss it.

“Sorry,” Eve said as she started to head outside. She grabbed her coat from the front door because it was just above freezing with a wicked wind.

Natalie smiled and waved at her as she came out, and Eve gave her a friendly wave in return. The only daughter of the whole bunch, Natalie had a cropped brown bob and that signature Marek smile with a dash of teeth whitening. She had really made Eve feel comfortable here. Though Eve had struggled to get a wink of sleep the first night anyway. This was the first time she had actually spent Christmas with a significant other, and it was all unfamiliar and a bit jarring.

Eve walked out across the back deck that spread out into a wide yard of muted grass. Towering sycamore trees were scattered across the yard, but they were all bare and brown. A path to the left met up with a golden ground that made up the pen. It was separated by several wooden fences that made alleyways for cows, horses, and the occasional donkey.

Violet and Arthur were off on the other side of the stables and barn; Natalie’s husband, Jonathan, pried for a look, and his shoulders dropped back down when Natalie came up behind him and Violet let out another scream of delight as Arthur veered her around a watering barrel.

“Chesapeake Valley Sheriff’s Office,” Eve said into the phone.

“Merry Christmas,” Jamison replied.

“You too, Jamison. How’s it going?”

“Wish I was calling with better news…” she heard a tinkle of glassware in the background, like he was at home with his family too.

“What is it?” Eve asked.

“You alone?”

“As alone as I can be.”

“Of course you remember Emily Silva…”

Eve’s heart sank to her stomach. The woman who had tried to murder the Hawthorne family simply for existing was not someone Eve could ever forget. In the fall, Emily had nearly driven Eve crazy with her circumvention.

“Of course,” Eve said. “Hit me with it, Jamison. I can handle it.”

He started, “I know… I know. It’s just… I was surprised to hear this. She’s accusing you of tampering with evidence. She’s hired a lawyer. They want a trial. They want to go to a jury.”

“What? We have a confession. We have fingerprints.”

“I know. Where did you get those fingerprints from?”

“Well…” Eve knew she would never be able to pull off a lie, and it wasn’t the right thing to do. “Well, yeah, I… I got them from a coffee mug. But Chen? He’s head of CSI at Colorado Springs.

“I know who he is.”

Eve said, “We found other records of her prints from her arrests back in Utah. So those…”

“Where did you get the mug from?”

“The clinic.”

“You took it? Without a warrant?”

“It was Doctor Blanchard’s mug. It’s not like it belonged to her to begin with…”

“Sheriff. That’s illegal.”

“I know!” Eve pulled away from the window. “I know. I know it is.”

She could feel eyes on her.

“Why, Sheriff?” Jamison sighed.

“I knew it was her, Jamison. I already knew. I just needed the confirmation. I needed a match to that knife that she stabbed into Amy Lesterfield seventeen times—”

“That’s enough.”

They both went quiet. Eve stepped off the deck and onto the cold grass. Roman and Martin watched her from the window and she tried to step out of their gaze and behind one of the sycamores. One of the farm cats was curled up at its base and peered at Eve with one green eye.

“Sorry…” Eve muttered to the cat.

“You should’ve told me,” Jamison said. “You should’ve told me right away. There’s a reason this case got kicked up to state level, and now the whole damn house of cards might fall apart because of you.”

“I did what I thought was necessary. It was enough to get the confession—”

“I can’t be in your corner if you don’t let me in the house,” he snapped.

“Right. I’m sorry. I should’ve told you.”

“You could get charged, Sheriff.”

“I know.”

“You could lose your job.”

“You really think it could be that serious?” Eve asked. “I can’t lose Chesapeake. It’s everything to me.”

“Then don’t be so careless with it!”

Fury flared up in Eve, but she tamped it down before she said something she would later regret. “Understood,” she finally said.

“You may get called to testify. Be ready.”

“I will.”

“Don’t tell anyone about this. Not a soul. Understood?”

“Yes,” Eve nodded. She pressed her forehead against the tree trunk. The cat got up to rub against her pant leg.

Jamison hung up the phone, and Eve slowly slid hers back into her pocket.

The cat meowed from her boots, and Eve bent down to give her a scritch under the chin.

“That’s Cupcake,” Jules said. He had a rope slung over one arm, a ten-gallon hat on, and a heavy-looking suede jacket.

Eve gave a soft smile as she gave the cat another scratch. “She’s so nice.”

“You all good?” he asked.

“Oh yeah…” Eve gestured to her pocket. “Work stuff.”

“No days off…” he grinned as he adjusted the rope against his shoulder.

“There’s no lack of work ethic on this ranch,” Eve laughed.

“It’s all hands on deck here.”

“I’m sure you can’t wait for the winter to be over,” she said.

“No. I’m actually gonna appreciate it. Going to start basic training in the spring, so I gotta.”

“Oh? You enlisted?”

Jules nodded. Cupcake ventured over to his ankles and weaved between his legs.

“I did,” he said. “It seemed to help Roman sort his shit out and with all that Diana stuff last year, I think it’ll be good to get away for a little while. What do you think? Bad idea?”

Eve was surprised he was asking her for her opinion but the look on his face was genuine and curious.

“I think it’s a great idea,” she replied. “I think you’ll learn a lot. Go into it with an open mind and just see how it goes.”

He smiled. Cupcake hopped up his pant leg and the smile dropped into pain.

“Ouch! Jesus, Cupcake. That’s my skin!”

“Cupcake…” a deep voice said from behind them. Roman scooped an arm around Eve’s waist and looked down at her. “You okay?”

Jules averted his eyes and peeled Cupcake’s claws out of his pants so he could plop her on top of the rope on his shoulder. He moved her up his shoulder again and tilted his hat at Eve before turning away.

“Eve?” Roman nudged.

Jules’ bootfalls crunched back towards the barn, and Cupcake let out another meow.

“Yes… Yeah,” she said. “That was Jamison.”

She paused. Eve wasn’t processing this well. She had made some type of closure with Emily already, and now she was going to be dragged back into it, up to her neck. Her head on the chopping block.

“I don’t know what to do, Roman.”

The brisk wind and distant voices closed in around them. Roman turned to face her, shutting out the field and leaving only the sounds.

“It’s going to be fine… I promise you.”

“You don’t know.”

Their voices whispered and rushed.

“I do know, Eve. I know you.”

“You can’t know! He said I could lose my job.”

“He said that?”

Eve nodded.

“I—” Roman thought and then took his hands to her shoulders, her neck, the side of her face. “I know it’s going to be okay.”

That was all she would get. But Eve didn’t ask for a pep talk, and she didn’t need one. She didn’t need an inspirational monologue to get her going. She just needed him here and he was. Trying. He gave her a squeeze, and Eve managed a smile for him and then got up on her toes to give him a kiss. He hugged her tightly, lifting her off her feet, not letting any space between them. Eve’s chest swelled. Her hands collapsed around his face, pulling his lips onto hers. She could feel every muscle in his arms, tight and flexed with no sense of exhaustion, like he could hold her up for hours.

Somebody whistled. Roman dropped Eve to the ground with one arm like she was made of glass.

Natalie yelled, “Get a room!”

“Please don’t!” Jonathan yelled, and Natalie nudged him with a scoff.

Ignoring them, Roman gave Eve another peck before unwrapping himself.

“I’m sorry…” he said softly.

“It’s okay. Let’s just… Let’s just enjoy this while we can, okay?”

“I’ve got no problems with that…” He had his arms wrapped back around her in seconds.

Eve laughed a little and said, “Merry Christmas, Roman.”

Roman grinned and replied, “And to a happy new year, Sheriff.”

Sheriff Eve Wicker

Eve sat in an office chair opposite a wood desk piled with papers and a couple of laptops. Jamison was standing by the window, listening to her unwind the entire story of Emily Silva and the mug, all the way, again, from start to finish. They were both exhausted by the time she was done, and Eve had eaten two of the donuts from the Wicker’s Bakery box that she had brought for the office of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation down in Monument. Jamison had had a bite of one and then put it down on a napkin on the windowsill. He sighed, clapped cinnamon sugar off his hands, crossed his arms, and turned to face Eve.

“That’s everything?”

Eve nodded.

“It being Dominique’s mug is important. It’s a very important factor here. Who’s to say that you didn’t just mix up the mug with one of your own? You and this doctor are friends, you said, right?”

“Well, yes. But…” Eve swallowed. “I’m not going to lie. Especially not in a courthouse.”

“You don’t have to lie, per se. I’m not suggesting it. It depends on the questions they ask. Just keep to your truth. Minimal details,” he stated. But it did very well sound like he was suggesting that she should lie if she was called to the stand.

“I hate this,” Eve said.

“Unfortunately, it’s part of this job. Didn’t you do this at the NSA?”

“I testified in a couple of cases. But those were facts. Easy. Data reading. Emails.”

“Well, think about it like that. You’re just reading them the facts of what happened that day.”

“I think that’s something to deal with if I get called up,” she replied

“If this goes to trial, you are for certain getting called up, Sheriff,” he replied flatly. “You were the lead investigator. You’ll be in the thick of it. Wrapped up for months. Our only chance is that the prosecutors gave her some kind of plea deal… I think Franklin would. I know him. He can be quite enticing.”

Eve deflated into herself. Peeking at the box, she counted how many donuts were left.

“Looks like some weather coming…” Jamison muttered as he looked back over his shoulder, and Eve went for the last apple cider. “Let’s get this hearing over with. Once we have some answers, we’ll… have some answers.”

“The burden of proof,” Eve said, laughed pitifully, and took a huge bite of the donut.

Emily Silva sat in a bright orange jumpsuit with her eyes looking down at the handcuffs in her lap. Her hair was pulled back into a tight bun, but she had loose hairs everywhere as if it were once maybe very tight and done up with product but hadn’t been touched since. The lawyer at her table was a woman in a cream-colored skirt suit and perfectly dyed blonde hair.

“Judge Lavilla presiding,” the bailiff called. A tan woman with dark hair and eyes came into the courthouse and sat down in a balloon of black sleeves.

“Be seated,” she said, looking out at the crowd that the Silva case had drawn. Several of the Hawthornes were in attendance: Daniel, Stacey, and Mary and Silas’ eldest son Rich. Judge Lavilla continued, “The most I’ve seen today. This is a case that’s affected many, so let’s get into this right away. Ms. Silva, you’re charged today with murder in the second degree in the death of Amy Lesterfield—”

Eve turned to Jamison and hissed, “Second degree?!”

He put a finger to his lips and shook his head.

“How do you plea?” the judge asked.

Emily didn’t look up from her hands, even as she stood from her chair.

“Guilty, your honor,” she squeaked out.

Lavilla banged her gavel. “It’s settled. Take her out. Sentencing will be at a later date.”

“Wait!” Stacey called out but the judge was already on her way out, and the bailiffs were gathering around Emily, taking her out of the room.

“This is bullshit!” Daniel yelled.

An older man with untamed eyebrows and a fake tan came up to Jamison in the aisle and shook his hand.

“Jack,” he grinned. “Good to see you.”

“I suppose this is your doing, Franklin?” Jamison grumbled.

“Good deal for everyone involved,” Franklin replied. “She’ll only get a few years this way.”

“What about the victim’s family?” Eve whipped over her shoulder, rising out of her chair to meet his eye.

Franklin laughed a bit, looking her up and down. “Who are you supposed to be, cowgirl?”

“Sheriff,” she snapped. “Sheriff Eve Wicker.”

“Oh. Oh. Of course. Of course that’s you,” he chuckled, looking over his shoulder. “Listen, I’ve got to run. But let’s grab dinner soon, Jack. I’d love to pick your brain about something actually. Lovely to meet you, Sheriff Wicker. I hear you’re doing great things out there…”

“I’m sure you read all about it in this case.”

“Oh. I know everything there is to know about the evidence in this case…”

They locked eyes. Eve narrowed her gaze; what was that supposed to mean? How could he have known how she acquired the mug? Had Jamison told him? Clearly, they knew each other. There were very few people she could trust right now. She thought Jamison was one of them. But maybe, she was just being paranoid. And maybe, she had the right to be.

“I’m sure we’ll see each other again,” Franklin leaned in to her, squeezed her arm, and turned back to his team, flipping through his cell phone with one hand mid-conversation.

“This is a good thing, Eve,” Jamison said after a moment. “You realize that, right?”Eve peered over at Daniel who was holding a tearful Stacey in his chest. She said, “It doesn’t feel like it.”

As she surveyed those remaining, her eyes caught a bald man, seated in the back of one of the rows, texting furiously on his phone. Something about him instantly gave her a bad vibe, worse than Franklin. As if he felt her eyes on him, he looked up and caught her gaze. He narrowed his small eyes to make them like pinholes, glaring right at her.

“You got lucky,” Jamison said, guiding Eve out of the courtroom.

“I know…” she grumbled, throwing one last look over her shoulder at the bald man. Jamison hadn’t seemed to notice him, but Eve had made a significant note.

“Now, get back to town before this weather hits,” Jamison demanded. “You did good, Wicker. Don’t forget that. No use wallowing in this, okay? Shake it off. You’ll be okay.”

Jamison’s words were surprisingly useful, and she repeated them to herself on the way back to Chesapeake Valley. Shaking it off was easier said than done, but it did sound like they could actually put this mug to rest now. Emily hadn’t fought what she had done. The bargain must have been pretty good. Either that or she had seen the error of her ways, but Eve didn’t recall much remorse from their conversations. Emily was a murderer and would go to prison for what she did. Martha Hawthorne would be much harder to prove, and sounded like it was never going to get its day in the light of the courthouse. Maybe that was the bargain. Take the plea and wipe Martha Hawthorne clean from your slate. Make two murders into one. Franklin seemed wily enough to pull off something like that, and the evidence for Martha’s murder wasn’t strong. Though Eve knew Emily had something to do with Martha’s death. Those coincidences were still too strong and familial.

The snow started as she made her way through Gleneagle. It melted as soon as it hit the road, but the wind was picking up and blowing it across the asphalt in spiraling white waves. She thought of something that her mom used to say. Snow was a precious thing because of how temporary it was. Mom said that life was like snowfall: beautiful to look at, hard and painful to truly experience, and easy to melt.

Emily Silva would melt away. Just like the other cases Eve had solved eventually would. So she appreciated getting to go to the courthouse today despite that icky feeling in her stomach at the results. She was grateful to have Jamison by her side and to see the Hawthornes; even though they had been so much strife, they were still standing. Eve had found the chance to sneak a hug with both Daniel and Stacey before leaving, and that had given her great comfort. They weren’t angry at her. In fact, they were incredibly grateful and happy to see her. Her worries with that case started to wipe away like the snow across the road. It had already made way for her energy to go back to focusing on Georgia Turnbull, Elijah Stern, and her mother. This case being dealt with cleared up her mind and focus for taking down the Vine. But based on their track records—Jim Benson showing up at Mac and Orla’s court case and Cleveland Cohen at Georgia Turnbull’s funeral—it really seemed like they were going to find her first.

Carter Stratus

“Here. Here it is,” Derek said, pointing across Carter’s face so he couldn’t see what he was doing.

“Okay! Yes. I see it. Get your finger out of my nose!”

“Whoop,” Derek laughed. “Look at it! It’s just like it was. Seriously, exactly like it was.”

“No. No. Look. New roof…” Carter pulled into a parking spot outside the Red Rock Inn. He swiped through his phone, bringing up the photo of Carter, Derek, and their father outside the inn taken twenty-five years earlier with their hiking gear on and huge grins. Carter was fourteen in the photo with a mouth full of braces, and Derek was twelve, wearing a backwards hat, sticking his tongue out and one finger out of his fly. Their dad had the biggest smile of them all on his face, laughing at something or nothing. He was the type of guy that would just laugh for the sake of it. Maybe because he knew it always made them feel better.

“Tin roof!” Derek exclaimed. He slapped the dash. “We’re moving up in the world.”

“Dad would be proud…” Carter smiled.

Derek grabbed his brother by the shoulder and shook him a bit. “That’s what we’re here for. Exactly for that.” He pointed to the vintage photo that Carter had scanned in and copied onto his phone for the funeral slideshow the previous summer. “He would be so happy that we’re finally doing this. I really think he would.”

“I think he would too,” Carter nodded. “Now do you think we’re in the presidential suite? Or the penthouse?”

“If it’s got a bed, I don’t give a fuck. We’ve got to be up at the buttcrack of dawn tomorrow if we want to do this.”

“Beat the storm…”

“Just like we did then.”

“Hell yeah.”

The brothers shared another grin in Carter’s truck before lugging their bags in through check-in and to a modest room with two queen beds. Carter unpacked a bit while Derek laid out on the bed. Derek always wore a hat, even when lying on the bed, tucking his eyes beneath the brim but laughing every so often at a commercial. They had both had a hard time with dad’s death, but it had hit Derek particularly hard. Getting him out here was an accomplishment. Getting him out here sober was a real feat. He seemed cheery enough for now, but as soon as they stepped foot into the Red Rock bar and lounge, an immediate irritation came over him. It radiated off of him like heat on a pitch-black highway.

“Coke?” Carter asked Derek as he slid up to the bar. There was a portly man behind the bar with a dirty apron and a ginger beard.

“Only if it’s in powder form…” Derek muttered. “I’ll have a Jack on ice.”

Carter sighed. The feat was broken, but his brother had actually lasted longer than he thought; no flasks in his jacket this time. Not that he knew about.

“Me too, please,” Carter added.

“On it,” the bartender said. “You boys want some food?”

“Yeah. We’re starving,” Carter said.

“Long drive? Where you coming from?”

“South Dakota.”

“Really? Where abouts? I’ve got family near Rapid City.”

“Oh. That’s us too!”

“This job always is teaching me how small the world is. Know any of the Dills?”

“Sure, I do. Jordan Dill? He works for my friend’s practice.”

“Practice? Lawyer?”

“Attempting…” Carter laughed.

“Attempting very hard,” Derek noted and the bartender chuckled.

“I’m Michael Dill,” he shook their hands. “Most folks around here just call me ‘Dill’.”

“Must not have many of your kind down here then…” Carter said.

“No. No,” Dill coughed. “I came here with my wife many years ago. She died almost twenty years back now. My folks tried to get me to move back but… I’m unfortunately in love with this place.”

“I don’t blame you. It’s gorgeous.”

Carter gestured to the window. The rocky foothills framed beyond the highway.

“It is,” Dill said. “Jordan’s my cousin’s kid. He’s a good kid. Didn’t know he was doing legal stuff now. But that’s good to know. Got somebody to call when another disgruntled Karen tries to sue me.”

“That happen a lot?” Derek asked.

“One time too many,” Dill grunted. “Slivers in her ass from the driftwood booths.”

Carter laughed. “No way.”

Dill nodded and passed them both their drinks.

“It’s unfortunately the truth,” he continued. “I would’a told her to stick it but she already had.”

His laugh boomed out over the bar and Derek joined in. For a second, it sounded a bit like Dad, and Carter’s eyes suddenly stung with tears. He turned away to wipe them away as fast as they’d come. If Derek saw him like that, he wouldn’t let him live it down on the big day tomorrow. He had cried in front of Benjamin before he left on Charlotte’s doorstep, and he already felt disappointed in himself for that. He definitely wasn’t one of those macho guys that couldn’t cry and saw it as weakness, but since Dad’s death, after the divorce, he had a harder time keeping it together. Benjamin’s brown eyes had just blinked up at him though, and he had held up a plastic ambulance with a siren sound, offering it to him for help.

Down the bar, a very drunk man with greasy brown hair also joined in on the laugh, even though he was not part of the joke. Derek turned his shoulder to block in their conversation.

Another man with black hair and blue eyes was staring at them from across the bar, on the opposite corner. He also looked a few drinks deep. Chesapeake Valley seemed to have two things: drunks and mountains. It was exactly as Carter remembered.

Carter got a hamburger steak and Derek got a burger and fries. They scarfed them down along with a few more drinks. Derek’s cheeks were plum red when he slammed down a glass full of ice.

“Dill!” he called.

“Easy,” Carter warned.

“I’m just calling him… He knows,” Derek laughed him off. “He knows I’m empty!”

Derek lifted his glass and wiggled it, ice tinkling.

“Don’t be a dick, Derek,” Carter murmured.

“I’m being so polite!”

Derek leaned back in his stool. He had dropped ketchup onto his shirt and Jack on his collar.

“Another round, boys?” Dill asked. Thankfully, he ignored Derek’s dickheadishness.

“Just one more,” Carter said.

“What?” Derek protested.

“One more. We’ve got to be up so early, man.”

“Early for what?” Dill asked.

“We’re going up the mountain,” Carter said.

The man with the black hair across the bar guffawed and laughed.

“Up the mountain?” Dill also scoffed. “In this?”

He gestured with an empty glass to the snow and wind building outside the window.

“We have to,” Carter explained. “It’s a bit of a story…”

“It’s not. We’re dropping off our dad’s ashes.”

“Oh…” Dill looked between them. “Oh. Well, I’m sorry. But you fellas know what you’re doing?”

Derek yelled, “Of course.”

“Could’ve fooled me,” the man across the bar muttered.

“You got something to say?” Derek called.

“Derek…” Carter got up from his stool right away, anticipating the heat. But that had the opposite effect that he wanted. His movement seemed to cause both men to leap into action and to their feet.

“Here we go!” somebody yelled across the bar. Somebody else clapped several times.

Carter looked at Dill, and he gave an innocent shrug. With the way people at the Red Rock were reacting, this seemed like a regular occurrence. And Carter was so amused by the reactions that he couldn’t stop Derek from flying past him, heading straight for the black-haired man.

“Don’t do it, A.J.!” Dill called. “If you’re gonna do it, take it outside.”

But the man with the black hair grabbed Derek by the neck and shoved his back against the front door, pushing and stumbling them out into the parking lot. Carter followed behind them. They were already a mess of flying fists, and a stream of blood flew out from A.J.’s nose as Derek clocked him across the face.

“Derek!” Carter yelled but his brother continued to ignore him.

“Fuck you!” A.J. screamed in his face, getting in a hit underneath Derek’s jaw, sending him staggering back into the snow and gravel beneath his boots. The wind howled all around them. Swirls of white surrounded them, illuminated as a dusty ivory tornado by the Red Rock’s dim lights. If Carter hadn’t been standing so close, he would’ve lost them in the flurry.

A.J. was smaller than Derek but scrappy, and clearly a guy who had been in a few bar fights. He was on top of Derek in seconds and when he went again for his brother’s neck, Carter ripped him off by the scruff of his jacket and threw him across the parking lot.

The sound of his head slamming against somebody’s car door was puke-worthy. He went quiet then. Dazed. Drunk. Feeling regret, maybe. Remorse, definitely not.

Derek propped himself up on his elbows, reeling from the walloping. There was no clear winner here. To Carter, just two, three losers, in a Chesapeake Valley parking lot in the middle of a blizzard.

“You don’t know me, man,” Derek snapped across the weather.

A.J. said nothing so Carter went over to help him to his feet. “You good?”

A.J. muttered, “Tell your brother to keep his damn mouth shut. It’s gonna get him in trouble!”

“Unfortunately, he loves trouble,” Carter laughed.

Rubbing the back of his head, A.J. said, “Well, guess he’s in the right town for it.”

“Let me buy you a drink,” Carter said.

“No… No. I’ve had enough,” he replied. Carter wasn’t going to insist, and almost as soon as he turned his back, A.J. disappeared into the wintry darkness, behind the inn and into town.

“Whose side are you on here, man?” Derek snapped.

“I’m trying to make sure we don’t get sued.”

“Fuck that. Anybody who sues me is an idiot. I don’t have anything.”

“They can garnish your wages…”

“Whatever.”

“I think it’s time for bed. You’re still okay for tomorrow, right?”

“What? Of course! This is why we’re here, bro!” He made a sweeping gesture towards the foothills that they couldn’t see. “We’re here for this!”

His voice died in the oncoming storm, even though he tried to scream it out.

“Come on…” Carter took his brother under his arm and led him back to their room. He put Derek into bed, and he started his drunk snoring almost instantly. Carter stayed up in bed, staring at the stained ceiling, thinking. He thought about Derek. He thought about how deep he was down the rabbit hole of his alcoholism, and if there was a chance to get back the brother he had known ten years ago. The one who had supported him through law school and seen him through his marriage and divorce. He thought about Benjamin and the little plastic ambulance. The fake siren echoed in his ears.

He thought about the hike the next day and how much they were going to struggle. They had struggled when they were teenagers. It was hard to say how things were going to go in these conditions. Not only of the mountains and the weather, but of their bodies. Carter was lucky to go to the gym without tearing a muscle nowadays. They were unprepared. He knew that. But mentally, emotionally, they were ready and needed this.

He thought of their father. He thought of the rock that had held together the Stratus family. When he had collapsed at the backyard barbeque last summer, Carter had never thought it was the end. No one had expected that Richard wouldn’t wake back up. Mom had taken it hard, but Derek had taken it harder. Dad had been helping him sober up for years, showing patience and positivity beyond what Carter had ever been capable of. So with his death, Derek had taken that as an excuse and a reason to go full-throttle back into Jack Daniels. It was the worst that Carter had seen him. This hike, this storm, was important. This would provide his brother with a chance and with closure. They would make it. Yes, it would be challenging, but these were the foothills, not even the mountain mountains. Carter found sleep with that thought. He was comforted by the idea that the foothills were only a portion of what the Rockies were capable of, and that he and his brother only needed a portion of their strength to accomplish what they set out to do.

Sheriff Eve Wicker

Against the sheriff’s station windows, the wind tried to push and prod through the silver casing. Eve was hunched over her laptop, scrolling through CCTV footage, moving the mouse back and forth, scanning every bit of the timeline. The only light in the office was the white glow from her computer screen. She finished the video and dragged what she had just watched to a different folder. Then, she opened the next one.

Eve had been doing this for weeks: scouring through the CCTV footage that every gas station had been willing to send, or who had at least been willing to be talked into sharing, between Chesapeake Valley and Santa Fe. Still nothing. No signs of Georgia.

It was becoming a problem. She recognized that. But there was a storm raging outside, Sharon would be here to relieve her soon, and it was an efficient way to spend her time. It did make her think about her mother. It did make her think about all those nights spent on the couch waiting for her to come home when it was bad weather like this. But she didn’t usually make it back. Dad got the call or, later on, a text, letting them know that she wasn’t going to make it back again, and that they should start the bedtime stuff without her. Dad tucked her in at night. Dad read her stories. But Mom had still, somehow, ended up being her hero.

Eve shook her head at herself and then laid it down on the keyboard.

The holidays always brought out emotion. She was glad they were over.

A door slammed shut in the video, surprising her and bringing her attention back to the screen. And there he was. Everything broke open all at once. It was Jim Benson.

Eve froze the video. She took a breath, triple-checked that it was him, and then pressed play again.

Jim slammed an open palm on the glass of the backseat window. Georgia was in the back. Eve could see her red hair flailing. She was screaming about something. It was hard to tell from the angle because she was looking at them from behind. It allowed a clear view of the license plate, but only caught Georgia’s back, shoulders, and hair. She struggled against something as soon as Jim was out of view. She was trying to get out of something. Binds. Zip-ties, maybe.

She looked around. It was late at night. The gas station video was over-exposed from the stark overhead lighting. No one was around.

Eve watched Georgia’s head roll forward and her shoulders shake. She thought she was crying, but she couldn’t be sure. Jim Benson returned a few minutes later with a couple of snacks and a coffee. After he sat in the driver’s seat, he threw a bag of Combos at Georgia, and she flinched. Eve did too. He said something through the seats that seemed menacing and terrifying. Then, they took off into the night and toward Georgia’s fate, the brake lights lighting up the screen until it was just nothing but pavement again.

Eve paused the video. She took it in. This was the first sighting. Nobody had caught this and nobody had called this in. She quickly grabbed a notepad and started furiously writing. Black Chevrolet Suburban SUV. She wrote down the date, the location, and the time: June 17th, 2023, Maxwell, New Mexico, at 4:04am. She found the gas station’s address and information and called them immediately. She wrote down the license plate, D5A 1YG, as the phone rang. They didn’t answer, and she left them a message with her information. She tried to remember if they had been accommodating the first time she’d called, but it had been a while since then. She flipped through her notebook.

The door to the station opened.

Eve snapped her head up, shocked.

“Whoa. Sorry,” Sharon said in the darkness. Snow shook off of her hood and more piled to the ground as she pulled it off. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”

Eve couldn’t find words.

“You okay?”

Eve nodded.

“You find something?”

Eve nodded again.

Sharon’s face broke into a smile, and she dropped her bag on one of the lobby chairs so she could skid over next to Eve at the laptop.

“What is it? Is it her?”

“It’s her,” Eve said.

She went back to the video file and started from when the Suburban pulled up.

Eve watched it even more intently this time, looking for details and clues, nuances and subtleties. Sharon’s mouth fell open when Jim Benson exited the SUV.

“Oh my god. That’s Cohen’s guy,” she said.

“Yup. Benson.”

“When is this?”

“June,” Eve pointed to the green text at the bottom of the text. “It’s the day after we were in the mines at 4 a.m. I really don’t think it’s a coincidence. They knew we were down there.”

“Right. They knew we were distracted.”

“That we’re understaffed…” Eve muttered.

“But sounds like we’re getting more money? More staff maybe?”

“Maybe,” Eve nodded.

She sighed as, on the screen, Georgia broke down into tears again. It would be hard to watch this over and over again, but she knew right away that she would have to. All that time spent doing this suddenly felt worth it even if it looked crazy to the outside. It was worth it. Georgia was haunting her. Eve needed to find her justice. She had promised that girl freedom, and she had been snatched from her town, right under her nose, when Eve had a duty to protect her. She should have pushed harder for her witness protection. These processes were often wrapped in bureaucratic red tape. She should have bothered Jamison more to do something.

“I’ll bring it up with Leslie,” Eve said. “I’m sure we can work it into the improvements that she promised. That part time guy they sent from Colorado Springs when we first started was absolutely useless.”

“Oh. Peter?”

“Right. He was never even here!”

“He loved your dad’s bakery,” Sharon laughed. “He was there all the time.”

“More than here,” Eve said.

“Absolutely.”

They both smiled.

“This is good, Eve,” Sharon said. “It’s great. But now what?”

“We’ll run the plates. See who owns the car.”

Sharon nodded. “I’ll do that. You call the local PD.”

They high fived, and Sharon smacked Eve’s ass with no warning. She cackled and Eve shook her head as she sat back down at the desk and accessed the database for the police department numbers.

She left a message with an officer to pass on the information they’d found to the sheriff of Colfax County, New Mexico. An image of that sheriff crossed her mind, and she wondered if they were also burning the midnight oil at a tiny desk in the midst of a blustering snowstorm. Likely not. They didn’t get snow like that down there, and not many had work ethic like they did in Chesapeake Valley.

“Okay… that car is registered to a Mr. Sully Richardson,” Sharon noted the information on a sticky pad, ripped it, and passed it to Eve. “Address is in Tucson.”

“Think Sully Richardson works for Stern?” Eve mused.

“Hard to say. No record’s coming up.”

“Could be a stolen vehicle. Any reports?”

“Nothing. Maybe he borrowed it?”

“I can see how Jim Benson might be able to convince someone…” Eve shook her head. “He’s intimidating. Strong. Definitely not just Cohen’s lap dog. At least, not anymore.”

“Maybe he got sick and tired of that? No sign of Cohen in there?”

“Nothing. All Benson.”

“So where’s Cohen?”

“Last we saw him was at Georgia’s funeral…”

“Well, allegedly—”

“I saw him,” Eve insisted.

“You saw his car,” Sharon corrected. “Did you actually see his face?”

Eve faltered. “No. But… I know it was him.”

Jamison had told her to trust her gut, and on that, Eve really had to because she had nothing else to go on but a familiar-looking sedan. She saw the doubt cross Sharon’s face, but it dissipated back to professionalism when the station’s radio crackled and beeped.

“Chesapeake Valley.” Sharon picked it up right away.

“Sharon,” Ranger Hackett’s voice crackled through the radio. “Eve there?”

“Listening,” Eve leaned in and spoke into the piece.

“We have a situation,” Hackett started. “Hikers went out this morning. I’ve been monitoring. They’re not back yet and they should have returned… over three hours ago.”

“Who is it?” Eve asked.

“Visitors from out of town. Brothers,” Hackett replied. “You should come take a look.”

“On my way.”

Eve clicked off the walkie and gave Sharon a pat on the shoulder.

“Hold down the fort?”Eve went for her jacket. “Can you try getting that Sully Richardson guy on the phone? See what’s going on there.”

“You got it, Sheriff.”

Sharon scratched notes onto another sticky.

“Think we’re gonna need Search and Rescue?” Sharon asked.

They both looked out to the storm. Night had fallen faster with the cloud cover and walls of white rippling through the air. Eve could just make out the edge of a silver boulder as she let her gaze follow up the foothills, up the mountains, up to where Roman’s cabin would be, up to what would be a completely foolish hike in these conditions.

Eve sighed and said, “This doesn’t look good.”

“Who goes out for a hike in a blizzard?!” Sharon exclaimed.

“They must have had a reason…” Eve pulled on her hat, mitts, and her good boots. “There’s always a reason.”

“Probably not a good one.”

“Where do you think they were headed?”

“If they went past the ranger station, there’s really only two things up farther from there,” Sharon replied. “Roman’s cabin and Devil’s Bridge.”

Carter Stratus

Night and dawn had blended together. From the inn’s window, Carter watched the sky go from black, to gray, to a red-pink sunrise, and then collapse back into white. No sleep was had with Derek’s drunk snoring and the thoughts running through his mind. Still, they got up. They put their equipment on. They grabbed Dad and two coffees before heading across the highway to the Chesapeake Valley Foothills Parking Lot. They left the truck at the inn. The parking lot wasn’t a far walk, and Carter convinced Derek it would be a good warmup for the trek they were about to take. But it wasn’t so much a warmup as a cold reminder of what they were about to face.

“Oh my god.” Derek keeled over at the edge of the trail and the parking lot. “I’m already tired.”

“I thought you said you’d been hitting the gym?” Carter yelled over the wind.

“On a treadmill! They don’t have a friggin’ wind machine.” Derek said, “And I’m hungover as hell.”

“Yeah well, who’s to blame for that?”

“Shut up,” Derek snapped.

They both grinned.

They set up the phone against a wooden post with a sign that said “Ranger Station - 1 mile.” Holding Dad in his silver urn between them, they recreated the photo from when they were teenagers. Derek even copied his pose and stuck his tongue out and his finger out of his snow pants. For accuracy.

“Okay?” Carter chuckled at the photo. “That’s too good. Mom is gonna love it.”

“Send it to her. Send it to Benny too. I bet he’ll get a kick out of it.”

“The service is non-existent here. When we get back tonight.”

“Up and down. Easy.” Derek adjusted his pack, looking up the mountainside. “It’s what? Five miles?”

“Four and a half miles up. Four and a half miles down. It’s going to take us all day in this. You warm enough?”

“I got underwear over my underwear. I’ll be okay.”

“Good. Keep your feet dry.”

“I got it, bro. Let’s do this!”

They set out on the trail. It became difficult almost immediately. Not only because of the blustering, growing wind, but because of the thickness of the snow which was piling in and around their boots. Still, they moved forward. They were on a mission. Dad deserved this. Rain or shine. Blizzard or no blizzard. They were doing this, and Carter led the way with his neck wrapped in fleece and his nose burning with snot.

About forty minutes in, they could see the ranger station a short distance away down another snow-covered trail.

“That took us forty-five minutes to go a mile…” Carter said. “That’s not good.”

“We’re gonna make it back before dark?” Derek gazed up at the gray sky. Somewhere underneath the clouds, the sun had to be there.

“We gotta pick up the pace.”

“Isn’t there a cabin up there?”

“I think closer to the bridge there’s a run-down shelter or something.”

“So that’s our refuge if we need it?”

“Let’s not even think about that…” Carter shook his head. “We gotta get back tonight, man. We’re not sleeping out here in this.”

“Should we leave something behind? So they know we went up or something?”

“I… That’s a good idea.”

Carter shouldered his pack off his back and started digging. He pulled out an extra pair of black mini mitts that he’d brought to go under the tactical ski gloves he had on now. He yanked the mitt onto the branch of a pine tree, making it look as if the tree was a tour guide, greeting them with a friendly wave.

“I don’t know if that’s gonna stay,” Derek noted. “Tie it around.”

Carter plucked the mitt off and affixed it to the branch, using the fingers as ties.

“Better?”

“Maybe?”

They both stared at the flapping mitt. The wind threatened to yank it back off as soon as they turned their backs. This was their chance to turn back. They could get back to the inn and have a warm coffee in hand in an hour if they went back now. They had clearly underestimated the storm and the hike. Carter knew it was foolish to go the rest of the way, but he could also see that look on his brother’s face. They were not going down without a fight. Dad would not allow it.

The next mile was actually a bit easier than the first. It wasn’t quite as heavy with snow because of the tree cover. Eventually, they reached a collection of trails. Some continued onward and upward. Others went back down and two went towards a pristine A-frame cabin to their right.

“Can you imagine—” Derek said between heavy breaths, “—living in a place like that?”

“I don’t know if I’d want to be that far away from people. Also how do they get down? They have to hike in and out every time? No, thank you.”

“You’d be in great shape.”

Derek barked out a laugh. “Not worth it…”

They continued on the path they were on. Up. Straight up. The third mile was the most difficult hike Carter had ever done in his life. The wind tried to push them back down. The snow piled so high that it breached the top of his boots and collapsed in and around his socks. In front of them, it was completely white. Carter could barely see whether they were about to run into a tree until they were right at its roots. Once they had momentum, it was difficult to stop. He didn’t even check the time, but he knew that it took them way longer than anticipated, longer than an hour. And the day was becoming afternoon, if not evening. They had started later than they wanted to because of the previous night’s escapades. Nothing was boding well for them, and the only motivation Carter had left was the urn, plunking against his back with every step.

“We should…” Carter stopped, trying to see ahead, but it was just a wall of white wind. “We should go back!”

“What?!” Derek yelled back.

“We have to go back!”

“No way! We’re almost there!”

“Do we even know that?! This is getting too dangerous.”

Derek said something right into the blizzard.

“What?!”

“What would Dad say?!” Derek screamed.

Carter thought. He should have anticipated his brother playing this card. Even though Carter had definitely heard him the second time, he wished he hadn’t heard it.

“What would Dad say?!” Derek yelled for a third time.

“I heard you!” Carter shook his head. “He would understand!”

“He would say when the goings get tough…”

“The tough get going! I know!” Carter tried to catch his brother’s eyes. That and the bridge of his nose were all he could see on his face.

“Aren’t you tough?” Derek lightly punched him on the arm, causing them both to sink into the snow.

Carter wanted to turn them both around and push Derek down the mountain. But he also very much wanted to finish this. This was everything they had been looking forward to for weeks and months. This was what they had promised to do at Dad’s funeral. He had promised Ben he was going to get to the top. There were no take-backs and no giving up.

“Okay! It can’t be far!” Carter yelled back.

“Can’t be!” Derek agreed.

So they continued.

The storm only got worse as the day turned to dusk. It had to be one of the most brutal blizzards that Chesapeake Valley had seen in years. Carter didn’t remember this hike being challenging at all when they were kids. But it had been fall then, and he had been so much younger and more able.

“That’s it!” Derek suddenly yelled out, making Carter jump.

His brother was pointing towards a sharp edge in the mountainside that they could just make out in the dying light. Its edges formed what looked like an upturned nose, and two more boulders jutted out from the top of the mountain, like horns on a giant silver face. The horn boulders were precarious, as if they had been strategically placed there and were about to fall down into darkness at any moment. But those boulders had been there for at least twenty-five years. The nose and horns overlooked a thin bridge of snow and ice. And as they approached the edge, underneath the bridge, it was a straight drop down. All that distance they had just climbed gathered into a vertical drop that plummeted back down to the valley. This was Devil’s Bridge.

“I don’t remember it being this scary…” Carter said, overlooking the face in the stone and the death drop that was only a step away.

“I remember…” Derek replied. “You just walked right across it when we were kids. I was friggin’ impressed because I was terrified. One slip and you’re dead.”

“Well, we won’t slip,” Carter said. “We’re almost there.”

“And look!” Derek called. “A place to hole up because, sorry, bro, we ain’t making it back in this.”

Carter followed Derek’s gesture to a structure on the other side of the bridge. It was hard to make out the details with the blizzard, but it looked to be a window: a small cabin or another ranger station. And, Carter couldn’t determine if it was suspicious or comforting or both, but a light was on.

At the edge of the bridge, Derek paused and turned over his shoulder.

“Should we do it?” he asked.

Carter shook his head. “No. We gotta cross first. Just like the first time.”

“Right…” Derek gazed ahead. “Right, of course. Just one icy bridge of death and then Dad’ll be proud.”

Carter chuckled. “You want me to go first?”

“No… No. I think I should go ‘cause then you can catch me if I slip.”

“You’re not going to slip. You got the best boots this side of the Rockies. Just go slow. People have been crossing this place for years. Maybe even centuries.”

“Yeah. It certainly looks like it…”

Derek stepped out on Devil’s Bridge, testing it with a light stomp. With the wind and the snow, the bridge was quiet and still, but the open edges of ice on either side were intimidating.

“This is for Dad,” Derek said, sounding like more to himself than anyone as he took the first couple of hesitant steps.

Carter went in behind him, staying close in case Derek actually did slip. Not that he would really be able to do anything. If Derek fell and he tried to catch him, they were both going down. His heart was in his ears, and despite the surrounding cold, his entire body was covered in a film of sweat.

Halfway in, Derek looked down and teetered.

“Just keep going…” Carter yelled. “Not much left.”

“Good God,” Derek breathed.

Each step felt more solid than the last. Carter could feel the packed trail of footprints under the fresh layer of snow. This bridge was still used. Sparingly, he was sure, but it seemed more than he anticipated. That solid foundation of all those who had come before them, including Dad, pushed them all the way to the other side, where Derek collapsed onto his knees with relief, panting. His breath created white clouds.

Carter patted his back.

“You did it. Maybe even faster than when we were kids.”

“Definitely—” Derek struggled. “—Not.”

He pulled himself closer to the edge and said, “Now should we do this?”

“What do you think?” Carter took off his pack and dropped it in the snow. “Does this… feel right?”

“It’s so dark now… I don’t think we’re even gonna be able to see him scatter into the colors of the wind or whatever.”

“So… should we wait?”

“For what?”

They both stared out over the edge. Night had descended on them within minutes. Though some light had remained from the other side, it seemed darker over here. More covered by trees. More untraveled or more avoided. In their silence but under the wind, however, there were voices. It was a heated conversation coming from the cabin now only a hundred feet from where they’d collapsed.

“What the hell are people doing up here?” Derek hissed.

“I don’t know…” Carter picked up his pack and slung it back over his shoulder.

Derek got to his feet and clapped his gloves. “Let’s go check it out. If we’re going to be waiting for tomorrow anyway, we should see if we can rent a bed?”

“Think you can find this place on Airbnb?”

They both chuckled as they trudged closer to the building. It was bigger upon approach, with multiple small windows along the log sides, like a bunkhouse at a summer camp. Above the door was an emergency light that was either turned off or burnt out. Closer up, Carter also recognized the smell of extra-stinky cigarettes.

“Oh shit…” Derek whispered. “They got smokes? Answer to my prayers.”

“Just… don’t…”

Derek was already ahead of him headed straight through the door.

Through one of the windows, Carter got a glimpse of the back of a bald head and a man whose face he couldn’t see, but he could tell it was a man from the jeans and boots he had up on a desk. The bald man was yelling about something, and as soon as Derek hammered on the door, they both went quiet. The boots fell off the desk, and Carter watched a cigarette get stamped into an ashtray. And then he noticed something else: a handgun.

The hairs stood up on the back of his neck, and something deep in his stomach was screaming at him to run, to get away from this place as fast as Devil’s Bridge would allow.

“Derek!” Carter hissed.

Derek knocked again. “Hello?! Just a couple of hikers! Wondering if we can get out of this cold here?!”

“Derek!” Carter called again, moving to grab his brother, losing his view of what was going on inside.

“We’re saved, man.”

Derek grinned at him.

The door opened with a creak, and the light spilled out into the snowy evening until the bald man stepped up, blocking it out. He squared himself in the doorway. He was huge and wide but not very tall. His eyes were light though Carter couldn’t make out their color in the dimness. And in his hands, held across his hips, was an axe.

Sheriff Eve Wicker

Ranger Hackett met Eve at her station. She was geared up with her hood pulled over a beanie and neck cover all the way up to her eyes. She pulled it down as Eve made her way through the snow and wind.

“You made it,” Hackett said.

“Barely. I gotta say, this has to be the worst day of the year for a hike.”

“Yeah. Just a casual January blizzard…” Hackett agreed.

“So what’s the deal?”

Eve tried to gauge any trails in the snow, but they had all been wiped away by the storm.

“I saw two guys going up early this morning. I thought it was weird… you know because of this mountain blizzard we’re having. So I started timing. Even if they were going all the way to Devil’s Bridge, they should have been back by now.”

“Anywhere else they could have gone?”

“There’s a decommissioned miners’ cabin up there. During the rush, miners went up to the caves that way and usually stayed over with their equipment instead of trudging back down.”

“The caves are past this bridge?”

“Yup. All the way through the mountains. And I’ll tell you, Devil’s Bridge isn’t for the faint of heart. If these guys were going to tackle it, they had to know a little bit about what they were doing.”

“Maybe they’re holing up in this cabin then,” Eve stated.

“That’s the only thing that makes sense to me…” Hackett replied. Though they both knew the other unspoken explanation: somebody was hurt or dead.

“They’re not friends of Roman’s?” Hackett asked. “It’s on the way up. I thought maybe they could have been going up there too.”

“I doubt it,” Eve said. “Roman doesn’t really do friends…”

Aside from Ken and his siblings, Eve hadn’t seen Roman make an effort to form bonds of friendship. He had mentioned a few people he had served with on occasion but none of them lived anywhere close to his sanctuary in the foothills.

“Let’s check there first,” Eve continued.

“We should take the ATV… if that’s okay with you.”

“Yes, of course.”

“Right. Cool. We should. It’s way better than on foot when the snow is like this. The ranger one is kinda old and it’s only a single-person, but… I can put you across my lap?”

Eve laughed. “I’m sure we can make it work.”

Hackett looked down. “No Pearl?”

“I was a bit nervous to bring her out in this.”

“I’m nervous to be out in this too…”

They piled on to Hackett’s ATV with Eve wrapped around her back. It couldn’t have been newer than the eighties with the way the paint was chipped and the way the engine clicked and sputtered. She assumed a black cloud of exhaust followed behind them, but Eve couldn’t take her eyes off the trail to look. Hackett had a pair of ski goggles that, hopefully, were allowing her to see better than Eve could, because it was scary-low visibility already.

Hackett slowed as she veered up and onto the trail, pointing at something.

“You see that?” she yelled.

“No!”

Eve clicked the flashlight off her waist and shone it towards Hackett’s gesture. She hopped off the back of the ATV to get a better look, immediately sinking a foot into the snow.

“Stay there,” Eve said. “I got it.”

As she got closer and the light narrowed, she saw a gray glove tied around a pine tree. It was flapping in the wind, but the knot had held it affixed. Eve whipped it off and held it in her palm, approaching Hackett at the ATV.

“Recognize it?” Eve asked.

Hackett shook her head. “Don’t think so. Not one of mine. But I’m almost certain that wasn’t there this morning.”

“How do you know?”

“Did my rounds, Sheriff,” Hackett’s eyes crinkled into a smile. “Like you told me to.”

“Like your job tells you to,” Eve corrected.

“Right. Yes. That’s what I meant.”

“So… maybe they put it there?” Eve asked.

“Or someone else did?”

“Who else? Isn’t that all who went up today?”

“All that I saw. Like I said, I’ve been keeping track. I’m doing way better than I used to! I just… you know. I’m still human, and I could have missed someone. There are also the back trails that Roman uses. Those ones don’t go past the station at all.”

“I’m not accusing you of anything, Hackett,” Eve explained as she pocketed the glove and climbed back onto the ATV.

“Remember those good old days? When you were accusing me of negligence and murder?”

“Good old Travis Wate!”

Eve wasn’t convinced that Hackett had heard her or had been able to see her lips for reading. Not that what she said particularly needed to be heard, but she certainly didn’t want Hackett to be scared of her.

Hackett yanked them up the mountain, giving the old ATV everything she could. Despite her nervousness, Hackett was an adept driver. She anticipated the trails and the nature around every corner, even avoiding a sudden snowfall off a branch with a deft turn until they broached the perimeter of Roman’s A-frame cabin.

The light was on, and they could see clear through the windows to where Roman was laid out on the floor with his shirt off, adjusting a leg of the couch. The sound of the archaic ATV put him into a push up position and then to his feet. He squinted out the windows to try and make out what was going on outside.

Karu came flying out the door first, almost taking Hackett to the ground in an excited bound of paws and tongues. Eve gave him a rough pat behind the ears.

“Well, howdy,” Roman said with a grin from the doorway. The muscles on his shoulders were backlit by the living room lamp and fire he had going. “What brings you ladies here at this hour?”

“Any visitors today?” Eve asked.

Roman raised an eyebrow. “Just you.”

“Been here all day?”

“Yeah. I was doing some work around here. Did you notice that my couch is half an inch lower on one side?”

“Uh… no,” Eve said.

Hackett snickered.

“Ranger.”

Roman nodded at her and Hackett returned it.

“What’s this all about?” he asked. “Don’t make me pry, Sheriff.”

“Some hikers who haven’t come back. They went out this morning. See anything?”

“When?”

Eve looked at Hackett.

“Around 10, 10:30 this morning,” she explained.

“Yeah…” Roman wiped his hands on his jeans. “Yeah. I think I do remember seeing some hikers today.”

“Really?” Hackett exclaimed.

“You guys want to come in for tea? Coffee?” he offered.

“No,” Eve said. “Sorry. Yes, of course we do, but we gotta keep looking for these guys.”

“In this?” Roman gestured to the blizzard. “It’s dangerous out here right now.”

“Exactly why we have to find them,” Eve replied.

They looked at each other, and he gave her a smirk.

“Just give me a minute and I’ll get my stuff,” he said.

“No. No… I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Eve replied. “I don’t want to put more people at risk here, especially you.”

“Aww…” Hackett sighed.

“But…” Eve smiled. “Maybe I could borrow your ATV?”

“Absolutely.”

He grabbed the keys off a hook and passed them over.

“Thanks.”

They stared at each other, and Eve wanted to kiss him and climb all over him, get out of this blizzard and wrap herself in him by the fire. But she was very aware of Hackett’s eyes on them, staring like she was expecting them to do exactly what Eve was imagining.

“You sure you don’t want me to come along? It’s dark out there,” Roman said. “Think they were headed up to Devil’s Bridge?”

“If they went past here, I think that had to be where they were heading,” Hackett replied.

“You stay here. Maybe I’ll see you after,” Eve said.

“Take Karu at least… He’s got a great sense of direction up here. He can keep up with the ATVs.”

Karu weaved between Eve and Hackett and looked up at them with a dark stare akin to his owner. Eve bent down to meet him and pulled out the glove they’d found on the tree. Karu give it several short sniffs and then took off into the darkness.

“Karu! Jää Eve juurde!”

The words came out harsh under the wind, but Eve was certain she’d made out her name so likely it was a command to protect her.

“What do these guys look like that went by?” Eve asked as Roman grabbed his jacket and slung it over his shoulders.

They trudged towards the shed. Karu led the way.

“They looked like they were prepared,” Roman replied. “They had good gear. I couldn’t make out their faces. They were split up though. I don’t think it was as early as you say. Maybe a bit later.”

“What do you mean they were split up?”

Roman opened the shed door in one swift movement.

“One guy went by early on. He didn’t look as prepared. Definitely in a hurry. Maybe trying to beat the weather. Maybe like twenty minutes later I saw two more guys.”

“Wait, what?” Eve asked. “So three hikers?”

“Yeah,” Roman replied.

Hackett said, “I only saw two.”

“You didn’t catch this first straggler?” Eve questioned.

Hackett shook her head.

“He could have come up from Roman’s trails,” Hackett explained. “Instead of going past the ranger station.”

“Right…” Eve said. “Especially if he didn’t want to be seen.”

“Well, it wouldn’t be hard to miss him in this anyway…” Hackett started and then followed up. “Why would he be sneaking up?”

“I don’t know,” Eve replied. “Maybe he wasn’t.”

With two musters of strength, Roman yanked the ATV out of the shed and set it up in the snow. Karu did a few circles around, ready for a run and a ride, no qualms about the storm.

Eve tried to catch Roman’s eyes in the night. “You remember anything else about what they looked like?”

“Hard to make out. The first guy was wearing sunglasses and a beanie. Big combat boots. They looked military grade.”

“Strange,” Eve noted, and they all nodded.

Then, there was a crack off the mountainside. At first, Eve thought it was a snow slide, like a piece of the foothills had broken off, but the sound was more familiar than that.

“Gunshot.”

She hopped onto the ATV.

“We gotta go,” Eve said. “I’ll be in touch, Bear. Be careful. Keep an eye out if you can.”

“Oh. I’ll be watching,” he gripped the handlebars with one hand. “You be careful.”

Hackett hurried to the ranger ATV and brought the engine to life.

“We will.”

Roman leaned forward and kissed her lips, bringing a finger under her chin to make sure it planted firmly. Eve broke the embrace by starting the ATV with her free hand. It made Roman jump a little and he grinned against her lips, threatening her with a playful bite and then pulling away.

“Karu! Lähe!”

Eve shouted, “Here we go!”

Sheriff Eve Wicker

The two beams of light from the ATVs illuminated Karu’s path in the snow. The German Shepherd had his snout in the snow, tracking something that they couldn’t see. Eve shouted out to him on occasion if he got too far, but he ignored her, following his own direction that seemed all related to the glove they had let him sniff. The wind and snow cut against Eve’s face. Her eyes were burning as they climbed a steeper stretch, the ATVs whining and struggling in the snow but plowing their way through. Karu let out a chorus of barks as the ground flattened out again. If there was anyone up here that was trying not to be caught or trying to avoid them, it wouldn’t have been hard. They were a cacophony of engines and barking.

Hackett yelled, “That’s it!”

“Devil’s Bridge?” Eve asked.

Hackett nodded and Karu barked.

She switched off the engine and slipped off Roman’s ATV. She knew of Devil’s Bridge through a few different means: she had climbed it as a teenager with her parents but that had been summertime, and it wasn’t crossable during the summer because of how narrow the stone was. It needed the ice and snow to make it wide enough for most people, at least those that were concerned for their lives, to cross. In the spring, when Duncan Springer and Diana Greer’s bodies had been found on the mountainside, it had crossed her mind that up here would have been a good spot for a murderer to hide. But Travis Wate hadn’t been found up here. That’s not to say that that young man couldn’t have been up here at some point, maybe even taking refuge at the cabin on the other side.

“What did you say that cabin was for? Miners?” Eve approached Hackett who was using the headlight on the ATV to light up the devilish face in the rocks, overseeing the crevice below.

“Yup. Think so,” she replied. “It’s been there forever. It’s pretty rundown. Not maintained. When I started, they told me it was out of my jurisdiction and not to worry about it. I don’t usually come up this far.”

“I don’t blame you. It’s a brutal trek,” Eve said.

“That last stretch is the worst… those guys are psycho for coming out here in this.”

Hackett switched off her engine, and an eerie silence fell over them. No more barking. No more ATVs. No more gunshots. Just them and the wind.

“Are we…” Hackett paused. “Are we going over?”

“I think we should.”

“How about tomorrow morning? You can sleep at the station…”

“They could be dead by morning.”

“They might already be dead.”

Eve glared and Hackett looked down at her feet.

“Sorry… I just…”

“It’s okay to be scared, Hackett,” Eve said, clamping a hand on her shoulder. “But we have to do our jobs.”

She unclicked her flashlight and shined it in the young ranger’s face.

“Yeah. Right. You’re right. Fine,” Hackett sighed and hyped herself up with a couple knocks to her chest. “Okay. I can do this. We can do this. Yes, we can.”

“Have you done it before?”

“Last spring… There was a dead deer up here that was rotting in Splendor Creek.”

“And?”

“It was wet and miserable and terrifying then too!”

“But you did it.”

Hackett smiled a little. “I did.”

“Then you can do it again.”

“God damn you and your motivation, Sheriff,” Hackett laughed. “You really don’t make it easy to be lazy.”

“Lazy is as lazy does.”

That was something her mom used to say. Whenever Eve tried to sleep in, even if it was a weekend, Mom was getting her up with that phrase and a swift couple push-ups next to her bed. The competition always got Eve up, but she had never been capable of beating her, even when she was young and tiny.

The dark crevice swallowed up the flashlight. The walls of ice and snow went straight down and back toward the valley below. The bridge ahead was thick with fresh snow and as Eve shone the light across, she noticed several footprints. Not as fresh as they could be but fresh enough to indicate they were going the right way.

“I think you should go first,” Eve said.

“What? No way. You go.”

“I think it would be better if I was behind you.”

“I’m not gonna fall, Sheriff.”

They paused. Karu shuffled in the snow and let out a bark, which made Hackett jump out of her skin.

“Okay… Okay. I’ll go first,” Hackett said after another moment and squared herself up at the end of the bridge.

Eve heard the ranger let out a nervous whistle before taking her first steps out onto the bridge. Eve stepped up behind her, the wind pulling them to one side as the ground opened up underneath them. A whine escaped under the storm and Eve turned over her shoulder to Karu, eagerly stepping from side to side, looking for his chance to cross.

“Stay, Karu,” Eve said. She tried to remember the commands Roman used, but her Estonian was limited.

The German Shepherd whined again as Hackett took three more steps. She reached the middle of the bridge and said, “Okay! Okay. Okay. Okay.”

“Keep moving,” Eve balanced. “You got it.”

Outstretching her arms on either side like a sea bird in the wind, Hackett kept going. Eve kept her pace. It was nigh impossible to avoid wiping away the footprints with the way she had to plant her boots, but it was more important that they got across. Since she was looking down at their feet, Eve only heard the jangle of the collar before she realized what was happening. Hackett was almost all the way across, and Karu had maxed out his patience. The bridge was barely wide enough for one person, let alone room to pass.

“Karu! No!” Eve shouted.

“What?!”

It was all Hackett could muster. Her arms snapped back into her sides and Karu went right through Eve’s legs, knocking into the back of Hackett’s knees in the darkness. They both went down. Hackett dropped onto her front and Karu slid, his paws scraping desperately at the bridge.

Eve dove forward. She grabbed Karu from his front legs. He whined and howled as his back half swung off the bridge, dangling in the breath of the devil.

“Go, Hackett!” Eve commanded.

Hackett didn’t hesitate. She crawled the rest of the way, diving to the other side as Eve heaved Karu back onto the bridge. With her arms wrapped around his chest, she yanked and gave him one more pull to try to fling him to the other side. He was too heavy, and he totally threw her off-balance, almost causing a slip off the other edge. The dark, the cold, and the wind pressed into her back. Her gloves searched for something to grab. Karu erupted into a chorus of panicked barks.

Something gripped her jacket sleeve, and the smell of Karu’s breath was on her neck, pulling on her hood, wrestling her up.

Eve landed in the snow, and she swung her legs over so her entire body was on the ground again.

They all tried to catch their breath. Eve wasn’t even sure what had happened. She had almost fallen, almost died, that was all she knew. Karu came up to her and licked her face and eyelashes.

“Are you okay?”

Hackett’s voice formed in the haziness.

“Yeah… Yes,” Eve managed. She got up on her hands and knees. “That was way too close.”

“The dog…”

“Karu. You okay, Karu?” Eve reached out, and Karu gave her another lick.

“He almost killed us both,” Hackett snapped.

“Guess we should have let him go first,” Eve replied.

The effort to lighten the mood was met by Hackett’s terrified face dropping to anger.

“It’s okay, Hackett,” Eve reassured. “We’re fine. We’re alive, aren’t we? And on the other side…”

She tossed a look over her shoulder, making note of the shadows of the ATVs just beyond the snow bridge. Surveying their new surroundings and gathering herself after what had just happened, Eve noticed a few things on this side: it was slightly warmer and less windy because they were more protected by the mountain. The cabin was bigger upon approach with several windows lining its side. Outside the cabin door, a trail of bloody footprints was being swept away by the blizzard.

“Blood…” Eve said.

“What?” Hackett whipped her head.

“Blood,” Eve repeated. “Outside the door there.”

She got to her feet and fished out an evidence bag.

“Let’s approach with caution,” Eve said. “We don’t know what’s been happening here. Really walking in blind.”

Hackett tapped her ear. “Walking in deaf, actually…”

“Is that a joke?”

Hackett gave her a weak smile, and Eve clamped her shoulder. “Thanks for saving me, Ranger.”

“Just trying to keep up,” she replied.

Eve gathered up some of the bloody snow into a bag before the storm took it completely. If they had taken their time, the prints may not have been here. Despite the fiasco on the bridge, Eve felt confident they had made the right decision to not wait.

Karu barked at the blood, following along it with his snout. This must have been a match to the glove with the way his face was fully engulfed in the snow.

“Sheriff’s office!” Eve called. “Anyone out here?”

Her voice echoed into the darkness and disappeared into the storm. More jagged edges of ice and thick pine trees were ahead. The way the mountain jutted out lended to Hackett’s story that there were more caves up here, more places to hide. Karu started heading that way and Eve called, “Stay, Karu!”

“Hang on, boy.”

She turned to the cabin. Hackett had pulled up her ski goggles, locking on to the squat building.

“Anyone in there?” Eve tried again, but nobody responded.

Somewhere snow fell off branches and Eve whipped around. It wouldn’t be hard to hide from them right now if someone really wanted to. There were too many rocks and edges, trees and piles of snow, levels and forgotten trails.

Eve pushed past Hackett to knock on the door.

“Sheriff’s office!”

She reached for the knob. It was open.

The flashlight picked up an immediate shine of blood on the wood floors. Eve held her breath, momentarily thinking of Amy Lesterfield’s body in the kitchen at the Hawthorne house, the way her bloodied hands had made a trail. But it looked like dripping, not dragging. Like someone had been stumbling away but had been injured. The gunshot they had heard could have been the culprit, or, as Eve’s gaze followed the blood, it could have all been from the dead man crumpled in a wooden chair with an axe in his head.

“Oh my gosh…” Hackett turned her face in the doorway.

“Any power in here?” Eve asked.

Hackett didn’t respond, seemingly unable to look at the scene.

“Hackett!”

The ranger popped back up and squirmed. “What?”

“Is there power?”

“I don’t think so,” she said weakly. “It might have a generator.”

“Go check and get yourself some air.”

The girl dealt with dead animals somewhat often, so Eve was surprised at her visceral reaction to the blood. Either that or Eve was getting too used to the sight of a dead body.

Sheriff Eve Wicker

Eve tip-toed around the trails of blood to get closer to the body. Karu whined from the doorway, and she gave him another stern command to stay. With the lack of light, Eve pulled her camera out from the inside of her coat and snapped three photos, letting the flash hold in the air, the white spreading over the sprawled-out body. When she checked the screen, she could make out more details: the axe was about two inches into the man’s forehead, deep enough to hit the brain. She didn’t recognize him at a glance. He wasn’t a local. He had hazel eyes that were wide open, and his thin hair was stuck up into the air. Two rivers of blood escaped from the forehead wound and snaked down his neck and into the collar of his jacket. His arms had flopped over on either side of the chair. Maybe he had fallen into it. He clearly hadn’t expected the blow. A pool of blood had dripped onto the floor behind him.

The axe looked like a standard wood chopping one, except the handle was wrapped around with tape.

Eve took three more photos from his right side. Behind him, a hat laid upside down on the floor. It had fallen off his head and Eve couldn’t make out what it said without touching it. There was also a map on the wall behind him. It was strung up with threads between tacks, connecting locations around America and overseas to Russia, parts of Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

From his other side, Eve noticed an empty gun case on the desk, atop a pile of paperwork that looked way too fresh and clean to be in a supposedly decommissioned cabin. The case was empty.

With a few more careful steps over the blood, Eve approached the map. Chesapeake Valley was one of the tacks. There were at least three dozen across the states. She couldn’t make out any rhymes or reasons to the connections. Chesapeake Valley ran to Albuquerque, Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, Tijuana, to the west and a few small cities to the east. Trading routes. Drug routes. But why here? Why in her town? Why this spot? Sure, it was out of the way and off the beaten path, but it had to be more than that. This had to be personal.

She turned to the desk as Hackett appeared back in the doorway. Three uncomfortable-looking cots were pushed against the wall on the other side.

“There’s no generator,” she said. “I checked all around, didn’t see one. Could be under the snow though. Somebody or a few somebodies have definitely been up here though. Footprints everywhere. Also, there’s these iron feet at the back? The cabin’s like right up to the mountain. Right up on it.”

“Yeah, way too busy for up here,” Eve agreed. “You really haven’t noticed anything?”

“What do you mean? I noticed the hikers today.”

“But other people… Other guys coming up here regularly?”

“I don’t know… Like I said, they could have gone up Roman’s path, so you should ask him.”

Eve pursed her lips, not liking the sound of Hackett’s attitude. It really wasn’t that long ago that Eve had been suspicious of Hackett for Duncan Springer’s death. She was trying harder at her job now, and that was great. Even though her bosses had told her not to bother with this place, Eve couldn’t help but feel that if she was in Hackett’s position, she would have been checking anyway. How long had this place been running unchecked? And still, for what reason?

She slid the gun case off the pile of papers on the desk and peered down at what looked like a receipt. The row indicated twelve crates of “custom t-shirts” at $289 each. The pile was filled with receipts with the same MO, all crates of ridiculously expensive t-shirts and clothes. Under the desk, she kicked a box with the foot of her boot. It was a box marked with “custom knee-high socks - cotton” and one of the sides was already open where Eve could see more boxes inside. But these boxes clearly contained no socks. Eve took one out and dumped it out onto the desk.

Cigarettes. Foul-smelling cigarettes. This was Nicotaras. This was the Vine. This cabin was Elijah Stern’s. It really was personal.

“What is it?” Hackett asked and Eve snapped her eyes up.

“This… This place has always been here?” she asked, trying to process.

“For a long time. Longer than both of us.”

Is this how he knew about Georgia?

The thoughts and theories were flying through Eve’s mind. This could have been how he had been keeping tabs on Chesapeake Valley. But it was unlikely that Stern himself had hiked up here and been spending time up in this cabin alone. No. Eve was more confident than ever. Stern had an inside man. Somebody was working for Elijah Stern in Chesapeake Valley and this was their base.

“Sharon,” Eve called on the walkie.

“Finally,” she came in immediately. “You guys okay?”

“We’re okay,” Eve replied. “We’ve got a 10-72 up here. An axe.”

“The hikers?”

“One of them. Get in touch with Colorado Springs. We’re gonna need some help getting him out of here,” Eve directed.

“On it.”

Sharon clicked off.

“So where’s the other guy?” Hackett asked.

“Yeah. There were at least two of them. Maybe three. Hell,” Eve looked around, “could have been four or five at this rate. You saw all those prints outside?”

Hackett nodded.

“Regardless, we need some backup up here. It’s too dangerous for us to keep going this alone.”

“You’re backing down from danger?”

“Well, with you here, yes.”

“Uh, I’ll try not to take that as an insult.”

“It’s not! Sorry. I just… I know this is going to go deeper. We’re not going to be able to find anyone right now that we’re going to be able to get and bring in in this weather. We need to protect this crime scene and find out what happened here before we go barreling into the woods. We’ll do a perimeter, see if we can find anything else. Then let’s head back down and get out of this mess.”

Hackett’s eyes were locked on the face split in two by the axe. “He looks totally… messed up.”

“This was not a planned thing…” Eve shook her head. “Whoever did this is reckless and ill-prepared. If they’re out here, we’re going to find them.”

Hackett nodded even though she didn’t seem to be convinced by Eve’s words. Eve wasn’t convinced by them either. They weren’t going to find them tonight. But they went back out into the snow and Eve surveyed the perimeter of the cabin and the edges of rock thoroughly. Karu went alongside her until he stopped, barking at one spot under a pine tree.

“What is it, Karu?”

Eve came over and got down on her knees to shine under the needles. Karu barked again and the light hit something with a dull shine. A bullet casing.

“Good boy…” Eve muttered as she reached forward and plucked the casing with the evidence bag. She did another sweep. It looked like somebody had been lying or sitting in the snow next to where the casing had been. It seemed recent. Maybe they had even still been there when they had approached the cabin or walked over the bridge, watching them from the darkness of the storm, waiting for their chance to run or to attack.

Eve did another circle. Karu sat at her side as if to say that there were no more smells to worry about. She gave him another hard scratch, and he appreciated it with a lick to her wrist.

Opposite the bridge, another trail seemed to lead deeper into the trees and scale along the mountainside. Eve gave it a quick once over with the light before Hackett’s voice cut through the wind.

“I thought you said we were leaving?!”

“We are,” Eve replied but she kept peering down the trail, waiting for any kind of movement.

Nothing. Just the soft edges of pine trees and fresh snow, covered in the veil of two in the morning.

Karu gave her another bark.

“I hear you,” Eve replied.

But the evidence in her pocket and the body only a few feet away were pulling her into the woods. The questions were too persistent and the circumstances were too suspicious. Roman had detailed three men, and so far, they only had one accounted for. And Eve didn’t love how more homicide had happened close to Roman’s cabin, once again. Any other cop would bring him in for questioning, and she was worried how this was going to affect their relationship. They had just gotten to a semi-stable place, and it was going to be ripped apart again. This time by an axe. He was an eyewitness, the last to see the man in the cabin alive, and, proximity wise, close enough to cause trouble. But they had heard the gunshot while they were with him. The murder was fresh and Roman wouldn’t have had time to make it up here. Besides the fact that Eve doubted he was capable of a killing so horrific. She really hoped that was the truth. She had to hope that was the truth.

Something warm hit the palm of her glove. Karu gazed up at her in the darkness, his face framed by night and storm, a stark similarity between his serious expression and Roman’s. A pit formed in her stomach.

“Karu… this time,” she said. “You go first.”

The German Shepherd didn’t seem to understand at first, but she guided him back towards the bridge and he quickly got the message, bounding ahead and into the snow with no fear. Hackett went next. She kept her gaze snapping between the bridge, Karu, and Eve, making sure no dogs were going to run her over this time.

Eve called into Sharon that they were coming back down, and they piled back onto the ATVs and began the trek back down. The wind had died down a bit, though it was hard to tell when they were driving. But when they slowed at Roman’s cabin, they were left with only a quiet murkiness of floating snow.

“You go back…” Eve said to Hackett. “I’m going to drop this off.”

“You going to stay up here?” she asked.

“It makes sense to be this close…”

“Right, and because that’s your boyfriend.”

“Yeah. That too.”

Hackett tried for a smirk, but her face fell when she saw Eve wasn’t reciprocating. “You good, Sheriff?”

“I’m trying…” Eve gripped the handlebars and stared ahead. “I’m really trying.”

“You try too hard sometimes,” Hackett laughed.

Eve glared. “I don’t think that exists.”

She really hated that response, but she couldn’t say anything else. Hackett was another person who had witnessed these hikers and had been close to the scene. The truth of that dead body would unfold, and Eve didn’t want to be worried that it involved her friends and lovers, but in this town, nobody could be trusted. In Chesapeake, anyone could turn on you at any moment, even those you loved the most. She was not going to let her guard down. Not now. Not ever.

The shed door was banging against the wood frame as Eve managed to pull the ATV inside and put it to sleep. She faced the A-frame cabin in the dying storm. The lights were all out aside from the fire downstairs. She thought Roman would be sleeping soundlessly by this time, but as she approached, she saw his huge outline in the loft, standing, staring out, looking right at her.

As she closed in on the door, he met her downstairs.

“What happened?” he asked right away. “You okay, darling?”

“Body…” Eve shook her head. “Somebody else dead.”

“What? Up there? Because of the mountain?”

“Because of a person.”

“Come in… you can tell me all about it,” he put an arm around her and guided her inside.

“I think I just want to sleep,” Eve replied.

“Oh. Okay. Sure. You never want to sleep.”

“I know. But I’m going to need it.”

“Okay. No problem. Was Karu good to you?”

The German Shepherd sauntered past them, shaking off the snow on his back in the entrance.

“He almost knocked Hackett off Devil’s Bridge…” Eve shrugged off her jacket and Roman grabbed it from her. He hung it on the hook and raised an eyebrow.

“His fault? Or hers?”

“My fault. I should have been watching him.”

“Oh come on, Sheriff.” He pulled her into his bare chest. “You can blame the dog.”

She wrapped her arms around him and tried not to show the hesitancy and the loosening of her grip around his torso. But as the space between them collapsed, she felt her suspicions melting away. His ability to make her feel safe was unmatched, and it was like she wasn’t even in law enforcement anymore when he touched her. Which was both comforting and dangerous.

Roman tucked a finger under her chin and forced her eyes up.

“Something’s wrong?”

She gave him a smile and put her lips to his. The warmth enveloped her body. He pushed her back gently.

“Eve…” he whispered.

“Don’t. I don’t want to talk…”

She kissed him again and he leaned into it. He scooped her up and her snow pants wrapped around his torso. He carried her to the couch and laid her down, kissing her lips and moving down to her neck. He kissed the cuts from the snow on her face and found the coldest parts of her, warming her with his mouth.

The fire died, and they fell asleep wrapped in each other’s arms and a fur blanket. Roman did, at least. She had a moment of dreams. But dark rooms, zip ties, and bags over her head kept her from staying asleep. Eve’s eyes affixed outside on the clearing storm, and by the time dawn broke in the distance, she felt the temporary safety of Roman lift with the sun. The distraction of their bodies had kept her from fixating on the body in the other cabin, but this morning, she needed to get back to fixating. She needed to figure out what happened to the man with the axe in his head.

Sheriff Eve Wicker

It took more than a day for them to get Derek Stratus’ body down from the mountain. They were able to ID him through the photos Eve took and matching them to the description of missing hotel guests of the Red Rock Inn that Dill called in late the previous afternoon. From there, Eve was able to develop a profile for both Derek and Carter Stratus via records and social media. They were brothers. Carter had been married and it looked like, more recently, divorced, while Derek had always been in the photos without a date. Derek seemed like a life of the party type of guy, never settle down type of guy. Carter seemed like the opposite, except it hadn’t worked out that well for him. Carter was thirty-nine and Derek was thirty-seven. They had no criminal records aside from a note about Derek getting escorted out of a bar so many times that he was banned from the premises. They had no criminal affiliations though. Nothing that seemed to do with the Vine and Elijah Stern. She needed to know why they were up on that mountain. If it was to make some kind of trade, if they were involved with the Vine, then that changed things. Of course, she would still uncover who and what was responsible with the same integrity, but if Carter was involved with drug smuggling and had gotten his brother tangled up in something he couldn’t handle, that would change Eve’s feelings about saving his life.

With the additional funding from the town council, they had souped up Dom’s clinic so they could perform full autopsies there instead of in Mrs. Kingman’s crawl space. The clinic was at the tail end of 13th and 14th off of Caledonia and the station was at the end of 8th and 9th. They both backed onto the highway after a patch of pine trees and rocks. Fallen boulders from time. It was easy for Eve to walk over with Pearl to examine the body. The weather had cleared and the blizzard had passed, but this case was off to a rough start. The trek up the mountain had drained her, and she was a bit worried she was either letting herself get out of shape or getting too old for this. She really hoped it was the former, because she could control that. Start hitting the gym more. Maybe try a new program or a class. Though she doubted Chesapeake Valley offered much in the way of fitness classes considering the town’s only gym was in the high school’s basement.

This was a crime of passion, and it reminded her a bit of Amy Lesterfield and the manic way she had been stabbed by Emily Silva. She didn’t want to be reminded of it, but there it was, lying on the table, with his face split in two. Derek was a stocky guy with a light beard and thinning red-brown hair. He had nice eyes and straight teeth which Eve could see every one of with the way his mouth was frozen open in shock.

“Definitely unexpected…”

Dom circled the body. She was wearing a sweater vest, plaid trousers and heels. Eve envied the way that she always knew how to put an outfit together and pull it off. She was thankful most days that she could wear the same thing. It was less to think about.

“I think maybe he was turning around,” Dom pointed to his face. “It looks like the cut is on an angle. This way.” She lined up her hand and then mimicked an axe coming down on his forehead. “And hit his right eye. If they could have hit him in the middle of his face, if he was facing them, why wouldn’t they have hit him there? They were clearly swinging to kill.”

“Turned over his right shoulder, maybe,” Eve nodded. “I was just thinking about how shocked he looks.”

“Right. The wound is deep. The person that did this was quite strong. Maybe on the heavier side. It went straight through the bone and to the frontal lobe.”

Eve swallowed.

“Not a lot of blood,” Eve noted.

“No. Because they left the axe in there.”

“Right. Why would they do that?” Eve asked. “Probably because they wanted to get out as quickly as possible?”

“I don’t know. You’re the detective, Sheriff.”

“That’s why I’m asking questions.”

Dom smiled and her heels clicked as she circled around his head.

“His body is frozen now, but he could have been up there for days if you guys hadn’t gone to check. It preserved him pretty well. I think it would have been a nasty cleanup to unstick him from that chair if you hadn’t gotten there so quickly. You did a good job going up there in the middle of the night, Wicker.”

“Thanks. It definitely wasn’t easy. I went up with Ranger Hackett.”

“Right. Of course. What’s her deal?”

“I’m trying to figure that out.”

“You don’t think she had anything to do with this?”

“I don’t think so but… Dom, somebody was operating out of that cabin. Living there. Using it. And she didn’t notice a thing? I don’t know how I feel about that or if I even believe it.”

“What do you mean? You think she’s working for someone or something?”

“I’m not sure… I’m really not sure, but I need to talk to her about it. I think the reason why this poor man is dead is because whoever is in that cabin didn’t want them to know their faces. They’re working for someone bad. What I found in there is connected to…”

Eve trailed off.

“Connected to what?” Dom prodded.

“I gotta talk to Sharon about it.”

“Ugh! Seriously? You got me on the edge of my seat here, Wicker.”

Eve smiled. “Sorry. Police business, Doc.”

“You suck.”

Eve shrugged.

Out in the hallway, the phone rang. Lilly picked it up and greeted the client on the other end in a very friendly way. It brought Eve back to the body in front of them and the closed blinds on the window. Part of her missed the crawl space a bit, but the facilities were much better for Dom here.

“What’s the ruling here?” Eve asked after another moment.

“Homicide. Clearly,” Dom said. “He had that in his head.”

She pointed to the axe laid out on its own silver table and marked with an evidence tag. Eve took a few photos with her phone. The axe was an axe. There didn’t seem to be anything special about it. She felt like she had seen a hundred in her lifetime, so maybe that was why it felt oddly familiar.

“Definitely. Thanks, Dom,” Eve said.

“Any leads? Other than the young ranger?”

“I need to find the other brother, but I need the resources and the backup. Can’t do it alone. And I don’t trust Hackett. It’s treacherous up there. I’ve requested a search and rescue team. Maybe a chopper. He could be alive out there and maybe the guys who did this are still out and up there too. I need to find out more from Dill about what was going on the night they left. I’ve got some evidence to run up to Chen in Colorado Springs. And I need to figure out how what was up in the cabin is connected to all of this.”

Dom looked at her with a bemused expression and said, “Just another Tuesday.”

Eve let out a sad laugh. Pearl bounded at her heels as soon as she came out of the office, waiting patiently in the waiting room.

“She’s so cute,” Lilly said.

“Thanks for keeping an eye on her,” Eve replied.

“Anytime. Literally, whenever!”

The young woman adjusted her glasses as she smiled up at Eve and rolled over in her office chair to give Pearl a pet.

“Wanna go for a ride, Pearl?” Eve asked and the border collie gave a quick bark in response.

The first thing Eve did was to drive to Colorado Springs to drop off evidence with Lionel Chen. She had Pearl, a baggy of blood, and the bullet casing from the crime scene. It was faster to drive the items over rather than put them in the mail. And Lionel was a pleasant guy with a helpful spirit. Eve hadn’t forgotten about him asking her on a date, and apparently, neither had Roman, because he had asked her about it over the holidays, bringing it up while they were watching a movie. His jealousy wasn’t something Eve could forget about either. He was jealous and anxious sometimes. But he was loyal, protective, and brave. He was smart, resourceful, and caring. They were all qualities her mother had had as well, and realizing that put another pit in her stomach. She pulled into the parking lot and put Pearl’s vest on so she could come inside.

“Best behavior, girl.” Eve cinched the velcro. “Let’s impress them in there so you can get into specialized training.”

With the new funding, Eve planned to use some of that to go to Pearl’s application for the K-9 unit. Pearl already had a keen sense of smell and hearing and listened to commands well, but the training was a step on the way to becoming fully fledged K-9.

Pearl stared up at her with globular black eyes and blinked as if she understood.

“Good girl.”

Eve kissed her head, and they crossed the parking lot with confidence and purpose, hunting down Lionel Chen in the multilevel building once they passed through security and past a few people whose names she couldn’t remember who flagged her down for small talk. Pearl was a huge hit. People bent down to give her a pat, and she kept herself stoic and arranged, only an occasional kiss to the friendliest of law enforcement. She saw Officer Tussel across one of the hallways in deep conversation with a man in a suit. They both looked up at the jangling of Pearl’s leash and she gave Eve a smile and wave.

Lionel met Eve outside a glass wall, behind which there were several glass doors and laboratory tables laid out, scattered with equipment and evidence but all organized meticulously with tags and tape.

“Eve! And…” A crooked smile weaved across his face. “No way. This is Diamond, right?”

“Pearl.”

Pearl barked.

“Oh, right! Of course. Wow. Can I say hi?”

“Sure. She loves attention.”

Pearl’s tail rapidly wagged back and forth as Lionel bent down in his lab coat to scratch her behind her gray ears with both hands.

“I’m in love,” he grinned as he stood back up.

“Well, get in line.” Eve fished through the backpack around her shoulder and pulled out her two bags to hand over.

“You said you got this from the snow?” Lionel held up the bag in the light, a fluorescent gleam on the outside as the thin red liquid slithered back and forth. “So this is mostly water?”

“It was about the best I could do,” Eve said. “Do you think you’ll be able to get anything from it?”

“Oh yeah,” he laughed. “We just need a single red blood cell nowadays.”

“Wow. Okay, great.” Eve pointed to the other bag. “That casing we found about thirty-five feet from the cabin door. Under a tree.”

Lionel turned it over in his palm. “Looks like a handgun to me. But we’ll have to look at it in detail. I’ll call you, okay?”

“Perfect.”

“You drove all the way out here just to drop this off?”

“It’s faster that way.”

“Geez. Efficiency is important, Sheriff, but it’s not worth your health.”

“I’m fine. You think I’m not healthy? Don’t I look healthy?”

“No. You look very healthy,” he snickered. “Sorry. I mean, I don’t know. Maybe I should come to you next time. I’ll check out your station down there. You’re getting lots of action nowadays.”

“Too much,” Eve said.

“You’re doing great though.” He held up the bags like they were consolation prizes.

“Thanks…”

Lionel gave her another smile and said, “What about that cigarette butt you sent me?”

“Oh right! Great. I almost forgot about that.”

“Follow me.”

Lionel led Eve behind the glass wall and into the boxes of rooms with organized tables and evidence. He brought her through two doors and to the back room where there was a table with a microscope, a metal tray filled with small tools, and an array of small samples with labels, some with photos printed out and pasted next to them. In the middle, there were two cigarette butts, both burned down to the orange. One appeared to be like ones you would see on the sidewalk with a crinkled midsection and a black end. The other was stamped just like the first, but the black end had oozed all over the plastic tray it was resting on. Lionel picked up a pair of precious tweezers and picked up the oozing butt, black goo stretching as he peeled it off the plastic.

“This is what you sent me,” he pulled the goo with a bounce of the tweezers.

“That doesn’t look normal,” Eve noted.

Pearl rounded the lab with a circle of sniffs before settling under a plexiglass desk in the corner.

“It’s not. This has fentanyl in it.”

“Fentanyl? No way.”

“It’s not very much. And I think the goo is coming from… get this… sugar.”

“Sugar? Is that why they smell so terrible… burnt sugar?”

“Yup. I’m not exactly sure of the logic on that. There’s gotta be a reason. I’m wondering if the addictive components of sugar still come into play if it’s burned and inhaled. I don’t think it would be able to absorb into the bloodstream. But, I mean, it’s for-sure sugar, but it does look different from normal sugar. The molecular structure is slightly off, and I can’t isolate it now that it’s been so burned. It’ll still just get in the user’s lungs and build up over time. Whoever’s selling these doesn’t give a shit about who’s smoking them. Definitely not FDA approved. I’ve never seen tobacco like this before.”

“I have…” Eve stared at the cigarette that she had stolen from Ken Turnbull just before Christmas. She needed to know if this was the same as Nicotaras. It smelled the same, but where would Ken have gotten it from?

Eve asked, “Can I bring you another one?”

“You have more?”

“I got lots.”

She still had some leftovers from Cleveland Cohen, where these sugar cigarettes had all started.

“Sure. I want to know more about this. But I’ll come to you. When I’ve got the results from the blood and the casing, I’ll come on down to the valley.”

“Oh. Sure. But text me first,” Eve said.

“Of course.”

“Thanks for looking into this, Lionel,” she smiled. “I appreciate it.”

He leaned in and said, “Happy to help. You’re onto something. I think you know that. I definitely know it. So don’t give up on this.”

“I won’t.”

Pearl got up and shook her collar, sensing the shift in Eve to leave.

“Don’t miss me too much, Pearl,” Lionel said as he moved to his desk. “You guys know how to get out?”

“Oh yeah. Pearl’s got a pretty good sense of direction…” Eve chuckled and let the border collie lead the way with a proud stance.

She couldn’t help but feel accomplished too as she left the Colorado Springs county office. She was onto something. Something huge. Something bigger than Stern. That map had gone overseas. To Ukraine. To Romania. To Dubai. She didn’t want to bring up the memories from Dubai. When she had still been very much grieving the death of her mother, she had taken a contract overseas in the United Arab Emirates, and it had led to nothing but confusion and, somehow, boredom. She would sit in a room with all-glass windows, waiting for hours, for usually nothing. Dubai was a romantic city though, and Eve couldn’t rub those memories away either.

Eve let Pearl hang her head out the window of the Tahoe on the way back home. They both had something to be proud of that day. Eve gripped the steering wheel and turned up the volume on her audiobook. She was ready for what this case was going to throw at her. She had a feeling it was going to be big, and she physically braced herself for it in the seat of the SUV. She would be hitting the gym tomorrow morning and breaking her body back in; she had been spending too many lazy nights by the fire with Roman and a bowl of chips or two. Jamison was going to get her a search and rescue team, and they were going to uncover what happened on that mountain top. That feeling had been there. The pit in her stomach had told her this case was a danger to the town, and she would not let whoever had done this get away with it.

Roman Marek

The hardware store in Chesapeake Valley was on Boulder and 10th Street. Roman had passed by it twice the first time he had visited, missing it because it was set up in somebody’s house. An iron sign hung off the front and the windows were filled with various equipment, but it was easy to miss amongst a small convenience store and two-story lot houses. Apparently, Value Lumber had been there for many years. The front was a house that was filled to the brim with tools and materials. The back had been knocked out to make room for somewhat of a lumber yard, with stacked two-by-fours and two-by-sixes organized by the type of wood that would have given any big department hardware place a run for its money.

Roman scanned through the wood. He didn’t need any, but when the prices were this good, it was hard to resist. He could patch up the back of the shed when the weather cleared.

“Anything I can help you find?” A short man with small glasses approached him. Roman had seen him here before and glanced at the name on his coveralls to remember that his name was Rodney.

“Yeah. I’m actually looking for a new axe…” Roman stretched up, towering over the man. “Mine’s gone missing.”

“You live up in the foothills, don’t you? Things go missing up there all the time…”

“Even people,” Roman said, which was supposed to be a joke, but Rod didn’t laugh.

“A felling axe?” he asked.

“Yup. I chop a lot of wood up there.”

“I got one for ya.”

Rodney gestured for Roman to follow him, and he led him down the lines of wood planks until they reached a wall where four axes were mounted. One was a hatchet and another was a double bit axe with a leather cover. The top two were felling axes and one was a Gränsfors, which Roman knew was a premium quality axe. The other one he didn’t recognize. It had a curved pine handle and a heavy-looking steelhead. Several carpenter axes were piled up in the corner as well, against an unfinished wall with large windows that overlooked a backyard filled with more planks, extra materials, and hand carved wooden sculptures. A Minion stared right at them from the back path. The ones from that kid’s movie that Roman couldn’t remember the name of, but that were small, yellow, and annoying.

“My wife loves those…” Rodney muttered.

“You make that?”

Roman’s eyes trailed to a massive hand carved bear that appeared to have been made out of half a tree at the yard’s fence. The yard was speckled with several more carved creations: a robot, a raccoon, a deer’s head, another bear but in a canoe with a paddle, at least half a dozen Minions (some of them painted bright yellow), and an ornate mermaid.

“Oh yeah. Been doing that all my life,” Rodney smiled. “The kids love ‘em and I like doing ‘em.”

“They’re pretty amazing.”

“Ah. It’s not much. It’s just something I like to do on the side. Keep myself busy.”

“That bear… it’s incredible…” Roman’s eyes locked on to the wooden irises. The bear from the mine crossed his mind. Maybe it was modeled from that starving grizzly that had once stalked the underbelly of Chesapeake.

“That one took a long time… started it in the summer of, oh… ‘98 and didn’t finish it until ‘07. I still touch it up here and there too. The weather can be harsh on them all sometimes. He lost an ear last summer. I was… I was pretty upset by that. We’re all getting old, aren’t we?” he chuckled.

“You can’t just give him a new one?”

“It’s all from one piece of wood. I don’t want to just stick a new piece on him. He doesn’t deserve that. He’d rather not hear, I think.”

Roman laughed. “I can understand that. Respect for your work.”

“You do any carving up there? Got lots of materials for it.”

“No. I’m not artistic like that. Do a lot of chopping and fiddling though.”

“Are you all wood stove heating up there?”

“I’ve got a generator too, but unless it’s real cold, I mostly just use the stove.”

“Where’s that little accent from?”

“West Virginia.”

“Southern boy. What’s your name again?”

“Roman. Roman Marek.”

“Well, it’s nice to actually meet you, Roman.”

They shook hands.

“Which one is tickling your fancy here?” Rodney gestured back to the wall of axes.

“Well, the Gränsfors is sure pretty.”

“You know your axes… That’s a small company in Sweden that makes those. Best quality. $225 bucks.”

“Shoot. That’s a little more than I wanted to spend. What about this one?” he pointed to the other one with the pine handle.

“That’s my own creation. I modeled it after the Gränsfors. Didn’t want good people like you to have to pay those prices.”

“Well, that’s kind of you. How much for yours?”

“One-fifty.”

“It’s handmade?”

“It is, and I can sharpen her back up for you whenever you need here too.”

Roman plucked it off the wall and felt the weight in his palms. He tossed it back and forth, giving it a test swing and stretching his shoulders. It felt evenly balanced and well-made, and he wasn’t in the position to be too picky between the two options.

“I’ll take it.”

On the way out of the shop, Roman went through the back so he could take a closer look at some of the carvings. He lingered by the mermaid, because in her face, she reminded him of Eve. The way her hair trailed over her shoulders. A slender nose in the center of a kind face.

A man’s voice broke in the crisp air. “Pretty neat stuff, hey?”

The man came up to Roman’s shoulder, taller than most. He had dark hair that Roman noticed was thinning at the crown when he turned his head to check that Rodney was still inside. The hardware shop owner had his eyes fixed on the two men in his backyard.

He scratched at his beard, reached out a hand, and said, “Jack Jamison.”

“Oh,” Roman replied. “You’re Eve’s…”

“Not her boss. Don’t let her hear you say that.”

Roman chuckled. “Right. But you’re big time.”

“Assistant Director of the CBI.”

“Colorado…”

“Bureau of Investigation.”

“Right. Roman Marek.”

Roman took his hand.

“I know,” he said. “I saw you from inside.”

“Right… Picking up some stuff for the case?”

Jamison nodded.

“I thought it would be good for us to meet,” Jack said. “You’ve been spending a lot of time with Sheriff Wicker.”

“Yes, sir. We’re dating. She’s the love of my life.”

“Think she feels the same way about you?”

Roman didn’t know how to answer that. The man’s face was incredibly serious and Roman was terrified to make a joke. So he just said, “I hope so.”

“You’re here for those hikers that went missing, right?” Roman tried.

“What would you know about that?”

“Nothing. I just…” Roman lifted the axe. “I just needed a new axe.”

“Why’s that?”

“Mine went missing.”

“Does Sheriff Wicker know about that?”

“Uh… No… I don’t think so…”

Jamison pressed his lips together.

“Should she?” Roman asked.

Jamison looked him up and down. His eyes were pointed and judgmental, and it made Roman feel as if he were back in training, being sized up.

“You know, I knew Adesina pretty well back in the day… he was your sergeant, wasn’t he?”

“He was. Did you serve?”

“A couple years in my twenties in the infantry. No Marine status like you…”

Jamison had clearly done his homework on Roman, and he wanted him to know it. This all seemed like an intimidation tactic, and that feeling of not being trusted came at him in waves. He couldn’t help but wonder if Eve was feeling the same way.

“Ain’t that somethin’,” he said noncommittally. Jamison gave him a nod, seemingly releasing him from the conversation.

As Roman got back into his truck, he found himself gripping the steering wheel too hard but not going anywhere. The axe was laid out across the backseat, and he got the glint of steel in the rearview mirror. What did Jamison really want from him? Was he a suspect of some kind? Eve had questioned him a bit before she had headed up the mountain, but none of that seemed unusual. The mountain didn’t belong to him. He couldn’t keep his eyes on every going-in and going-out. Though he did anyway. He knew that the path to Devil’s Bridge wasn’t an unfamiliar one to a few brave men. Maybe, it wasn’t just bravery, but espionage. They had all been wrapped in snowsuits. Even if it had been his closest friend, Roman wasn’t convinced he’d be able to recognize them or pick them out of a line-up.

His phone buzzed on the passenger’s seat. Ken Turnbull was calling him.

“Hey, Ken,” Roman answered.

“Hey. You at the ranch?”

“No. Just had to grab a few things… Are you there?”

“Nope… No. Sorry to leave you hanging…”

“Yeah, man. What’s going on? I’ve been texting you.”

“I know. It’s all just been a lot… It’s been a lot a lot.”

“How’s your mom doing?” Roman asked.

“Well, that’s actually why I called…” Ken sighed. “I’m going to be away for a little while. I can’t stand Chesapeake right now. I can’t just walk down the streets that Georgia was walking down. I can’t stare at those fucking foothills anymore. I don’t mean anything by that… to you or Eve or whatever. It’s just… It’s just hard. It’s really hard to stay in the town where your sister was kidnapped.”

“What? Ken, you’ve been here all your life. Where are you going to go?”

“I’ve got a cousin in Omaha. I’ve been staying with him and his family.”

“You’re already there?”

“Soon. I’m figuring it out.”

“Ken, I need to know that you’re okay.”

“I’m okay! Don’t… Don’t look for me, Roman. I swear to god, the last thing I need is a Marine on my tail. I just need you to watch my mom. I just need you to keep an eye on her for me, okay? Just check on her every once in a while.”

“Of course…” Roman’s gaze caught Jamison leaving Value Lumber and he caught him right back, staring over his truck and Roman sitting at the wheel.

“Thanks, man,” Ken said. “I appreciate it.”

“When are you comin’ back?”

“I guess when I feel like I can,” he said. “Not forever.”

“Nothing is,” Roman muttered.

“That’s right. Nothing is forever. Everything is temporary so what does it matter?”

“That’s not what I mean,” Roman said. “I’m worried about you, Ken.”

“I’m gonna be fine. You’re gonna be fine. And you’re gonna look out for my mom while I’m gone.”

“Yeah. Yeah, Ken, I will, but—”

Ken started suddenly swearing and said, “I gotta go, Roman. I’ll text you, okay?”

Before Roman could say anything else, Ken disconnected the call and the line went dead. The quiet inside of the truck was cut by Jamison starting his car. It was just the rumble of the engine, Roman and the phone in his hand, and the axe laid out across the backseat.

Sheriff Eve Wicker

At the back of the station, between the holding cell and the interrogation room, Eve had replaced the Hawthorne family tree with Elijah Stern’s. Not his literal family tree but the one of his business and the Vine. She had been working on it for weeks if not months, and she had a solid start on Stern’s connections with lines of yarn leading to some familiar faces but mostly the disgruntled expressions of known traffickers that she had yet to have the privilege of coming across. Georgia Turnbull was on the board with her black and white photo Xed out with red marker. There was only one other woman on the board and that was Liza, Elijah Stern’s personal assistant. She was a striking woman with fierce features. Eve believed that she was a possible way in. If they could get to Liza, they could get to Stern. But she didn’t even have a last name.

She had also pinned a baggie of Nicotaras cigarettes to the board. Despite keeping the bag completely sealed, she still got a whiff of them whenever she walked past, but at least now she knew in part what it was: burnt sugar.

Eve took her phone out of her pocket and called Special Agent Heyner Castro. Jamison had already warned her about getting herself involved in this case and associating herself with the feds. But Heyner was also a family friend and asking him a few questions wouldn’t get her in any hot water.

“Eve,” Heyner answered with a surprised cough. “How’s it going, Sheriff?”

“I’m doing okay. How about yourself, Agent Castro?”

Pearl woke from her nap at the sound of Eve’s voice and stretched out long.

Heyner replied, “Busy. Busy all the time. I’m sure you can relate.”

“I won’t waste your time. I’m calling about Stern.”

“I knew you would.”

“You got that map I sent?”

“We’re looking it over. Looks like trade or drug routes, which is pretty typical for the Vine. They’re all over. Like a virus.”

Eve said, “I wanted to know about Stern’s assistant, Liza. You guys have anything on her? All I have from Georgia and Cohen’s emails is her name and a fake email address.”

“I think we do… I’d be sharing this with you as a task force member.”

“Sure.”

“And the CBI is okay with that?”

“I’ll handle it.”

“Sounds like you’re handling all of it,” Heyner quipped. “As much as I want you on the team, Eve, I don’t want you to put your job in danger.”

“I’m handling it,” Eve insisted. “Don’t worry. I got it. Jamison can’t stop me from joining a task force.”

Heyner chuckled. “Your mom would be proud. Telling authority to screw itself.”

Eve’s response caught in her throat. She hoped that wasn’t what she was doing.

“I’ll forward you what we have.”

“Thanks, Heyner…” Eve said quietly.

The information that Heyner sent gave Eve not only a full name for Liza, Elizabeth Bulat, but it also provided her with a name she had never heard before—the person who had allegedly sent Liza to Stern. It seemed like a pseudonym because when she looked it up, the only thing that came up were a couple of Instagram and Facebook pages. Eve pinned a blank page to the top of her board in a space all by itself labelled with Novikov and a big fat question mark.

The door opened, and somebody stomped snow off their boots at the front.

Eve quickly flipped the board to the blank side and entered the lobby, catching Ranger Hackett unzipping her coat.

“Hey, Hackett,” Eve greeted. “Get some sleep?”

“A little…” she replied. “Not a lot. You?”

“Yeah, sorta.”

“On Roman’s lap?”

Eve laughed that off. “Sorta. You want to come back here with me?”

“To the room?” Hackett raised an eyebrow.

“Yes.”

“Not really. But I guess if you insist...”

“I’ll take it.”

Eve sat Hackett down in the interrogation room and brought her a dixie cup filled with water and a mug with hot coffee. Hackett stared at the coffee.

“Something wrong?” Eve asked.

“I stopped drinking coffee. Caffeine’s been giving me the shakes…”

“Oh. Okay. No problem. I’ve got peppermint tea too.”

“No. It’s fine. Let’s just get this over with. You want my statement, right?”

“Well, yes, of course. I want to know about that cabin.”

“Well, I told you. I didn’t watch that cabin. It’s not mine to watch. It’s outside my designated territory and it’s privately owned.”

“Privately owned? Who owns it?”

“I don’t know. I thought you would have the records of that.”

“No, that’s all through the Colorado Division of Real Estate. I guess I’ll check with them.”

Eve made note that she would likely be sitting on hold in order to get through to any land records division. In the NSA, she had always loathed calling any government records sectors. They were notoriously slow for gathering information and responding to requests.

“I was told when I started to just leave it well enough alone,” Hackett explained. “Plus, crossing Devil’s Bridge isn’t easy so making that a part of my routine would just be an unnecessary risk to me and the mountains. That’s the ranger office’s words. Not mine. You can ask them.”

“I understand that, but there were clearly people operating out of that cabin. Who knows for how long? You didn’t notice any activity going in and out of there?”

“Why don’t you ask Roman?”

“I plan on it.”

The snarkiness from Hackett caused Eve to hold back an eye roll. She really couldn’t be sure if Hackett loved or hated Roman. She seemed to have a fascination with him regardless, and Roman had told her of their awkward interaction when he had given her a ride back to the mines last summer.

“Dylan…” Eve used the ranger’s first name, which caused her to squirm and sit up straighter. “Dylan, I need you to be totally honest with me. Did you know of or did you see anything to give you an indication that that cabin was being used for illegal activity?”

She chewed on her lip. “No. No, I don’t think so.”

“No? Or you don’t think so?”

“I don’t think so… It’s hard! Okay? It’s really hard. Since you started your job, you’ve been on my back all the time, and I told you the struggles that I have. I’m going deaf, Sheriff. You get that? I can’t hear anymore without a stupid machine I put in my ears all the time. So yeah. I miss things. I’m missing things all the time, I’m sure. But I’m trying…” Tears welled in her eyes. “I’m trying so hard, Eve. Please tell me you see that.”

“I—” Eve cut herself off and passed Hackett a tissue from her pocket. “I see it, Hackett. I’m sorry. I know I’m pushing you, but I need to know exactly what did and didn’t happen.”

Hackett nodded solemnly.

“You’re young.” Eve leaned in. “You’re young and you have time. You’re going to figure this all out.”

Even if that meant not being a park ranger anymore. But Eve didn’t want to discourage her any further.

“What’s the progress on the cochlear implant? Didn’t you say you were looking into that? Or somebody at the ranger office was doing it for you?”

“I have to do it. I applied through my insurance, but I still need a letter of medical necessity or some crap.”

“It’s interfering with your job, Hackett.”

“I know!”

Hackett slammed the table with her hand, and Eve heard Pearl’s collar jangle from the other room.

“Don’t—” Eve started, but then sighed. “There are solutions to all of this.”

“What exactly?!”

“Pearl. Why don’t you take Pearl for a little while?”

“Wh… what?”

“She’s got a keen sense of hearing and smell. You can borrow her for a bit. She’ll help to keep an extra set of eyes and ears on the foothills. And also… she loves the snow.”

Eve got up from her chair and opened the door. She beckoned the border collie over with a low whistle. Pearl came bounding inside, greeting Eve with a lick to her pant leg and then sauntered over to Hackett. She sat pretty and waited for Hackett to give her a pat.

“Are you serious?”

The sweat off of Hackett’s forehead hit the collar of her shirt as she raised an eyebrow at Eve.

“Pearl.”

The collie turned to her.

“Do you want to go with Ranger Hackett for a little while? Protect the mountains?”

Pearl entered a wide stance and yapped with confidence.

Hackett’s face broke into a grin.

“Oh… Okay.” She leaned forward to give Pearl a scratch on her chest and behind the ears. “Okay. She’s gonna come with me. She’s gonna help me.”

“Right,” Eve replied. “And you just call, okay? If you see anything or… just call if you notice anything unusual up there. I think there’s going to be a lot of traffic for a little while so maybe try keeping track. It would really help me out if you had some kind of log. Think you could handle that?”

“Sure. I can do that. I’ve got my tablet and I’m pretty good with like spreadsheets and stuff.”

“Excellent.”

Giving up Pearl wasn’t easy, and Eve gave her several reassuring whispers and hugs before Hackett left with her and her gear: some food and a dish, her harness and vest, her leash, and a teddy bear toy that she carried in her mouth. It felt good for Hackett and good for the mountain. Eve couldn’t let things continue to slip by that way. It was a great place to hide, and maybe it was another one of the reasons that Chesapeake Valley had become such a hot spot for criminals and espionage.

She was one of those reasons too. Mom was one of the reasons. Jane Petrov. Shannon Wicker. Evelyn Callahan. Eve Wicker. No matter their names, real or fake, chaos was in their blood and genes. It followed them through counties and across state lines. And Eve was confident it was her and her mother’s sense of justice that did it. Those who want to destroy can always pinpoint those who want to build. That’s what mom had said. They recognized them as their greatest threat.

As Eve watched Hackett’s ranger truck disappear down the highway out the back window, she pulled the board back over to the side with her Stern tree. She traced the lines with her fingers as the thoughts of her mother plagued at the back of her head.

Still no signs of Carter Stratus. The other brother hadn’t come back down, and they could only hope that he was still alive as they gathered search and rescue to bring him home. Until then, it was time to check in at the Red Rock and find out what these guys had been doing the night before they had embarked on the stupidest, most dangerous hike of their lives. Eve gave the board one last once-over, really trying to memorize it so she wouldn’t have to keep flipping it back and forth and so she could pull this info about the Vine’s intricacies whenever she needed. She was also a tad self-conscious about Sharon finding her insanity board. With the Hawthornes, of course, it had made sense. It was an active open case. But Georgia was found dead last fall. There had been no signs of Cleveland Cohen, Jim Benson, or Elijah Stern since. Sharon might think she had gone off the deep end of obsession if she saw what Eve had made up since getting back from the Marek’s ranch.

Eve noticed she had a missed call when she went to grab her coat and check her phone. It was from Lionel Chen, so she called him back right away, and he answered immediately.

“Hey!”

His voice was excited and a bit out of breath.

“Hey. It’s Sheriff Wicker. I saw you called.”

“I know it’s you. It’s 2025, Eve.”

“Right.” Eve laughed at herself. “I know. Sorry.”

“It’s Lionel Chen, by the way—”

“I know.”

They both laughed and then Lionel got right into business.

“I got the ID on that blood,” he said. “Fortunately, both of the brothers have the same doctor, and Derek had gotten some bloodwork done about a month ago so I had something to work with. But it’s not Derek’s blood… I think it’s Carter’s.”

“Wait, really? Derek is the one who’s dead.”

“Yup, but he’s an AB negative. I don’t know what Carter is, but the blood from the scene is A positive.”

“That’s…” Eve trailed off. If Carter was bleeding when he fled the scene, they had even less time than they thought. If they didn’t find him soon, they were going to have another body on their hands.

“Thanks, Lionel.”

Eve clicked off the phone as she watched Jamison’s car pull into the parking lot of the station. She had her coat half on as she burst out of the station.

“What’s the status on that search and rescue?” she yelled as soon as Jamison exited his car.

“Hello to you too,” he yelled back.

Eve shrugged the rest of her jacket on and took several long strides towards him. “Sorry. How’re you doing, Jamison? Glad you’re here.”

“I’m fine. Status is this: they’re waiting for the wind to die a bit more and then they’ll be here. I’d give it an hour or two. There’s no place for them to park here so we gotta meet them outside of town.”

“It’s going to be practically dark by then…” Eve grumbled.

“We’ve gotta take her while we can.”

“The sooner we can get up there the better. I just got off the phone with forensics and that blood we found at the scene wasn’t Derek’s.”

“The brother’s?”

“That or somebody else. Our murderer. We need more samples.”

Jamison nodded. “Let’s grab a coffee and go then.”

“If we’ve got an hour, I’ve got one stop to make. You been to the Red Rock yet, sir?”

He asked, “Is that the place with the red roofs on the highway?”

“That’s the one.”

“I have not.”

Eve grinned. “I’m gonna blow your mind, Jamison.”

“I doubt it.”

“They have the best fries, I swear.”

“I try to avoid trans fats.”

“Okay. Well, we’ll get you a Diet Coke. You’re driving.”

Somehow, that made Jamison smile a little. Eve piled into the passenger’s seat of his Buick and checked her phone again. The latest missed text message from Roman stood out to her: “Just saw your boss at the hardware store. Random.”

She tucked her phone away as Jamison entered and started the engine back up. She waited for him to mention the run-in on the way to the Red Rock, but he didn’t. Instead, he droned on about his short game in golf and how he had been practicing at the virtual center in Colorado Springs and seen loads of improvement. No mention of the hardware store. No mention of Roman. If the Assistant Director of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation was keeping secrets from her, she didn’t feel as bad keeping secrets from him about Castro’s task force. She didn’t want to ruin their limited relationship, and Eve sensed that with Jamison too. Even though they were opposing forces sometimes, there was a lot of respect between them, and Jamison might have borderline liked her a bit. And he didn’t like anyone.

Carter Stratus

The cold felt like it had sunk into his veins and frozen his blood. Every movement he felt stiffer than the last, and when he tried to stretch out a leg, it took him several seconds to get it straight again.

He could still hear the sound of that axe going into Derek’s head. That was the last thing he had seen that he could make sense of. The rest of it was all snow, wind, and white. They had tried to take him out too. Whoever it was that had been inside that cabin had not wanted them there, and they had, by accident, intruded on something secretive, terrifying, and criminal. The type of people who didn’t want any witnesses, especially random hikers who had barreled inside a cabin with little thought, especially somebody like Derek whose default was hostile.

His cheeks were dry from the tears he had squeezed out, and his jacket kept sticking to his skin where he had been grazed by the bullet. The patch of blood was gummy and the rip in the nylon had allowed the wind to slice through him again and again on his way here, slashing and re-slashing him with waves of sharp pain. But the blood had stopped, at least. He had no idea how long it had been but it was long enough for the blood to coagulate and for the sun to come back up.

It was still overcast and grey, but the wind and the snow had died down. Carter had sprinted away from the cabin with a man with a gun on his tail. He had run into trees and fallen over boulders and fingers of packed snow. And now… Now, he had no idea where he was. He had stumbled into a cave with curved stone walls and a low ceiling. Over the night, the snow had piled up outside so only a strip of the weak daylight could penetrate the darkness and force him to turn over with a crinkle of his jacket. If they were looking for him, they wouldn’t have found him. Not yet. This was a good hiding spot and with the water bottle and trail mix in his bag, Carter felt confident that he could survive up here for at least a little time. But the wound on his arm was throbbing and getting worse by the minute.

He leaned his back against the cave wall. Part of him wanted to slam his head against the stone and knock out the memories of everything that had just happened. Derek was dead. His brother had been killed. He had watched it happen and then ran like a coward, escaping into the woods with Derek bleeding out behind him. He felt unfortunately confident that he couldn’t have saved him other than maybe forcing him to shut up. The way he had boldly come into the cabin had clearly turned the men off, and from the glaze in their eyes, Carter quickly could tell that these guys had hurt people before and had no problems hurting them again.

He took out his phone. It was on ten percent battery, and he needed to save it despite having zero service. But he had to unlock it for just a second. He had to pull up that photo of him, Derek, and Dad, and after that, he had to pull up a picture of Benjamin, smiling up at him with his loose baby teeth. Carter let out a laugh laden with tears. He put the phone down and held the power button so it would turn back off.

His stomach demanded food as he got a whiff of the peanuts in the backpack. He sifted through his items to find the trail mix and grazed against the silver urn. His palm wrapped around the urn, and he lifted it to give it a pointed stare.

“I’m sorry, Dad,” he whispered to the urn and put his forehead to it. It was freezing, but he was mostly numb.

They had failed. They had made it to the top, but they would never make it back down. They should have turned back when they had the chance, but Derek had insisted, and Carter had listened to him. If he’d had a little bit more guts and bravery, maybe he could have talked Derek into going back. Maybe they could have just scattered Dad’s ashes on the other side. They hadn’t needed to cross that bridge. Tradition and pride had killed his brother. A heart attack had killed his father. The Rocky Mountain Foothills would kill Carter.

He pushed the heels of his hands into his eyes, trying to stop the tears from coming again. Shoving the urn back into the bag, he found the trail mix and counted out three peanuts, a Chex, and an M&M. Once he started, he wanted to dump the whole bag down his throat. His stomach growled, but he resisted. All he could do was try to stay alive. He had to get back down for Derek. He needed to find that man with the axe. He needed to get back down for his son. Benjamin deserved a father. After all he had put that boy through, he couldn’t bear the thought of messing up his life even further.

Carter swore he heard his father’s laugh then. It was so loud and clear that he stood up, knocking his head on the ceiling of the cave. He cleared out some of the snow at the front with his glove and peered out into the wilderness. Pine trees and great silver rocks filled the space in front of the cave until it dropped off into open gray air hundreds of feet above ground level. Dad wasn’t there. It was just his ears playing tricks on him, the wind howling through narrow spaces and making the foothills laugh at him.

As the day went on, Carter tried to sleep again. When that was unsuccessful, he took an extra sock out of his bag and wrapped it around his arm where the bullet had grazed him. The temperature was milder than the previous day, and he actually started sweating while performing a bit of first aid on himself.

Carter didn’t know what to do. If he went out of the cave to make some kind of trail or indication of where he was, that might lead the murderers right to his stone doorstep to finish the job. If he stayed holed up, if someone good was looking for him, they might never find him. He had to give law enforcement or the park ranger a sign that only they would notice and understand. In the narrow light, Carter peered at one of the thinnest pine trees on the edge. It was skinny enough and he, hopefully, had enough strength that he could knock it down or at least poke it out of the mountainside as some kind of indication to someone who knew this environment that it wasn’t a bear or an avalanche that had knocked it over. An environmental expert, he was not. He didn’t even consider himself an expert hiker, yet here he was on the edge of the Rocky Mountains, overlooking the state of Colorado from a cave spattered with his blood.

Carter gave the tree a swift kick, and it immediately bent and cracked towards the drop-off. Snow fell off the tree in droves, fluttering down and into the expansive air below. He looked around to ensure nobody was waiting for him to make a sound and before they came whipping around the corner with a gun.

Nothing. Not yet. Just him and the squeak of the trees.

He gave another kick and the pine tree cracked at his boot. It bent forward and hung off the edge, almost completely perpendicular to the cliff’s edge. That didn’t look natural. Carter couldn’t have asked for a better sign unless the tree broke off completely in the night. An experienced ranger would hopefully notice that. Hopefully somebody would notice. He didn’t know how to get back if he tried. He thought that it was back to his left, to what he thought was the north, but when he had tried to go that way, he had been completely blocked off by a wall of boulders. The other direction had been so thick with trees and pine needles that it was like entering a wall of darkness. He had no idea where he had come from, or if he was going to survive this. And eventually the cold came back and the limited daylight became darkness again. Either that or his eyes were failing him and a fever was building. The part of him that wanted to give up only got bigger and more pervasive by the minute. Even with his tree hanging off the cliff, Carter’s hope dwindled through dusk and into night. If these were his last moments, he was glad they were in fresh air and under the stars. He just wished he had been able to say goodbye. Not only to his son but to his brother, and—what had started this all—to his father. Saying goodbye to Dad was what had gotten them here to begin with, so it all felt unfinished. This would not be a peaceful death.

Sheriff Eve Wicker

Jamison ordered food at the Red Rock, which took Eve by surprise, but he said that he was starving and hadn’t eaten since breakfast. She joined him with a sandwich and fries which she forced him to try, at least, one. Jamison gave her a stiff “they’re good” in response, and Eve took that as a win.

They sat in one of the driftwood booths as Eve pointed out some of the locals she was familiar with and Dill behind the bar. She waved Dill over when he came out from behind his foxhole to wipe a table across from them. She introduced Jamison to the bartender and they both nodded at one another.

“Is this about those two guys?” Dill asked right away.

“Yes. The Stratus brothers. You know them?” Eve replied.

“No. I mean, not really. They came in on Tuesday. Said they were from… South Dakota, I think.”

Eve nodded. “That’s what we hear too. Did you talk to them?”

“They sat up at the bar so yeah, a bit. Not a lot. One was loud and annoying. The other one was pretty nice. A bit nervous but put together. They were in their thirties, I think. Too old to be fighting, I tell you that.”

“Fighting?” Jamison huffed.

“You know, Sheriff… You know the problems A.J. has been giving us… It’s just gotten worse since Duncan. He’s in a fistfight every other night out in the parking lot. Last week, he slipped on a patch of ice and damn near split his head open. He can’t lay off the booze. It’s not a good situation. Athina even had to call me a couple of times, making sure he was still alive.”

Eve pushed away her mostly cleaned plate.

“Why didn’t you mention any of this to me, Dill?”

“I… Well, you’ve been busy, Sheriff. I can handle little ol’ A.J. He really only hurts himself.”

“It just takes one bad hit or one bad accident,” Eve said. Though she really didn’t want to have to spend her Friday nights at the Red Rock, it was something she was willing to do to help protect it.

“Why don’t you hire somebody for security?” Jamison asked.

Dill laughed. “We’re barely keeping this place afloat with the staff I gotta pay now. I don’t need some musclehead at the door scaring people away from drinking.”

“Dill…” Eve warned.

Running a hand over the scarf on his head and scratching at his red beard, Dill gave her a hurtful look.

“I can help you,” she said. “Don’t worry. I’ll help you too. I’m here for exactly that.”

“Alright. Well, we’ll try, I guess,” he muttered.

“What happened after the fight?” Jamison asked.

“They didn’t come back in.”

Eve questioned, “None of them?”

“None of them. The boys must have gone back to their room and A.J. must have walked home.”

“Did they mention anything about a hike?” Eve asked.

“They did. I told them they were crazy. Katrina at the front desk said that she heard them talking about it too… When I heard what happened, I figured they didn’t make it back down. They never checked out. All their stuff is still in room 4, if you guys want to check it out.”

“That would be great.”

Eve smiled, and Dill gave her half back.

“Their truck is still in the lot too. Must be theirs. South Dakota plates.”

“Anybody call about them?”

“Not yet.”

“You keep me posted, okay? You have my cell?”

“We all do…” he grinned.

When Eve had started as sheriff, she had set up the county office number to forward to her cell phone if no one was in the office. She had also put it on the answering machine and website, and she had posted it on a few bulletin boards like at City Hall, the school, and the Red Rock Inn’s noticeboard by the front desk. So, Dill wasn’t really being facetious. Most of Chesapeake Valley had her phone number.

As Dill went back to business, Jamison shook his head at his half-eaten garden salad and chicken salad sandwich.

“Sounds like this A.J. guy needs a talking to…”

“Why are you here, Jamison?” Eve said it suddenly, like she hadn’t been able to hold it in anymore.

“Pardon me?”

His brow furrowed.

“I know you’re helping with the search and rescue, but you could have done that from Monument. I know you could have.”

“Why do you think I’m here, Sheriff?”

“To keep an eye on me.”

His lip twitched and he took a sip of his water.

“That’s, of course, part of it. You’re smart enough to figure that out. I am also just here to help, Wicker. Just how you like helping people. I happen to enjoy it as well. Especially you.”

“Why especially me?”

“Because you deserve the help. I can tell you gals are overworked down here. It’s the least I can do to lend some time instead of sitting behind a desk playing sudoku.”

Eve paused. “I love sudoku.”

Jamison laughed a little. A rare, momentous occasion.

Eve smiled and said, “I’m sorry. I do appreciate you being here and your help.”

She got up to grab her coat. She searched the inside of it for some cash and threw it on the table.

Then, Jamison said, “I also don’t trust Roman Marek.”

Both their smiles dropped. Eve stared down at him from the edge of the table. Jamison stood up and he doubled down.

“I don’t trust him, Sheriff. I knew his commanding officer and he told me…” he halted, seemed to consider his words. “He told me some frightening things about that man.”

“He was in the Marines,” Eve replied. “We all have to do stuff we don’t want to do when we do this.”

She gestured to their uniforms.

“It’s beyond that.” Jamison grabbed his coat. “I don’t have any evidence yet, but that is the other reason why I’m here. It’s not because of you, it’s because of him.”

“And? Any evidence so far?” Eve snapped.

“I saw him before I saw you.”

Jamison zipped up his jacket and caught Eve’s gaze.

“Shopping for a new axe.”

“Wh… What?” Eve reeled back.

“Yes. Our homicide victim found last night with an axe in his head, less than a mile from Marek’s cabin, and Marek is seen the next day, casually buying himself a new one. I’m telling you, Sheriff. He is bad news.”

Eve shook her head. “Roman… He has an alibi. I saw him right before we found the body. We heard the gunshot at his place. He didn’t do this. I know he didn’t.”

“He knows those foothills better than anyone. Better than your park ranger, I bet.”

Eve couldn’t admit to how true that was.

“I want you to be careful, Sheriff. I don’t trust him as far as I can throw him.”

“You just don’t know him…” Eve said, and she thought it came out sad and pitiful. She hated sounding like this, like she was defending her middle school boyfriend that “went to another school.” Jamison had a strong intuition after years in law enforcement, but he had to be wrong about this. Eve had been down this route with Roman when they had first met. People loved to put blame on men like him. Those who were dark, kept to themselves and who could be abrasive… Those who were strong and tall and domineering… Eve shifted herself away from Jamison, overwhelmed by her thoughts.

Jamison clapped a hand on her shoulder and forced her to stand up straight.

“Hey. Sheriff. Don’t lose yourself. Innocent until proven guilty. You asked me why I’m here and I want to be honest with you.”

“I… I’m trying to understand,” she replied.

“Don’t try. Understand. This has nothing to do with you and everything to do with him. The only thing we can do is our jobs.”

Eve nodded, hammering the thoughts and fear down. What she said was, “I don’t appreciate you barreling me over like this. This is my jurisdiction, Jamison. The people of Chesapeake Valley elected me to take care of this town. I don’t care what the CBI gets up to, but I thought we had a better relationship than for you to act like you can go behind my back.”

She had meant it to be a slap in the face, but Jamison showed no emotion. He just gave her a tight nod, which only infuriated her more. “I know, Sheriff. You’ve got to do your duty, and I’ll do mine. I don’t blame you for it. I know I’m hard on you, but you’re damn good at your job. I just want you to have some support in case you really need it.”

“If that’s the case, I’ll handle it.” Lionel’s comment ran through her brain. She was having to handle a lot of things lately. “Let’s go see A.J. Portokalos,” she said, and Jamison gave her another squeeze on her shoulder. There was only a slight upturn in his eyebrow that showed his concern for the conversation they’d just had, like he had pushed Eve too far. He hadn’t. Her “too far” was much farther than accusing the man she loved of murder. But Jamison didn’t seem to mean malice by it. Just concern and duty. Two things Eve greatly respected.

Brown’s Woodwork was right next to Timber’s Manufacturing on the west side of town. The two plants often worked in conjunction to supply lumber to construction sites in the surrounding rural areas and farms. Eve explained to Jamison that she was quite sure that Timber’s had acquired Brown’s a few years back, but she couldn’t remember the details. They shared part of the same parking lot, but Brown’s didn’t have the ten-foot-high chain link fence and barbed wire protecting it. On the other side of Brown’s, a large empty lot and then a few houses scattered the street before the whole thing opened back up to Roman’s ranch. When Jamison drove by, Eve caught a glimpse of Roman kicking open the door to the barn with his boot because his hands were filled with rope.

As they pulled into Brown’s, a truck was pulling out of the lot, turning left and probably heading to Main Street and beyond to deliver supplies. Eve recognized the mess of black hair and stark blue eyes on the driver.

“That’s A.J. there,” Eve pointed.

“What? Oh.” Jamison followed her finger.

“You got a beacon on this thing?” Eve looked around the seats of the Buick.

“Negative,” he replied. “Got a megaphone, back there, on the floor of the backseat, if you want to get him with that.”

“A.J.’s a runner,” Eve stretched between the seats, unbuckling her seatbelt as she went.

“Goody,” Jamison grumbled. “That sandwich is sitting in my stomach like a rock.”

“He’s not going anywhere,” Eve replied. She wrapped her hands around the white handle of the megaphone. She put the window down and craned her neck out as they reached the end of 2nd Street. The truck ahead of them was trying to pull a left onto Main Street. It wouldn’t take him long, but it was the busiest street in the small town.

“A.J. Portokalos, it’s the sheriff. Pull over, please.” Her voice crackled through the megaphone. “We gotta talk to you.”

The window rolled down and A.J. threw his head out the window, looking back at them with his eyebrows furrowed together.

Eve turned to Jamison and muttered, “Keep your foot on the gas.”

Jamison gave her a curt nod.

“What the hell do you want?!” A.J. yelled. “I’m on the job.”

“It’ll be quick and it’s urgent,” Eve started with the megaphone and then dropped it. They were the only people out on the street right now. She was sure he could hear her even over the winter wind. It was less today than it had been, and the sun was out, shining off patches of snow gathered on wooden fences and concrete steps. Eve stepped out of the car and approached the truck.

A.J.’s eyes followed her all the way up. She looked up at him from the street and said, “Pull over and meet me at the bakery. We need to talk.”

He leaned out the window. “What is this about exactly?”

“A guy you were in a fight with two nights ago.”

“Two nights ago?” he thought. “I don’t remember.”

“Come on, A.J.. I’ll buy you a coffee.”

“If you let me just—”

“We need to do this now. Derek died, A.J.. The man you fought last night was found dead. And his brother is still missing. I need your help to figure this out.”

“Fine!” He started turning the wheel. “Fine. But I want a big cookie or something. Biggest one your dad can manage.”

At the bakery, both of the tables were filled. One with Kim Turnbull and one of Grace’s other friends from church, Betsy. The other was occupied by two teenage boys that Eve didn’t recognize, but they looked immediately nervous at her presence, like they were skipping school. Eve approached the counter, and as soon as she started examining the rows of baked goods, the boys took off.

The donuts were colored with crisp chocolate shells and white chocolate ornaments. Some were filled to the brim with fruit, and there were several varieties of fritters. Dad had been on a spree. He was distracting himself with work too, and with his condition, he was pushing it. Eve wondered if it had to do with the unearthing of Stern and Mom’s case. He was not supportive of her reopening the case and hunting him down. She knew that.

“Orange fritter?” Eve questioned.

“It’s like a marmalade. It’s l..” he looked down at his hands. “It’s, l…”

He couldn’t get the word out.

“I’ll try one. Two of those. And one of the apple. Of course. And one of those waffle cookies. The biggest one you have. I’ll get a couple coffees too. But let me get them for myself okay? You’re moving around way too much.”

“I’ve… got stuff to do, Evie,” he replied, punching her items into his archaic cash register. “That’ll be $8.90.”

“You’re also undercharging…” Eve noted as she passed him a twenty.

“Only for you,” he chuckled.

Eve smiled.

The bell dinged behind them. A.J. walked in with his mouth turned down into an exaggerated frown.

“So?” he blurted. “I’m here.”

“I’ll get you a coffee,” Eve said and gestured to the newly emptied table in the corner.

He didn’t say anything but stomped over and sat himself down. A whiff of alcohol ran under her nose. It was hard to tell if it was fresh or just part of A.J.’s natural musk.

Jamison sat down opposite A.J. and she heard him say, “You behave yourself now.”

A.J. said, “Who the heck are you?”

They did their introductions as Eve let herself into the back and started gathering her order. Francis followed behind her, holding the white box wide open for her with his shaky gnarled hands on the bottom. She came back to the table with the goodies and gave them each a plate with a donut. Francis pushed their coffees across the counter and Eve added extra sugar and milk to hers. Both Jamison and A.J. took theirs black.

“That’s an orange fritter,” Eve said. “Ever tried one?”

“No…” A.J. muttered. “It’s good, though.”

“Unreal,” Jamison agreed. Jamison passed his other half to Eve and she delved into the soft dough and fresh aroma of orange.

“Gosh,” she breathed. “He’s outdone himself.”

“That should be illegal,” A.J. grinned.

Eve and Jamison only rolled their eyes.

“Sorry…” he said. “That wasn’t funny.”

“No. It wasn’t,” Eve said and put the rest of the fritter down. Her stomach gurgled. She was addicted to sugar and baked goods. She recognized that. It made her feel at ease when nothing else could. But since that was virtually all she ate and was generally active, Eve didn’t often consume enough calories in a day. You need to eat a surprising amount of donuts to get your daily intake when you’re a tall muscular woman. This job was wearing on her body. She couldn’t survive on a diet of macarons, donuts, and coffee. But still, the taste of cinnamon lingering in her mouth made it easier to turn to A.J. and say, “Listen, I need you to tell us everything about what you saw that night, A.J.. You were the last person to see those two men alive.”

He nodded. “I get it. Not sure interrupting me in the middle of workday was necessary.”

“This is urgent,” Jamison said flatly.

“Right. Well, I guess… Dill told you?”

“I heard you and Derek had a bit of a disagreement. Bigger guy…was wearing a Yankees hat. He was with another guy. His brother.”

“Yeah. I know. I was listening to them yap about nothing all night…”

“Nothing? What were they yapping about?”

“I don’t know! They were talking to Dill about their family or something. They were talking about taking a hike. I couldn’t believe that. Two guys like that? Going up the foothills at this time of year? Marek is the only one that can manage that. And I really thought, the only guy that wanted to. I’m sorry, but those guys had a death wish. I had to say something. They were gonna get themselves killed. And I’m guessing ‘cause you’re here… Well, I’m guessing the reason you dragged me here is because that’s exactly what happened. I know that’s what happened.”

Jamison asked, “How do you know?”

A.J. went quiet.

“I know,” he said again.

Eve and Jamison exchanged glances.

“So what did they say? What started the fight?” Eve questioned, taking a sip of her coffee. A.J. mirrored her.

He said, “Dill was telling them ‘hmm maybe you should think twice about your stupid plan to go up the Rockies in a blizzard,’ but they didn’t listen and I just… I don’t know. I made a joke. He came at me right away and I’m not taking that. I don’t deserve that and the Red Rock doesn’t deserve that.”

“You’re not helping Dill by fighting, A.J.,” Eve said. “You’re making things much harder on him.”

He exclaimed, “I’m the only one that cares about keeping that place in line!”

“I’m right here,” Eve growled. “I care. You know I do.”

“Well—” he cut himself off. “Sure. But… He threw the first punch. He… He definitely… He…”

“He won the fight?” Jamison helped.

A.J. nodded. “Somebody walking by would probably say that.”

Eve asked, “What happened after the fight? Did the boys go back to their room?”

“I left. I went home. I’ve had it up to here with guys like that in my bar. Usually, it’s the summertime that they come around. That guy was looking for a fight and,” he leaned back with a smug grin, “I fulfilled his desires.”

Jamison let out a visceral ugh and looked at Eve with pursed lips.

“You went home after the fight and went straight to bed?” Eve continued.

“I was all jacked up afterward… Couldn’t sleep. You know I’m on 16th, so I can see right through to the Red Rock parking lot. I saw them leave in the morning too.”

“What? You saw them leave for the hike?”

He nodded.

“And? What did you see?” Eve pressed.

“They somehow looked even worse than the night before but they had gear and stuff… I don’t know. The fat one still looked like he needed another teeth kicking.”

“Did you see where they went?”

“To the foothills…” A.J. squirmed in his seat. “Listen, I gotta get back to work. I told you what I know. What else do you guys need?”

Eve thought of all the reminders to trust her intuition and trust her gut. Part of her wanted to say things were all good and to let A.J. go on his merry way. But another part was telling her that A.J. knew more, or that, maybe, he was lying.

“You saw them go all the way to the foothills from the Red Rock? Your house is on 16th. You couldn’t have seen all the way to the highway…”

“Well, I mean, I just assume they were going to the foothills because they were hiking, right?”

Now, he was lying, being purposefully obtuse.

Eve stared at him.

“What?” he snapped.

“A.J., did you follow them?”

“I…” He looked down at the table. “I wanted to give ‘em a piece of my mind. I hadn’t slept a wink. They were on a mission and they seemed pretty friggin’ happy about it.”

“How far did you go?”

“I didn’t have gear like they did. I followed them up a little and then veered off by the ranger station. I lost sight of them eventually and then…”

“Go on, A.J.”

“And then I heard the gunshot.”

Eve practically shot forward in her seat. “You were up there while we were? You waited around for that long?”

“I saw you and the ranger go up, but there’s no way you could see me in that weather. I smoked a little up there and was chilling. It was kinda amazing.”

Eve thought that Pearl probably would have found him.

“You should’ve told me this right away,” Eve said.

“I’m telling you now!”

“I need you to make an official statement with Sharon. You head to the station after work today, okay?”

“Whatever.”

“A.J., please. This is important. Your perspective can help us,” she stated and tried to catch his blue eyes. His gaze was intense and piercing, but his thick eyelashes fluttered and then he looked away.

“You followed those boys up out of what? Revenge? Curiosity?” Jamison prodded.

“No. Like I said, I wanted to give them a piece of my mind…” A.J. trailed off.

The real reason, in Eve’s purview, was that A.J. saw himself in Derek and maybe, he was seeking connection and friendship. A.J. didn’t have a lot of friends. Yes, he was close with his sister and her children, but he could be abrasive and reckless at the best of times and Eve almost always saw him alone.

“Your statement is important to us and to this case,” Eve said. “You like Sharon, right? She’ll help you.”

“Fine,” he snapped. “Fine. Okay. I’ll go after work.”

He stood up from the table. He slumped a jacket over his shoulders that was three sizes too big and muttered, “Thanks for the donut.”

Without another word, he stormed out of the bakery and turned into the wind, heading back towards his truck. Jamison leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. The metal bistro chair couldn’t handle that type of pressure, and even though he wasn’t a big man, Eve was worried it was going to snap because of his position. He let out a sigh and rubbed at his face.

“How do you deal with these people?” he mumbled.

Eve shrugged. “I like most of them. They’re just figuring it out like the rest of us.”

“He would have lied right to our faces if you hadn’t pushed him.”

“Yeah but he knew I was going to push him.”

Jamison chuckled. “Glad you got that because I certainly didn’t.”

“That’s the valley way, Jamison.” Eve winked. “Get on our level.”

“I’d rather not.”

Eve finished her coffee just as Jamison’s phone buzzed against the table. That was their cue that search and rescue was ready to go. Eve was raring to go as well. They needed to find Carter. Alive or dead, he needed to be found so they could unravel this and find out what happened. The gunshot that A.J. had heard had been the same one that Eve and Hackett had heard. The casing she had found had been in the woods. That meant whoever had shot that gun had theoretically shot it at someone that was running away. Her hunch told her that whoever was running away from that scene would have been Carter. But she couldn’t be certain yet that these brothers weren’t involved at all. It was possible that this wasn’t an innocuous trip, and that they were here to meet someone that was connected to Stern. Several people were at play. Not just Carter and Derek but whoever Roman had seen go up before them, which couldn’t be A.J., based on where he had been by the ranger station. But then, with A.J.’s track record of being a wildcard, Eve couldn’t be sure if everything he had told them was the truth. Beyond that, there could have been somebody already in that cabin, somebody sleeping there that they had no evidence of.

This was complex and high-stakes, and she hated that Stern had managed to take another person from Chesapeake Valley, even if it was a tourist from South Dakota. Even if they were criminals. She still had to uncover exactly what happened to Derek even if he hadn’t been a good man or citizen. Justice didn’t discriminate in that way. The answers could lead her right back to what she was truly searching for: Elijah Stern. She couldn’t get away from him if she tried. Even if she were to enter witness protection again and move states, Eve felt confident that Stern would find her again. He was making himself more and more known the longer the time passed since her mother’s death. He was not untouchable. He was arrogant and his blatant involvement in her town would be his downfall. Eve had to feel that way. She had to convince herself that this would not last, and that Chesapeake had not always been a front for drug and human trafficking.

Peace was the end goal, but to obtain peace, she had to go through war and the war had already started. She was on the front lines, and she would lay down her life for this town and these people.

Sheriff Eve Wicker

The blades of the helicopter whirred with a whip-whip rhythm. The air was filled with wind, and Eve was thankful she had tucked her hair under a beanie as she climbed into the chopper. Jamison buckled himself into his seat. The other person inside was a man named Herschel who was a volunteer from the Colorado Search and Rescue Association. Herschel had apparently rescued half a dozen climbers from a blizzard many years ago and since then had been actively involved in the CSRA and leapt at opportunities to go up into the Rockies. He held out a gloved hand to Eve as she landed on the last seat.

“Good to go, Sheriff?” he asked.

“I’m good,” she replied. “The ground team is at the ranger station with Sharon. They’re going to do another sweep and move their way up to Devil’s Bridge.”

“We’re gonna have to navigate to the other side,” the helicopter pilot said. “I can’t land anywhere near that bridge. I’ll have to drop you guys off.”

“Fine by me!” Herschel exclaimed and clamped the pilot’s shoulder. “Give me a far drop. Wind’s died down. Will be fun.”

“Let’s do things in the safest way,” Jamison spoke up.

“We want to be south of that cabin regardless,” Eve said. “We’ll be coming in from the other side and that’ll give us the most comprehensive search.”

“You don’t have enough volunteers for a ‘comprehensive search’,” Jamison noted. “I thought more would come out with the Chesapeake Valley pride.”

“They were tourists…” Eve mumbled. But even she had not been impressed with the volunteers that had shown up to help. Sharon had texted a pitiful list, but it was better than nothing.

“Ready for departure,” the pilot said into his headset. “Cleared to lift. Commencing take- off.”

The steel feet lifted from the open field of thin snow that they had been forced to use. They were not even in Eve’s county anymore, but Herschel had been adamant they would have the best access point from this spot. Plus, there was no place for a helicopter to touch down in Chesapeake Valley unless they wanted to plop her down in the middle of Main Street or the clinic parking lot.

Eve clutched to her seatbelt as the chopper lurched and then found stability, lifting into the open air.

Herschel didn’t sit down. He stood by the closed door, staring out the window.

“Been doing this a long time?” Eve called over the engine.

“Oh yeah! Twelve years with CSRA. What about you?”

“This is my first year as sheriff.”

“Really? I never would have guessed that. You seem pretty put together.”

“Glad to hear it,” Eve smiled.

“What you do before? Military?”

“NSA!”

“No way. Don’t see a lot of sheriffs that come from there…”

“It’s a lot different! What about you? You serve?”

He nodded. “Fourteen years in infantry!”

“Wow!”

“Hated every second,” he laughed. “Happy to actually be helping people again.”

“You don’t think the military helps people?” Jamison interjected.

“No,” Herschel turned. “I don’t.”

The conversation died and Eve turned to the window, watching fields and the Kingman farmhouse go by. Eventually, they passed over the mine and the decommissioned water tower. Then, Chesapeake Valley was all laid out underneath them. The sixteen even streets filled in the crook of the foothills, and the highway wrapped around the town like a ribbon around a Christmas present. The white steeple of the church blended in with the rest of the roofs from above, becoming another speck in the neutral squares aside from the Red Rock that stood out with its collection of rust-colored tops. The fresh snow provided white breaks and covered the green peaks of tall pine trees.

As the chopper veered, the angle pulled them up and away from viewing the foothills, so Eve couldn’t make note of the ground team, the ranger station, or Roman’s cabin.

The helicopter suddenly dipped and Eve grabbed one of the handles on the ceiling.

“Sorry,” the pilot said. “Going up.”

“Never been in one of these before, hey?” Herschel mused with a cheesy grin. He was wearing expensive-looking gear and goggles on his head. He had a thin gray beard, crooked teeth, and small eyes. It was hard to tell under the thick jacket, but he looked like a thin guy without a lot of muscle mass, like the type of person that you’d see at a health food store and who avoided sugar.

Eve shook her head. “Never.”

“Hopefully it’s the only time!” Herschel smiled and Eve returned it. She didn’t have an issue with heights. This was more exhilarating than she thought, but really, her mind was on Carter Stratus. It was on the mountainside and all the places he could be hiding or that his body was hidden. As the chopper veered back the other way, it opened up for her to truly look. Everything was covered with snow. In the calm after the blizzard, the Chesapeake Valley foothills were white and spotted with boulders. The face of the devil in the mountain followed the helicopter with sunken, cragged eyes. A packed chunk of snow hung off of his hooked stone nose. They got closer to the rocky edges, and Herschel went to the back of the chopper and came back with two harnesses in hand. He was already rigged up with a bright orange strap wrapped around his jacket and snow pants.

“Can you stand?” he asked Eve.

Eve shakily unclicked her seatbelt and stood, keeping her hand affixed to the handle behind her head.

“Step here…” Herschel pointed and Eve compiled. “And here. Great. Let’s just tighten her up. Perfect.”

He stepped back. The chopper lurched again, and they all had to grab something. Eve squeezed the handle and grabbed the back of the pilot’s seat.

“You okay, J?”

“Sorry,” The pilot replied. “Trying to find a good spot.”

“Up there,” Herschel pointed. “Look at that patch of fresh soft snow there. Great place to catch us if we fall.”

He laughed and Jamison scowled at him.

“What about you, Jack?” Herschel placed the harness at his feet. “You coming along?”

“I’ll stay in the chopper,” Jamison said, looking at Eve. “Think you can handle this?”

Eve nodded and said, “I got it. We’re gonna find something. I think so.”

“We’ll be close by when you do,” Jamison replied.

Eve nodded again, and she wanted to say something more but didn’t. So many moments in this job were life threatening, so it was hard to find the right moments to let people know that you appreciated them and that you hoped they didn’t die. She locked eyes with him and gave him a smile. He almost returned it; at least the corners of his mouth turned up on his weathered face. Eve accepted it and braced herself against the wind as Herschel threw open the helicopter door and whooped into the wide fresh mountain air.

With his boot, he kicked another strap off the edge of the helicopter that fell and unraveled twenty-five feet down to a patch of flat snow that was surrounded by pine trees. Eve surveyed the rocky mountainside towering to one side, the trees around the perimeter, and the cliff’s edge following back in the direction of the cabin. She noticed one oddly placed tree. It was sticking straight out from the cliff like it had been knocked over by something. It didn’t seem natural with the way it was placed, but she wasn’t sure. She wished for a brief moment that Hackett was there because she would probably know something about it. Despite her being semi-incompetent at times, she knew her stuff about nature and these mountains. She understood the weather patterns and the cycles of seasonal issues. Eve hoped she could figure out her situation. Hackett had a lot of potential. Eve wanted her to succeed in the long run, but she had mixed feelings about her constant underperformance.

“Be careful, Sheriff,” Jamison yelled as he stood from his seat, unbuckling his belt and rising on shaky legs, holding to the metal ceiling with his open palm. “You come back if it’s too dangerous! You walkie me!”

“I will,” Eve promised.

Jamison nodded.

Herschel said, “Ready? I think I’ll just strap you to me for this first time if you’re comfortable with that. The winch can handle both of us.”

“Alright,” Eve agreed and Herschel clamped a carabiner around their straps.

Herschel said, “Alright, J. We’re gonna drop out.”

Another engine started whirring as Herschel pulled them out onto the landing skid. The sound was coming from above their heads. The cable that ran between them was affixed to a metal arm coming out of the roof of the helicopter and a motorized drum that slowly started to unwind them into the air.

Eve stepped off with one boot and the other one slipped off, dangling against Herschel thirty feet off the ground. As they slowly rotated around the cable, she faced the helicopter and she saw Jamison watching from the open door above and J, the pilot, craning his neck to get a look at them. He was operating the chopper and the winch at the same time. Eve didn’t love that, and she could feel her heart increasing in rate by the second.

“You good?” Herschel yelled as they continued to drop.

Eve said “Yup,” and gave him a thumbs up. She had been through much worse.

The cold hit her face as they rotated again and her teeth chattered. She took her hand off the cable to pull her beanie down. They lowered almost all the way to the ground.

Herschel put his hand on their connected straps.

“I’m going to unclip us, okay? Ready?”

Eve looked down. It wasn’t far. “I’m ready.”

Herschel grinned at her before unclipping them and dropping them into the snow. Herschel landed on his boots; so did Eve, but then she stumbled to one side, throwing her one leg up and catching another glimpse of Jamison in the helicopter as it cocked away from the mountains with their weight off the winch.

“Whoa. Whoa…” Herschel pinched the fabric on her jacket.

“Sorry.” Eve planted her feet. “I’m good. I’m good.”

She brushed herself off and glanced back up. The helicopter pulled away from the mountains and started its way back into the distance. Jamison may have waved but she missed it. The sound of the whipping blades got quieter and quieter until it was just Eve, Herschel, and the trees.

“Some things to look out for… broken branches… animal droppings… pieces of clothing…”

“Bullet casings?” Eve surveyed the trees around them.

“Oh yeah. Definitely look out for those.”

Herschel whipped out a folded map from his pocket and stretched it out.

“You got your whistle? Compass?”

Eve pulled the whistle out from around her neck and touched the compass in her pocket. “Check.”

Tracing his finger down the map, Herschel explained, “We’re here. This map isn’t great. Doesn’t have any of the trails but it’s at least an estimate. This is our starting location. I’ll go along the edge. You go on the inside. We should each be heading north-northeast, until we can’t anymore. If we kept going that way, we should hit Devil’s Bridge eventually and that cabin. But hopefully we don’t have to go that far to get some answers.”

“I saw a weird tree along the cliff,” Eve said.

Herschel blinked at her. “A weird tree?”

“The way it was broken didn’t seem natural. You should check it out.”

“I will.” He grinned. “You’re a keen observer, Sheriff. You blow that whistle if you find anything, and I’ll come over right away. I won’t be far. You’re not alone.”

But it didn’t feel that way. As they split and Eve worked through the trees along the face of the mountain, she felt very much alone. She could barely hear the crunching of Herschel’s boots in the snow through the thick foliage and humid air. Eventually, it was just the sound of her own boots hitting the snow and an occasional twig snapping as she moved through the forest. She scanned and surveyed the surroundings, but the snow looked untouched, as if no one had ventured up here for years, if not decades.

Up ahead, snow plopped off a branch.

“Hello?” Eve called. “Sheriff’s department!”

A bird broke out from a tree and escaped into the sky. Herschel called on occasion too, his gruff voice cutting through the blank air.

She ran into a squirrel, a few more birds, and even a badger as she walked along the mountainside with wide strides. She could see that the stone dipped in up ahead. A large mouth of a cave opened up in the body of the mountain. Eve peered into it and whipped out a flashlight to try and get a better view. The light bounced off the empty stone.

“Hello?” she called into it and her voice echoed down the length of it, disappearing into darkness.

She stepped inside.

There were no signs of anyone taking refuge here. The snow had blown in, creating a drift at the entrance, but when she landed with her feet on the stone, she could feel the drop in temperature and complete isolation. Nobody was here. But if there was a body, they wouldn’t be yelling back. She had to at least check where this cave went. Any sounds that Herschel was making completely disappeared as she ventured farther in. Memories of the mine and the bear came flooding to the front of her mind. The last thing she wanted to run into was another starving, rabid grizzly, but up here, it would make more sense. She would be intruding on its home instead of the other way around.

The flashlight scanned the stone walls and on the ceiling, the circle of light landed on a deep, strange etching. They were symbols, dug into the stone, definitely something by a human. She followed the symbols and they went all the way down the length of the cave, like a tattoo on its spine. Was it a code? Something for Stern’s men to follow? Or an ancient secret? Buried for centuries, waiting to be discovered by an archeologist, not a sheriff.

Eve flicked between the ceiling and ahead of her as she continued forward. The cave was at least fifty feet deep, and it showed no sign of stopping as she got to the end which split the cave into two tunnels. At the end of one of the tunnels, she saw something hanging off the wall. It was a metal hook of some kind, maybe at one point used to hold an axe or a pick. Hackett had said something about the miners using the cabin as a place to stay while they explored and mined the cave system up here.

“Carter?” Eve called down the long dark corridor. “Sheriff’s office! Anyone there?”

If he had found a place to hole up deep in the mines, she didn’t know how they were going to gather the resources to find him. They needed a bigger team, and they certainly couldn’t tote them all up by helicopter. That meant rallying volunteers to climb over Devil’s Bridge to get here, and most people weren’t keen on risking their lives for strangers. Eve was, but she recognized that that lifestyle wasn’t for everyone.

She didn’t know how far she could go before getting lost herself, but she ventured a bit further in to see where the southern tunnel led. She was getting off track. She was getting too far. But she also had to be thorough because she would be kicking herself if she left Carter Stratus’ body just around the corner from where she was now.

The light went first, sweeping around a turn and a sharp decline that she almost slipped right off of. Her boot kicked small stones down the slide and echoed in the expansive open area that Eve was now facing down. It was the mines all over again. There were broken tracks and overturned carts below. An expansive system of back and forth and up and down pulley systems was laid out in what must have once been a central mining hub. In a distant corner, she clocked the corner of an old steel elevator with her light.

“Hello?!” Eve yelled and a cacophony of echoes came back at her.

No response. Nothing. Just the stone and metal of the miners’ past. There were no signs of blood or of somebody dragging themselves in here either. If Carter had been shot, there should have been blood somewhere.

Distantly, something squealed. Eve whipped over her shoulder and sprinted back to where she came from. That was Herchel’s whistle. She became confident of that as she came back out into the cave with the symbols on the ceiling, and the whistle blew again with two short calls.

Eve burst out into the snow and pushed her way through pine trees and stones to follow the sound.

“There you are!” Herschel yelled, cupping a hand over his eyes even though the skies were entirely gray. “Is this that tree you were talking about?”

Herschel stood next to a snapped pine tree that was overhanging the cliffside.

“Geez.” Eve caught her breath. “I thought you were in trouble.”

“No. No. Good to check in though. Find anything?”

“A freaky abandoned miner’s cave.”

“No way.” Herschel peered over her shoulder. “That sounds amazing.”

“It’s way bigger than I thought. I think it must lead back to the mines in town somehow. It’s crazy to see what they built back then and then they just… left it.”

“Nothing left to mine, I guess,” Herschel shrugged. “Humans love to ruin things.”

Eve let out a sad laugh. “It’s kinda beautiful. Again, in a freaky kind of way. It’s cryptic in there. Symbols on the ceiling.”

“Really? Like cave paintings?”

“I’m not sure. Don’t think it has anything to do with the guy we’re looking for.”

“Any signs of him?”

“Not yet. That cave would have been a good spot to hole up, but maybe he didn’t get that far.” Eve swung towards the north, squinting into the trees. She stepped forward to analyze the tree. The trunk was snapped with jagged edges. The break was higher up than a traditional tree fall, like it had been hit by something. She asked, “What do you think this is about?”

“Bit weird,” Herschel said. “But it doesn’t really give us any answers.”

“Then let’s keep going.”

“You got it, boss,” he replied.

Eve hated that, but it wasn’t a hill worth dying on right now to scold him about her namesake.

“Let’s keep going,” Eve stated and Herschel nodded.

Despite the cold, she was starting to sweat, and she could see the same flushed exhaustion developing on Herschel’s cheeks and nose.

“You need a break?” Eve suggested.

“No. No. We’ve only got so much time. Something’s gotta give.”

Eve nodded and turned back toward the mountains. As she got back into position, she noted a line of caves along the stone. Most were small, barely big enough for a person, but a couple were tall and wide, and she assumed they led back into the mines. Ahead, at one of the small caves, Eve noticed a tree leaning toward the mountain. Some of the branches were broken and collapsed in, and as she got closer, she noted that some of the needles were stuck together. At first, she thought it could’ve been sap but upon inspection, it was thick, coagulated, frozen blood.

Eve immediately got out her whistle and blew three times.

“Sheriff’s office!” she yelled. “We’re here! Make yourself known!”

Roman Marek

Roman hadn’t hesitated to volunteer when Eve had put out the request. But it was pretty sad when they gathered all together in the Foothills Parking Lot. Eight of them had shown up. Nine if you counted Karu. Sharon was leading the pack and Roman didn’t recognize everyone that had graciously volunteered their time to search for some idiot who got lost in the mountains during a blizzard. But Ranger Hackett was there too, and so was Catherine Presley from the Harvest Moon Festival last fall. It was all women aside from him. That made him even more annoyed. Just for the fact that he knew of several capable men from Chesapeake that could have volunteered. He thought of the guys at Timber’s or Brown’s or even Rodney from Value Lumber. But he supposed somebody like Rodney was too busy to take the time off work. He was also missing Ken. Ken would’ve been here if he was in town.

Sharon set them up with starting locations and end spots and passed out a map to each of them.

“I don’t need that,” Roman said as she tried to shove the glossy paper into his hands.

“Just take it, Marek,” Sharon replied.

He complied and put it in his inside jacket pocket.

They swept the foothills and Karu ran between the volunteers like a tour guide, explaining which trees had the best smells. They found very little other than some litter and irritated snowbirds. As they got closer to Roman’s cabin, Sharon came up next to him and pointed to his woodpile and the stump with his brand new axe stuck in it.

“Been doing some chopping?” she asked.

“Always.”

“Is that axe new?”

He looked down at her. “How would you know that?”

She shrugged. “I’ve been here a few times before. I remember that old axe you had with the taped handle.”

“Yeah. It needed to be replaced…”

“Where’d you get it from?”

“Value Lumber.”

“Oh yeah. Rodney. He’s a nice guy.”

“He is…” Roman trailed off, not understanding all these questions around his axe. He was certainly getting the feeling that a lot of people didn’t trust him. Sharon included.

“I lost my old one,” he added.

“How does that happen out here?”

“I don’t know. I woke up on Wednesday and it was gone. The storm may have buried it somewhere and I’ll find it in the spring.”

Sharon gave him a fake smile, “Here’s hoping.”

“Everything okay?” he asked.

“Oh yeah,” she nodded. “Who wouldn’t want to be hiking up in the foothills searching for a body on a Friday?”

Roman laughed. “Your favorite pastime.”

“I do love it. I’m joking, of course. I do love my job and I’m grateful to get to do it. Especially with Eve.”

“Yeah. She likes you too.”

“I hope so. I’m not as crazy dedicated as she is, but she inspires me to do better.”

“I think she does that to everyone.”

Sharon cocked her head, and Roman tried not to look directly at her, instead keeping her in his peripherals, to avoid whatever judgmental stare she was trying.

“You saw three guys going up the mountain on Wednesday? Is that right?” Sharon questioned. Karu beelined ahead of them as they broached the perimeter of the cabin and headed uphill.

“One guy before the brothers, I think.”

“Do you remember what they looked like?”

“They were all wrapped up in snow gear. It was hard to make out any details.”

“Nothing to separate them from the pack?”

“I want to say that the first guy was bald… but he was wearing a beanie, so, again, hard to tell.”

The trek was getting harder, and in a matter of minutes, Sharon went from conversing to breathing heavily. Karu did a loop back to check and make sure they were still coming and Roman waved him off.

“How’s Nic doing?” Roman asked after a few more moments of struggling through the snow.

“Ugh.” Sharon breathed. “So busy. He’s been putting in so much overtime with this new project he’s on.”

“He’s Air Force, right?”

“Right. You’d know all about that, wouldn’t you?”

Roman let out a mild scoff. “No. No. I was a Marine, remember?”

“Oh. I remember. Nic says you guys are unhinged.”

Roman laughed again, not knowing how to take that.

“Maybe a little,” he said.

Sharon double-checked a tree before continuing. “What was it like?”

“The Marines?”

She nodded.

“That’s a big question…” Roman replied. “It certainly wasn’t easy. The training is brutal. You need good guys around you. Keeps you sane and accountable. I made some good friends. Lost a good friend too.”

“Sorry to hear that. Still in touch with any of them?”

“Not really. I moved here to get away from it all.”

“Why? I thought you moved here to get away from your ex?”

“Well, yeah. There were lots of different reasons. I needed a new start after being overseas for way too long.”

“Where were you posted?”

“Lots in the middle east. I also spent some time in Romania and Ukraine… Belarus… All over.”

“Wow. Must have been amazing to travel the world that way.”

“I’m not sure ‘amazing’ is the right word. It was a constant struggle. We were never there to make friends.”

Sharon stopped and looked him in the face. Her olive skin was spotted with sweat and her brown eyes locked on to him. With the angle of the mountain and being ahead of him, she was actually almost at eye level.

“And now?” she asked.

“Now what?”

“Here to make friends?”

Roman held up a hand. “Look, Sharon. I don’t know what the problem is here, but I’m not trying to cause you any trouble. I came here to help.”

“You want to help Eve. That’s what you care about.”

“Well… yeah. But I live here too. I want to contribute. I dealt with guys just like Stern when I was deployed. I know exactly how shifty and… insistent they can be.”

“You know about Stern?” Sharon glanced over her shoulder.

The rest of the party had fanned out but they were now grouping back together as they got closer to Devil’s Bridge.

“Eve told me the whole story.”

“No way.” Sharon’s eyes went wide. “She told you everything?”

“I know all about her past.”

“She must trust you.”

“She does.”

A silence fell over them as they stared each other down again. Sharon turned on her boot and started climbing again. She threw over her shoulder, “At least, someone does.”

Roman bit his tongue and followed behind her.

The sound was eventually filled in by their heavy breathing, and more snow boots falling in behind them as the pathway narrowed down to one avenue to the top.

“I think he deserves to be punished for everything he’s done to Eve and her family,” Roman said after another minute.

“Big surprise there,” Sharon replied over her shoulder.

“I mean it. If I see that guy, I’ll—”

“Don’t do that, Marek. Come on. You’re better than that.”

Roman let out a low chuckle. “Maybe. Don’t you think he deserves it?”

“That’s not for me to decide. It’s not for you or Eve to decide either.” She stretched into a long stride, pulling herself up the last step until the snow leveled off into a flat environment, leading straight to Devil’s Bridge. The last step was wide even for Roman and as soon as he was up, Sharon poked him in the chest and said, “So you better check yourself before you wreck yourself, soldier. I know she feels the same way you do. But you can’t just go in making citizen’s arrests or worse than that just because you feel a certain way about their behavior. A case needs to be built.”

“And Eve is working on that. Why are you coming at me, Sharon? I’m here to help.”

She snapped in her lips and glared up at him.

“You know how much I care about Eve,” he said. “I love her.”

“I know…” That softened her a bit. Her eyelashes fluttered and she looked towards the group of gathering volunteers, more of them out of breath than Roman expected. The average person was pretty unfit for mountain trekking, especially in conditions like this. At least the snow had packed a bit with the traffic going up and down, but Roman was worried it was going to make for an icy descent.

“I love her too,” she said.

Roman lightly put his hand on Sharon’s shoulder and gave her a gentle squeeze. She returned his gesture with a small smile and then brushed his hand off of her with her glove.

“Alright. Enough,” she laughed. “We’ve got work to do.”

“I haven’t seen any signs of anyone down there,” Roman nodded.

“Hopefully Eve is having better luck…” Sharon circled around him and started gathering the others. Ranger Hackett eyed him as she pulled up her snow goggles and dabbed the sweat from her forehead. Karu let loose a bark in her direction and Roman shushed him with a gentle pat and scratch under the chin.

He felt targeted. Isolated. They weren’t unusual feelings to him, but he didn’t want this to transfer to Eve. He just had to stay honest and honorable. He couldn’t control what the park ranger, what Jack Jamison, or what Sharon thought of him. People had always found a way to find something to dislike about him. Maybe he was just off-putting. Maybe he had several deep character flaws from an undeveloped childhood. He had spent too much time in the barn, with the animals, doing work. His siblings had played: hide and seek, soccer, no bears out tonight (which was like hide and seek but reversed); but Roman had often stayed on the ranch, picking up chores. There was always something to do. That’s what Mom had said. Though she often scolded any of them for sitting around, especially Natalie, Roman had taken that to heart. Wasting time was a deadly sin when there was so much opportunity in the world. There were so many chances and risks to be taken. There were still so many people to meet and, based on his track record, people to hate him. Maybe hate was too strong. But as Sharon surveyed the group and explained their next steps of waiting around, Roman noticed that she didn’t look at him once. And it wasn’t hate, but it also hadn’t been too strong of a word. The better way to describe what Sharon seemed to feel toward him was fear.

Sheriff Eve Wicker

Eve followed the blood to a packed trail of footprints in the snow. She pointed them out to Herschel and he pumped his fist twice in the air, his jacket crinkling. She was pretty sure that was a tactical hand sign for “let’s speed up” or “double time”. With a nod and a thumbs up, Eve ducked under branches, following the trail back to the mountainside where a shallow cave was almost entirely covered by a snow drift. A black gap at the top opened up like the mouth of a frog.

“Hello?” Eve called.

Something groaned.

“Sheriff’s office,” she said. “Can you make yourself known?”

“Help…” the voice returned. “Help me.”

Herschel pressed himself against the rock. He peered inside and gave Eve another sign that was one finger up and then his hand out at his shoulder, like he was measuring somebody’s height. She guessed it meant one adult or one guy.

“Do you have any weapons?”

“No…” the cave replied. “Nothing. Please. Something’s wrong.”

Eve started clearing out the snow. As the daylight peaked in, a man in snowpants with his jacket draped over him laid against the side of the cave. It was Carter Stratus. Eve recognized him from the photos. His face was greasy and slick with sweat and grime and the little hair he had left was stuck to his forehead. His lips were pale and chapped.

Eve slinked in and checked his vitals.

“Carter Stratus. I’m Eve Wicker. Sheriff of Chesapeake Valley. We’re going to get you out of here, okay?”

All he could do was groan.

“Herschel, walkie the chopper,” Eve directed and Herschel nodded, crouching at the entrance, clearing out more of the drift with his gloves. “We’re going to need first aid. He doesn’t look good. He’s burning up.”

Eve examined him further, trying to find the reason. As she slipped his jacket down, he was wearing white henley underneath and the upper portion of one arm was soaked through with blood and pus.

“What’s this?” Eve asked. Eve touched lightly to the wound that he had wrapped in a now-soaked sock. Carter winced with pain. It was swollen, and as she tried to pull the sock a bit, he winced again, his blood sticking him to the fabric.

“A bullet…” Carter managed.

“Who shot you?”

He shook his head.

“You’re gonna be okay,” Eve reassured.

“Derek’s dead,” he spat.

“I’m sorry, Carter. I know. But you’re not. Do you think you can get to your feet? Should we get the stretcher?”

“I can… walk,” he said.

His energy was coming back, and when Eve tilted his mouth to give him some water and feed him some nuts, the redness in his face started to subside. He still had a fever, and if they didn’t get him treated for that wound ASAP, he could get sepsis.

“Should we dress that wound?” Herschel asked as Eve ducked back out of the cave. “It’s a bit far to get him to the closest clinic, right? You guys have one in town?”

“We have one in town. I think we should dress it. It looks bad right now. You have the kit, right?”

“Sure do, boss.”

“Did you walkie?”

“They’re on their way.”

Something loud cracked above their heads. Eve saw the snow first. Several heavy-looking packs of snow were falling off the cliffside above, and a long, crooked branch barreled toward them.

A force hit Eve in the chest and she went flying backwards. Herschel had pushed her out of the way, reaching forward to get her out of harm’s way as the branch came tumbling across the back of his neck.

“Herschel!” Eve cried. More from above plopped down onto his body, and Eve instinctively covered her eyes to avoid the swirling snow.

A branch must have snapped. Eve felt incredibly unlucky, like the mountains were trying to kill them, or at least keep Carter Stratus to itself. She leapt forward as the white cleared and started uncovering the snow from Herschel’s body.

“Herschel, can you hear me?” she called. “Please, let me know you’re okay.”

He didn’t say anything.

She scrambled to remove the branch. She put one boot on either side of Herschel’s lithe body. She gripped the branch like she was doing a deadlift and hoisted it up with a growl from deep in her throat. With another grunt, she swung her arms forward and dropped the branch in the snow above Herschel’s head.

“Herschel!” She crouched down. She didn’t want to move his head for fear that the branch had severely hurt his neck. They needed a stretcher. They needed backup. Herschel’s face was on its side and Eve cleared away more snow, but his eyes didn’t flicker open. He was still breathing and she could feel a pulse.

She grabbed her walkie.

“Priority. Jamison,” she called. “Jamison. Director. Come in.”

After a few grueling seconds, her walkie crackled in response and she heard, “Sheriff. We’re here. Over.”

“What’s your ETA? We got a tango down here.”

“Time: minutes. Can you hold ground until we touch down?”

“Roger. But we need a stretcher. We can’t move him like this.”

“Acknowledge. We’ve got one.” There was a pause and then, Jamison came back on with, “Confirm your position, Sheriff.”

“Target was tracked one kilometer north-west from the drop-off.”

“Acknowledge. Hold tight.”

“Wilco. Over.”

“Out.”

Jamison clicked off. One last bunch of snow plopped down at Eve’s side, next to Herschel’s still body. Then the only sound was Carter struggling to his feet behind her.

“What... happened?” he groaned.

“Tree fell.” Eve turned over her shoulder. She held out an arm for Carter to take as he stepped over the drift at the front of the cave. “They’re coming for us.”

“I don’t need the stretcher,” Carter coughed and reiterated. “I can walk. He needs it. Is he gonna be okay?”

“I think they’re coming to us.”

Eve bent down by Herschel and tried to get him up again. “Herschel… Herschel. It’s Eve Wicker. You’ve been in an accident, but you’re gonna be okay. We’re gonna get you out of here.”

His eyelids moved at the sound of her voice and he let out a soft groan. Eve had two injured persons and one shot to get them back to the chopper. They had one stretcher. She had little helicopter experience. Herschel had been her crutch, and it had just been kicked out from under her arm. They were surrounded by trees and the helicopter wouldn’t have anywhere to land. That meant they would have to use the winch again. The sun peeked through the clouds, breaking through on the other side of the mountains, orange rays piercing up and into the overcast sky, just to let them know that it was disappearing.

Eve swore under her breath. She gently turned Herschel into a recovery position.

Carter leaned against a tree to stabilize himself, watching her.

“You came for me,” he said.

“We did,” she replied.

“You came for my brother…”

“I found him. I found him in that cabin…”

Eve arranged Herschel’s jacket, trying to ready him for the stretcher.

“You didn’t see what happened?” Carter asked.

“No.” Eve looked over her shoulder. “Did you?”

“I…” Carter’s eyes welled with tears. “I saw it happen. It happened really fast. We… We didn’t know what we walked into. They immediately thought we were… I don’t know what they thought but they didn’t want us there.”

“It’s okay, Carter.”

The sound of the whirring helicopter approached from a distance.

“We’re gonna talk about this and we’re going to figure it all out.”

“You’re going to want to…” Carter’s voice was dry and weak, but what he said was intentional. Eve couldn’t make sense of what that meant. It almost sounded threatening, and she knew there was more to uncover with this man. This could very well run deeper than a foolish hike. The brothers had walked into something they were never supposed to see. At least, for Derek, that seemed true. But maybe Carter had a tie to the Vine and this was just another drug deal gone very wrong, and now Eve and Jamison were bending over backward to save a criminal from the bed he’d made. But she wanted to believe that wasn’t true. With the way the tears easily escaped from Carter’s eyes and the lack of survival knowledge, her intuition was telling her that wasn’t the truth. But her experience with manipulative liars and Stern’s devious cronies forced her to keep the theory in play.

As the chopper hovered over them, the trees bent in its wind and the snow that had fallen from above was cleared with the power of its blades.

The cable from above came down with Jamison hooked to the winch, and a bright orange stretcher under his arm. Jamison’s gear wasn’t quite as up to date, and he looked surprisingly small wrapped up in his glove, hat, and thick jacket. His boots dropped in the snow, and he rushed into action.

“Let’s move him over!” Jamison squared himself under Herschel to lift him with proper technique. Eve took his shoulders while Jamison took his legs, and they managed to get the search and rescue volunteer on to the stretcher and strapped in with little trouble. Once they got the strap across his forehead, Herschel came to life again under the roaring of the helicopter.

“Oh my—” Herschel took in a sharp breath and his eyes went wide, searching the air. He found Eve’s stare. “What happened?”

“You’re gonna be okay,” Eve replied. “Just a falling branch.”

“Damn…” he whispered. “What about…What about the target?”

Eve looked across the clearing at Carter who was watching them intently.

“He’s going to be fine,” she smiled. “You did great, Herschel.”

“Thank… Thank goodness…” he swallowed. His fingers flexed like he was reaching for something.

“You want to go up with him?” Jamison asked, yanking on the winch.

“You go,” Eve directed. “Carter and I will come up after you.”

So even then, the theory was playing in her mind, not wanting to leave Jamison alone with Carter for fear that he had a piece to play in his brother’s murder. But she and Carter got up to the chopper and into their seats with no incidents. Though it was crammed in the metal interior on the way back to town, they were able to touch down in the clinic parking lot for an emergency landing. Sharon had called down to Dom to clear away the cars in anticipation of their arrival, and both Dr. Dom Blanchard and Reg Henson were waiting for them as they pulled out Herschel on a stretcher and quickly transferred him on to a gurney. He had lost consciousness again on the flight, and Eve could only hope that he was going to walk away from this with no serious injuries.

She escorted Carter back to the station where she warmed him up with an emergency blanket and a fresh cup of coffee. She found it difficult to tell if Jamison shared her suspicions of Carter or if that was just his natural scrupulous way. But regardless, their boots were back on the ground, and the flashlight was back hanging in her locker. Eve’s legs felt shaky as she sat in her office chair to grab a bite of a donut that Sharon had grabbed for them from the bakery. The taste of her father’s baking brought Eve entirely back into her own head and out of the mountains, even though this was far from over. The foothills were not done with her yet, and she wasn’t finished with Carter Stratus.

Jamison and Eve had rescued who they could from the grasp of the Rockies, but there was much more held within its clutches, keeping Eve and the people of Chesapeake Valley from its mysteries. Derek Stratus was a small pebble rolling down the hill, and if she didn’t stop it, it would become a rockslide and the boulders would head straight down to crush them. Whatever was up in that cabin was opening up more dark alleyways in and around this town, and it had to be stopped before the alleyways became the streets and the darkness became the norm.

There was a reason that Sheriff Broder had hated this job and had taken off the way he had. He had been itching to get out. This town hadn’t had a committed sheriff in a long time because of the way the foothills and the people pushed the boundaries of what a small mountain town was capable of. It wasn’t just the high crime, but the enigmas that baited Eve around every corner, pushing and pulling at her to answer their questions before she’d had the time to just clear the snow from her driveway. She didn’t hope for things to get easier. She hoped for things to get clearer. Once she understood exactly who was building these alleyways and throwing these pebbles in her town, she could eliminate them.

She couldn’t be sure what Carter Stratus represented and whether he would be another potential rockslide, but she knew that she had to question him intensely. She would not be letting up. Herschel deserved answers. Derek deserved answers, and so did the mountains. She deserved answers and so did Mom. The only way to get answers was to ask the right questions, and Eve hoped she was up to the task.

She got up from her office chair and went to the back room. She circled the corkboard and checked on the strings and photos she had laid that were all connected to Elijah Stern. She reminded herself of the details and found her eyes lingering on Georgia Turnbull’s photo, her mixed-colored eyes staring into her. Eve could have sunk into the wall behind her and stared at Georgia for hours. The way the guilt ate at her was strong enough to keep her gnawing at the photos. But it wasn’t these photos that had the answers, it was the people in them and the people around her. Any way she tried to make sense of these situations couldn’t be relied on, because there wasn’t one right path that was going to lead her to the satisfaction of avenging her mother’s death. She felt reinvigorated by the helicopter and the rescue in the mountains. Two lives had been saved by her today, and it was only fuel for what was to come next.

Sheriff Eve Wicker

Eve gave Carter a couple of hours to rest so he could be in tip-top shape when she questioned him. That also gave Sharon and the rest of the volunteers enough time to return from the mountain.

Roman held the door open for Sharon, Hackett, Pearl, and Karu to gather inside the lobby of the station. Through the floor to ceiling windows, Eve watched some of the other volunteers give each other hugs and pats on the back before piling into their cars and heading back home for a warm dinner.

Roman closed the distance between them and brought her into a hug that swept her off her feet.

“I’m so proud of you,” he said into her ear, placing her back down.

Eve laughed. “Thanks. It wasn’t easy. Thanks for coming out to help.”

“Of course.”

Sharon came up to them next.

“Roman’s got a future career in enforcement with how thorough he is,” she joked and eyed Eve, watching Roman’s hand on her shoulder.

“No. No. Never again,” Roman lifted a hand and waved her off.

Pearl came up to Eve’s pants, and Eve bent down to scratch her ears.

“Did you help, Pearl?” she whispered to her and the border collie gave her a lick on the nose.

“She’s awesome, Sheriff,” Hackett said from behind Roman. “I don’t think I’m going to be giving her back!”

“Yeah, right,” Eve chuckled. “I’d sooner arrest you.”

They all joined in on that one except for Jamison who was sitting in Eve’s office chair with his laptop on his knees.

“Take her back up with you,” Eve said to Hackett. “I don’t think we’re exactly done here so I want her keeping her nose up there.”

Pearl nudged at Eve’s boot and whined.

“I know, honey,” Eve whispered. “Just a bit longer.”

“I’ll take care of her!” Hackett tried to get around Roman’s huge frame. After she put her small hands on his hip, he stepped towards Sharon, almost knocking her out of the way too. “Don’t worry, Sheriff, I’m taking great care of her.”

“Good, Hackett,” Eve gave her a nod and Hackett reached out to shake her hand.

“Where was he?” she asked.

“A small cave. About a quarter of a mile past that cabin. He had a mild infection, but Dom gave him something that really seemed to clear him up.”

“And?” Sharon asked. “What’s his deal?”

Eve looked around the room at all the eyes staring back at her. Even Jamison looked up from his screen, searching for answers.

“Not sure yet. Going to find out.”

Sharon cleared her throat. “I need to talk to you, Eve.”

Sharon rounded her desk and opened her computer, pushing the rolling chair towards Roman.

“Now?”

“Well, sooner rather than later. We…” she looked up and around. “We got an email from Tucson PD. About Sully Richardson.”

“No way. Good news?”

Sharon grinned. Eve leaned over the computer with her as she pulled up an email from the captain over at Tucson. He detailed that they had spoken to Sully Richardson and gotten his statement. They attached the records that they would need more time to go over in detail, but the gist was that the car had been stolen from his farmyard. It took him over a week to notice it was gone, because as the reporting officer put it, “the yard was in disarray.” Sharon pointed it out on the screen and looked up at Eve with a sideways glance.

“It says he’s open to a call with you,” Sharon said.

“That’s perfect. We can set up a video call first. I’ll go down there if I need to.”

“You can’t leave now,” Hackett interrupted from the other side of the desk.

“I’m not planning to… but there are other factors at play here.”

“With this guy? With the axe?”

“Axe?” Roman questioned and immediately his eyes landed on Sharon. Eve leaned back and looked between them. They both had stiffened, and Roman’s gaze became a glower. It seemed like something had happened up on that mountain and that the volunteer’s side of things had not been so uneventful even though they hadn’t found anything.

“I need you all to leave this to me.” Eve put her hand on her belt and stood up straight. “I appreciate your time today. Truly. But I’ve got a person of interest to question to move forward in this case. Hackett, you take good care of Pearl. Roman, I’ll…” her eyes annoyingly landed on Jamison. “I’ll see you later.”

“Okay,” he replied.

He stepped forward, bent down, and kissed her on the lips. Eve barely had a chance to react, and there was a small gasp that rippled through the station and an annoyed tsk of her teeth from Sharon.

He caught her eyes with his dark cutting stare and said, “I’ll see you later.”

The man needed little more convincing, because he seemed to sense the tension in the air like Eve did. He wasn’t dense. Eve felt taken off guard by the kiss and whatever was building between him and her closest friend. This was not the distraction she needed right now. But she couldn’t shake the feeling of the warmth of his large hands across her back and the pressing of his strong core against her upper body, even after he grabbed his coat and left. He threw it on over his shoulders when he was outside and made a beeline for his ATV where Karu was patiently waiting. He gave Eve another one of his stares, boring through the glass and striking her fervently, before he slipped his dark-visored helmet over his head and ripped off towards the highway. Hackett had one arm in her jacket by the time Eve was able to pay attention to the station again. She strapped Pearl up and gave them all a salute on her way out.

Just Jamison, Sharon, and she remained, but the room still felt stifling.

“You okay?” Sharon broke the silence.

“What was that?” Eve hissed.

“What do you mean?” Sharon cocked an eyebrow.

“You know what, Sharon. The axe. Why did he look at you like that?”

Jamison said, “I know why.”

They both turned their eyes to the old man in Eve’s office chair. He ran a hand down his pant leg and continued, “Because he feels guilt.”

“Guilt for what?”

“His axe went missing,” Sharon said. “Did he tell you that?”

“What? No. God. Okay. Geez. Yes, Jamison said something. No.” Eve couldn’t find words. “Why? Was it his axe? We don’t know anything yet!”

“I’m trying to find that out,” she nodded.

Eve tried to take a breath, “I can’t do this right now. I need to talk to Carter. He knows what happened up there. We need to find out. I’m going in there. You guys can hold down the fort here?”

“Of course,” Sharon replied. “I don’t know if I trust him, Eve.”

“Sharon. You know him. He’s not capable of something like this…”

“Not this, but what is he capable of? Have you talked to him about what he did overseas?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Roman Marek was part of a special forces unit called ‘the Clandestines’,” Jamison spoke up. “They were covert super operatives who trained extensively in assassination, coups, espionage, and subterfuge.”

“What?”

It was all Eve could manage.

“We can talk more about it, Sheriff, but your deputy is right,” Jamison nodded at Sharon. “You shouldn’t trust him. He’s an expert in manipulation.”

“I’m not…” Eve resisted the urge to defend her intelligence. “We will be talking more about this.”

She looked at both of them. She was annoyed at them both for bringing this up in this way, and now of all times. Sharon had brought it up as soon as she could, but how long had Jamison been sitting on that information? Eve escaped into the back room and closed the door behind her, which was almost always left open. She needed the space. She refilled her coffee cup and tried to steady her breathing.

Carter had his phone plugged into the wall and had moved one of the chairs over from the table to be in front of the window because the cord didn’t reach. He jumped when the door opened and looked at Eve with wide bloodshot eyes.

“It’s you,” he said.

“Just me,” she replied. “You ready to talk about what happened?”

“We should do it now.” He nodded and put his phone down on the table. “While it’s fresh.”

He scooted his chair back over to the middle of the table. His muscles seemed weak and stiff, and his face was still flushed from the fever. A pang of guilt hit her, but the farther they got away from this, the more time he would have to forget or to develop a new story.

“I’m going to record this if you don’t mind,” Eve pulled out the digital voice recorder and placed it on the table.

“Understandable…” Carter muttered.

“Why don’t you start from the beginning?”

“There’s not really a beginning. I mean we’re family, right? So the beginning was birth.”

“You mean because of your brother?”

“Because of my dad,” he explained. “He’s the whole reason for this. He was the reason we were here.”

“Oh. Where’s he at now?”

“He died last summer.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. What happened?”

“Heart attack in the backyard. Just dropped right there.”

“Geez. I’m sorry, Carter.”

“It sucked. He was a great guy.” He stifled sobs. “Derek really missed him. He was really struggling without him.”

“Can you give me a jumping off point?” Eve asked.

“Okay. Okay well, the funeral, I guess. Even though it actually started when I was like fourteen, we came here, we hiked to Devil’s Bridge. It was around the same time of year, like holiday break, but… the weather was way different. When we were kids, Dad loved hiking and grew up over here in the Rockies. He always talked about how much he missed it, so any chance he got he would drive us down here. Super far drive. Mom hated it. Sometimes we hit Yosemite too. It was great when we were kids. Got harder to do when we got older. I regret telling him ‘no’ so many times, for sure. I should’ve taken advantage. Derek was always gung-ho though. Him and Dad went out without me… after I left for college, they stayed out in the Rockies for weeks, backpacking, living off of berries and twigs or whatever.” Carter laughed a little. “I was always a little jealous. Derek had it easy with Dad. I had to make an effort. But that was okay. Parents always have a favorite. Even though they say they don’t.”

He looked down at the table and interlaced his fingers.

“Do you have children?” Eve asked.

“I have a son. His name’s Benjamin. He’s four. I’ve got him half the time. My ex and I split up the weekends and holidays. It’s an okay system. I do wish sometimes I could see him more and then… I don’t really…” he cleared his throat and dabbed sweat from his forehead.

“How did you guys decide to come to Chesapeake Valley?”

“Right. Well, we were here as kids. And at the funeral, we both got super drunk. The amount of red wine we drank was sickening. So we’re both collapsed in Grandma’s upstairs bathroom and Derek says ‘we should go visit the devil’, and I knew right away what he was talking about. He wanted to come here. It seemed like a great idea at the time. Dad would have been proud. His two boys coming together to spread his ashes in the Rockies. It was everything he loved. But when I booked the hotel, Derek was already not doing well. He was living half in the bottle and just looking for trouble everywhere he went. I had him move in with me about two months ago. This trip was a huge step for him. I was really proud of him.” He choked on some more tears.

“So what happened on Wednesday?” Eve asked gently.

“It took us forever to get up to the top. The blizzard was way worse than we thought. We thought the weather guys were exaggerating, you know? But no. They weren’t. Not one bit. I couldn’t see a gosh darn thing up there. The only thing we saw was the light on that cabin. We thought we were saved. It was going to be a warm place to sleep for the night or at least some refuge from the storm. I thought it was a park ranger, and no ranger in their right mind would have turned us away in that.”

He went quiet again.

Eve asked, “Who was inside?”

A fleeting thought crossed her mind that he was about to describe Roman. With all that had happened in the lobby, it was a real fear that he may have described a giant bearded man waiting for them inside.

“Two guys…” Carter started. “One was bald and the other had brown hair… They weren’t… I don’t know. They didn’t really look special.”

“Height? Weight? Race? Anything identifying?”

“The bald guy was kinda stocky. The brown-hair one was taller and skinnier. He was the one with the gun.”

“The brown-haired guy?”

“Right. He tried to shoot me.”

“When you ran?”

“The guy with the brown hair opened the door. Derek tried to talk his way inside and the guy flat-out refused. Derek got pissed and just forced his way in. The guy proceeded to take out a gun, pointing it at his head demanding we get the eff out. I saw the bald guy by the desk, and I should have done something… I didn’t see what he was holding. The bald guy makes some kind of final warning and Derek just tries to out-macho him or whatever and… then, it happened. He squared up and swung and sunk the axe between Derek’s eyes. He fell back and I took off. I don’t know. I just ran. I saw the life leave his eyes first. I saw it happen. He wasn’t looking at me. He was looking at the guy, wide-eyed and real scared. I couldn’t… I didn’t want to see that. I just ran. They were gonna kill me too. I knew it. These guys were bad news, and it was just my fight or flight kicking in. I booked it through the woods. He almost got me. Almost. That bullet was literally like a grain of rice away from taking my arm off. It was… It was terrifying. It was the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Eve let some of the tension go from her shoulders as Carter broke down into his hands. The story had been keeping her stiff and she reminded herself to breathe as the man across from her tried to hold back his tears but couldn’t. Eve plucked a few tissues from her breast pocket and passed them over to him.

“Thank you,” he blubbered. “I’m sorry.”

“No. Don’t be sorry. Thank you for telling me,” she said.

“I can’t believe you guys got him out of there.”

“We got some extra funding to help us with removal. We use these contractors out of Woodmoor, and they really know what they’re doing. I wanted to come in for you right away. Those trees you crossed were dense. The helicopter sped everything up, but I’m still sorry that it took us so long.”

“I have no idea how long it was… What? A day?”

“A full day,” she said. “But you guys left pretty early, so you were out there for two days straight. It was almost a third. We barely got the chopper off the ground before dark. We were worried we weren’t going to have enough light.”

“I’m thankful for you.” Carter blew his nose and let out an exasperated sigh.

Now that Eve thought about it, she would bet good money that there was some type of tunnel or miner’s system that led through to the cave she had uncovered earlier back at the cabin. A back entrance. That could have also explained the multiple missed ins-ands-outs by both Hackett and Roman. Not that Eve expected them to be on watchdog duty at all times, and at least Hackett had gotten on these brothers pretty quickly.

Eve paused the audio recorder and said, “Would you hang tight for a second?”

“Sure.”

Eve exited the interrogation room. She could hear the hum of a whispered conversation going on between Sharon and Jamison on the other side of the wall. Probably sharing how much they both hated Roman at the moment. Eve shook that aside, not letting herself fall into that trap. She had to remind herself that they were both doing their jobs and they were trying to protect her.

Without wanting to raise anyone’s attention, she tip-toed toward the cork board and slinked around its edge to peer at the Stern board she had made. She spotted what she was looking for in the bottom corner and untacked the photo. In addition, she looked for something that matched the description of the tall man with brown hair. Through the sea of white and Hispanic men, nobody matched Carter’s words. Not close enough to even bring the photo into the room. So whoever else was in that cabin had kept undercover and covert, working for Stern and the Vine in the background. Somebody that definitely couldn’t be trusted.

She brought one photo back with her to the interrogation room and slid it across the table towards Carter.

She started the audio recorder again and said, “Mr. Stratus, can you confirm the identity of the man in the photo?”

“That’s him!” Carter gasped. He pointed several times at the passport-style photo of a stocky bald man with a dark beard and narrow eyes. “That’s the man with the axe. That’s the man who killed my brother.”

Sheriff Eve Wicker

When Eve re-opened the door to the lobby, Jamison was gone, and A.J. Portokalos was at the front desk talking to Sharon. The conversation with Carter had proven a few things: Eve didn’t think he was capable of murdering his brother or drug smuggling. Based on his grief and the way he had told the story, he would have to be a master manipulator and liar if he were actually guilty of something. But they would be doing an extensive background check regardless. On a surface level, he didn’t have a record. Derek had a couple of incidents, but the Stratus brothers appeared to truly be the victims in this case, and that made things a bit easier and a bit harder.

A.J.’s wild blue eyes caught Eve as she came out of the back room and he stood up a bit taller.

“Sheriff, I just told her all I knew,” he said. “Like you asked.”

“Your statement?” Eve questioned and caught Sharon’s eye; she gave Eve an annoyed look and then a nod. She peered over Sharon’s shoulder to see what she had taken down and saw that it looked pretty true to what he had told her and Jamison at the bakery.

“While you’re here…” Eve dug into her uniform pocket and took out the photo of the bald man. She wished she had developed her corkboard in-full prior to Emily Silva’s court case. She was almost positive this man was a match with the man she had seen that day, glaring at her from the last row of the courtroom. He was likely Stern’s eyes on what was happening with Eve and Chesapeake. Right there in the open. No qualms of being identified, which made her think that Stern’s corruption ran all the way into the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. On the back of the photo, she had printed his name, age, and major points of his record: Tommy Little, born November 17th, 1977, criminal charges: kidnapping, drug possession, drug trafficking, burglary, stalking and trespassing, violating parole, assault, domestic violence, possession of illegal weapons. And the list was bigger than that in the formal record. She asked, “Do you recognize this man?”

“I don’t think so… should I?” he responded.

“When you followed Carter and Derek up, did you see another man?”

“Maybe…” his eyes drifted.

“A.J… please…”

“I don’t remember. I don’t think so?”

“You don’t think?” Sharon quipped and Eve gave her a nudge.

“I don’t think so!” he said again with a glare. “I don’t know. I’ll think about it…”

“Alright, well you call me or come in if you remember anything.” Eve showed him the photo one more time. He nodded, put on his oversized coat, and headed for the door.

As soon as he was outside, Sharon muttered, “He seems to remember something new every time we talk to him…”

“He’s a bit of a mess, but he’s one of our only witnesses,” Eve replied.

“I heard he got laid off…”

“What? No. I pulled him over in his work truck today.”

“Oh. Really? For Brown’s?”

“Yeah. He must have worked it out. Knowing how charming he is…” Eve let that hang in the air, and Sharon snickered.

It was fully dark outside, and the cloud cover had swallowed up the moon and stars, throwing a blanket of black over the town, only the streetlights providing guidance.

“How did it go with Stratus?” Sharon lowered her voice and stood from the desk.

“I think he’s not our guy. He’s pretty beat up over this whole thing. His story is they hiked up, stumbled upon this cabin, Derek barreled his way in and got axed in the head by this guy—” she held up Tommy Little’s photo. “He works for Stern.”

“Yikes.” Sharon took in a sharp breath. “And? You believe him?”

“He seems genuine. He’s got the gunshot wound to prove it.”

“But who shot him? Not the axe guy?”

“Could have been. We found that empty gun case. Lionel has that casing and is working on IDing the gun.”

“A handgun, right? Some kind of pistol?”

“Could be a Kimber…” Eve patted her hip. “But I bet it’s a bit bigger. A Glock or something. But there’s no way it’s registered to Mr. Little here with his novel of a record. So maybe it belonged to our mystery man. Guy with the brown hair.”

“Very descriptive…” Sharon said.

“I know. Carter didn’t have a lot. He split pretty quickly. Nobody else has seen this brown-haired guy. Not Hackett or A.J. or Roman. So maybe he was already up there. Waiting.”

“Waiting for what?”

“Another box of Nicotaras, maybe.”

“But then wouldn’t the witnesses have noticed Little carrying something?”

“Carrying it up the foothills doesn’t seem practical…” Eve thought and then realized. “But there’s the mines. When I was up there, I found this cave. It went way deeper than I thought. It has to connect back to the old gold mine and… and it must connect back with that cabin.”

“Secret passageway through the mountainside? Very Tolkien-esque.”

“Yeah.” Eve laughed. “I didn’t see any dwarves or dragons.”

“Not yet.”

They both chuckled, and Sharon’s shoulders dropped.

“What happened between you and Roman, Sharon?”

Sharon looked away and leaned against the desk. Eve mirrored her and leaned against the cabinet along the wall.

“Nothing happened. It’s everything that’s happened,” she started. “I don’t know what to think. He’s certainly good at caring about you, but I don’t think he gives a damn about anyone else.”

“Okay but that’s not a crime.”

“And the axe.”

“Hackett and I were with him when that gunshot went off. Roman didn’t do this.”

“But he gave away his axe? Borrowed it?”

“Or it was stolen. He leaves it out by that stump all the time, and we don’t even know for sure that it was his.”

“I’m gonna find out…” she muttered.

“That’s fine.”

Eve pursed her lips, her head pounding. She was exhausted. She had no idea what time it was or how long it had been since they came down from the mountain. It had to be approaching midnight, and her eyelids were getting heavy. She missed Pearl. Despite all of Sharon and Jamison’s suspicions, she missed Roman. He was the only one, aside from herself, who had the ability to ease her mind these days.

“I’m sorry, Eve,” Sharon said.

“You don’t need to apologize. I get it. You’re doing your job. I’m doing mine. We’ll figure it out. But I’m telling you, Roman didn’t do anything to Derek Stratus. I can understand that he has a bit of a past, but we shouldn’t profile him just because he’s a Marine and a covert operative.”

“It’s hard not to. You know how military guys can be…”

“You know too.”

“Exactly! I know exactly how…” she trailed off.

“What is it? Nic?”

“Yeah. No. I know exactly how they can be.”

Their conversation drifted back into silence, and Eve stepped forward to wrap an arm around Sharon. As soon as she reached out a hand, Sharon pulled her into a hug, and they squeezed each other tightly behind the desk. Sharon laid her head against Eve’s shoulder and sighed, taking in the moment before they let each other go and let bygones be bygones.

They separated, and Eve rounded her desk.

“Let’s put out an APB for Tommy Little. See if we can hunt him down before he tries to leave the state.”

“On it,” Sharon said.

“Do that and then go home. Get some sleep. We’re gonna need it.”

“You too, Sheriff.”

The next morning, Eve awoke in her small bedroom to the sun shining in through her window. Without Pearl, she woke up later than usual and had actually slept all the way through the night with her headphones in her ear playing an audiobook.

Dad had left out a coffee and a box of donuts for her to take to work. He had also made her some bacon and left a note that told her to make herself some eggs in shaky, slanted handwriting. She didn’t have time to whip up the eggs, but she gladly scarfed down the bacon as she prepared herself for the day, pulled her hair up, put her uniform on, and headed out to the Tahoe. The meeting with Sully Richardson was only ten minutes away, but because she had woken up so late, she was feeling pressed for time when she pulled into the station.

They had put Carter Stratus up at the Red Rock for the night. Eve would have to keep her eye on him lest this become another Georgia Turnbull situation. It was tough keeping an eye on everyone in this town. She texted Sharon and asked her to swing by on her way this morning to make sure everything was okay. If she had to, she would assign Sharon to escort Carter until they had Tommy Little in hand or, at least, had some more information. Eve was feeling like they had already hit a wall. Even though it had taken great strides to rescue Carter, she didn’t know where Derek’s murderer could be and if he was still a danger to anyone involved. She had no idea who this “brown-haired man” was, and the description gave her so little to go on it would be like searching for a piece of hay in a needle-stack. They had to find Little. They had to get answers on how this connected back to Stern.

Eve opened her laptop and the meeting link through her email from Tucson PD. An older man opened up a video on the other side; he had bright green eyes and pushed-back white hair. He was wearing a collared polo shirt and he smiled at the sight of her.

“Hello there! Can you hear me okay?”

“Yup. Hi. I’m Sheriff Wicker. You must be Sully Richardson.”

“That’s right. Just Sully’s good, sweetheart,” he said.

She pasted on a smile and ignored it. “Mr. Richardson, I wanted to talk to you a bit about a Chevy Suburban…”

“Don’t get a lot of those. Been doing this a long time so I remember that one. It wasn’t in great shape. The axle was loose. Couldn’t take it around corners too fast or you’d be sliding out into the ditch. The oil pan had a leak too. But I fixed her up. Would’ve flipped it for a pretty penny if it hadn’ta been nabbed. I don’t blame ‘em though. They had good taste. They knew which one was gonna be worth the most.”

“You think they stole it to sell?” Eve asked.

“Sure. It’s valuable. Those Suburbans are money money.”

“You sell these cars out of your yard?”

“Yeah. I been fixing and selling cars since I was a kid. I was making a living for my parents when I was seventeen. People would bring ‘em in for free at first. Just junk cars that they didn’t want anymore. But they just didn’t know how to fix ‘em. I know how to do that. My dad and grandpa taught me.” He scratched his face and took a sip from a coffee mug that had farm animal cartoons all over it.

“Who brought the Suburban in?” Eve asked. “Was it registered?”

“Yeah. I bought it off this guy named Franco. We do a lot of business together.”

“Franco?”

“Yeah. Franco.”

Eve assumed he was being strategic and didn’t want to rat “Franco” out for something.

“Do you have the original records of the Suburban?”

“I… I gave the Tucson guys what I got already. I bought it off of Franco. All clean and what not. I’ve got my ownership papers. Where he got it from, I ain’t got nothing to do with.”

“I don’t mean anything like that. I just want to know that original license plate. Do you have that?”

“Somewhere… Hang on a second…” he squinted in on his computer screen and started typing one finger at a time. Eve activated as much patience as she could. After two minutes of painfully slow research, Sully cleared his throat and said, “You ready?”

“Yup,” Eve said right away.

“9DA 39C.”

Eve checked her records of the CCTV footage from Jim Benson. The license plates didn’t add up, so the car had been stolen and the plates had been swapped. They may have even been swapped multiple times to prevent any kind of paper trail from being followed. Eve shook her head and ran a hand over her face.

“Thanks, Sully,” she said. “I appreciate this.”

“You’re very welcome, young lady,” he grunted. “I saw it, you know.”

“You saw what?”

“The Suburban.”

“What? What do you mean? After it got stolen?”

“Yup. I saw it. I’m in the middle of Nowhere, Texas and I see it at some guy’s shop. I know it was the same one. It had those gaudy red rims. Looked ridiculous. I was planning on taking ‘em off before they nabbed it.”

“Where? Where in Texas did you see it?”

“Pfft. I don’t remember exactly where…” he thought. “Somewhere west of Odessa. Down I-20.”

“Anything you remember about the area? Any signs or anything?”

“I don’t know. It was some kind of computer shop or something. I know it was that Suburban though. I never forget a car. The cops here didn’t give a crap.”

“Okay…Well, that’s great, Sully. That’s really helpful,” she said.

He beamed at her. “Oh, you’re very welcome, sweetheart!

“Anything else you can remember?”

“I’ll let you know if anything comes to me. I can send you over an email if I think of anything else. Can you give it to me?” He asked, preparing a pen with a click.

“Sure.”

Eve gave it to him, and he gave her his phone number, just in case. She already had it, of course, but Sully seemed a bit lonely and the type of guy who loved interaction on all fronts. As Eve was jotting down some more notes on the laptop and opening up Google Maps to browse Odessa, Texas, Jamison walked into the station. He was carrying a tray of gas station coffees and he placed them on top of Sharon’s desk.

“Good morning,” he said.

“Morning,” Eve gave him a light smile. “Get some sleep?”

“Hardly. Those beds are made of straw.”

Eve nodded. She wanted to defend the Red Rock, defend Dill, but she was also overwhelmed by the excitement of a lead on Georgia’s case, a lead on Cleveland Cohen. It had been months since she had seen the Chesapeake Valley’s resident loan shark, and she really could have gone the rest of her life without seeing him again and been happy with it, but he was a key person in Georgia Turnbull’s story. When it came down to it, he was a big part of why she was dead. He had coerced her into working for Stern. The emails they had submitted for evidence were laced with his inappropriate relationship with her, and if he hadn’t been so careless, maybe Georgia wouldn’t have been so blamed and so targeted.

“What’s the latest?” Jamison asked, intently watching Eve think.

She closed her laptop, stood up and said, “I gotta take a little trip.”

“What? Now?”

“I’m going to look for Tommy Little.”

“We’ve got all points out for him. If he’s in the state, we’re going to find him.”

“What if he’s not in the state?”

“We can expand.”

“That’s exactly what I’m doing.”

Jamison sighed.

“I can keep an eye on things here…” he said.

“No. I’ve got a deputy for a reason. I’ll talk to Sharon.”

Jamison pressed his lips in and gave a small hmpf.

At the end of the day, neither Derek Stratus nor Georgia Turnbull were Jamison’s cases, and he had no jurisdiction to tell her how to run these investigations and her town. He seemed to sense that too and he lifted his hands by his ears in defeat.

“I won’t impede…” he said.

Eve nodded again and went for her coat.

“But if you need backup, you call me,” he added.

“I will if I need,” she reassured him. “I’m eager to hire someone else here with our extra funding.”

“That’s a good idea.”

Despite his words, a flash of hurt crossed Jamison’s face. His lip twitched, and Eve could only make guesses at his internal feelings because of his ability to be fully stoic so easily. Maybe he took that personally and felt like he was being replaced. Maybe he wanted to be here. Maybe he did really want to help. Maybe he hated being stuck in an office in Monument and the valley was his outlet. Or maybe he wanted to stay this close because of how invested he was in taking Roman down.

As Eve went out of the station, she called Sharon to let her know what was going on. Jamison was at the station alone and she should get there ASAP to hold down home base. She would have to keep her eyes on Carter Stratus and stay close to the phone in case the Tommy Little bulletin came through. Sharon reassured her, and despite her accusing Eve’s boyfriend of being some kind of accomplice or murderer, Eve trusted her more than ever. It was indicative that as Eve’s intuition grew, Sharon’s was growing as well.

Eve felt true to what she said: Sharon was just doing her job. Jamison was just doing his job. And Eve was doing hers, too. It wasn’t personal, but Eve knew that she was right, and they were wrong. She felt confident in that. Evidence was key, and witnesses were integral. That was also why Eve’s mind was on hunting down Cleveland Cohen before he knew she was on his tail. He had to have answers on what happened to Georgia. He had to.

Carter Stratus

He was already sick of this town. With the way it idyllically set itself up as this comforting mountain town but was actually the home of the devil herself, it was a ticking time bomb, in his view. He regretted everything. He regretted the hike and the intention behind it. Dad would have told them that they were both idiots for doing what they did. But he would’ve been crushed to hear what happened to Derek. That was not the way it was supposed to go. It had never been the way any of this was supposed to go.

Carter wrapped his coat around himself as he headed across the parking lot from his motel room to the bar at the Red Rock. He needed to eat something and until this was all sorted, the sheriff had told him to stick around, so he was forced to eat more of the food he was already sick of. At least, because of her, he hadn’t also died up on the mountain. That he could be thankful for. He could call Benjamin again and let him know that he was okay. Derek would never be able to do that.

The bartender greeted him as he came in and wiped the snow off his boots. He didn’t bother with a “how you doing” and instead pushed him a light beer right away.

“Thanks…” Carter grumbled and took several large gulps.

Dill nodded and wiped his hands on his apron.

“Get you something to eat?” he asked.

“Yeah. Anything fried and covered with cheese.”

“On it.”

The Red Rock Inn was busier than usual for lunch. There were several locals lined up along the bar and in the driftwood booths. He recognized the dark-haired man with the bright blue eyes, the one who had gotten in that ridiculous fistfight with Derek, but he completely avoided looking Carter in the eye. That was it. The rest of them were unknown faces and eyes that glazed over him at the bar, noting him as an outsider. They knew he wasn’t from here. With the way news traveled in small towns, maybe they even knew exactly what had happened up in the mountains and how much of a moron he was. This was confirmed when an older man in a hat came up behind him and plopped himself next to him on a barstool.

“All thawed out?” he questioned.

Carter finished off his beer and said, “Mostly.”

“Any frostbite?”

“Nah. Almost got an infection but they pumped me full of antibiotics. But… they got me out of there quick enough.”

“Sheriff Wicker got you out of there-” he tapped on the bar and Dill brought him a lowball with golden-red liquid. “You know, you’re not supposed to be drinking when you’re on antibiotics!

Carter sipped his beer.

“I’m Lewis Redding.” The old man reached out a hand and Carter shook it.

“Carter Stratus.”

“I know. Sorry about your… it was your brother, right?”

“Right.”

“Well, sorry to hear that about him. You know it happens in this town though… It’s just how it is. If you don’t watch yourself… if you don’t pay attention, it all blows up in your face and the people you love the most are ripped away.” He snorted. “Just like that. Burned out. Chesapeake is dangerous for locals, so don’t even get me started on strangers like you.”

Carter nodded along, wishing he could drown himself in another beer and escape this conversation.

“But we just can’t control any of that! We can’t. And we can’t get caught up in it, either. We just gotta…” he lifted his glass and tilted it towards Carter’s empty beer. “Dill! Get this guy another.”

Dill gave him a thumbs up and had another beer in front of Carter before he could barely say “thank you”.

“We just gotta move, young man! Keep on moving,” Lewis grumbled. “I’ve been working as a teacher at the school here for as long as you’ve been alive and I’m retiring this year. That’s my move. Maybe I’ll really move. I would hate to leave the valley! But I’ve got nothing but bad memories here now. Probably like you, hey? Right?”

“Right.”

“And bad memories follow us no matter where we go. Where you from?”

“South Dakota.”

He let out a low whistle. “Bit of a jaunt! Why were you boys here to begin with?”

“It’s a long story…”

“Tell me! Come on now. Maybe I can help you figure this whole thing out!

“I think it’s best we leave it to law enforcement…”

He puffed out his cheeks. “Wicker knows what she’s doing but she’s also always just swamping herself with work! You think she’s going to figure out this case? I heard she was heading out of town, today.”

“Really?”

Dill dropped a burger and fries in front of Carter, and even though his stomach was growling, he couldn’t force himself to take a bite.

“Really,” Lewis replied. “Again. She’s smart! And capable! But she’s busy. So us Chesapeakers… Well, we keep this town safe too.”

“No you don’t,” Carter murmured. “You were just saying how dangerous this place is.”

“Well…” he huffed. “Well, we’re doing our damn best, aren’t we?!”

“I’m not sure. I don’t live here.”

Lewis knocked back his whiskey and slammed the glass down on the bar.

“That’s evident!” he yelled. This guy clearly didn’t know how to control the volume of his voice, and the booze wasn’t helping. He leaned in and said, “I heard it was an axe.”

Carter paused his first fry intake, sighed, and placed it back down on the plate.

“Yeah. It was an axe…” he replied.

“I know who did it.”

Carter thought of the bald man and his mugshot staring up at him from that interrogation table. He thought of that sound, the axe going into Derek’s forehead and then the gurgling of blood that followed. The running. The snow, kicking up behind him. The bullet, whizzing past him, alongside him, exploding into the bark of a pine tree ahead.

“That guy who lives up there! That huge guy with the beard. Did you see that A-frame cabin when you were hiking?”

“I think we went past one, yeah.”

“That’s Roman Marek. He’s been trying to get this ranch off the ground here. And guess what I hear? The other day he’s at Value Lumber… shopping for a new axe.”

Carter couldn’t help but laugh a little. “That’s how the rumor mill works down here, huh?”

“I’m just saying! He was a SEAL or a Marine or something and he’s a big fella. I’m not a small man. Makes me look like I’m a speck. Doesn’t ever come in here to say hello or nothing. Just goes to his work and then goes back to the mountains. Canoodles with the sheriff…”

Carter looked him over. He was a big man with his shirt neatly tucked into his pants and a stomach hanging over the cargo.

“What? They’re…” Carter tried to understand.

“Oh yeah! They’ve been seeing each other since I think last year…when she was investigating him for another murder!”

Carter managed a bite of his burger and paused mid-chew. “What?”

“Talk about a conflict of interest!” Lewis bellowed.

“He…” Carter swallowed. “He didn’t kill my brother.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I saw it happen!” Carter snapped and put the burger down.

“Well, he’s one to look out for!”

“You know, I’d really like to just… eat my lunch,” Carter tried.

“Sure! Sure.”

The stool gave a big groan as Lewis got up and patted Carter’s back. “I’ll leave you be.”

Carter turned and said, “I appreciate you coming over here though… I do.”

Lewis grinned and lifted his large, puffy red hand to place it on his shoulder. He said, “Things are going to be okay again soon. I know right now it feels like the end of the world! But it isn’t. Time flies over us but leaves its shadow behind. This too shall pass, my boy. I lost my wife last year. In the foster home fire here. It was… still is terrible. I won’t lie to ya. It doesn’t really get better. But you do. You get better. You start making more choices to keep yourself going. Time is gonna be flying by anyway, right?”

Carter nodded, a bit flabbergasted by the man’s words and their ability to actually make him feel a bit better.

“Thank you,” he said tearfully.

“Watch your step out there, Stratus!” he chuckled and went for his coat. “This place’ll eat you up. I’m telling you! It’s dangerous out in this world. People kill. It’s in their nature. That’s what I think. So stay away from people you can’t trust!”

“Yes… Great. Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind…”

Carter was teetering back to regretting this conversation. This guy really had a way about him. He could see the bit of teacher in him if he turned on at least a morsel of professionalism, but he seemed quite aggressive overall.

Carter gave him a polite smile and turned back to his food. The heavy man’s bootfalls chorused behind his back, and he could only focus in on his burger then. He devoured it. It had to be one of the top five burgers he’d had in his life. Just the right amount of juice and grease. Fresh tomatoes and crisp lettuce. A sauce. Something homemade and tangy. And the fries. They had the perfect amount of salt. The only thing that would have improved the meal would have been to share it with Derek. He had said the night before he died that this was the best burger he had ever had, and Carter had assumed he was exaggerating, but he should have believed him. There were a lot of things he should have done that he didn’t do. But Lewis’ words had weirdly resonated with him. Time had cast a shadow on him and on this town, but it was going to keep moving forward anyway. Every second that ticked by that his brother’s murderer was free filled him with more and more dread. What if he came back for him? What if he came to get rid of the witnesses? He had the sheriff’s number, and she had told him to lay as low as possible and assigned her deputy to look after him. When he glanced out the large window that overlooked the highway, she was there in a squad car, staring down at something in her lap. They were watching and protecting him. Nobody was going to get to him here.

His eyes trailed up the mountain to a line of smoke rising from a distant chimney. He tried to remember the hike and the route they had taken and if he could line it up with the landscape across the highway, but it was all a bit hazy. That day it had been so white and impossible to see. He made note of the ranger station and went up from there where his vision ran into the smoke again. It must have been the cabin that Lewis had mentioned, where the huge bearded guy lived. It seemed like he had separated himself from this town for a reason and with the way they seemed to be talking behind his back, Carter didn’t blame him. He did find it a bit strange that somebody like the sheriff was seeing somebody like that. Of course, a woman like that wasn’t going to be single. He had already assumed that. He had thought she was a literal angel when her face had come into view in the cave. But a controversial military guy with a bad reputation didn’t seem like her type. Women like that were attracted to chaos though. His ex had been the same way: controlled and type A, but if her love life wasn’t passionate and demented enough she would get bored and drop you.

Carter tossed back his beer. He did his best on the plate of fries and had left a mouthful of beer in his glass when he went to pay his bill.

“Lewis settled you up,” Dill said.

“Oh. Really?”

Dill nodded. “He got you. No worries.”

Carter looked back out the window. Following the view, he exited the bar and then locked eyes with the deputy. She gave him a smile and a wave. Carter waved back and turned his eyes back to the mountains and the smoke again. It was beautiful. This was just the cusp of the Rockies, but it captured the very essence of nature. The trees were placed like they were a movie set and the snow between them was untouched for large white sections. The trails broke up the snow, footprints and ATV tracks splitting through the blanket.

“All good, Carter?” Deputy Garcia shouted out the passenger’s side window.

He gave her a thumbs up. He was good. He was better. The view was magnificent. He had just had one of the most incredible meals of his life. Maybe this town wasn’t so bad. He knew he had been hard on it. Really, he had been hard on everything. Derek had died here, and it made him want to hate it, but he couldn’t. Chesapeake Valley was special. Derek had been special. This was a place and a shadow to remember.

He picked his phone out of his pocket and called Charlotte.

“Carter…” she answered right away. “I heard about what happened. I texted you…”

“Is Ben there?”

“Yeah… Yeah. He’s here.”

A muttering of soft voices went back and forth on the other end. Carter kicked small stones in the gravel parking lot and paced in a circle until he heard, “Daddy!”

“Hey bud,” Carter breathed.

“When are you coming home, Daddy?”

“Soon. I think really soon,” he replied. “What’d you do today, Benny?”

“I made a pasta!”

“Pasta? At daycare?”

“Yeah! A pasta for mommy! It… It goes around her neck.”

“A pasta necklace? That sounds pretty fancy. Did your mom love it?”

“Yeah! Yeah. She loved it.”

The wind cut at his face, reminding him of the danger he was in. Two cars went by on the highway, and he wondered if either of them was the bald man, coming to finish the job.

“I love you, Benny. Okay? I love you so much,” Carter said.

“I love you, Daddy!”

Carter rushed back to his room. He couldn’t be reckless. He had to stay good and alive for Ben and also for Dad, for Derek, for this case. He had to trust that the sheriff and her deputy were capable like that man had said. He had made it this far, and he was not giving up.

Dad’s ashes were waiting on the small table by the door to the motel room, and Carter went to it after he locked the door behind him. He rested his palm on the solid silver urn. It was as cold as the stone in that cave. In some ways, he had accepted his death while he was up in the mountains, so to be able to be in an enclosed room with his father again was an absolute privilege even if it didn’t necessarily feel that way right now. Since he had already accepted his death, everything now going forward felt like bonus, beauty and benefit. Just as long as he stayed alive.

Sheriff Eve Wicker

The Tahoe felt very quiet. Without a passenger and without Pearl in the backseat, it was just Eve and her audiobooks keeping her company. It was about a ten-hour drive from Chesapeake Valley to somewhere west of Odessa, Texas. She had started early enough so hopefully she could get in before dark. This trip was two-fold. Cleveland Cohen was the end goal, but Tommy Little was out here somewhere, on the run, and she had her eyes peeled for a stocky, bald man. She was running plates as she went and checking for any indication of the axe murderer, but the highways were empty and the gas stations presented not much aside from the perverted gazes from truckers and an older woman who asked her to help her choose the right type of milk.

Sharon texted to check in on her and sent her a photo of Dad’s latest donut batch that made her stomach erupt into a fit.

The audiobook took her all the way across state lines into New Mexico and then across to the northern part of Texas. But in New Mexico, the sense of Georgia Turnbull was all around her. She wondered if she had been down this same highway, tied up in the backseat of the Suburban. Had she known she was going to die? That she was headed to be strategically eliminated simply because of who she had worked for? Based on the fear Eve had seen on her in the CCTV footage, the answers were yes. Georgia had known when she had been picked up by Jim Benson that it was probably going to be the last time. Eve’s hands tightened around the steering wheel and a feeling in her chest tightened as well. She had promised Georgia freedom. The only freedom she saw for her now was putting her killer behind bars or putting a bullet between their eyes.

The environment around her had flattened, and any signs of snow were long gone. She hit Odessa at about eight in the evening and grabbed a bite to eat at a burger place off the I-20.

A friendly young waitress brought her a fresh Diet Pepsi before she had even finished her first one.

Eve initiated, “You from around here?”

“Oh yeah,” she beamed. “Grew up just down the road.”

Eve peeped at her name tag.

“Olivia?” she asked.

The waitress nodded.

“I’m Sheriff Wicker,” Eve said.

“Nice to meet you, Sheriff. What brings you ‘round these parts?” Olivia asked with a tilt of her head.

“I’m actually looking for a place… maybe you could help me.”

“Happy to! What you looking for?”

“I’m looking for some kind of computer shop. Should be on this side of town or a little farther west.”

“What? In Arcade?”

“Is that where we are now?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Then she said with a laugh, “Well, I’m not sure of a computer shop… I don’t even have a computer. Does it have a name or anything?”

“I wish I knew,” Eve replied. “I’m pretty sure it’s off the I-20.”

“Hmm, just one second here, Sheriff. Let me check somethin’”

The young girl tucked a pen into her apron and turned from the table. She headed into the back towards the kitchen and disappeared from sight. Eve pulled out her phone and looked up computer shops, electronic shops and cellphone repair on Google. The results came up with a custom PC shop in downtown Odessa, a Best Buy, an electronic place in West Odessa just north of where she was, and several cell repair shops in strip malls. None of them screamed Cohen, but he theoretically wouldn’t be making himself that findable. Perhaps to the point of not making his business available on Google if he did actually have one and was actually down here somewhere. It was feeling like a ghost hunt at this point, a hunt for an apparition that she had once seen and fought with that now refused to show itself unless she put on some kind of ceremony like Georgia Turnbull’s funeral.

The waitress came back after a few minutes and said, “I talked to some of the guys in the back. Here you go.”

She passed Eve a small piece of paper that had two different addresses written on it.

“They said that first one is a vape shop… but… they also do cell repair or something? So maybe it’s what you’re lookin’ for?”

“It might be.” Eve smiled. “Thanks for this. I appreciate it.”

“Absolutely, Sheriff! Can I get your bill?”

“Yes, please.”

That was southern hospitality. The girl got a hefty tip, and Eve headed out with the small paper tucked in her pocket.

She started with the second address because it was closer. When she pulled off of the interstate, she entered a residential area and found that the address was in a renovated strip mall. All the lights were off, and the door was locked tight when she tried to yank on it. She peered through the window, but no signs of life or Cohen.

The other address on the paper was a bit of a jaunt down the highway. It was pretty flat out in these parts, and with the night coming on in full force, Eve felt like she was driving into space. Maybe it wasn’t that smart to be out here alone. Maybe she was thinking about Pearl again. She tried to shake it off, just as the Suburban came into view, red rims catching on the streetlight. It was the first light she had seen in a while and likely the last for a while as well. There was no going back now. She was alone, and she was in this. A light was on inside the squat building. A sign outside said: “Cell Repair”, and the windows were plastered with posters of advertisements for dated cell phones and cheap data plans. The yellow light filtered through the walls of tape and paper, Eve’s shadow passing over it as she approached the door.

She went to open it even though the sign on the door was flipped to “closed”.

It was locked.

She knocked.

“Sheriff’s department,” she called.

“Excuse me?” she heard a laugh from the other side. Something clicked and then the door opened. Cleveland Cohen stood there with his face cocked into a grin. His hair looked like he had recently dyed it black, and his sunken expression had sunk even more with time and what Eve was sure was a stressful past eight months.

He jumped back at the sight of her and went to his desk. The building had one open area and a back room, not dissimilar to his place back in the valley. The open area they were in now had three desks with office chairs and customer chairs on the other side.

“Don’t.” Eve went to her belt.

He froze. “What the hell are you doing here?!”

“I want to talk, Cohen.”

“Well, call me then! You just drop in here…” he tried to catch his breath. “I can’t believe this. Who do you think you are? You’ve got no right.”

“I’ve got every right.” She crossed the room and pinned him up against the desk. “What happened to Georgia Turnbull?”

She turned him around, got her knee in his back, and one of his arms around his side.

“Argh!” he screamed. “Don’t! Don’t. Don’t. I’ve got a bad back. I’ve got a bad back!”

Eve let him go, and he let out an exasperated breath, doubling over. She stepped back.

“Tell me what happened,” she repeated. “Did you kill her?”

“Of course not!” Cohen leaned against the desk with one hand to stabilize himself. “Of course I didn’t kill her. Are you really here because you think I had something to do with it? Stern wants nothing to do with me.”

“The Suburban outside says otherwise,” Eve noted.

“That…” Cohen went quiet, and looked her over. “You look good, kid. I did miss our conversations. Long time no see.”

“Shut up.” Eve’s hand went to her belt again. “I’ll put you in cuffs right now if I have to. I don’t want to have to do that.”

“Oh. I think you do,” he laughed. “I know you’re into a dominant man, though.”

He winked and Eve tried to hold back her disgust.

“How did you get your hands on that vehicle?” Eve snapped, pulling out her gun.

“Whoa! Whoa! Okay. Take it easy.” He put his hands up. “I’m not going to hurt you. I couldn’t take you, honestly. I’m too old for that now. I’m telling you: I’m semi-retired.”

“Stern fired you because he couldn’t trust you.”

He said, “And he killed Georgia for the same reason.”

The gun lowered as Eve peered at him over the barrel. She took a breath and brought it down to her side.

“It was him, wasn’t it?”

“Of course it was!” Cohen exclaimed. “He’s got Benson now, toting people around, scoping places out. But he’s not a killer. I don’t think he would’ve gone that far down. I mean, who’s to say? People change, right? But I don’t think Benson would have killed her… he liked her too. I thought he did. Money talks though. Money always talks.”

“Is that who brought you the Suburban? Benson?”

Cohen nodded. “If I would’ve known it would’ve brought you here, I would’ve told him to keep it.”

Eve continued, “That vehicle was seen with Georgia in the backseat. Tied up. On her way to Stern probably. And now it’s outside your shop. I think you need to understand how serious of a situation you’re in.”

“They found her body thousands of miles from here! I never could have killed her. I fucking loved that girl. I never could have killed her!” His dark eyes welled with tears.

Eve let him cry. She expected him to wipe away the fat drops running down his weathered cheeks, but he didn’t make a move to clear them away.

“Did you see it?” Eve asked quietly.

He shook his head. “I haven’t seen Stern in months.”

“What about Tommy Little?”

“Little? What about him?” Cohen’s eyebrows went up.

“I’m looking for him. Have you heard anything?”

“No. No. That guy’s a nutbar though. Stay away from him, sweetheart. He’ll swallow you up.”

“Appreciate the warning.” Eve holstered her gun. “What about Georgia’s funeral? You were there, weren’t you? I saw your car.”

“Back when I still had it. Benson brought me that Suburban after it died on me on the way back here. He really acted like he was doing me a favor. Big deal. I thought we were still on good terms… But, no. He barely said a word to me when he dropped it off. And the other guy in the car, I didn’t even recognize him.”

“Did you register the car?”

He smirked and shifted his weight to lean more against the desk. “Is this an investigation?”

“Yes. What did the other man in the car look like?”

“I don’t remember. Just another average Joe on the hunt for a rush that’s gonna make ‘em feel more alive than their failed high school sports careers ever could.”

His dark, watery eyes slid to one side, and Eve got the feeling he was not telling her the whole truth.

He asked, “Am I under arrest?”

“Can I see that vehicle’s registration?”

“What is this? A traffic stop? Why? What does it matter?”

“I have reason to believe it might be stolen.”

“Oh my… Geez. You are too much, Wicker. No wonder Stern likes you so much. You’re a real pain. You get that from your mother, I know that for sure. She was demanding like you. Knew what she wanted. Confident. Confidence-ed herself all the way to death.”

“That’s enough.”

“I wanted to come to Georgia’s funeral. I wanted her to know that I still was thinking about her and cared about her… I’m just as mad about what he did to her as you are.”

“You’re not.”

Cohen sneered. “I want Stern to die. Just like you do.”

Eve wanted to say so many things, but nothing came out. She stared at him and he stared back. The buzz of the lights and a distant semi going by on the highway passed through the quiet. She couldn’t say anything that wouldn’t put something or somebody in danger.

After another moment, Cohen said, “Somebody in that town is working against you.”

“Working against me?”

For some reason, several names and faces immediately came to mind. Ranger Hackett. A.J. Portokalos. Director Jamison. Sharon. Roman.

“Who?” she asked.

“You can’t and shouldn’t trust anybody over there. If any good things came out of this, it was me leaving that shithole. Chesapeake Valley is a place for sneaks and liars. Whole place was built out of witches, right? Known for being the most trustworthy of people.” He chuckled. “When you want to move up in the world, kid, you let me know. We could do something great between the two of us, I think.”

“Something great like jail?” Eve asked.

Cohen slid off the desk and chuckled again. He suddenly veered towards the back door, and Eve mirrored him, cutting him off.

“I have to take you in, Cohen, and it’s going to be a lot easier if you comply,” she stated and unclicked the handcuffs from behind her back, hardly making a sound but it was audible in the quiet shop.

His eyes narrowed.

Eve caught a glimpse of something silver in his palm, and she caught it early enough to dodge out of the way when he came at her with a single thrust of the knife at her torso. She hopped to one side, and Cohen used that opportunity to push her, and with his height, it was enough to throw her completely off balance so she fell into an office chair behind her. She tried to grab on to the armrests, but it rolled away, and she hit the tile. The sound of Cohen’s shoes clacked against the tile towards the door. He went for the front instead of the back this time. She could hear his keys jangling in his pocket as he reached the handle, swung it open, and disappeared into the night outside.

“No!” Eve let out as she scrambled to her feet and chased after him.

Outside, the suburban was already on, and the tires ripped against the red earth beneath them, reversing away from the building.

“Stop!” Eve commanded. She took out her gun. She lined up the shot. She went for one of the tires. It hit the dirt. She yelled out a swear and threw herself into the front seat of the Tahoe, turning on the ignition and the lights, and whipping it into reverse.

Cohen pulled out onto the highway and Eve followed.

The sirens wailed.

The stretch in front of them was empty and dark. Eve figured if they kept heading this way, they would eventually hit the Mexican border.

Cohen’s brake lights up ahead were easy to keep track of in the darkness, but he suddenly pulled off to an unfamiliar road that even Google Maps didn’t recognize. She wasn’t sure it was a road at all, and that she was now chasing him through the desert.

She paged back up and her walkie crackled with silence. The closest PD to her was likely Odessa Police Department. She couldn’t be sure if her page was going through, so she whipped out her cell phone and called the old-fashioned way.

“What’s your location?” the dispatcher asked.

“We’re out west. Two miles west from Cal’s Diner. Heading north now. No road. Desert. Looks like some elevation up ahead.”

“Copy, Sheriff. Sending out backup.”

Eve hung up and tightened her hands around the steering wheel, slamming the gas to the floor and approaching Cohen’s bumper. He weaved left and then right, trying to get her off his tail, trying to make her crash. Even in the darkness, Eve managed to veer around collections of cacti, but it was kicking up more and more dust. The visibility went from poor to almost opaque.

As she tried to re-adjust the Tahoe, Cohen’s brake lights were suddenly on her other side, just clearing the massive cloud of dust. This man had driven away from the cops before and Eve let out a string of curses as she tried to turn the massive SUV on a dime. Something cur-chunked under her wheels. And then, there was the dreaded sound of a popped tire, like the rim was hitting the dirt with every rotation.

She brought the Tahoe to a stop and hopped out of the car. She watched Cohen’s Suburban disappear back in the direction they’d come from. Eve tried to hold it in, but a cry of frustration ripped its way out and she kicked the dirt with her boot. She had been so close. She had no Cohen and a flat tire. She crouched by the front driver’s side tire and determined it had been punctured by one of the rocks behind them. Before she could even call it in, she heard sirens. Blue and red lights spilled out into the desert as the Odessa Police Department clocked Eve’s stranded Tahoe.

As soon as the first person got out of the squad car, Eve exclaimed, “He went back east! I hit something. Blew my tire.”

“Go on, Alberto,” the man said over his shoulder and the other squad car behind them took off in the direction Cohen had disappeared into.

“Sergeant Williams.” He reached out his hand and Eve shook it.

He looked down at his palm and it was covered in blood.

“Oh my gosh…” Eve said. “I’m sorry. I must have cut it-”

She thought of the office chair. She had been so focused in she hadn’t even noticed.

“Don’t worry,” he chuckled. “I’ve been greeted in worse ways.”

“I’m Sheriff Wicker. Chesapeake Valley county.”

“Where the heck is that?” he laughed.

“Colorado. Rocky Mountain foothills.”

“Wow. Following a lead all the way out here?”

“Yes. That’s a guy I’ve been chasing for months. Cleveland Cohen. He’s in a black suburban, red rims, license plate is now HXV 883, Texas plates.”

Sergeant Williams read it off in his walkie as she told him.

“Cleveland Cohen?” he asked. “I don’t recognize that.”

“I bet he’s got a pseudonym out here. He owns that cell repair shop about a mile back from here.”

“Oh. That guy!” he laughed even though it wasn’t funny. “He is a pain in the side… Think they’ve been calling him… Dave… or Daniel… He’s opened a brand new, under the table, sports betting circle in our town. So I’d love it if you could take him back.”

“That was the plan,” Eve muttered.

“Slipped through your fingers, hey?”

“I just couldn’t see.”

“Or you didn’t want to catch him.”

“Excuse me? No offense, but you don’t know anything about this case.”

“Oh sure. But I know a thing or two about cops… and they catch the guys they really wanna catch.”

Eve went quiet and peeled away so she could check her phone. She texted Sharon an update and tried to remove the sergeant’s words from her head. Sergeant Williams helped her change the tire, and they had it almost all the way done by the time the next squad car showed up. They offered her a place to sleep, a hot coffee back at the station, breakfast with the squad, but Eve needed to get back. The moon was out in full above them and if she drove through the night, she could get back to Chesapeake Valley before lunch tomorrow, if not earlier. They didn’t understand her rejections and her insistence that the donut would be fine for a little while. She figured she’d stop in at an auto shop if she needed to, but she needed to leave. She needed to get out of Texas and back home. She was running away from Sergeant Williams’ words and the possible truth in them. Maybe, she hadn’t wanted to catch Cohen. Maybe, part of her did believe him about his feelings for Georgia and had sympathy for him. She certainly hadn’t intentionally run the Tahoe into that rock, so she tried to stop herself from spiraling. But on the empty stretch of highway, the thick darkness, and the long drive, she couldn’t help but berate herself with a replay of what had happened and the words of both Williams and Cohen. Cohen had been clear and confident about what he had said: somebody in Chesapeake Valley was working for Elijah Stern. Somebody in Chesapeake Valley was working directly against Eve.

Sheriff Eve Wicker

She surveyed the highways on the way back for any signs of Cohen and kept her eyes peeled for those red rims. By the time dawn broke and cleared away the night, she felt confident that Cohen was gone again. He was a very slippery guy, and she knew that even if she had caught him that that wouldn’t have been the end of it. She remembered the stories about his lawyer.

Gratification hit her as she came back into town. She was thankful to be back and to be in her position. She was even briefly grateful for Cohen because he had confirmed what she had already had suspicions of: a double-agent. He had also confirmed that it was Stern she should be directly looking at for Georgia’s murder. He didn’t seem convinced that Benson would have been able to go through with it, but Eve knew that people were capable of terrible things when put into high-pressure situations. Her eyelids were heavy as she parked the Tahoe outside of her father’s house and went inside for a quick hour or two of sleep.

She was awoken by a text message from Sharon that said: “How’d it go?”

Instead of responding via text, Eve swapped out the important bits of her uniform, tossed some cold water on her face, and went out to the station.

Sharon stood up from the desk when she entered.

“Hey! I just texted you. You’re back.”

“Yeah…” Eve replied. “It was… a pretty quick turnaround.”

“That means things went really good or really bad?”

“No. Not really anything. I mean, good in the sense that I got some answers. Bad in the sense that he got away again.”

“I’m not surprised about that…” Sharon laughed a little. “Cohen is a snake.”

“It was weird to see him again.”

“I bet he was exactly the same…” she rolled her eyes.

“Yeah. More or less. But he… I don’t know. He was sadder. He looked older. I do think Georgia’s death kinda shook him too.”

“You think he actually cares for someone other than himself?”

“Maybe just her…”

Sharon raised her eyebrows. “Sounds like he was playing you.”

“No,” Eve protested. “No. At the very least, I think he was telling me the truth. What reason does he have to lie?”

“He hates your guts.”

“He doesn’t. You know who he hates right now?” Eve asked. “Stern.”

“Oh. Just like you. Okay. So you guys are besties now then?”

“No! I don’t know. It was a confusing meeting… He’s a hard guy to like and also a hard guy to hate.”

“I can get that…” Sharon laughed. “Did you get any sleep?”

“Not really. Drove through the night.”

“You gotta sleep, Eve,” she persisted. “You’re not going to be any use to any of us if you don’t sleep.”

“Hey. Can you call Kim Turnbull for me?” Eve asked. “Can you ask her to come down and chat? I want to ask her some follow-up questions.”

“Eve, can’t it wait for a couple hours? Take a nap.”

“I said do it, Sharon.”

The fight went out of Sharon at Eve’s harsh tone. “Sure, Sheriff.”

“He said that somebody in this town is working against me…” Eve continued, collapsing in her office chair.

“What? I mean, yeah. Probably a few.”

“Somebody’s working for Stern.”

“Yeah. Cohen was.”

Eve shook her head. “There’s someone else.”

“Who?”

Eve looked at her and said, “I don’t know.”

Sharon pursed her lips and said, “I think I do.”

“Really?”

Sharon went to a file she had on her desk and brought it over to Eve. She took a deep breath as she set it next to Eve’s laptop.

“Okay. I don’t want you to hate me…” Sharon started.

“I couldn’t,” Eve replied.

“Well, don’t speak too soon…”

She opened the file, and Eve saw a massive military headshot of Roman staring up at her. It must have been from when he first enlisted. He was clean-shaven, his hair was short, and his face was slimmer. His dark eyes stared straight into the camera, and his lips were pressed into a straight, somber line.

Sharon flipped the headshot over and then they were staring at a blank record, containing nothing but his basic information.

“I scraped and scraped for dirt on him, but he has nothing. Zilch,” Sharon said. “He’s been wiped clean from the internet.”

“He was part of a covert military operation…” Eve muttered.

“I know,” she replied. “Now that… I could find something on. Brace yourself.”

She flipped the page and she proceeded to go through several articles and photos pulled from the internet: a man hanging from a second floor balcony with his hands tied behind his back and a bag over his head; a line of captured men on their stomachs, being held down by soldier’s boots; hostages in what looked like a hotel ballroom, mostly women and children; and the aftermath of a bombing of a stone tower with a headline that read “36 People Dead in Syrian Explosion”.

A pit welled in Eve’s throat as she asked, “What is this?”

“The Clandestines,” Sharon explained. “I looked into what Jamison said. This is what Roman did, Eve.”

“I don’t…” Eve overlooked the photos again. “We don’t have any context, Sharon. This could be in retaliation or…” her eyes landed on the hostage photo again, and the fear in one of the children’s eyes, staring up at her mother with desperation and fear. She said, “I need time to process this. I need to give him a chance to explain.”

“If you think he deserves it…” Sharon shrugged. She said, “That’s not all.”

“I don’t think I can handle anything else…”

“It’s important. It’s related to the case.”

“The Stratus case?”

“Yes.”

“Go on.”

She flipped through the photos and landed on one that was the crime scene photos of Diana Greer from last spring. Her dead body was laid out in the snow in Roman’s yard. Blood pooled around the back of her head and stained the snow with red.

“Diana Greer,” Eve noted. “Roman’s ex.”

“Right. Already suspicious enough but we know that Travis Wate was the one to kill her…”

“Yes…”

“But that’s not why I wanted to show you this photo. Look.” She pointed to the top corner of the photo at a stump. An axe was stuck into the stump and its handle was wrapped around with tape. Sharon pulled out another photo and placed it next to the crime scene one. This one was just the axe. It had been pulled from Derek Stratus’ head, and it was wrapped with that same tape around the handle.

“It’s the same axe,” Sharon pointed between them. “I looked even closer on the computer. I’m confident they’re the exact same.”

“Okay…” Eve compared the two. They were the same. Undoubtedly. “I still don’t see how this proves anything. Hackett and I were with him when that gunshot went off.”

“What if Derek was killed earlier?” she asked. “We don’t know for certain his time of death.”

“It’s not a big gap. Roman wouldn’t have been able to get there and back down to meet us. It feels like you’re looking for reasons…”

“I’m not! I just…” she looked at the photos. “It’s his axe.”

“I think you’re right on that.” Eve stood and sifted through the rest of the folder. “I know him, and I don’t have any reason to believe that he has anything to do with the murder. We’re gonna find Tommy Little—”

“You have to take him in for questioning,” she stated.

“I have to?”

“Yes. You should. The murder weapon belongs to him.”

“Belonged. It was obviously taken off his property. He left it outside all the time. I guarantee that—”

Sharon poked the file. “I think this needs deeper thought.”

“I’ll ask him, okay? I will. I’ll ask him about it,” Eve said.

Sharon’s shoulders dropped a little and she said, “I’m sorry. I know this puts you in a weird situation. But I do think you should look into it. I’d do this with anyone who I thought was involved.”

“I know…” Eve replied. “I wish it wasn’t the case, but I know.”

Sharon nodded and closed up the file folder.

“Can I hold on to this?” Eve stopped her from taking it back to her desk.

“Sure.”

“Thanks. I know this probably wasn’t easy for you either…”

“No. To be honest, it was all kinda fascinating,” she laughed. “Those kinds of stories always are.”

“Which ones?”

“The brutal ones.”

Eve swallowed down the lump in her throat and brought the file folder with her to the backroom. She cross-referenced the photos and articles inside with her Stern board, but she didn’t find any matches on faces or locations. She pinned the photos of the matching axes to the other side though, placing them so that Diana’s body was mostly covered. Inside her, a fight was going on. A large part of her wanted to trust her friend and deputy and follow this lead all the way to her boyfriend’s doorstep. Another part of her wanted and needed to trust that Roman had absolutely nothing to do with this. But the persistent evidence and the uncovering of his dark past was making it harder and harder. Jamison was here investigating him. He had been honest about that. He was following up his own leads that could have been even stronger than Sharon’s. What did that mean for them? What did that mean for her relationship with Roman? With Jamison? With Sharon? And which was the most important? In the past, romance had never felt worth it, and Eve was certainly struggling now with the idea of Roman being worth her job. If every official in the state was pointing a gun in his direction, she wasn’t sure if she would have the strength to point one back.

“What’s the latest on Jamison?” Eve asked as she came back into the station.

“He was in this morning. Looking for you,” Sharon said. “But he said he’d come back later before he left.”

“Oh good. He’s taking off.”

“Don’t like him looking over your shoulder?”

“No. No. Jamison isn’t a bad guy. He just… I don’t know. We don’t see eye to eye on everything,” Eve explained. “I need a bit of breathing room.”

“I really think he stayed for the donuts.”

Eve chuckled and shook her head wearily. “I don’t blame him…”

“You need sleep,” Sharon said after another moment.

“Yeah. Yeah, I do.”

“Why don’t you lie down on the couch back there? I’ll wake you up if anything happens.”

“Okay… Okay…” Eve nodded and had drifted towards the couch under the office cabinets at the back before Sharon could say much else. It was a green leather couch that had been donated by the fire station outside of town. They had set aside a couple of pillows and blankets for when they needed to crash at the county station, which had happened on a handful of occasions already in the last year.

Eve fell asleep almost instantly, but it was wrought with dreams. She was in the mines, searching ahead with a flashlight, nothing but a yellow circle illuminating her way. Footsteps went by on all sides, stones scattering and echoing in the empty hallways. Something ahead gurgled and growled. The bear, the beast, the monster in the mines, emerged from the darkness and leapt into the light of her flashlight, stretching its jaws and revealing a pink tongue bathed in human blood. Eve was frozen. She tried to move. She tried to run. The flashlight went out and the bear growled again, screaming at her that it was her last chance to escape. But she couldn’t go anywhere. Her wrists were zip-tied behind her back. Her ankles were zip-tied. And as soon as she lifted her chin to scream, a bag came over her head and she was being dragged across the stone.

“Mom!” she screamed. “Mom!”

Her eyes flew open, and she shot up from the couch. She shook out her wrists and ankles, ensuring she wasn’t tied. She was free. She could move if she needed to. That had all been in her head. Yet, it was all too real.

“Oh. I was just gonna get you up,” Sharon said from the doorway. She and Jamison were standing there with concerned looks on their faces. Sharon asked, “You okay?”

“Your face is all shiny,” Jamison said.

“Sorry…” Eve dabbed at her forehead.

“Bad dreams?” Sharon asked.

“Bad memories,” Eve muttered as she stood. She took another moment to breathe before asking, “What’s up?”

“Jamison just stopped in for a visit,” Sharon pointed out and he gave a tight-lipped smile.

“Did you get what you needed out of that road trip?” he asked.

“I got something out of it. Not sure if it was what I needed…” she replied.

“Something is better than nothing.”

Eve nodded.

“I’m going to see Roman,” she said into the silence.

Jamison and Sharon exchanged glances.

“I’ll come with you,” Jamison said.

“No. I’ll come with you,” Sharon narrowed her eyes and pointed at her badge.

“I think I should go by myself,” Eve pushed through the doorway. “Can I have that folder, Sharon?”

“Yeah. I got it right here,” Sharon passed it over and Eve tucked it under her arm. Part of her was hiding it from Jamison even though it was possible that Sharon had gotten at least some of this information from him. The assistant director was more appraised on Roman’s past than Eve had ever been, so maybe the reason she was hiding it was more out of shame than anything.

“If we barrel up to his place with a whole squad, he’s going to get more nervous than he needs to be,” Eve explained as she took a quick sip of water, washing down the rest of the nightmares.

“Maybe he should be nervous,” Jamison said.

“Innocent until proven guilty?” Eve raised an eyebrow.

Jamison shook his head. “Of course, but we already know what he is guilty of. It’s right under your arm there.”

“Any word on Tommy Little?” Eve turned to Sharon.

“Nothing yet…” she replied.

“I need you to stay here,” Eve said, and Sharon nodded.

An awkward silence hung in the air. They all wanted to say more and also say less. Jamison and Sharon had already pleaded their case, and Eve didn’t want them to push it anymore and they seemed to sense that, but were also vying for a chance to defend themselves if she broached the topic again. She had heard enough about what Roman had done, what he had been a part of, and who he’d been affiliated with. Without his own defense and perspective or without additional evidence, they wouldn’t be able to move forward.

Eve loved this man. She hadn’t loved someone or cared about them this much in a very long time. She could have avoided going back up the mountain. She could have pretended that she hadn’t heard Sharon and Jamison’s words and seen those photos and instead just wrapped herself up in a fur blanket with Roman and Karu, ignoring the past and damning the future. It would be easier that way. It would be easier if she was in a normal job. If she were a teacher, she wouldn’t have to deal with questioning her boyfriend for murder and rehashing his traumatic past to try to get answers. Theoretically, she wouldn’t have to make choices between her position and who she cared about the most. But she was the sheriff of Chesapeake Valley. She loved her job. She loved her job more than she loved Roman, and it felt terrible to let that thought cross her mind, but she knew deep down that it was true. That if she was faced with putting him behind bars or leaving her position, she would have Roman locked up if the evidence was compelling. No part of her wanted to do that. She was strained emotionally and physically, and the nightmares were the first signs of her feelings of helplessness. And when she had strategically avoided, investigated and was soon to question the only person who could ease those feelings, Eve felt confident that the nightmares of the monsters in this town were only the beginning.

Roman Marek

The new axe sliced through wood like butter. He wondered why it had taken him so long to upgrade, but he had become attached to certain items at the cabin: the woodstove, the ATV, the all-pine cabinets. A lot of it had become a significant part of him in a short period of time. With all the time he spent at home, it was hard not to get attached. Ranch. Cabin. Ranch. Cabin. ATV. Ranch. Supplies. Cabin. Eve, hopefully. She had been even more distant than her usual distance. He didn’t have any reason not to trust her or to be concerned, yet he was. Every swing of the axe released frustration that was burning in his core.

Karu released a string of barks.

“What is it, Karu?” Roman called in Estonian and the German Shepherd came around the corner with Eve in tow.

Her blonde hair was wrapped up into a braid and under a beanie. She looked tired. Her eyes were bloodshot and her nose was red. She gave him a friendly wave and a smile though.

“Well, well, if this isn’t the best surprise since Christmas day.” He grinned and slammed the axe down into the stump. Eve stopped walking as he did that, her eyes affixed to the handle.

“New axe?” she asked.

“Yup. Fresh from Value Lumber.”

“Right. Rod help you?”

“He did. Nice guy. How was your road trip?” Roman crossed the yard and pulled her into a massive hug. He was sure from the side that she had completely disappeared into him, especially recently she looked like she was getting even smaller. He put two hands on her shoulders and pulled back.

“How you doing, Sheriff?” he analyzed her face. “You okay? How was Texas? Did you find what you were lookin’ for?”

“Can we talk?”

Despite his efforts to put on a smile, his heart sank at that. He didn’t feel like they had become distant enough to quit this. He was very much in love with her and everything to do with her. But his mind immediately went to the worst-case scenario: she was here to break up with him.

“Let me make you some coffee,” he replied. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and she let him guide her in through the back door. Something was not right with her. She had lots on her mind, and it seemed to all come back to him. He sat her down at the kitchen table and served a strong cup of coffee in clay pottery mugs.

She took a sip and said, “Gosh. I missed your coffee.”

“I’d serve it to you every day if I could,” he grinned.

“I know you would.”

“But you’ve been busy…”

“I have been.”

“Really busy…”

Eve smiled softly, sadly. “Yeah. But I’ve always been busy. That hasn’t really changed.”

Roman’s smile was bigger. Genuine. “You haven’t changed.”

“You don’t think so?”

“No. You’re still the woman I fell for.”

“So far so good?”

“I would say so.”

She gave a stiff nod.

He laughed to let out some tension. “What’s going on, Eve?” He reached across the table to grab her hand. “Please tell me what’s on your mind.”

She pulled her hand away.

No. Roman felt her slipping away. No. He would not lose her. Not like this.

“You’re on my mind,” she said.

“You’re on my mind all the time too.”

“It’s not in the way that you think… I wish it was just because of how much I love and care about you but… it’s not,” she said.

“So you don’t love and care about me?”

“No. That’s not what I said at all. It’s just more complex than that.”

“It doesn’t need to be.”

“It does when your axe has been used as a murder weapon.”

Roman withdrew his hands and pulled the coffee closer to his torso.

“Is that really what this is about? I was here with you when we heard the gunshot. You know I don’t have anything to do with that.”

“Then how did your axe end up at that cabin?”

“It was stolen. It must have been.”

“And you didn’t report anything? You could’ve just texted me. I would’ve looked into it.”

“I chopped wood that morning. It was out there in the yard. Literally anyone could’ve taken it.”

“But you were here, and you didn’t see anyone?”

“On that day those brothers went up? No. But whoever took it could’ve taken it the day before. When I say that morning… I mean the day before.”

“Right…” Eve looked him over with doubt.

“Seriously?”

“What?” she replied.

“You don’t believe me?” he scoffed, but tried to hold it in. “After everything we’ve been through, and you don’t believe me about this?”

“No. I believe you…” she took a sip of her coffee. “I’m just trying to figure out the timeline here. So it was the day before the hike that you used the axe last?”

“Yeah. I chopped up some logs so I had enough for a couple nights. You were here, remember? We used a good chunk of that wood in the stove that night.”

“I remember.”

“So why are we even talking about this?” her face dropped, and he immediately regretted saying it. “Sorry. I just mean that… I don’t understand.”

“I know, but the case is still open. We have to try to figure this out.”

“We will.”

“Not us, Roman. Me and Sharon.”

“Oh… right. Of course.”

Eve placed a file folder on the table. “She made this.”

“What is it? About my axe?”

“More than just your axe… I’d like to bring you in for further questioning.”

“Can I see what’s inside?”

“Come down to the station with me and I’ll show you.”

“Am I under arrest, Sheriff?” he stood up, turning away from the table, not wanting her to see his face.

“No. It’s not like that, Roman. I just need some more explanation on this.”

He took another sip of his coffee and then dumped it down the sink.

“Fine.” he turned back to her. “Fine. Let’s go then.”

“Okay…” she stood up from the table and tapped the file folder.

“I already know what’s in there…” he said from the kitchen sink.

“It’s not personal, Roman.”

“It is. You don’t need to pretend with that, Eve. I know both Jamison and Sharon don’t trust me. And they don’t trust me because of who I am. It’s very personal.”

“Why didn’t you tell me that you were part of this group? The Clandestines?”

Roman took in a sharp breath. Hearing that name was like taking a slap to the face. Hearing it out of her mouth was like hearing a toddler drop an F-bomb. Those memories had been locked down for years, and he didn’t want to give them life or breath, yet he could see it on her face, that the only way to get out of this was through. Through the operation in Dubai, the horrors in Belarus, the lynchings along the Black Sea, the explosion in Tibet and the men and friends he lost there. Straight through.

“I didn’t think it was relevant…” he muttered. “What do you want to know?”

Eve opened the folder and held up a photo of the hostages in the hotel ballroom. She pointed to the child’s hazel eyes, staring up at her mother in fear.

Roman glanced down at the photo and grimaced. “Where did you get this?”

“Like you said, Jamison and Sharon don’t trust you.”

“They’ve been digging…” he muttered. “They dug deep.”

“Not that deep. Sharon found it. Not Jamison.”

“You don’t know that…” Roman said. “How do you know they’re not working together behind your back?”

“I’d encourage them to. I trust them.”

“Just not me.”

They stared at each other, and Eve flipped to the next photo: the man hanging.

“This is Anton Baciu… he was a Romanian human trafficker.”

Eve nodded and flipped. The next photo was several men lined up on their stomach. Roman knew immediately what the photo was from, and the fear must have been showing on his face because Eve asked, “What’s this one?”

He plucked the photo from the pile and looked it over. He remembered this day. He remembered this photo. He didn’t want it taken, yet his boot had made it into the edge of the frame. This was a takedown of a domestic terrorist organization in Tibet, and the Clandenstines had been called in when the group calling themselves Raangzan had attempted to liberate the city by blowing up a government building, taking out two dozen officials. But not all the men in the photo were Raangzan. The case had become convoluted and with their translator going down, wires had gotten crossed, and they had ended up capturing three civilians among the six men that were on the ground.

“What happened?” Eve asked as she tried to take back the photo and Roman held it out of her reach.

“I don’t…” he passed it back to her. “I don’t want to talk about that one.”

“Roman… If you want me to trust you, you have to tell me the truth.”

“I’m not lying to you, Eve. I just don’t want to rehash this stuff. It doesn’t have anything to do with that guy in the cabin. You know that.”

“How can I know that?”

“Believe me.”

“Did any of these men survive?” she continued.

“Eve…”

“Are any of these men still alive?”

“No!”

“I think we should go down to the station.”

“Fine by me.”

He stood over her as she gathered the folder backup and closed it. Her large brown eyes were glued to the photos, but he could see her peripherals working, keeping an eye on him. He put a hand on the side of her face. Immediately, she pulled back and then, like she remembered her feelings, she whispered “sorry” and leaned into his palm. Her cheek was warm against his skin.

“I’ll tell you everything,” he said. “I’ll tell you everything you want to know.”

He cupped her face with his other hand.

“I’m sorry to do this to you again,” she said.

“I don’t think you are. I think you like investigating me, Sheriff.”

She smiled. “Maybe.”

“It’s only ever made us stronger. You make me stronger.”

“You’re plenty strong, Roman…”

He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers. She stood up from the chair so she could press back against him. He took that opportunity to scoop her up and wrap her legs around his torso. Maybe he shouldn’t have kissed her so fiercely or pinned her up against the kitchen table, but he couldn’t help himself. If she was going to investigate him, if her entire perception of him was about to change, he needed to have her while he could. The pure animalistic temptation had always been there, but he usually resisted acting on it unless she had given full, unabashed consent. It felt like there was a ticking time bomb above their heads, and if he didn’t show her how much he wanted her, how much he cared, before it hit zero, this entire relationship would explode. He couldn’t have that. He had to have her. That was all he cared about now. Yes, the cabin was important. Karu was a great companion. But his world revolved around Eve, as it had since last spring. His world was not the Clandestines anymore. He would prove that to her. He ran his hands down her back and gripped her waist. Eve let out a cool breath along his neck and he trailed her collar with his lips. When he tried to pull back, she yanked him back in, the warmth of her small hands on his cheeks and pulling through his beard.

He leaned back and breathed.

“Just a little while longer…”

He closed his eyes and leaned into her, smelling her, taking her in, wondering if this would be the last time. After she uncovered everything, when it all came to light, he wouldn’t blame her for walking away. In fact, it would be smart of her to remove this unnecessary risk and liability from her life.

“I’m sorry…” she said.

He opened his eyes.

“Sorry? You don’t need to apologize.”

“I’m sorry I have to do this.”

She slid off the edge of the table, and he kept his hands on her waist.

“I understand.” He touched the file folder behind her and said, “This isn’t who I am anymore. That’s all I can say.”

She nodded and wrapped her arms around him, laying her head on his chest. He placed a hand at the back of her head. They both took one more breath, and when she pulled back, Eve had turned the switch back on. He saw the look in her eyes transform from love to investigation, and her shoulders rolled back. The flush on her cheeks dissipated. The tension between them returned and his pulse entered his ears.

Roman gave Karu extra food on the way out. With Ken being away, he would have no one to watch the German Shepherd, but Eve reassured him that she would check on him. They went down on foot instead of in the ATV, and it went by too quickly. They had gotten too adept at the trail, and he could only draw out so many of his strides before Eve grew even more suspicious of him.

At the station, Sharon’s mouth fell open at the sight of them coming up in the Tahoe.

“Will you help me process Roman?” Eve asked at the desk.

“Sure,” Sharon replied.

“We’re going to talk to him for a bit,” she said.

Roman laughed a little and Eve gave him a serious look.

“I… Am I under arrest?” Roman asked.

“No,” she said. “Your axe was used as the murder weapon against Derek Stratus. I’d like to hold you for questioning until we know more.”

“Do I need a lawyer?”

“You have the right to one.”

Eve glanced at Sharon, and she stood up from the desk. Roman leaned on it.

“Let’s go,” Sharon said to him.

“Where?” he asked Eve.

She looked away from him again.

“The holding cell?” Roman clarified. “At least say it to my face, Sheriff.”

“Just the interrogation room.”

“Do it all the way, Eve,” he snapped. “If you’re going to do it, do it. Enough of this halfway in bullshit. If you really think I’m capable of something like this, show me how you really feel!”

He slapped the desk and both Eve and Sharon jumped. He turned away and moved to one of the lobby chairs. He was so frustrated and his emotions were getting the best of him. It was like his body was moving as a separate entity from his mind and his boot swung forward, catching the leg of the chair in front of him and sending it spiraling across the room.

“Roman!” Eve yelled.

The chair rolled against one of the other chairs, a mess of polyester and metal.

“Here!” Roman threw out his wrists. “Put them on, Eve. Don’t pussyfoot around this anymore. Just put it on me. I don’t care.”

Eve shook her head at him. She tossed a look over her shoulder and said to Sharon, “Can you handle this?”

“I got it,” she replied. “Come with me please, Mr. Marek.”

Roman looked at Eve with wide eyes, shocked that she would just ignore him like this. Was he the one being so unreasonable? Maybe. Maybe he was. Maybe he was letting this all get the better of him, but he couldn’t help but feel like every piece of him was being pulled. He was being yanked apart, piece by piece. His past, his present, and his future were all colliding into a mess of love and revenge that he could have never predicted.

Eve brushed past him, exited through the station doors and went straight for her Tahoe. She left him and Sharon standing there. Roman could only stare after her in bewilderment. But as she pulled out of the parking lot, he swore he saw her wipe away tears from under her eyes, and his stomach lurched and his heart broke.

“I didn’t mean to…” Roman said to Sharon.

“Come on…” she replied gently and guided him towards the back room.

He tried to keep his eyes on Eve, but her Tahoe was out of the parking lot and down the road by the time he looked back.

He hated himself. He hated himself for what he had done. He hated himself for going back to what he had been. Making Eve cry was worse than anything he had done in the Clandestines. Seeing her heartbroken was more terrible than any of the bodies, the hostages, the explosions. He had sworn to protect her and had hurt her. He was ashamed and instead of going for the interrogation room, Roman walked himself straight into the open holding cell and sat on the small bench under the narrow window.

Sharon took a moment to point towards the interrogation room, but Roman ignored her and she seemed to get the hint. Slowly, she closed the door to the holding cell and used a jangling set of keys to lock him inside. He heard her boots click away, but he didn’t watch her leave, keeping his eyes on the even bars in front of him instead, feeling like this was exactly what he deserved.

Sheriff Eve Wicker

Eve pulled down the mirror in the Tahoe and checked to make sure she didn’t look a complete and utter mess. She felt that way inside, but she didn’t need anyone else to see how she was feeling. Roman was upset. She didn’t blame herself for being upset, but she did blame him for the way he handled it. Still, her mind lingered on the kiss and his kitchen. The way he lifted her like she weighed nothing at all and held her with such passion, borderline desperation. She knew there wasn’t any possible way that conversation could have been easy, but it somehow went worse than she expected. She couldn’t help but feel like she had made her bed and now needed to lie in it. It was her choice, at the end of the day, to bring Roman in. It was also her choice to decide if he was guilty. She had to choose between him and her job, between him and her friends and her co-workers.

When she entered the bakery and the bell rang above her head, she recognized everyone inside. Jack Jamison was at one table, sipping a coffee with a plate full of croissant crumbs, always keeping an eye on things. Her father was at the counter, and he beamed at her from behind the cash register. And at the other table, Lionel Chen was on his phone. He immediately stood up at her entry.

“Sheriff Wicker!” he said, which caused every pair of eyes to turn to her.

“Chen… What are you doing out here?” she asked.

“I told you I was going to come down. It’s not that far and you keep coming to me. Thought I’d make it easier on you.”

“And then found yourself at the bakery?” she smirked.

“Couldn’t help myself…” he gestured to the glass display cases.

“This is my dad, Francis,” she moved closer to the counter and Lionel followed her. “Dad, this is Lionel Chen. He works in forensics out of Colorado Springs. Crime Scene Investigation.”

“Oh wow.” Lionel reached out his hand and Francis managed to give him a shake. “Nice to officially meet you. Thanks for the cake. It was absolutely divine.”

“Nice to…meet you…” Francis stammered back.

Eve could feel Jamison’s eyes on their backs.

Lionel said, “Do you have a couple of minutes, Sheriff?”

“Sure. Can I get a coffee, Dad? A big one.”

The coffee from Roman’s felt like it had gone right through her, like that conversation and their kissing had trumped everything else in the room. Eve sat down with Lionel at the far table and glanced over at Jamison again who was watching them.

“That’s Jack Jamison, isn’t it?” Lionel whispered.

Eve nodded. “He’s been in and around town.”

“For the Stratus case?”

Eve said, “It’s complicated.”

Lionel twisted his face into a smirk. “It always is with the CBI. They want us to do our jobs but tell us as little as possible.”

“He’s doing his best…” Eve didn’t know what else to say. Talking smack about Jamison wasn’t going to get her anywhere, and she did genuinely believe that he was trying his best. However, his best meant uncovering Roman’s dark past and tying him to the violent crimes of the valley.

“I won’t take up too much of your time. I know you’re busy.”

Lionel sipped his drink.

“I’m surprised you came down. People say that they’re going to do that, but Chesapeake Valley is pretty out of the way for you. Unless your destination is the Rockies, we don’t get a lot of passers-through.”

“I know. Which is a shame. It’s a beautiful town. I see why you like it here.”

Eve gave a light smile. “Any word on that casing?”

“Yes. Big word.”

“Lay it on me.”

He pulled a baggie out of his pocket that contained the brass casing and placed it on the bistro table.

“This,” he poked the bag, “is from a G47 MOS. I’m pretty confident it’s from the 9mm pistol. These used to be used by border control, but anyone can get them now.”

“Really? I thought it was going to be bigger than that.”

“I think the bullet must have hit a tree with the way this casing is damaged. Bent it all out of shape. But because of the database prohibition on gun registration, there’s no way we’re going to be able to find out who owns this unless we can hunt down CCTV footage of them actually buying it. So if you want to scrape every gun shop and Walmart in this area over the last couple years… I know it would have had to be purchased after 2019 because that’s when they made them available for commercial purchase.”

“Geez… okay…” Eve picked up the bag and scrutinized the casing. “I’m trying to think if I’ve ever seen one of these in town. Who here would have owned one of those? I’ll ask Sharon. She might know.”

“Sharon?”

“My deputy.”

“Right. It’s just the two of you out here?”

“For now. Looking to hire someone else. Looking for a job?”

He laughed. “I don’t think I could do what you do. Talking to people all day sounds like my nightmare. I like my isolated lab away from society.”

“You seem pretty socially competent to me…”

“Only with you.”

Eve laughed a little, but her mind immediately drifted to Roman and the last time Lionel had tried to take her out on a date. She was sitting here, having coffee with a man who had been romantically interested in her while her boyfriend waited for her at the sheriff’s station. She shook her head at herself and leaned back in her chair.

“Sorry. I just mean that you’re good at making people feel comfortable,” he continued. “I see why you’re a sheriff. You make people feel safe.”

“That’s nice, Lionel. Thank you,” she replied quietly.

But everything in her mind was telling her that it was the opposite. She hadn’t made Roman feel safe. Derek Stratus hadn’t been kept safe. Georgia Turnbull hadn’t been kept safe.

“I’ll leave the casing with you now…” he said as he stood up from the table. “It was nice to see you. I think I’ll take a little scenic route back. Drive along the mountains.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

Lionel left the bakery and as soon as the bell quieted, Eve heard a chair push back and Jamison joined her at the window.

“Any breakthroughs, Sheriff?”

“Not really. I still have no idea if it was Tommy Little who shot that shot or not.”

“Some ID on the gun though?”

“Yeah. A G47.”

“Hmm…”

Eve turned to him, and he stared right into her eyes. She tried to hold in her anger and frustration, but she couldn’t help but feel like Jamison was one of the big causes of her having to do what she did to Roman. He had planted these seeds of his background in the Marines and changed her perception of Roman. He had influenced Sharon. He was snaking his way into the valley, pulling out the worst bits of information of the people she loved and bringing them to light.

“Listen,” she started. “I know you’re doing your job here. But I’d like you to back down a bit. I don’t think I need to remind you that you’re not my boss.”

“You don’t.”

“Right. And I don’t want to have to. But I need you to watch your toes on my case.”

“This is about Roman?”

“He’s at the station right now.”

“Good. Good for you.”

“No. Not good for me actually. I’m pulling him in for questioning because of what you and Sharon dug up about his background, but I know he has nothing to do with Derek Stratus’ death.”

“If that were true, you wouldn’t have brought him in.”

“No. It’s due process. I’m questioning him because it’s my job. Not because you told me to or because Sharon told me to, but because he is a key witness.”

“And a prime suspect.”

“He was with me!” Eve’s voice raised unintentionally. “He was with me when that shot went off, Jamison! He barely even knew about that cabin’s existence. Why are you so insistent on his involvement?”

He stepped back. “I knew his commanding officer. His officer told me things about Roman Marek that I wouldn’t dare repeat. He was bloodthirsty and brutal. I know that he’s bad news. This is not about the Derek Stratus case. It’s about something larger and more in-depth into Roman’s dark, dirty history. But don’t worry, from now on, I’ll stay out of your hair.”

“Good,” Eve said flatly, stopping herself from saying anything else foolish.

He replied, “Good.”

They faced down with eye contact, and Jamison’s mouth twitched as he looked her over.

“Good,” he repeated. “That’s fine. I’ll just go… You don’t need me here.”

“No. I don’t.”

“Fine. Fine, Sheriff.”

Jamison gathered his coat and his bag. He slung it over his shoulder and gave Francis a nod before going to the door.

“I do care about you, you know,” he said with his fingers wrapped around the door handle. He didn’t turn around. “I care about you, Sheriff, and I understand better than anyone, better than Roman, what you’re going through. When I was your age, I was a sheriff too. Bent County. Small too, just like Chesapeake Valley.”

Eve didn’t know that. In fact, there was very little that she knew about Jamison’s past because it was so rare for him to talk about himself.

“And I just… Yes. I’m sorry. I will stay out of your way.”

His side profile turned to her, shadowed by the lowering sun outside.

“I’m sorry too,” she replied. She reached out a hand, not really sure what she was doing with it and Jamison gave her a light squeeze. And then he was gone with another ring of the bell. She watched him cross the street and enter his car, throwing his bag into the backseat. He didn’t look back.

Her eyes were suddenly stinging. She used the backs of her hands to push the tears away. No time for crying.

“You… okay, Evie?” her father’s frail voice said from behind her.

She turned to him, crossed the bakery to the front counter and collapsed onto it.

“Please. Any croissant. Stat.”

Francis chuckled as he dug into the display case and passed her a plate with a cheese croissant. Eve took three bites and said with her mouth full, “I didn’t mean to yell.”

“I know you… didn’t. It’s okay… You’re dealing with a lot…” he replied.

“Yes. Yes. Oh my gosh, Dad. What do I do?”

He gave her a light smile as she took another bite. “What do you think you should do?”

“I think…” she swallowed. “I think I should get Roman’s story and let him go. I think both Sharon and Jamison are wrong about him and that he’s changed from who he was.”

“Well… there’s your answer.”

He reached his shaky hand across the table and Eve took it.

“You’re right…” she whispered. “You’re so right.”

“Who do you trust, Evie?”

“I trust myself. I trust you. I trust Sharon… I do trust Jamison. I know I was a little hard on him, but I do trust him and he’s capable.”

“Do you trust… Roman?”

And the question alone put a massive pit in her stomach. That trust had flip-flopped and twisted throughout these last eight months so much.

“I want to.”

“Do you?”

She took another bite of the croissant, and he passed her another cookie with a decorative top. Did she? It was such a simple question, and she didn’t know if she could answer it. Of course, on a surface level, she did. It had been tested though, and it would continue to be tested. She wouldn’t be sleeping with a man she didn’t trust. But there was a shadow that lingered and had always lingered with every person she had ever dated and that shadow had grown with the more she learned about who Roman had been. Deep down, she searched herself. She cleared away the shadow and she searched her intuition for the answer that she wanted to give.

Eve said, “Yes.”

Sheriff Eve Wicker

With a kiss on her dad’s cheek and one more cookie, Eve headed back to the station. The anxiety was still present, working its way through her hands that tapped and squeezed the steering wheel. Jamison was gone. She had practically kicked him out of town, and she hoped that he would understand why she had to put up those boundaries. She was glad that she had done it, but she wasn’t exactly happy with the way she had handled it.

Roman was waiting for her in the holding cell and when she peered into the back room, he was just sitting on the bench with his head against the wall and his eyes closed.

“Why did you put him in the cell?” Eve muttered to Sharon.

“He put himself in there…” she replied with a shrug.

Eve shook her head and sighed. She walked into the back room and glanced at her Elijah Stern corkboard, wondering if Roman had enough of an angle to see parts of it from the cell.

“Punishing yourself?” Eve asked as she took another step, and he opened his eyes at the sound of her boots.

“You’re doing that for me,” he replied.

“You ready to talk?” she asked.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Eve approached the cell door and unlocked it with the keys on her belt.

“I’m sorry about the chair…” he said. The door squeaked open, and he stood up, his full height stretching out tall enough to cover the light from the high window. “I just… I lost it a bit there and I’m sorry. I didn’t expect any of this, of course.”

“You should’ve told me your axe was missing,” she said.

“I didn’t even know. I told you. I didn’t realize until the next morning.”

“Is there anything else you haven’t told me?”

“I don’t…” he paused. “Did I tell you Ken left town?”

“What?”

“Yeah. He called me. Told me he was leaving for a little while and that I should look after his mom for a while.”

“No… No. I don’t think you told me that. Have you seen his mom?”

“Yesterday. I popped in after lunch. She fell asleep watching TV.”

“Right…” she stepped back and said, “Come on. Let’s try the interrogation room. It’s more comfortable in there.”

He brushed past her, and it felt a bit strange for her to go by without touching her or smiling down. They were both on a razor’s edge. Eve was trying to balance herself, but she felt her body being drawn to him and as they entered the interrogation room and the walls closed in, she and Roman quickly fell in close to one another. He leaned forward on the table and said, “I should have told you about Ken.”

“Probably,” Eve replied. “I don’t expect you to tell me everything but that is… important.”

“I thought it was kinda weird.”

“I’m sorry, Roman,” Eve started. “I’m sorry I brought you down here. I did feel like I needed to do it, but I’m sorry that I had to because I really didn’t want to. I hope you understand that. I don’t think that you did anything to Derek Stratus.”

“Well…” he caught her eyes. “Good. I didn’t.”

“I know.”

“I appreciate that,” he said. “I have seen quite a few of the same people going up the mountain though. Ken was one of them. He came up to visit me all the time when he was sober enough to make the climb.”

“You guys have been friends a long time.”

“We go way, way back. He used to help out back at the Marek Ranch. He’s a good guy, Eve… I don’t think… Well, I really hope he ain’t involved in any of this business with Stern.”

“I hope so too,” she said. “Have you ever explored by the Devil’s Bridge? Like by the mines?”

“I did once,” he replied. “Early on when I first bought the place. I couldn’t cross the bridge because it was so thin at that time of year so I…” he laughed at himself. “I climbed it.”

“What? What do you mean you climbed it?”

“I used my gear and went across the devil’s mouth. It really wasn’t that far. Pretty easy.”

“I guess that’s one way,” she muttered.

She was leaning in as well. The table kept them apart, but if it had been narrower, they would be nose to nose.

“You’ve always been good at problem solving…” she said and Roman nodded.

“Not as good as you,” he smirked.

“Not quite…”

They both smiled and broke the tension a bit. Eve could feel them sliding up and down the razor, teetering on steel.

“Tell me about the Clandestines, Roman,” Eve said. “Why is Jamison so insistent on what you did with them?”

“Because he knows Adesina.”

Eve waited.

Roman sighed and explained, “First Sergeant Edwin Adesina. He was the commanding officer in the Clandestines for over a decade and was there while I was there. Adesina and Jamison served together before Adesina went into the Marines. They hated each other. Both couldn’t check their egos. Adesina was… is way tougher than Jamison and he wouldn’t let him forget it. Pretty sure he’s projecting all of that stuff from the past onto me…”

“I think it’s more than that. He said you were ‘bloodthirsty and brutal’, Roman.”

Roman scoffed. “Not any more than the rest of them. Did he tell you about Boris Ivanov and how bloodthirsty he was? Killing dozens of innocent people including women and children. How about Raangzan? Did he tell you about them killing twenty-five government officials with a dozen homemade pipe bombs?”

“No… he didn’t. I want to know about you. Not them.”

“What can I say, Eve? I did a lot of things I wasn’t proud of but it was all under orders.”

“Give me some more specifics.”

“When I enlisted, I knew I wanted to be a part of the Marines. It was Marines or bust. I knew my skill set was, for lack of a better word, better than infantry, and I’m not good at piloting. I started getting into intelligence collection. That’s where I met Adesina. He recruited me for the Clandestines after he saw some of the international intel I had gathered. He brought me in under his wing and put me through these days and weeks of training. I’ve never been so dirty. I’ve never been so sore and tired. They broke all of us down. They took us out to Dubai and had us walk through the desert barefoot. As a training exercise. That’s what they said. In the middle of Lahbab desert, which by the way is usually full of tourists, but it was so sweltering hot those days we were out there that it was a lot quieter. Anyway. We had to set up camp because they gave us a point B to get to that was all the way across the dunes that we couldn’t reach in one day on foot with no shoes. I’m helping one of the guys, I think it was Jonesie, set up his tent and we hear something coming at us. It’s an engine. Actually, several engines. It was a bunch of sandrails but they were souped-up like something out of Mad Max. Turns out, these guys are Al-Qaeda. Somebody tipped them off that we were on a military exercise and they took the opportunity. They surround us. We’ve got three tents. Maybe six guys. No weapons aside from knives and we’re surrounded by these bastards with AKs trained right at us, screaming at us…”

Roman’s dark eyes trailed the room until they landed on Eve.

“We had to get out. So, Adesina starts trying to negotiate with these guys in broken Arabic. They shoot him. He goes down. Jonesie throws up sand and I go for Adesina, trying to drag him out, but they completely walled me off so I went for my knife… and…” his words trickled off.

“What happened next?” Eve asked quietly.

“I killed them all,” he replied, matching her tone.

Eve leaned back. “All of them? With one knife?”

“Yes.”

“I have a hard time seeing how that’s even possible.”

“You don’t have to believe it. But it happened. I remember every second and I don’t want to traumatize you with the details. That incident and saving Adesina’s life secured my spot as second in command. It also led to all of these rumors that circulated through our unit and neighbors’ about how ‘bloodthirsty’ I was. Jamison just latched onto that, I’m sure. But I had to… I had to save my friends. There was no other way.”

Silence ticked by in the room as Eve processed the story. She could picture it: Roman jumping up onto one of the dune buggies, plunging his knife into someone’s neck and dragging it across in smooth movement to his next victim. Sand bathed with blood. Desert moonlight reflected in his intense stare.

“Everyone survived on your side?” she managed.

Roman nodded. “We didn’t make it to the extraction point. We got airlifted out. But that’s what started it all, really. And I think that story is the reason why Jamison is so… annoying.”

Eve didn’t laugh at that, and Roman continued, “Sorry. I do think he’s a good guy. I just think he can get hyper-focused on one thing, and he has a hard time letting go, even if somebody piles evidence in front of him.”

She nodded.

Roman reached a hand across the table. “I’m going to be totally honest, Eve. That’s one of several stories like that. I was really good at my job. Like you are.”

“And being good at your job means being good at murder?”

He retracted his hand. “These are terrorists, Eve. Not our neighbors.”

“So they deserved it? We’re all products of our circumstances.”

“You don’t really believe that. People who are strong enough overcome their circumstances. Like I did. Like Jamison did. Like you did. You were NSA, you dealt with some of this stuff, didn’t you?”

“I don’t know, Roman. There’s a real fine line here between intelligence gathering and black ops.”

“If you’re not going to understand this, you’re not going to understand me.”

“I… I’m trying.”

He reached out his hand again and this time she took it. He squeezed and rubbed the top of her hand with his thumb.

“I’m trying too, Eve,” he explained. “All of that… it’s in the past. I don’t want to be that person anymore. I don’t want to at all. That’s why I’m here. That’s why I retired early. I could have stayed. They wanted me to. I had all sorts of opportunities thrown at me, but I chose not to because I…”

“Because of Diana?” Eve asked.

“She was a part of that decision, yes. I met her and realized my life didn’t have to be what it was. I could have something like what my parents had but… better. And then when my relationship with Diana exploded, I needed to just focus on myself and building up my ranch. It was either that or go back to the Marines and that wasn’t what I wanted. Despite all the anger, it was still the last thing I wanted to do. Nobody in that position wants to pull the trigger. I was fighting to survive and fighting to save. And with all of this now, I feel like I’m still in that position…”

“You’re not in danger,” Eve said. “Not anymore.”

He pulled on her hand and stood up. Eve followed his lead and they met at the edge of the table, collapsing into each other. She held him, and despite all of his height, the strength in his words and all of these horrific things he had done, he felt very small then.

He whispered, “Do you believe me?”

“Yes,” she replied.

She lifted her head off his chest and he tilted her head towards him by placing a finger under her chin. With forcible eye contact, he said, “Am I under arrest, Sheriff?”

Eve grinned. “You’re free to go… for now.”

She pulled back and then he grabbed her arm and kissed her passionately. The sun spilled in through the broken blinds, and Eve could feel it on her cheek as his cool hands pulled her in. They pushed against each other, and Eve’s hands trailed against his chest as his went down her back. As he reached her lower back, images of that blood-covered desert flashed through her mind. She pulled away. He stared down at her. He read her face and nodded to himself, like he knew exactly what she had pictured.

“I trust you, Roman,” she said. “I’m glad you told me what you did. It really helps. I’m going to let you go now though.”

“I’m free?”

“You always were.”

“It didn’t feel like it…”

“You put yourself in that cell, Marek. I don’t need to put you behind bars to get what I want.”

He grinned at that and pulled her in for another peck on the forehead.

“Thank you for trusting me,” he said.

Eve nodded and smiled, desperately hoping that her gut was right, vehemently wishing for validation of her trust. But that was all she could do: wish and hope. Take Roman at his word and trust that he wasn’t this bloodthirsty monster that Jamison and his past had made him out to be.

As she guided him out of the interrogation room and back into the front, Sharon peered up from her laptop and gave him a cheesy grin.

“Walking out of here scot-free?” she mused.

“As far as I know,” Roman replied.

“Thanks for cooperating,” she said.

“Of course. I don’t know any other way.”

Sharon didn’t seem that impressed by his answer, but she smiled anyway and glanced at Eve.

“You need a ride back?” Eve asked.

“Nah… I’ll walk. It’s a nice enough day. No snow until later, I think. And hopefully I’ll get to see you tonight?”

“We’ll see what unwinds here,” Eve replied.

“Job first.”

“Always.”

With another peck on her cheek, Roman left, casting a massive shadow as he stepped out into the sun. The pavement shined with moisture as the sunshine melted away some of the snow. Roman rounded the building and disappeared.

Sharon asked, “Any trouble in paradise?”

“Nothing but…” Eve replied. “But he told me a lot about his work with the Clandestines. I’m not convinced that whatever Jamison is pursuing is anything recent. He has changed. He has nothing to do with Derek Stratus.”

“Was it worth the strife to question him?”

“I think so. It would have been pretty biased of me not to. If he was anyone else, I would have brought him in right away based on what you dug up.”

“I think you made the right choice…” Sharon said. “But I still don’t trust him.”

“Sharon… Please. Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”

“I’m just giving my two cents!”

“I know. But…” Eve stopped herself. She didn’t want to go around in circles anymore. “I need to make a call.”

She stepped into the backroom and turned the corkboard around so she could analyze it. She pulled out her phone and called Agent Heyner Castro. Not only was he heading the FBI’s investigation of Stern, but he had been the man, the sheriff, that had rescued her and her mother from Stern’s clutches so long ago. Those days in those dark rooms felt so distant, yet they always resurfaced in her dreams, not allowing her peace.

“Eve!” Heyner exclaimed into the phone. “How you doing?”

“I’m in.”

“What?”

“Put me on the task force. I want all the way in.”

“Officially?”

“Officially.”

“You got it. This is amazing, Eve. You’re going to be a huge asset.”

“I know. I need to pin him down, Heyner. I need to end this.”

“We will. You talked to your people? They’re okay with this?”

“Don’t worry about anyone else.”

“Well, I won’t go advertising your involvement if that makes things easier for you…”

“I appreciate that.”

“But I won’t be able to hide it from someone like Jack Jamison if he asks.”

“That’s fine.”

“You okay?” he asked.

How would she begin to unpack all that had happened even since their last phone call? Was she okay? Likely not. A man with an axe in his skull. A helicopter rescue. Dragging her boyfriend in for questioning after her co-workers insisted on delving deep into his violent past. Not to mention Carter Stratus and all he had been through, waiting for answers that she didn’t have until they tracked down—

“Sheriff!” Sharon’s voice cut through her phone call.

“I gotta go,” Eve said. “Text me any details I need.”

Heyner said, “You got it.”

Eve slid her phone back in her pocket and turned to her deputy.

“We got Tommy Little,” she said. “We got him on CCTV in Boulder.”

Eve rushed past her and grabbed her coat. “Okay. Let’s go.”

She slid her equipment into their designated spots and slipped on a vest under her uniform as quickly as she could. Piling her coat over her shoulders, she said, “I got one stop to make.”

Sharon looked flabbergasted. “A quick one? This is urgent. Boulder is more than an hour away. We could lose him.”

Eve insisted, “A necessary one.”

Sheriff Eve Wicker

Hackett met them at the Chesapeake Valley Foothills parking lot. She came down in the ATV and the white and gray speck rushed along the path, barreling across the lot to meet Eve. Eve took Pearl into her arms and squeezed her.

“Oh, I missed you, sweetheart,” Eve whispered and Pearl let out several excited yaps, licking at Eve’s face, almost shaking with excitement.

“She missed you too!” Hackett kicked off of the ATV and placed her helmet on the seat.

“Thanks for taking care of her, Hackett. Hope she helped you out.”

“Oh yeah. She made my rounds so much easier. Makes me want one of my own.”

“Might not be a bad idea,” Eve said as she took Pearl’s leash from Hackett. “We’re on our way out. We’ve got a lead on the Stratus case. And I need my best girls.”

Eve gestured to Pearl and Sharon waiting in the front seat of the Tahoe.

“Good luck!” Hackett yelled after Eve as she piled herself and Pearl into the SUV. With another round of waves, Eve, Sharon, and Pearl were off and down the highway, heading north towards Boulder. Sharon immediately got on the walkie with the Boulder Police Department. They were tracking Little, and he had stopped at a gas station where he had paid for some food and a coffee with cash but had been caught on CCTV and called in by the cashier for the way he smelled and the way he was acting. Boulder connected the description almost immediately with the APB that Sharon had put out for Little. Now, they needed to find him before he escaped from town and knew they were on his tail.

Pearl in the back and Sharon in the front gave Eve more confidence. It had been a rough couple of days and she felt like she was hanging on by a thread, but these two could keep her held up despite all the surrounding hardship. Pearl sat in the middle of the backseat and rested her head on the center console. It had been much harder without her, like the world had been clouded over without her extra set of eyes and ears. Eve gave her a scratch by weaving under her arm to get to Pearl’s chin. This was another reminder that she had to pick the people around her wisely. Pearl was as close to her as anyone else. Roman was fighting for a spot next to her, and she wanted to help him close the gap in some ways. But in other ways, she was protective of the heart and home she’d built. He had told her the truth. At least, parts of it. He complied completely with what she asked of him. They couldn’t keep their hands off of each other, but maybe they were deferring their feelings through physical touch, looking for opportunities to avoid confrontation of each other’s past and suspicions by filling the space with intimate contact. And it felt great. Every time Roman touched her, she could feel his longing, like he truly couldn’t be without her. But she did wonder if Diana had felt that same way, and if that same longing transferred to his rampage in the Clandestines. What had he longed for then? He had said it was all out of protection, but she wasn’t sure if he could see the line when he got into that military mode. Dad had forced her to truly think about her trust, and she had to make a choice. She had made a choice. She had chosen to trust Roman. She had chosen to trust Sharon. She had chosen to trust Pearl. These were all conscious and thought through, and Eve could only hope that it would pay off.

The walkie crackled as they reached the perimeter of Boulder and broke off Eve’s thoughts like they were thin ice under a heavy boot.

“Unit 2B. CV. This is Troop 3C dispatch. Do you copy?”

“Copy. Unit 2B. CV. What’s the latest?” Sharon replied, scrambling to pick up the transceiver.

“Code 9 is on the move. We got him pinned at Leila and 9th South.”

“Copy that. 10-76. About six minu—”

“Five,” Eve said. “Five minutes.”

She whipped the steering wheel and flipped the lights and siren on, quickly listing out the address in the maps app with her voice. Pearl barked and Sharon yelled over the cacophony, “10-84? 10-84, anything?”

“Negative,” the voice said on the other end. “Subject is armed. Code 0, copy?”

“Copy.”

The Tahoe weaved between rush hour traffic. She had to lay on the horn more than once to get people out of the way, but she wouldn’t be off on her estimate. She took the next exit and peeled over into a residential area where she could put pedal to the metal. Row houses rushed by, and Sharon grabbed the handle above her window. She didn’t let out any complaints though, just looking forward through the windshield for any hazards, preparing herself for what was to come.

They pulled around the corner of Leila and 9th South at the best and the worst timing. The street was filled with cars parked on either side. At the other end, a Boulder PD squad car pulled in with his lights on, blocking the street. An old Honda Civic came screeching to a stop in the middle of the road.

Eve noticed a bald head in the rearview mirror. She threw the Tahoe into reverse and paralleled the SUV with the squad car so the Civic was sandwiched into the street. With all the parked cars, there was no room for him to go around. Tommy Little was trapped.

Eve got out of the Tahoe with her gun out.

“Get out of the car!” she yelled. “Get out of the car now!”

The Boulder PD on the other side mirrored her, taking out their guns and following her lead, training them at the Civic.

Sharon came around the other side, covering the sidewalk, and Pearl stayed behind Eve and stayed low to the ground, waiting for her signal.

Little didn’t make a move at first. His eyes snapped in the rearview mirror at Eve, tailing her every movement with narrow, dark eyes. He reached over into the passenger’s seat.

“Keep your hands up!” Eve screamed. “Hands up where we can see them!”

“Get out of the car!” another officer repeated.

Little grabbed something and Eve yelled, “He’s armed!”

The Civic door opened and Little crouched in his seat, disappearing from Eve’s view. She rushed forward just to see him lean out the open door, holding up a semi-automatic rifle.

“Get down!” Eve tried to warn the other officers, and a smattering of bullets hit the pavement between the Civic and the squad car, causing both of the police officers to dodge out of the way. As soon as they did, Little rolled out of the car and bee-lined for a passageway between the parked cars and between the row houses.

“Stop!”

Eve went after him, squeezing between two SUVs to come out on the sidewalk. She turned on her walkie and called it in.

“Dispatch. 10-32. Shots fired. Code 9 is fleeing. Subject is fleeing the scene. I’m in pursuit.”

“Copy, Sheriff,” Dispatch replied instantly, and that quick and efficient response almost made Eve wish that she worked in a bigger city with more resources.

Little opened up the gate on a chain link fence and crossed through a yard littered with children’s toys. The gun was held close to his left side, a strap hanging down and slapping against his pants as he ran. He was about the same height as Eve but stocky. She was pretty confident she was faster, and Pearl certainly was.

“Pearl!” Eve pointed at their subject and the border collie barreled forward. Three paws clicking against the ground. She reached the fence gate and barked at it until Eve caught up to her and threw it open. No time to catch their breath. Little was already down the alleyway between a house and an apartment building. He looked back and that was enough time for Pearl to reach his pants but also for him to lift the gun again.

Another spattering of shots rang out and Eve jumped out of the way, rolling into a plastic slide in front of the house’s stairs. Something clipped her side and the wind rushed out of her. She let out a hiss and rolled over. Pearl’s growling reached her ears, and she forced herself to her feet. She heard several gruff swears. Eve had to get to Pearl before he got that gun trained on her too. She clambered against the brick and the side of the home, her head reeling, her side pulsing with pain. Ahead, Pearl had gotten Little onto one leg. His other leg was out to the side, and Pearl was shaking it like he was made entirely of fabric. One of his hands braced himself against the concrete of the alleyway, and the other one was flailing the rifle back and forth, pointing it at the fire exit above his head.

Eve pointed her gun at his head.

“Drop it!” she commanded. “Drop your weapon!”

“Call her off!” he cried. “Call off the mutt!”

He kicked his leg hard, and Pearl lost her grip, giving him a chance to reel back and land his boot on her snout. She cried and fell back, dazed by the hit.

“Pearl!”

And in the second she had her eyes on Pearl, the barrel of Little’s gun pointed towards Eve and shot several times.

Eve hit the ground.

Flat on her back. The gray sky above her was framed by the roof of the house on one side and the apartment on the other. Something shuffled. Metal squeaked. Nails hit stone. Eve tried to breathe.

Please breathe.

People flashed before her. First, Roman, his dark eyes staring her down, yanking her down into a kiss, his hands on her, inside her. Second, Pearl, leaving behind a golden trail of stars, running alongside her, banking off to the left, causing her to run right into Sharon who gave her a smile and a hug, and turned her to face Georgia Turnbull’s dead face, frozen multicolored eyes staring right at her. Ken grabbed Georgia and dipped her like he was doing a ballroom dance before dropping her body into the darkness below them. Then, they were all falling. Eve was tumbling through utter black. A bag came over her head, the plastic material entering her mouth and putting pressure on her entire face as she fell. Mom’s voice cried out for her, “Eve! Run!”

She breathed.

Eve’s eyes flickered open and only a few seconds had gone by. Pearl was licking and barking in her face. Little was halfway up the fire escape.

Dazed, she propped herself up on her elbows. She searched her torso for blood. What had grazed her side before must have been one of the kids’ toys in the yard and had ripped her uniform revealing part of her bulletproof vest. The vest and ballistic panels had saved her life. She quickly counted the holes. Little had shot at least six times and hit her four. Though it felt like she had been hit in her stomach by a sledgehammer, Eve struggled back up to her feet.

Pearl was going crazy, her barks echoing off the buildings.

“Eve!” Sharon yelled as she got to the fence gates. “Sheriff!”

“I’m okay!” Eve replied, not looking back, moving forward, going after Little.

Sharon was still yelling at her, but the words and sound blurred into the ring of the gunshots. Little was all the way up the fire escape, and Eve could only rely on her eyes at that moment; he pulled open a window and slipped inside a random apartment. She pulled herself up the fire escape with one hand and placed her boots on the bottom rung. Her other arm was across her body, like she was holding herself together, worried her stomach would fall out if she let it go.

Pearl’s barks, Sharon’s yells and the distant sirens continued to fade into the background as Eve struggled up the fire escape. Every movement was harder than the last, as if she could feel the bruises forming with every pull. She breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth, trying to cleanse the pain and her mind.

With several grunts of discomfort, Eve opened the window that Little had gone through and slipped inside. The window slid shut behind her, and it was completely quiet. She was in someone’s living room/office. There was a desk with an iMac and scattered cords and technology in the corner. A simple Ikea couch faced a wall-mounted TV but other than that the walls were bare; the person that lived here couldn’t care less about home decor. Eve leaned against the wall and listened for movement. Her breathing was so heavy and with her pulse in her ears, she couldn’t hear anything until the sound of a door opening and closing.

Eve stumbled forward to see the front door’s chain lock dangling. She threw it open and just caught a glimpse of Tommy Little heading down the apartment stairs. The building was old with a laminate staircase running down its center, and Little was halfway down by the time Eve got to the top. He was limping a bit and Eve noticed small spots of blood following behind him: Pearl’s impact. Eve went down after him. It was just the two of them. Him, running for his life, and her, doing everything she could to stop him. This man was a cold-hearted killer and Eve knew that caution was important here, but all she could see as she went down the stairs was Derek Stratus’ forehead, split in two by Roman’s axe.

Another door opened and closed, and as Eve came out on the bottom floor, Little was gone. She took out her gun again and kept it close to her side, in case he was to try to jump out. She rounded the staircase and scrutinized every door. Most of them were apartments with brass numbers on their doors, but one steel door was labelled with “laundry” and outside that one, Eve noted speckles of fresh blood on the floor.

She opened the door and let it swing.

“Little?” she called. “It’s over.”

Inside the room, washers and dryers lined the walls. One of the dryers was running and chunking every few seconds with an overpacked pile of clothes. Eve whipped around the door, holding up the gun. No one was there. She stepped forward. From behind the door, something moved and she ducked as another shot went off. The shot went off above her head, deafening her again and hitting the ceiling. Bits of plaster, drywall and insulation scattered onto her head and shoulders and from her crouched position, she was able to turn to Little who was also crouched behind the door and get the gun trained between his eyes.

“It’s over,” she repeated. “Drop the gun.”

He twitched.

“Drop the gun, Little. You’re under arrest.”

He grinned. White and pink spots from the ceiling speckled his bald head and jacket.

“You’re the only sheriff I’d want to give it up to…” he said.

“Drop. The. Gun.”

“Stern is going to be so jealous.”

“I will shoot. I’m not going to say it again.”

He placed the rifle on the ground behind him and lifted his hands by his ears.

“Tommy Little, you’re under arrest.” Eve went for the handcuffs on her belt and as soon as she did, Little tackled her.

He slammed her head against the floor, and her vision broke into fragments. He got his hands around her neck, and Eve immediately felt all of the air she had left escaping out of her. With the way he was sitting on her torso, her ribs were going to cave in on themselves. The pressure. The pain. Mom’s screams echoing in her ears. Tears burned at her eyes, running over her temples as Little squeezed harder, tightening his stocky fingers around her neck.

Something must have happened to make him move, but Eve didn’t know what until much later. She didn’t have anything left to fight him off and she knew she would have died that day if it wasn’t for the Boulder Police Department and more importantly, Sharon and Pearl. They told her in the hospital the next day that Boulder PD had come in through the front and back and surrounded the entire building. When Little had tried to go out another window from the laundry room into another alleyway, Sharon and Pearl were waiting for him. With no gun and Pearl’s teeth marks still on his ankles, he fell to his knees and surrendered.

First responders rushed in to help Eve. A blurry sequence followed with a stretcher, an ambulance, Pearl’s warm tongue, Sharon’s concerned eyes, the jangling of a leash and of handcuffs, the beeping of a heart monitor, and the low, gruff voice of Roman speaking with doctors.

When Eve came to, she was propped up in a hospital bed. She had never needed to pee so badly in her life, so her immediate goal was to stumble her way to the bathroom. The room was empty aside from another patient on the other side of the curtain. She struggled to her feet and managed to make her way along the wall to a toilet, carrying the IV drip with her. In the mirror, she was shocked by her appearance. Her throat was covered in a necklace of bruises. Her torso was even worse. What had probably once been several bruises had amalgamated into one giant patch of blue, purple and yellow on her stomach. Her eyes were bloodshot and her hair was matted into some kind of braid. She couldn’t look at it for long. She had to turn back and try to get herself back into bed.

“Eve…” a voice said from one of the corners of the room.

Roman appeared from the darkness. He scooped her up with ease and laid her back down on the bed, gently placing her as if she were made of glass.

“I didn’t even see you…” she replied. Her voice was hoarse.

He gave her a small smile, half of his face coated with shadow, the other half lit up by the machines and the moonlight.

“What happened?” she asked.

“You did it. Little’s in custody.”

“Thank goodness. Pearl? Sharon?”

“They’re both good. Sharon has her. They’re waiting for us outside.”

“Good. I’m good to go.”

“I know you are…” he said softly. He kissed her forehead. “But maybe we should let you rest.”

“I’m fine.”

“Four of your ribs are broken. You also have a laryngeal fracture.”

“What time is it?”

“Three-ish.” He checked his phone. “Four.”

“God.” Eve plopped her head back on the pillow and an ache ran down her neck. “Ow.”

“You’re amazing…” Roman whispered.

She peered at him. “I’m just…”

“Doing your job. I know. But you’re damn good at it, and you need to hear it.”

“It means a lot coming from you, Bear,” she replied. “But we’re definitely not done here.”

“We never will be.”

“What do you mean?”

“Violence never ends.”

The heart monitor escalated, and Roman stared down at her. Despite her mind telling her that there was nothing to worry about and that she was safe now, her body protested it. Her heart hammered in her ears as Roman bent down again and pulled her into an embrace.

“I was so scared I was going to lose you,” he whispered in her ear. His breath, hot on her skin.

“Not that easily,” she squeaked out.

He chuckled and pulled back.

“I love you,” he said.

She said, “I love you too.”

Even though her heart raced, even though she couldn’t erase those images from that folder, even though it had been his axe, Eve loved Roman because of the way he treated her. When it came down to it, it wasn’t about all of the stuff on the outside. All the gunshots and blood and violence and suffocation didn’t matter. The two of them had found each other in the smallest of towns, seeking refuge from violence in the comfort of each other’s arms and bodies. He was the safest and most dangerous man she had ever known.

Sheriff Eve Wicker

Eve and Sharon headed back to Chesapeake Valley with Tommy Little handcuffed in the backseat and Pearl in the K-9 trunk at the back. Eve knew that Pearl hated being in that trunk, but they had to make room for their fresh criminal. But the way she had looked up at her when they left Boulder had made her want to swap the two; Pearl in the backseat and Little in the trunk.

Sharon drove because of Eve’s condition, and it felt almost like an out-of-body experience watching somebody else drive the Tahoe. They kept pretty quiet, but Eve could see that Sharon was itching to talk about all that had happened. Eve couldn’t help but beam with pride at what her team had accomplished; in the wake of an absolute cold-blooded murderer’s intentions, Boulder PD had become backup to the “two-person-and-a-pooch team” of Chesapeake Valley. They were no strangers to being underestimated, and they had blown Boulder out of the water. The captain himself had come down to the hospital to congratulate Eve and shake her hand for helping to keep his officers safe. Jamison and Chen had both sent her texts, and Dad had called her, asking to bring her donuts, but they were already loading up to return home.

About halfway through the drive, Little started whistling. He had said very few words and broke into some cheery tune that grated over the light rock on the radio.

“Hey.” Sharon glanced in the rearview. “Shut up.”

Little grinned. “Yes, ma’am.”

He was quiet for about a minute before starting up again. Eve didn’t recognize the tune. It was something that her mom would’ve listened to, an eighties pop tune. Annoying and cheesy and intentional.

“Little,” Eve interrupted. “We’ll be processing you back at Chesapeake Valley. We’re gonna get you a shower because you stink.”

“What luxury,” he replied. “You girls are really looking out for me.”

“It’s for our benefit. Not yours,” Eve snapped.

He chuckled. “Right. Of course. My bad.”

“You smell like wet garbage,” Sharon said.

Little burst out laughing. He seemed suspiciously cheery despite his circumstances.

“I’ve heard much worse, honey,” he said between laughter.

“I bet you have…” Eve muttered.

“Stern is a sweetheart. He doesn’t insult us like that, Sheriff. He treats us real good.”

“I’m so glad to hear that,” Eve murmured.

“Treated your mom real good too.”

Eve turned around in the seat, her ribs flaring with pain. She glared at him and said, “Don’t you say a fucking word about my mom.”

He lifted his handcuffed hands. “I would never.”

“She was a dynamo though. Like you,” he went on. “Nobody ever thought a stripper would take Stern down. But she just looked that good—”

“Yeah. I’m sure it had nothing to do with her skills as an undercover cop,” Eve said.

“Well, come on, Sheriff. You put on a purple bra and thong and nobody’s going to be able to say no to you either.”

She didn’t hide her disgust as she turned back to the windshield.

“It was too bad how it all unfolded too…” he continued.

“Stop,” Eve said. “You really don’t need or want to incriminate yourself any more than you are.”

“I don’t think it really matters.”

He shook the handcuffs.

He continued, “That was the first time I’d been to Chesapeake Valley. She was standing out on that field and just screaming at those kids. It was kinda funny. Seemed more like a drill sergeant than a soccer coach.”

“I said ‘stop’!” Eve yelled.

The Tahoe went quiet. Sharon glanced over at Eve and gave her a little nod.

“Don’t you want to know what happened?” Little asked.

“I know what happened.”

“No. You don’t.”

Eve sank down in the seat and forced herself to keep her mouth shut. She wanted to yell. She wanted to ask questions. Of course, she wanted to know everything about the day her mother had been killed, but Tommy Little was not a person she could trust to tell her the truth. Anything he was saying now was with an intent to manipulate and contort. She especially didn’t want him to say anything now outside of the interrogation room that she wouldn’t be able to use in the case. Heyner would likely be in contact soon with one of Stern’s top goons in her custody. Maybe the FBI would come pick him up and drag him out of Chesapeake to be a part of a case that went beyond Derek Stratus’ murder. Nothing in her trusted that Little would comply. His smug smirking, laughing, and whistling was only more indication of that.

They came in on the north side of town and passed the Red Rock Inn where Dill was out in the parking lot, clearing away some snow from the entryway. He was smoking a cigarette and with Sharon’s cracked window, Eve recognized the smell of burnt sugar: Nicotaras. It was in her town. Those boxes in the cabin could have been moving in and out of there for months. Somebody was selling and distributing this crap to her good people.

The Foothills Parking Lot passed by on their right, and Eve noted several cars in the lot. With the snow melting and the sun shining but the ground still frozen, it would be a great day for a short hike, and Chesapeake Valley lived for these days when it wasn’t tourist season.

Roman had left ahead of them, and he was probably back at his cabin now, maybe even looking out for Eve and Sharon from his tree stand to make sure they had gotten back safely. Sharon pulled a left to come into the back entrance of the county station.

“Slow down…” Eve said as Sharon pulled into the lot.

The station ahead looked quiet with its all-glass front and all the lobby chairs devoid of life. Sharon’s red mahogany desk shadowed more as they got closer.

“What is it?” Sharon asked.

“I…” Eve couldn’t say anything else. She didn’t know how to describe it. Something felt off. Her gut was trying to tell her something, but she couldn’t decipher it. Through the pain of her broken ribs, it just felt like nervousness, but she had been told time and time again to trust this feeling.

Sharon pulled into the closest parking spot and Eve said, “Wait here.”

“Sheriff—”

Eve closed the door and mustered herself down from the Tahoe. Pearl started barking as soon as she left and didn’t make a move for her usual route to get her out of the trunk. Little started complaining too and Eve could hear his muffled gruff voice arguing with Sharon. But the pine trees were still. The foothills cragged face on the other side of the highway didn’t stir. The station was stock still. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary.

Eve opened the trunk to let Pearl out first.

“Do a perimeter, girl,” she whispered. Pearl yapped and hopped out onto the concrete.

Eve rounded the Tahoe and pulled open Little’s door. Pearl went around the other side, sticking her nose in the snow and a thick layer of pine needles under that.

“I think we’re 10-4,” Eve called to Sharon. “Just… making sure. Code 0.”

“What is it?”

“Sheriff’s got the heebie jeebies,” Little laughed, smiling with stained teeth.

Eve said, “Come on. Get out.”

She half-guided him out of the backseat, holding his elbow. The handcuffs jangled as he pulled at his pants and crotch.

Something cracked and whizzed.

Sharon yelled, “Eve!”

Eve said, “Get on the ground!”

But it was too late.

The bullet hit Little clean through the head and a singular streak of blood lashed across the space between him and Eve.

“No!” Eve caught Little as he sank to his knees and blood poured out of the newly formed hole through him from temple to temple. His eyes went flat. He slumped forward and all of his weight almost flattened Eve against the ground but she managed to kick his body up and roll him over.

“Get under cover!” Sharon yelled from behind the Tahoe. She reached out a hand, and Eve rushed forward to grab it just as another bullet whizzed behind her.

“Sniper,” Eve said. “Up in the foothills.”

They both pressed themselves against the SUV.

The second bullet had hit Little again. This time, in the side of his stomach. More blood poured out around him.

“They weren’t aiming for us,” Eve went for her gun. “They were aiming for him. That was an expert shot. If they wanted to hit me, they would have.”

“You know exactly where that came from,” Sharon said and they exchanged glances. Sharon challenged her with a stare and Eve shook her head. She knew they were both thinking of Roman’s tree stand, with his perfect angle to look over the town and the station. Someone had been watching through a scope, waiting for Little to get taken out of the Tahoe.

“I’m going after them,” Eve stated.

“Going up?”

“Yes. Cover me. I’m going for it.”

“I don’t have any eyes.”

“Up.”

“Eve—”

But she was already gone, ducking around the side of the Tahoe and hissing for Pearl as she went. Even though she felt confident that Little had been the target that didn’t mean she wasn’t one herself. But she and Pearl managed to make it across the highway until they were flush against the base of the foothills, running along them. They wouldn’t be able to get an angle on her from here. She called Hackett. It took her a couple of minutes to pick up.

“Oh my god! Sheriff!” Hackett squealed. “Did you hear that?”

“Yes. Shots fired. Where are you at?”

“I’m just outside the station. I was patching up the shed roof and it scared the crap out of me. What was that?”

“I don’t know. Somebody that’s up there with you.”

“With me?!”

“Yes. Get armed and keep your eyes peeled. I’m on my way.”

“Okay…”

Eve hung up and made her way to the edge of the Foothills Parking Lot. She noted Roman’s truck in the parking lot, as usual, and looked for any other vehicles. That couldn’t have been Roman. After all of the reassurances and the stories and the tension, that couldn’t have all been for nothing. But she could only think of the wind up on that tree stand. When he had let her climb it, Eve had been able to see the entirety of Chesapeake Valley, and it was a perfect spot to take out a target.

Eve held her gun out as she and Pearl headed up the mountain. Though she had done this trail so many times, her body was screaming at her to slow down. Every step sent a sharp pain through her ribs. Pearl went forward and back to scout and then check on Eve’s status. She went forward and disappeared for more than a couple of seconds so Eve yelled out, “Pearl!”

Pearl came back with Hackett in tow.

“Hackett…” Eve breathed.

“You okay?” Hackett went to her, propping her up with two hands on her shoulder. “What’s going on?”

“Sniper…” she managed. “There’s a sniper up here.”

Her walkie crackled and Sharon’s voice said, “Sheriff, should I call backup?”

“Make the call,” Eve commanded.

But she knew by the time back up got here that whoever had just shot Little would be long gone. She had to move and move now. This wasn’t about justice for Little but justice for Derek. Justice for Carter.

Eve kept moving. She pushed through the slick ice and snow, getting her foot in the mud when she could and propelling herself uphill. When they got to Roman’s cabin, he was outside waiting. He had his shirt off and was staring upward, his bare chest glistening with sweat. His eyes were on the rocky gully above, at the Devil’s Bridge.

“Roman!” Eve called and he jumped at her voice.

He looked momentarily stunned by her presence before yelling, “Eve! That shot. Big rifle. I think it came from that miner’s cabin. I’m positive.”

“No….” Hackett groaned. “Please don’t make me go back up there.”

“I’ll go,” Eve said.

“I’ll go with you,” Roman said.

“No—”

“I’m coming.”

Eve didn’t have the energy to protest, and she did need an extra set of hands that weren’t Hackett’s. She didn’t trust the ranger to cover her back with her track record. With Pearl and Roman on her side though, Eve felt like she had her A-team. And as soon as they got to the most difficult portion of the hike, she was very thankful for that decision. Her body screamed and demanded that she stop. The feeling was almost worse than the shooting itself. Her ribs were strained to the point where she thought she might have re-cracked one as she navigated up and onto a smooth boulder. Pearl clambered her way to the top where it flattened out, and she barked to let them know she was faster.

The wind howled this high up. Eve hauled herself up and over the lip and onto the snow. Roman gave her a shove from behind, ensuring she was clear from the edge. Eve collapsed onto the field, and the sky spun above her.

“You’re pushing yourself too hard!” Roman yelled. He came into her view, blocking everything.

“That’s my favorite pastime,” Eve gave him a dazed smile. He rolled his eyes, grinned, and lifted her to her feet with one yank of his hand. He had put on a coat, but he was covered in sweat. He had clearly been doing something physical before they showed up, and he had rolled right into the climb. The heat radiated off him. She stared up.

“They’re gone,” Roman said, gazing over to his left.

Across the chasm, the cabin door swung open with the window and then slammed shut, bouncing against the doorframe. A quick exit or entrance, since someone had clearly forgotten to close it. All that stood between them and the killer now was Devil’s Bridge.

Eve approached the crevasse and the face in the mountainside. The bridge was packed with snow, but it looked icy and more narrow than last time. She began to doubt her decision to let Hackett stay behind. Roman was so much bigger. The entire thing might crack under his weight, and then what? They’d be stuck on the other side and another helicopter with Herschel would have to come pick them up. Unless they could find their way out through the mines. Unless that was exactly where the killer was hiding right now.

Eve couldn’t think about it anymore. She stepped one quick foot in front of the other, going straight across the bridge with the eyes of the devil following her through the sunset.

Roman called, “Wait!”

But Eve was already halfway across and Pearl was following suit. Unlike Karu, she stepped behind Eve, tiptoeing like a gymnast across a balance beam, much more graceful than Eve’s boots. In the last section, she slid and then hopped the rest of the distance. Snow flew up around her as Pearl went flying past, searching and tracking as soon as they were clear of the danger. She knew why they were here. She could probably smell the fresh shot.

The bridge groaned behind them, and Eve watched as Roman crossed the bridge in four long strides. He was so casual about it, like he had crossed it a thousand times before. But when he looked at Eve, she could see a bit of nervousness in his eyes. He wasn’t in Marek Mode. Not yet. He was just Roman right now, looking after her and ensuring they both stayed alive.

He opened his mouth to say something and Eve lifted a hand. He snapped his lips shut. They approached the cabin silently. Roman followed her lead, rounding around to the other side so they could frame the front staircase. It appeared pitch black on the inside. No lights on. Pearl had sniffed her way all the way to the back of the cabin.

Eve had had to pocket her gun, but she had it back out now. She held it down at her legs as she took two steps forward and the door to the cabin swung open again. The wind pushed and it slammed against the frame with a bouncing, harsh cadence.

“Sheriff’s office!” Eve called, standing at the bottom of the stairs, pointing the gun into the darkness.

“Come out with your hands up!”

The wind got another hold of the door and out it swung again. This time, allowing a full view of what was inside. Eve clicked up her flashlight and spread the light in front of her. The cabin came to view in a column of items: the boxes, the desks, the chair where Derek Stratus’ body had once been, the map on the wall, and the wood wall behind where a message was written in fresh, white paint:

“Wicker is dead!”

The exclamation point was running down the wall, making a trail of paint through the wood. Eve stood absolutely still, shocked by what she was seeing, not believing it was real. Maybe she had died. Maybe she hadn’t been wearing her vest yesterday, and Little had shot right through her. She hadn’t powered through and pushed every muscle in her body to the limit in order to bring that cold-blooded murderer down. His justice was much different from this. This was much more personal.

Roman went for the stairs and Eve didn’t stop him. He stepped inside. To the squeak of the floor under his weight, he scanned ahead for danger and gestured that it was all clear a moment later.

Pearl came up the stairs with Eve. She was on the trail of something and she bolted ahead. Her tail swished one way and her body went the other as she circled the boxes and the chair and then barked at the desk. Roman pointed to an ashtray with a cigarette on its lip.

“Still smoking,” he said.

“It stinks,” Eve noted, covering her nose. She knew what that was. The burnt caramel of Nicotaras. And whoever had been smoking it wasn’t far away. But Pearl hadn’t found the secret entrance like she had been hoping, just a half-smoked cigarette.

“I’m going to take another look,” Eve said.

Roman turned.

“It’s getting dark.”

“I know.”

“I don’t want to get stuck in a blizzard.”

“Nobody does!”

Pearl barked.

“I’ll be back!”

Before Roman could say anything else, Eve escaped the cabin and went back into the winter air. She was overwhelmed. Yes, she wanted to find this sniper, but that message was glaring at her, so white like it was made of silver. She couldn’t have it looking at her anymore. Even without the flashlight on it, it was there. Wicker is dead. Everything had always felt like a matter of time, but the bomb was ticking down now. Eve could blow to pieces at any moment.

She stumbled in the snow, searching through the trees. She caught herself inches away from going off the edge of the cliff. She clutched to the closest pine tree. She reached out. She spread her chest flat and breathed.

Her ears pumped with her pulse. Her heart hammered. Sweat ran down her back and the wind cut at her cheeks.

She was alive. She was very much alive.

But someone out there was trying to kill her. Multiple someones. Somebody in this very forest. She stepped back from the cliff and Roman was standing in the doorway of the cabin, watching her.

“Are you okay?” he called.

“We need to get that cigarette bagged. DNA. We’ll at least find this bastard.”

Roman patted his pockets. “I’ll see if I can find something to hold it in.”

She scanned the trees again and surveyed the south side where they got so thick they were impossible to pass through with all the foliage and rock.

“Chesapeake Valley Sheriff’s Office!” Eve yelled. “Make yourself known!”

Her voice echoed off the mountainside and died along the devil’s face.

Silence.

Distantly, trees clacked together, but around them, nothing moved. Not Eve nor Roman nor even Pearl who had sat herself down by the staircase. No twigs snapped or disturbed birds escaped. It was just them and the echo of Eve’s words.

“Shit,” Eve whispered.

“Uh, Eve,” Roman called. “Got the cigarette in my pocket for now, if that’s okay.”

“Better than nothing.”

“But I think you should see this.”

Eve crossed back through the snow and took another deep breath before joining him back inside the cabin. Despite not even looking up, she could feel the message there still. She kept her chin down at her chest as Roman gestured to the corner window that one of the office chairs was facing. The window was open, and a whistle of wind came through as Roman pointed to a box in the corner with his foot. They were bullets.

“Those are .380 Winchesters,” he said. “That’s sniper ammo. That’s what we heard.”

“They can get a shot from this far up?”

Roman sat himself in the chair and bent down to peer through the window. “The trees clear up ahead and then it just drops off. With the right scope, anything is possible.”

Seeing him there helped Eve picture the person who had taken out Little with one shot. The lit cigarette hanging from their lips as they set up and watched the Tahoe pull into town, go past the Red Rock and around the bend to the station, waiting for them to get out of the SUV, watching Eve try to trust her gut. When she had pulled Little out by the arm, they had somehow landed his head right between their sights and they had taken the shot. It hadn’t been a bang but more of a slice. It hadn’t been a perfect shot. It had been messy and it was a sight Eve would never forget.

Roman stood up from the office chair and Eve jumped back.

“Whoa. Hey. Sorry. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I…” she looked over the scene. She needed to get her head back in the game. Roman was looking at her for answers when she had none. The entire town would be looking at her answers when the answer was lying dead on the concrete of the station parking lot.

“Where’s the paint?” she asked

“Huh?”

“If it’s so fresh, the paint can’t be that far… It wasn’t outside. There has to be another way out of here.” Eve turned her flashlight back on and forced herself to face the message on the wall. “This guy’s just running around with a can of paint? I don’t think so, right?”

“Right…” Roman followed behind her.

The flashlight scanned the blood-stained floor and the pine mouldings. She went along the chipped paint on the windowsill and the out of service light in a metal casing on the wall. With another careful pan, she got to the wall with the message and she lit up every single letter. Her ears felt like they were filled with cotton by the time she got to the exclamation point. She wondered if Mom had felt this scared before she was going to die. She must have known. Her mother had an instinct even stronger than her own. But she was pretty sure that she hadn’t been as scared as Eve felt now, like the next turn of the light could present her with the barrel of a gun. But as she trailed down the wall and reached the floor at the back wall, she noticed something out of place.

“What’s that?”

Roman had noticed it too.

Eve crouched at the moulding and was able to crack off a piece in the middle of the pine. The moulding was a cut-out and could easily be removed and placed back. Underneath the rectangle, a silver handle was cut into the base of the wall with a small latch lock under that. It looked like one you might find on a kitchen cabinet but heftier. She flipped the latch and Eve pulled on it, but nothing happened. She could only feel the weight of the wall as she tried to yank a second time.

Pearl came over to sniff and bark. Eve blamed the Nicotaras and the paint smell for her not being able to find this earlier. Eve gave it another yank and then collapsed forward. And suddenly, the entire wall moved.

A panel lifted out of the pine and folded upwards to reveal an entrance made of steel, a short tunnelway, going straight towards a door. The cabin had been built into the rock. It had been so flat against the mountainside, and Eve thought of the steel feet that Hackett had mentioned that you could see when there wasn’t so much snow; this place was connected to the mines. Ahead, a steel door laid in its frame with text across it that said: “Kingman Gold Mine” in faded and peeling white lettering. The cabin panel had lifted all the way up above their heads and a string swung down on the edge of the old heavy wall that could be pulled to close it back up.

“What…” Roman came up next to her. “Not this ol’ song and dance.”

Eve laughed, remembering the last time they had gone inside the mine together and had almost been killed by a bear and then a flood.

“This isn’t good…” she switched back on. “This really isn’t good. Who knows how far this goes?”

“This guy is long gone,” Roman nodded.

She tried the door. It was locked. It was heavy industrial steel and the edges were riveted shut. She was not getting inside here without some kind of key or locksmith.

She swore under her breath.

“I don’t know what to do…” she whispered. “I don’t know what to do, Roman.”

“Hey…” he said gently and pulled her into an embrace. Something dripped. The paint dripped off the panel above their heads and on to the stone beneath their feet. Roman held her closer, forcing her to turn her face and not look at the white globs on the ground. She buried herself in his chest and everything in her wanted to cry and weep but the tears wouldn’t come. The sheriff mode was still there and activated because this town was still very much in danger. Any threat to her was a threat to the people below.

“It’s going to be okay,” he said. “I think we need to take a break. I think I need to take you home.”

Eve tried to break free from him and he held her there. He squeezed her.

“You’re not giving up,” he said. “I’m not giving up either.”

She looked up and he was already staring down. He pressed his lips to hers and maybe it was all the stress and frustration but Eve ran with the heat. She let him lift her up and she wrapped herself around him, and he pulled her away to the opposite wall of the cabin and they stayed there in silence, eyes closed, relishing in each other’s presence.

If one thing was true of this place, there were no distractions. It was just them and the wind and snow. Of course, all the warnings and images flashed through her head again. With everything that people had said about Roman, here she was with him deep inside her. She was fiercely independent and had always been that way. Eve made her own decisions. But she didn’t want to isolate herself. From Sharon. From Jamison. It wasn’t so easy as love trumping all. She knew that and she thought that Roman knew that too. But with the way his eyes lingered on her and the way he cared for her physically and emotionally, it seemed at times that he thought the opposite. And part of that made him romantic and even more appealing. If the two of them could have just run away and shared in the isolation of a cabin for the rest of their days, Eve would. But she couldn’t. She had threats knocking down her door. A murderer killed in her hands. Injuries all over her body. Eve let the moment last for only a few moments. It felt like seconds but when she checked her phone, it had been more like five minutes. Roman scooped her up and carried her out of the cabin and into the snow. They held onto one another and didn’t say anything. The outside influence of the world would tear them apart. It felt like only a matter of time now, so these moments became that much more precious. Eve clung to his jacket even as he set her down on the ground. They even held each other as they crossed back over Devil’s Bridge and headed back down the mountainside to Roman’s cabin.

Elijah Stern

Elijah hung up his phone and slid it into his pocket. The swamp air hit his nose, and he stepped out of the balcony and back inside his bedroom. Florida was one of his least favorite places. He had ended up spending more time here than he had ever wanted. The air stunk like dead flies and fast-food hamburgers. This house, however, was one of his favorites. Of the few he owned, this one had the most expansive windows and views of the Everglades that would make an alligator envious. Inside, it was his happy place. Outside, it was a putrid nightmare.

“Liza…” he called.

She came out of the bathroom with her hair wrapped into a towel.

“It’s done.”

“Little?” she clarified.

Stern nodded.

She said flatly, “Happy day.”

Stern chuckled. He crossed the room and gave her a peck on the cheek. She had provided him with company these past few nights and he had almost forgotten how tolerable she could be in a romantic capacity. She filled the void sufficiently. And most importantly, Liza understood how to mind her business. She wasn’t one of those dancers that became so preoccupied with their curiosity that they forgot the reason they were there.

“And now, him.” Stern ticked his finger in the air.

“The eye?”

“That’s right. He’s gone from very useful to an absolute liability. Little had always been a liability. Glad to be rid of him. He wouldn’t have lasted in prison regardless.”

“For what reason?” Liza mused.

“Somebody would’ve given it to him. For certain.”

Stern laughed at that thought. Little getting shanked. He did appreciate all of the muscle he had provided over the years. He had proved to be useful security when running product across borders and into seedier areas, but he was like the rest: dispensable. Without Elijah, this operation would collapse. Well, without Novikov, it would surely collapse. But other than that, the rest were inconsequential, even Liza. The message was getting out regardless. Resilience. Dominance. A viral spread. More product was moving than ever and Nicotaras had made its way onto college campuses, exactly as they had predicted and pushed for. The bumbling idiot Cohen had somehow gotten into the hands of a Midland College student and things had escalated from there. Another runner had gotten it into the hands of a student on the other side of the state and now it was spreading across and running rampant across Houston and making its way across San Antonio. Novikov would be excited to hear that everything was coming to fruition. Perfecting the recipe had been worth it.

“Did you get that vodka I told you about?” Stern asked Liza as he headed down the grand staircase and into a gold-speckled living room.

“I’ve looked everywhere,” she called down. “I’m still on the hunt.”

“Hunt harder. He practically refuses to drink anything else.”

“I’ll find it,” she reassured.

Stern double-checked the bar. The previous owners had built in a padded one at the edge of an ornate dining room. They were quite stocked, with everything but the Russian-branded vodka that Novikov lived on.

He fixed himself a gin and tonic and his phone dinged as he cut himself a lime. He wiped off his hands on a towel and checked to see a message from THE EYE. It was a photo, a message painted on the mountain cabin wall. He laughed to himself at the white paint. Though a bit dramatic, it was the truth. Eve Wicker was dead. Not yet, but she would be. She couldn’t protect Tommy Little or that girl with the eyes. The Eye had been working right under her nose for months, and she hadn’t sniffed him out yet. Right now, she was just a nose-blind hound, searching the wrong grounds for the wrong target.

But he pulled up his tablet with his footage and tried to find her on it anyway. She wasn’t at the station from what he could see, even though her Tahoe was parked there. She wasn’t at the clinic in the strip mall or by the main entrance to the mine. He scrambled through and found himself scowling down at the screen when no images of her came to light. Instead, he went through old footage and found one of his favorites: Eve squaring herself up to Cohen and Benson at the backside of the Chesapeake Valley Clinic and what was once Cohen’s cell repair shop. She had no fear. The way she stepped up and placed her shoulders in a line and didn’t even flinch when Benson towered over her. Her hair flicked over her shoulder, and in the CCTV footage quality—and this was the reason it was his favorite—she looked so much like her mother. Jane had been a brunette, but the resemblance was clear in their faces. They both had those brown doe eyes and full lips. They both had those round cheeks that always made them look youthful. Jane had been more sunken and scarred. Eve was fresher and, in his view, more ignorant. That came from a lack of experience, and it was evident that she was learning more and more each time he checked in with her and that did stir a bit of nervousness in his stomach. His operation had often relied on the ignorance of law enforcement and their ability to be bought. Someone with integrity like her was a real pain.

Liza came through the dining room in a string bikini, and he couldn’t help but watch her go out the glass doors and to the pool in the stench of Florida winter. He couldn’t help but wonder why she was lazing around like this when he needed her to find that vodka.

His phone rang.

Stirring his gin and tonic, eyes on Liza’s legs, he answered it.

“Did you see it?” the voice of The Eye said on the other end.

“Of course,” Stern replied.

“Did you like it?”

“I did.”

“Good. I’m heading through now. I have an out. I need a landing.”

“Naples.”

“Italy?”

“Florida.”

“Oh. Right. Okay. I’ll hop on the next flight.”

“No. Drive.”

“Okay. That’s a long way. Can someone meet me?”

“Shall I get you a driver?”

“That would be great…”

“Let me see what I can arrange.”

“Thank you.”

“You’ve done good work over there.”

“I can’t go back now.”

“Do they know what you’ve done?”

“No… No. I don’t think they have any idea.”

“Don’t underestimate.”

“I’m not…” he replied. “I was careful. I’ve always been careful.”

“I know. You’ve done so well, my friend.”

The other line went quiet, and Stern immediately lamented being so sweet to a man who really didn’t deserve it. He couldn’t have him catch on to what was going to happen to him though. If he managed to make his way here without getting arrested, despite his confidence, Benson would take care of the rest.

“Do you have regrets?” Stern asked.

“Of course!” the man said, his voice echoed like he was in the stone chamber of Smaug. “Of course I do! I don’t know why—”

“You know why. You know what she did to that girl.”

“I know. I know what she did.”

“And the man you killed was a murderer. You understand that? He was a criminal.”

“Like me…” he murmured.

“You are a savior. Your contributions will be rewarded. Haven’t I promised you enough?”

“Promises mean nothing to me,” he snapped.

“As soon as we meet, you’ll see what I can provide for you. You’ll see what the Vine can provide.”

“Fucking cigarettes. Get me more fucking cigarettes.”

The Eye hung up the phone, leaving just the sound of the ice in Stern’s crystal glass. He took a gulp of his drink and then took it outside with him to join Liza by the pool. She had huge sunglasses covering her face and she didn’t even turn when he came outside.

“Enjoying yourself?”

Stern sat down on the lounger next to her. The pool was surrounded by terracotta tile and geometric blue squares smoothed the inside. A jacuzzi bubbled in one corner and a short waterfall splashed into the small but ostentatious pool.

“I wish we could spend more time here…” Liza replied.

“I do not.”

“Is it the New Yorker in you, sir? Hate the tropical heat?”

“It’s the smell…” he grumbled.

“That’s the ocean!”

“It is most definitely not the ocean…” he circled the ice in his glass. “I’ve just gotten off the phone with The Eye.”

“Again?”

“It’s important for him to keep us up to date.”

“He’s taking up a lot of your precious time.” She pushed her sunglasses up on her head so she could look at him.

“I’d rather him keep me apprised.”

“And? What did he have to say?”

“He would like a driver to get him here.”

“Oh… How…”

“Convenient. Serendipitous,” Stern filled in the gap.

She smiled, softening her harsh features.

“Should we send Benson?” she asked.

“I believe he’d be up for the task.”

“He’s very competent in my opinion,” she said.

“Thank you for sharing,” he replied and she sensed every bit of his sarcasm so she placed her sunglasses back over her eyes to hide her contempt. She was good at hiding it. Liza was actually the best of the best when it came to displaying little emotion; however, he certainly wasn’t oblivious to her mannerisms at this point. He saw the way her eyebrows cocked and her lips pursed.

“Make me another drink, will you?” he asked, turning away from her so he didn’t need to see the attitude on her face this time.

“Gin and tonic?”

“Yes.”

“Right away.”

He heard her feet slap onto the tile and the glass door re-open and closed behind him. He looked out over the swamp on the edge of the property. Cicadas buzzed. The ground became sludge before the sludge became a body of water. Cypresses leaned into the sunshine and everything, aside from the bugs, was as still as a church on a Monday afternoon. No wind moved through the trees. No water crashed against the shore. It was all halcyon and reeking. He couldn’t see how Liza enjoyed this, but it didn’t matter. Life was not about enjoyment. It was about progress and money. Both of which he had in droves at this point.

Liza brought him his gin and tonic and passed it to him without a word.

He grabbed her arm before she could turn away and took a sip to make sure it was acceptable.

“Take your sunglasses off,” he said.

She complied.

“Novikov is coming,” he continued. “I need you doing your best.”

“Of course. I—”

“Let me finish.”

She snapped her lips shut.

“I need you doing your absolute best or even better if you’re capable. I know that vodka may seem unimportant to you but without that, Novikov will know that we were not prepared for their integration. I think you do understand how important this is. I think you do understand how essential it is. But you haven’t shown it. You haven’t shown me at all. If you don’t get me at least half a dozen bottles of what Novikov requested, I would suggest that you don’t bother coming back here.”

She took in his words and a sharp breath before she said, “I’ll find it. I promise you.”

“Good.”

And clearly they sunk in because she didn’t go back to being lazy and lying on the lounger, but headed back inside with the marks of his fingers on her thin arm. From his peripherals as he sipped on the drink she’d made him, he could see her prepare to leave the manor and go out to do what he asked. It would hopefully be enough to impress. There weren’t many people that Stern was fearful of, and he was hesitant to use the term even in this capacity, but Novikov did instill fear in him. They held all of the cards when it came to the Vine. Everything was up to Novikov because of where their product came from and the trade they had established. They couldn’t rush. Patience and coordination was essential, and getting Eve Wicker and the FBI off their backs was an absolute necessity before Novikov landed.

They couldn’t take any more risks with Chesapeake Valley. They needed the route and the operation there, which meant they needed that sheriff out of the way. Perhaps he should have gotten The Eye to kill her too. The thought had crossed his mind. While he was sniping, how little effort would it have been to turn that scope on her and take her out too. But it would’ve been an even messier clean-up and when it came down to it, Stern wasn’t ready to lose her. He needed to meet her first and that would also come. With time. With patience and coordination. With resilience and dominance.

Roman Marek

After all that had happened, he only wanted to be with her. He never wanted to leave her side. They had held each other tightly in the cabin, and even though they had washed off in the shower together, he could still smell a bit of the old cabin on Eve’s skin. She turned over in bed and her blonde hair swept against the pillow. For the first time in a long time, he felt like crying. The last time had been out on the balcony out the back side of his bedroom. He had been forced to tell her about it because of another murder investigation. That had become a regular occurrence for them, to be wrapped up in homicide. He supposed it was part of her job, but Chesapeake Valley was a hotspot for criminal activity. Maybe that was why the cabin had been such a good deal.

He turned and stared up at the ceiling. Karu stirred and stood up next to the bed. Roman patted his back and sunk his fingers into the thick fur on his back.

“Karu…” he whispered.

He wanted this moment to last forever. He wanted to have her sleeping next to him under a starry winter sky in this cabin under these blankets for the rest of his life. He knew she wasn’t ready for that. He knew he wasn’t really ready for it either. Hell, who was? Nobody knew when they were ready to fall so deeply, head-over-heels, make-you-sick love. Roman couldn’t have prepared himself for this. Eve had hit him where it hurt. He saw the hesitancy in her now too. Something had ticked. One of those photos had gotten to her and she saw him slightly differently now. Maybe it was slight. She would never admit it. But he saw it. It hadn’t stopped her hands, and maybe she was throwing herself into sex and danger to run from what she was feeling. He couldn’t keep himself from her, and he was determined to figure out what was wrong. He was determined to make her trust him again.

“Eve…” he said.

“Go to sleep,” she groaned.

“I think I know who did this.”

She turned over.

“What?” she looked him dead in the face, half of her painted by moonlight. She asked, “What did you just say?”

“I think I know who did this,” he repeated.

“Did what? Tommy Little?” she blinked, waking up much quicker than he had anticipated. Of course, she was always prepared.

“Stole my axe. Got those cigarettes.”

“Dill was smoking one…” Eve said quietly.

“What?”

“I saw Dill. I smelled it. He was smoking one. Somebody’s dealing them in town.”

“I think I know who. Or who was doing it.”

She waited.

“Ken.”

“Ken Turnbull sniped Tommy Little?” she laughed a little. “Really?”

“I wouldn’t underestimate him…” he said. “I thought I knew him… but… we went a long time without speaking. I don’t really know what he was doing before I got here. Do you?”

“No. Not really…” Eve said.

“He worked at the ranch for a bit, but I don’t know how he really made his living after that. He never got married or really showed an interest in it. I thought he was kinda lazy if I’m being honest… but… He was here. He was here a lot these last few months. When the weather picked up and the ranch was less busy, he came up here to help me around the house. He would go on hikes, I guess. And I swore once or twice I saw him out and about without me. But you know, he’s an active guy. He walks a lot. I definitely think he was the one who took my axe.”

“Would he really be capable of making a shot like that?”

“You should talk to his mom…” he said. “I bet she would know more.”

“That’s a good idea.” She went to sit up and he put his palm on her chest.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“I’ll draft up a text message…” she started.

“Get back down, you,” he laughed. She wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him.

She rested her cheek on his forearm and said, “I don’t know how I’m going to be able to sleep now.”

“You have to,” he replied.

“My head’s spinning. We have that cigarette from the scene. I need to send that in… if it was him, we need to confirm with DNA. And then...”

“Eve,” he said gently. “None of that will happen at three in the morning. You need to rest.”

She sighed.

“I was gonna go check on her tomorrow anyway,” he said. “You can come with me.”

“After I send the cigarette for testing.”

“After you send the cigarette for testing.”

“Right… okay.” she nodded. Her hair waterfalled off his arm. She blinked slowly and became a silver silhouette in front of the huge cabin windows, snow falling in soft patterns behind her, framing around her bright face like a halo. He brought his hand to her face, leaned in and kissed her. Eve returned it, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him into her.

They fell back asleep wrapped up like that but eventually the light of the sun and Karu’s stretching woke them. After a light breakfast, Roman went to chop wood and Eve had headed almost immediately back down the mountain to help Sharon with Little’s body and take care of the cigarette, which they’d carefully transferred to a ziploc baggie. They had talked on the phone for an hour already last night and Sharon had managed to call in help to clear the body, but they had both needed to sleep before dealing with the onslaught that this murderer’s death would bring. Eve had to throw herself back into the darkness, but she didn’t show any ounce of fear over breakfast and coffee. She kept her head high. It was just that edge of her smile that he saw that thing that had changed in her. No fear but the distrust was still there, lingering. He kissed her and they promised to meet up just at lunch to meet Kim.

And through all of the beauty of the night before, the feeling of her against that cot, the vision of her in the moonlight, that was what he thought about while chopping wood: the twinge at the edge of her smile. The distrust that she had in him now because of his past. He was not proud of all the decisions he made, but he stood by what he was directed to do and trusting his instincts in situations when he wasn’t. In war, there were always casualties. He knew that when he had signed up for the job. But he didn’t blame her for not always understanding that. She hadn’t signed up alongside him. Ken had never gotten it either.

He slammed the axe down and the log in front of him split off, breaking through the thin layer of snow on the ground.

He really didn’t want to believe that Ken had done what he did, but something felt both released and trapped after telling Eve. He felt obligated to tell her and also obligated to protect his closest friend. Innocent until proven guilty. Roman knew that better than anyone.

Sheriff Eve Wicker

Arriving at the station that morning with Pearl, she smelled of Roman’s cabin. Smoke, wood, coffee, and a hint of patchouli. The patch of blood in the parking lot where Little’s body had once been was gone. It was covered by the snow that had fallen last night, and there was no indication that someone had been expertly sniped the day before.

Sharon had advised that they had moved him to the clinic and Dom was already working on the autopsy. It wasn’t going to be that difficult of a case this time. Little was shot straight through the head. Whoever had shot him didn’t want him questioned and didn’t trust him not to talk. Maybe it had been Stern himself, sitting up in that cabin, watching and waiting. This all closed Derek Stratus’ case firmly though. She had gone by the mine’s entrance for any indications of someone coming out the other side, but there were no signs of any movement recently on these still winter days. She surveyed the town for Ken Turnbull, but whoever had shot Little was gone and they had taken that paint with them. She needed a key or a saw of some kind to get through that steel door in the mountains. It would take some coordination, but they already knew what was on the other side: the mine. Another way to travel through her town and foothills. Perhaps the way Ken Turnbull had been smuggling Nicotaras in and out of town. She had picked up that butt from him at his sister’s funeral. Eve had had Lionel Chen run it and determine exactly what it was, and even before he ran the new one, she knew that they’d find Ken’s DNA all over it. The tide was beginning to turn to the fact that Ken Turnbull was a liar and betrayer.

At the clinic, Dom had laid out Little on her silver table and she was pulling out bits from his temple when Eve showed up. She put down her tongs and smiled.

“Good morning, Sheriff,” she beamed.

“Looking awfully chipper bent over a dead body…” Eve muttered.

“Well, it’s my very favorite thing being pulled from my job to spend an evening overlooking a wanted murderer…”

“At least he’s not alive,” Eve replied.

“Then it’d be your job, Wicker,” Dom poked at her and crossed the room with a click of her heels.

“Anything interesting?” Eve asked.

“Clean shot. Definitely from pretty far away based on the angle as well.”

Eve placed one of the bullets from the case they had found in the cabin on one of the countertops that lined the room.

“.380 Winchester,” Eve said. “Think this could be it?”

“Big bullet…” Dom plucked it between her manicured fingernails and turned it over. “It makes sense. Where’d you find this?”

“The miner’s cabin up by Devil’s Bridge.”

“That place seems to be a magnet for trouble.” She shook her head. “I didn’t even know it existed before all of this went down.”

“Me neither. People didn’t want us to know it did…”

“People?”

“Yeah. People.”

Eve looked at her, and Dom gave her another smirk.

“Fine then, Wicker. Keep your secrets.”

Eve shrugged.

“How are things with you and Reg?” Eve asked. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for: advice, relatability, closure.

Dom put the bullet down.

“Oh. Well, we spent Christmas together. And then we had this huge blow up on New Years over plans… he thought we were going with his friends. I thought we were going just the two of us. Big mess… I think we’re gonna take a little break.” She sighed. “To be honest, he was starting to get on my nerves anyway with his relentless optimism…”

Eve laughed. “I guess I’m sorry to hear that?”

“Don’t be. He’ll find his way back at some point, I’m sure.”

“I’m sure.”

“What about you, Wicker? How’s the man in the mountains treating you?” Dom asked, seemingly sensing that Eve had asked because she wanted to be asked herself.

She took a deep breath. “I don’t know… I don’t know.”

Circling Little’s body, she passed his thick ankles and puffy toes. From this angle, you could hardly tell that he had been brutally shot through the head. He looked almost as if he could sit up at any moment and laugh in Eve’s face. But he didn’t. He stayed portly and flat as Dom said, “I heard you had him in for questioning…”

“What? How do you know that?”

“Word travels fast here. Lilly told me.”

“And how did she know?”

Dom shrugged. “Nothing’s a secret here! It’ll all come out eventually. Don’t forget that.”

“I won’t. I just… Yes, I brought him in. It was his axe, you know? His axe killed Derek Stratus.”

“Wow… That’s like his favorite thing.”

Eve couldn’t help but snicker a bit at that before saying, “It was his axe, and I learned some things about him that I couldn’t ignore. I learned some things about him that really scared me.”

“What? You mean like where he came from?”

“No… his military background.”

“Oh. I see.”

Dom crossed the room so she could stand with Eve by the window.

“And?” she prodded.

“And there’s only so much I can tell you.”

“No. I mean, and what?” Dom interrupted. “What does it matter?”

Eve glanced at her.

“What does it matter who he was? What matters is who he is now.” She said it like it was so obvious. “Does he treat you well?”

Eve nodded.

“Do you feel good when you’re with him?”

Eve nodded again.

“For God’s sake, Wicker. What else do you need? There’s a shortage of good men in this world and he’s knocking down your door and showing you how much he cares.”

“Would you date someone who had killed someone?” Eve blurted.

“Well…” Dom stumbled a bit. “I guess it depends on the circumstances.”

“Exactly.”

Eve brought her gaze back down to the floor and her boots.

“Wicker.” Dom put a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t think yourself out of a good thing, okay?”

“You might be the only person in town who thinks it’s a good thing…” Eve met her eyes.

Dom flicked a black hair out of her face. “Definitely not. A lot of those church ladies love him even though they pretend like they don’t. The guys at Timber’s like him too. Mayor Traynor loves him.”

Eve laughed. “Yes. Yes, she does.”

“But most importantly, you like him! None of those other people and outside opinions or the past or whatever. None of it matters. How you feel and how he feels matters. That’s it.”

“Thanks, Dom,” Eve replied quietly.

The doctor dropped her hand from Eve’s shoulder and brought it back to the tray next to Little’s body.

“Now scram because I have work to do and so do you. This is a clear-cut homicide. I’ll get you the paperwork as soon as I can.”

“Thanks, Dom,” Eve repeated and let herself out. The reflection of Little’s body in the door of the room made her think of something. What if Georgia had known Little? If Georgia had known him, maybe Kim, her mother, would recognize him. It was worth a shot to see if she could connect these cases even more than they already were.

She called Kim Turnbull and asked her to meet her at the station. Then, she texted Roman and let him know about the change of plans to come to the station instead of her house. He complied but asked several questions about what they were going to do for lunch in that case. Eve didn’t reply because she got a call from Jamison, confirming that what he had heard was correct: Little was dead.

“It’s true,” Eve said. “He was gunned down the second we pulled him out of the car. Somebody didn’t want him to talk.”

“And that came from up the mountain?” Jamison asked.

“Yes, and it wasn’t Roman,” Eve snapped.

“You know that for certain?”

“It was my first thought, but no. It wasn’t him. It was from that same cabin. We found the bullets.”

“And? Any leads on who it was?”

“For me to know, Jamison.”

He hmpfed and said, “You’re confident?”

She said, “I’m going to trust my gut,” and hung up the phone.

Jamison would have to take the hint now. Really, it was more like a slap in the face than a hint but he would get over it, and Eve was sure he would show an interest in whatever case was going to come her way next, especially if Roman was involved in any capacity.

Eve pulled back into the station and headed to the back room where she pulled out the Elijah Stern board. She took a marker to Little’s photo and crossed him out so he was now matching Georgia on the other side. Any more deaths on these boards weren’t good for her unless it was Stern’s. If she kept them alive, first of all, they would serve their well-deserved time in prison, and secondly, they could lead her back to him. That was probably why Stern had gotten rid of Little. She was certain he had been the one to make that call with his selfish nature, which also made her certain that Little had known things about Stern and the Vine operation that could have blown the entire case open with Agent Castro’s task force. She would never get the chance to question him and connect those dots now though.

She called Carter Stratus to check in with him. Sharon had already called and let him know what had happened. He seemed pretty satisfied with the way things had turned out, but he asked Eve to meet him tomorrow at the Red Rock Inn, which she immediately agreed to do. She needed to see him anyway. At least, it was safe for him to go about his way now and process what had happened to him here.

Sharon came into the office at around 9:30, rubbing at the sleep in her eyes.

Pearl stirred from her sleep when she came in and went to greet her pant leg.

She jumped at the sight of the border collie coming toward her. “Oh. You’re here.” She turned to Eve sitting at her desk. “I thought you might still be at the clinic.”

“I was up early. It didn’t take long.”

“Little is…?”

“Ruled as a homicide.”

“Great. Another investigation. We don’t have enough of those…” she collapsed down into her chair. “Speaking of that, I think I found us someone to hire.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yes. He’s a friend of Nic’s cousin. His cousin is in the Air Force too and then his buddy’s a cop up in Aspen. A really good one, apparently.”

“Fancy. What makes him ‘really good’?” Eve asked.

“I’ll interview him and let you know.”

“Please do. We need the help.”

“It would be a gamechanger to have an extra set of hands around here.”

“We do a pretty good job, the two of us though…” Eve said. She reached out a hand from her office chair, and Sharon wheeled over to grab it and squeeze. The hands hung in the office air like that for a moment, clutching to each other.

“Any word on the sniper?” Sharon asked as she wheeled herself back over and opened up her laptop.

Eve took a deep breath, stood up and said, “Ken Turnbull.”

Sharon turned away from her screen with wide eyes.

“Ken Turnbull? Ken from here Ken?”

“It’s a very real possibility.”

“What?” she processed and blinked. “I would’ve never thought that, but now that you say it… it’s kinda like… maybe…”

“Maybe. Very maybe,” Eve said. “He was smoking Nicotaras.”

“The Vine’s cigarettes?”

“Yeah. Roman said he thinks he was the one that took his axe. He was going up to that cabin… He had access. He has motive. I’d bet my life savings the DNA on that cigarette will be him, too.”

“Oh my god.” Sharon shook her head. “I feel bad for Roman…”

“You can apologize next time you see him…” Eve stood with a grin and Sharon gave it back after another moment of processing.

Not long after that, Roman came by with two Wicker’s Bakery boxes and two coffees and a hot chocolate, per Sharon’s request. He had a baseball hat pulled over his eyes and he tipped the brim at both of them as he made two trips to his truck to get the lunch haul inside. Croissant sandwiches filled one box and donuts filled the other.

“Sorry,” he said as he pulled out a glazed donut. “You didn’t answer me about lunch.”

“This is perfect,” Eve replied.

“Your dad says that Grace is making ham tonight if we want to come over.”

“That sounds great if you’re up for it?” she asked.

“Of course.”

“Roman…” Sharon piped up from her chair and stood slowly. He pushed one of the boxes towards her and she lifted a polite hand. “I’m sorry for investigating you and… Well, I’m really sorry for thinking you were guilty.”

With his mouth half full of donut, he said, “You thought I was guilty?”

She nodded. “I definitely thought it was possible. That’s why I helped Jamison. What he said about what you used to do and all of that Marines stuff… It did scare me. It scared me a lot.”

“Why?” he cocked his head.

“Nic told me some stuff. It freaked me out.”

“What did he tell you?”

“Yeah. What did he tell you, Sharon?” Eve asked. “It’s okay.”

“Well…” she looked between them. “He said what Jamison said, I guess. You guys… The Clandestines were known in the military. The worst of the worst. They were like… skinheads, he thought.”

“What?” Roman laughed. “That’s not true. Our commander was from Nigeria!”

“He talked about someone named ‘Banner’.”

Roman’s face fell, and Eve watched his Marek Marine Mode switch on in half a second. His eyes darkened and his shoulder sunk back. It was like a black veil had come over his face and he turned away to try and hide his expression from them, but they had both already witnessed his clear recognition and fear of that name.

“Banner?” Eve repeated.

“Don’t.” Roman held up a hand. “Don’t ever say that again.”

“Who is it?”

“A man who is completely and entirely unimportant.”

“Roman…” Eve urged.

“Banner is dead. None of that matters. We’ve been through this! I’m done being questioned on my past. I’m done with it. Either my answers are good enough, or they aren’t. You can’t pin me up against a corkboard, Eve. I’m here and you accept me for who I am or you don’t, okay?”

“I accept you…” she said.

“Good. I can’t take this anymore. I’m serious. No more questions about this. From both of you.”

He gestured to both of them with the other half of his donut. It was somehow both playful and very serious.

Eve and Sharon gave an awkward nod even though they all knew this wasn’t over. Why hadn’t Sharon mentioned this “Banner” character earlier? And why had he scared her so much? And really, why did it matter? Roman was right in that regard, especially if this guy was dead. Roman wasn’t at fault for what had happened in that cabin or in the parking lot. Sharon had been wrong. Nic had filled her head with rumors, and Eve continued to let this affect her. There was still much of Roman’s story to unpack, but he was at his limit. He was nearly a part of their team at this point. If they could all put aside the past and trust each other, they could work very well as a unit.

Sharon plucked a sandwich out of the box and took a hefty bite.

“So how are we going to get through that mine door?”

“I’m thinking a good start would be Janet Kingman…” Eve said.

“Oh no. That’s on you. I’m not talking to her.”

“If she’ll talk to me… she doesn’t like me very much, remember? Last time I saw her she was telling me to keep my nose out of her business. Not sure she would appreciate me knocking down her door for a key.”

“Well, we’re well within our rights to saw that door down.”

Eve shook her head. “If that even works… It’s solid steel. I’ll look into it.”

“Somebody’s got to know how to get into that thing…” Sharon said.

“There isn’t a locksmith in town?” Roman asked.

Eve looked at Sharon.

“A locksmith that can climb a little?” Eve added.

“Uh…” she thought. “I’ll look into it. There’s gotta be somebody around here that does something like that. Rodney probably knows someone.”

Over Roman’s shoulder, a small car pulled into the parking lot and parked next to Roman’s truck. Kim Turnbull came around the vehicles and patted down her hair as she approached the glass door and windows.

“Should I be here?” Roman asked quickly.

Eve said, “Maybe not.”

“Okay. I’ll just say hello.”

Kim walked in and froze at the sight of all of them staring in her direction.

“Hi,” she squeaked. “Ms. Wicker asked me to come in.”

“How you doing, Mrs. Turnbull?” Roman brought her into a side hug.

“I’m doing okay, dear. Sorry our lunch plans got interrupted,” she said with a light smile.

“That’s alright. I can come tomorrow?” he asked and she nodded. “I’ll bring you a Wicker fritter.”

“Apple?” she whispered.

“Of course.”

He released her from the hug and gave Eve and Sharon a small salute on his way out. He was good at getting in the way and out of the way. Eve had barreled her way through their plans, but she needed to talk to Georgia and Ken’s mother. She might have more insight than anyone.

“Thanks for coming in, Kim.” Eve shook her hand that felt cold as ice.

“I was happy to hear from you…” she replied. “I’m sorry you’ve been dealing with so much… Oh… things you shouldn’t have to deal with.”

“Ah. Well, part of the job,” Eve shrugged.

“You’re very good at it.” She smiled weakly.

“I appreciate that.”

“And you’re okay?” she looked her over. “I heard you took quite a hit in Boulder.”

“I took a hit and I got back up.”

Kim chuckled. “Of course. You’re a very strong young woman.”

“I was wondering if you could help me with something…” Eve led Kim to the backroom. Sharon turned back to her laptop, giving them some privacy. Eve brought her to the corkboard and said, “Just to prepare you… This is about Georgia.”

Kim nodded. “That’s alright.”

Eve turned the corkboard around and revealed her mess of strings and photos to Kim. She took a step back to appraise it. Her eyes immediately went to Georgia’s Xed out photo and then Elijah Stern at the top of the mountain. Then, she went to Cleveland Cohen, standing out with a cheesy grin.

“Ugh,” she let out. “Did you find him?”

“Cohen?”

Kim pointed at his photo.

“Unfortunately, yes,” Eve said. “But he’s gone again. Slippery as a slug, that one.”

“And this is?” she pointed to Stern. “The boss?”

That answered Eve’s question about Kim knowing and recognizing Stern. He was clearly new to her.

“Maybe,” Eve replied. “We’re still figuring out the connections. Do you recognize anyone else on this board? Other than Georgia and Cohen?”

“That’s Jim Benson there, isn’t it?” she gestured to the towering figure under Stern.

“It is.”

“Where’s he gone now?”

“Very good question…” She didn’t want to say that he was likely the man who had killed her daughter. She needed to be very certain before she released that to the family. Regardless, even if Benson had done it, it came back to Stern.

“You know…” Kim began. “I always thought Benson was a good man. It does show you how wrong you can be about people, doesn’t it? I’ve thought there was goodness in many people where perhaps there was none. And I wonder if that’s my fault or theirs. Is it theirs for showing me a falsehood? Or do they really think that they’ve done nothing wrong? Or should I just begin to assume that every person I meet is out to kill or con me?”

Her voice cracked with emotion.

“I’m sorry,” she laughed herself off. “But maybe that would keep me and my children safer.”

“To assume that everyone is out to hurt you?”

“The track record has proven true…”

“It’s not true of everyone, Kim. I promise you that.”

“I know… I know and I see that’s true with people like you and Sharon… and Roman. I know there are people who want to help me too. But I thought Cleveland wanted to help Georgia. I thought Mac and Orla wanted to help those children. I even thought that girl Emily had genuinely wanted to help the Hawthornes…”

Kim had seen it all from the outside. She had been actively on the sidelines, waiting and watching for Eve to bring her answers about her daughter while Eve had been gallivanting and solving crimes.

“It does show my ignorance and I’m really not sure that I’m capable of changing my ways now. Too old…” she laughed again, a sad, I-don’t-know-what-else-to-do laugh.

“I think believing the best in people is a good quality,” Eve said and put a gentle hand on Kim’s shoulder. She leaned into the touch right away and rubbed Eve’s back in response. She smiled through tears.

“I believe the best in you,” she cried.

Eve pulled her into a hug. She found herself saying, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t apologize,” Kim said. “You’ve done everything you could.”

“I’m so sorry about what happened to Georgia… I’m sorry about what’s happening with Ken…”

“They’re both troubled. And I can’t help but feel like I’ve failed…” Her voice broke again and she was weeping into Eve’s shoulder.

Eve held her there and let the mother cry. If there was one thing that they had in common, it was a tendency to blame themselves. And as Eve watched her take on the brunt of emotion, she saw what others may have seen in her: a tendency to shoulder the responsibility when it was completely and utterly out of her control.

Eve pulled back, put two hands on Kim’s shoulder and said firmly, “It’s not your fault.”

Kim wiped at her tears and nodded.

Eve repeated, “It is not your fault, Kim. It’s not.”

“I know…” she said in a meek voice. “I knew your mother, you know?”

“Really?”

“Yes. She coached when Georgia was on the soccer team. Exceptional skills. She was a little hard on her sometimes. But she needed it. Georgia loved her.”

“Why did she never mention it?”

“I’m sure she would have if she’d had the time… Your mom and I used to watch basketball at the high school together. She had a good sense of humor, your mother. And she seemed to always know the right thing to say. Like you.”

Eve smiled but her heart broke a little. Here they stood: a daughter who’d lost a mother and a mother who’d lost a daughter. Together, somehow, the immense loss felt more balanced.

They both forced smiles and gathered themselves back up.

“What about this man?” Eve unpinned the photo of Little from the board and passed it to Kim.

She stared over the bald, stocky man and flipped the photo over to analyze his record on the back.

“I don’t… I don’t think so,” she said. “I don’t think I recognize him. Should I? My memory isn’t what it used to.”

“It’s alright. I was curious if you did.”

Another theory went out the window with that. Georgia and Little had never met up in these parts. Likely not.

“Cohen used to come around your house, didn’t he?” Eve asked.

“He did, sometimes. They would close the door in Georgia’s room. I really hated that…” she grumbled. “But she wasn’t a kid anymore. She was giving me a bit for rent, so I just had to leave her be. Make her mistakes, I suppose. I didn’t know the danger was that… I didn’t know what it was. I thought Cohen could actually help her. It does seem like he has some money and knows some things about business.”

“He’s a con man. Don’t believe a thing he says,” Eve said.

“Well… How well did you really know him?”

Eve thought. “I…”

The conversation in Odessa came to mind. He had been happy to see her at some point in that exchange, and despite running away into the night, he had warned her about Little and been genuinely upset about Georgia’s death. They had a common enemy.

“I’m getting to know him a lot more,” Eve finally said.

Kim smiled. “I don’t think he’s all bad.”

“None of us really are.”

“Sorry,” she sighed as she passed the photo back to Eve.

“All good,” Eve flapped the photo between her hands and then found its place back on the corkboard. She turned back to Kim and asked the question she was dreading: “What about Ken?”

“Right…” she said distantly. “He’s gone.”

“Gone where? When did he leave?”

“A few days ago now. Maybe a week?”

“Do you remember exactly?”

“I… I can check for you.”

“Please.”

It would help, but Ken could have been holed up in that cabin behind that steel door for a long time before anyone noticed him. Maybe he had been there when they found the body, when they analyzed it, when they brought it down, when they cleaned it up.

“I thought it was him that would have gotten involved with someone like Cohen,” Kim said after a moment.

“What do you mean by that?”

“He always struggled… He struggled in school to make friends and was much more interested in his computer and he liked track. He was a good runner. He went to nationals for the 300-meter dash. But he didn’t get along with his coach. Hated him, actually. His dad was hard on him, you see. He was very hard on him…” she drifted off. “When Georgia went missing the second time, something switched off in him. It was like he had this wall up that had been holding things back and he let the wall down and everything flooded out at once. He was drinking all the time. He would yell and scream at me… He was very upset. I thank God for Roman every day. He took Ken out of the house. He gave him a job at the ranch and then he got a little better. He was starting to find himself again, I thought. And then we found out what happened and that she wasn’t ever coming back. I think he knew already though. That wall was down already…” she choked back another round of tears. “And then he started leaving. He started disappearing for days at a time. I wouldn’t hear from him, and I’d call him and then Roman would come over instead and help me with things around the house. I don’t know what he’s been up to, Sheriff. But I don’t think it’s good…”

“I think you’re right about that,” Eve said. “Has he always been a smoker?”

“He was smoking a lot more. I thought it was just all the stress.”

“And you haven’t heard from him at all? In days?”

“Right.”

Two tears rolled down from her eyes, cupping her round face.

“I’m going to do everything I can to find him,” Eve said.

“Because you think he did this?”

“Because it’s important.”

Kim nodded and let another tear fall.

“Thank you, Sheriff.”

“Thanks for coming by and telling me all this. I really appreciate it,” Eve said.

“Of course… I’ll do anything to help them,” she choked.

Eve brought her into another hug. She sniffled and took a deep breath. Eve went to grab a tissue from the corner cabinet and hustled it over so Kim could blow her nose. As she snorted into the Kleenex, her eyes trailed to the gun case from the cabin on the foldout table.

She said, “That’s Georgia’s.”

“The gun case? This one?” Eve pointed at it.

“Yes. She had one just like that. I remember because I hated it. She kept it under her bed… My gosh. I checked after she left and it was still there. Maybe it isn’t hers. I’ll have to check when I get home.”

“Here. I’ll come with you. Let’s go check right now.”

They came out of the back room and Sharon was on the phone, explaining the Little situation to another precinct it seemed. The news was spreading and people wanted to know what had happened and how Sheriff Wicker was still standing after all she’d been through. She was becoming a bit of a local celebrity in the law enforcement world of Colorado, and Eve was worried about all of the attention that was going to bring. They already got more attention than they needed. If this Aspen police officer was going to join them, she hoped it was for the right reasons.

The gun case was gone from under Georgia’s bed. The bedroom had hardly been touched since the last time Eve had been inside, but Ken had taken that case and used it to shoot at Carter Stratus. That was before he got the means to get whatever sniper rifle he had used to take down Little.

“He never served, right?” Eve asked as she got up from the carpet.

“Ken? Well…” Kim chewed on her lip.

“What is it?”

“He told me not to say.”

“Anything you can tell me is helpful, Kim… I want to find him and bring him home.”

She nodded and sighed. “Yes. He did. He enlisted, at least. I don’t know what he did or where he went. He never told me anything about it. I only knew because he got a letter to our mailbox once, and I asked him. I know it wasn’t for very long. Maybe two years? I don’t know what happened. Suddenly, he just showed up back at home like nothing had happened. He told me it wasn’t a good fit.”

Eve would have to get Sharon on the case on scraping Ken’s records. If he really had enlisted, there should be something out there about what he did.

“I thought…” Eve trailed off. “Roman never mentioned it.”

“No. He really didn’t want Roman to know… Even though, if you ask me, I think he was the reason Ken signed up in the first place. He always looked up to Roman.”

Everything was becoming clearer. If Ken had served, the sniping made more sense. Maybe that had been his specialty. After Georgia’s second disappearance, he had lived with the bottle and at some point, maybe after finding out about her death, had coupled up with Little, Stern, or somebody else with the Vine. Maybe it was to try to get more information about what had happened to his sister. Maybe it was to get revenge. Maybe it was for revenge on Stern. Maybe it was for revenge on Eve.

Regardless, she had to find him. The number one priority was to find Ken Turnbull.

She thanked Kim again for her information and hospitality. With all the trauma she had been through, Eve needed to give her a break and hoped to not be back to bother her anytime soon, but she knew it was inevitable.

Sharon called her as she came out and onto the balcony.

“Found a locksmith,” she said. “He said he could come out later today if we needed.”

“Great. Sooner the better,” Eve replied. “How’s the warrant coming?”

“So, I was looking into records and even though the mine was owned by the Kingmans, the cabin looks like it’s on state land.”

“They just built on state land with no permission?”

“I don’t think anyone cared back then. But again, there’s like no record of that cabin period. In the eyes of our county, it doesn’t even exist.”

“And the door? Whose property is that?”

“That is sticky…” Sharon replied.

“It literally had her name on it,” Eve said.

“You’re going to need a warrant.”

“I’ll get one. It should be easy.”

“Ask for forgiveness?” Sharon countered. “I bet she hasn’t been up there in years. I bet she doesn’t even know that place exists.”

Eve laughed. “I don’t think Janet Kingman can hate me anymore than she already does so…”

“Oh. I bet she can.” Sharon thought and then said, “I know who can get us in there.”

“Who?”

“Reg Henson.”

“Right. The firefighter. Good call!” Eve yelled as she got back into the Tahoe. She had left Pearl at Roman’s with Karu so she could pick her up on the way back up the mountain. Eve said, “I’ll call him.”

But when she pulled out her phone, she had a text message from Lionel Chen waiting for her. And when she opened it, she groaned. “Knew it.”

The DNA was confirmed. Their mystery sniper was, in fact, Ken Turnbull.

Sheriff Eve Wicker

It took a couple hours for Reg to get to Chesapeake Valley from Lakewood. They were losing precious light by the second. But at around four o’clock his DFPC truck pulled up and parked crookedly in the parking lot. Reg Henson was driving in tactical gear, and there was another man in the passenger’s side. They both got out of the truck and were fully dressed for going up the Rocky foothills. Eve was glad Sharon had brought them up. The man that Eve didn’t recognize was taller and heavier than Reg with a full gray-red beard and a mop of greasy hair. He grinned at Eve as she came outside to meet them and shook both of their hands. Sharon tailed behind her and shook both of their hands as well, lingering on the greasy-haired guy for way too long.

“Sorry,” Reg said. “We came as quickly as we could.”

“No worries. Thanks for coming. I thought you might be able to help me with this.”

“Why didn’t you call your own firefighters?”

“They’re all volunteer. They’re not experienced like you guys and barely have a budget. Most of the time we bring in guys from Palmer Lake.”

“This is Ivan,” Reg said. “He’s another member of our team.”

“Great,” Eve replied. “We have enough ATV space for three, so Sharon’s going to hold down the fort here.”

“I’m Deputy Garcia,” she said to Ivan.

He grinned and said, “Hola.”

Sharon laughed too hard and Eve shook her head, exchanging glances with Reg. He smiled, his perfect white teeth stretching out. She had forgotten how perfect he looked in person. He was like a GQ model mixed with a soap opera actor. On first impressions, he didn’t look particularly broken up about his and Dom’s separation.

Eve guided the firefighters to the Foothills parking lot. Hackett met them there and handed over her ATV. Roman did too.

He got off the ATV, stood at his full six feet and four inches, turned to Reg and immediately said, “I didn’t think I’d see you again.”

“Our paths will probably cross again, Roman,” Reg smiled.

Roman glared down at him.

Eve said, “Thanks for bringing us the ATV. You sure we’re okay to borrow it?”

Pearl trotted around the corner, happy after her rest at Roman’s, but also ready to go again, hopping up at the sight of Eve.

“Yeah. All good,” he stated. He stepped over to her and pressed his lips against hers. In front of everyone. Just like that. Hackett even let out a small gasp and Sharon laughed.

Heat rushed all over Eve’s body and she said, “That’s good. Thanks. Let’s take off, right?”

She tried to cut the tension, but she knew right away that had been weird based on the others’ expressions.

“Thanks for your contributions, but unless you want to jog behind us, it’s just going to be us three going up.” Eve gestured to herself, Reg, and Ivan.

Roman snapped his lips together, holding something in. His jealousy could get the better of him.

“Keep it together,” Eve whispered to him.

“We’ll get the job done!” Reg exclaimed.

Roman was not appeased, especially as they piled onto the ATVs and Reg had to sit behind her because only the park ranger one was a two-person. Eve supposed a very small part of him was trying to keep it together, but he was certainly failing because his expression dropped into seething anger when Reg put his hands around Eve’s waist. What Eve didn’t see, and Sharon had to tell her later, was that Reg had made absolute eye contact with Roman while he did that, like he knew what he was doing. But Roman came out the bigger man. Only keeping his attention on Eve as they ventured onward and upward, but letting her go, trusting her.

They had to park the ATVs at the last stretch and climb, which Pearl appreciated. It was easy for her to keep up with the ATVs in this environment with all the twists, turns, and trees, but it was still tiring on her. The firefighters made quick work of it and Reg made her look like she was completely out of shape with the way he scampered over rocks and then the Devil’s Bridge itself. Ivan was a bit more nervous to cross with his hunkering size.

Eve said, “Don’t worry. Roman went across. The guy who lent us his ATV? If it can hold him, it can hold you.”

Ivan took a breath. “Right. Okay. Cool.”

The sun was going down, painting the sky behind the mountains and splaying it up above in rays of orange and the lightest pink. Ivan adjusted his pack against his shoulder, took another deep breath, and did a crouched run to get across the bridge. Eve followed right after him and was faced with the cabin of nightmares again. When she showed them inside and they saw the message written on the wall, they both looked at her with shocked reactions and waited for her to do the same, as if it was the first time she had seen it.

“Wow… Eve… What is this?” Reg asked as he peered around the room, taking out a flashlight to get a better look.

“A crime scene, a drug trafficking operation… a sniper’s den… miner’s nap spot,” she sighed. “It’s been a pain is what it is. This place has quickly become the bane of my existence.”

“Certainly looks like it…” Ivan muttered, pointing at the message.

“You okay?” Reg asked.

“I’m fine.”

Pearl sauntered forward and Eve followed behind her. Pearl sat by the wall and waited. Eve took her cue and pushed open the panel to reveal the steel alcove with the door.

“Holy shit! It’s like Harry Potter!” Ivan laughed. “Look at that!”

“Wow…” Reg appraised the panel, folded upwards on the ceiling of the hidden tunnel. “That’s some pretty smart engineering.”

“Here’s the door…” she pointed to the steel door with “Kingman Gold Mine” on it. Her fingers twitched and she clenched her fists to stop it from happening again. The warrant was already in the works. It should come through any minute now and this would all be completely and irrevocably a-okay. For now, she was breaking the lock on private property. But it was also private property that hadn’t been touched by the owner in years, maybe decades. Somebody had a key though. Ken had had a key. How he had gotten it Eve would have to find out. If he was working with the Kingmans that was trouble for everyone. Being rich is the worst quality for somebody to have when they’re evil. Eve only had heard that through rumors and reputation though. She doubted that the Kingmans were as bad as they said.

Reg and Ivan appraised the door. With all of them in the tunnel, it was pretty tight and uncomfortable, so she stepped back into the cabin watching them lay out their tools.

There was a click of steel. When Eve peered into the tunnel, Reg had a halligan bar wedged into the edge of the door and Ivan was underneath him, holding a fire axe, waiting.

“Alright,” Reg said. “Okay. Drive it.”

Ivan hammered the other end of the halligan bar with the butt of the axe, wedging it farther into the door.

“Okay. One more.”

Ivan complied.

Something cracked. The steel groaned.

Eve kept her eyes on the ceiling, hoping nothing caved in on them.

Reg’s arms flared as he pulled the bar down and then cracked it towards him. He did one more time and the entire door had pulled open by about two inches. He popped the bar through the gap and loosened any remnants of the steel locks and the door drifted open. A waft of stale air blew through the cabin.

Reg grabbed the door with one hand, turned back to Eve with a cheesy grin and said, “Voila.”

“Wow. That was quick. Nice job,” she entered into the alcove and checked the edge of the door. It was damaged. Severely bent and probably not fixable. But it was open.

She covered her nose and tugged the door towards her. Ahead a set of stairs went down and a rock ceiling followed them into the dim light of something below. Eve stepped on to the first metal step and walked down.

“Should we…?” Reg asked and cut himself off.

Eve kept going without acknowledging his question. The stairs flattened out into a landing inside a steel room. There were two doors on either side that seemed to go out to more staircases and a large square plastic window that was in the middle of the wall to look out over what was ahead. It was scratched and almost black with dirt. Eve tried one of the doors and it was open.

First, she found the paint. Drips of white had dropped out on the metal staircase in front of her and the can was on its side on a platform hanging in open air below. But there wasn’t as much paint as you’d think. All of it had dripped down between the metal grids and to the massive open space beneath Eve’s feet.

She was in a huge cavern. Staircases and more steel boxes lined the walls and led into what she imagined were more tunnels. A giant industrial elevator sat in the middle of the cavern. Emergency lights remained illuminated on the boxes and on the outside of the elevator, washing the entire cave in a dull gray glow. When she looked down, she couldn’t see the bottom. The staircases disappeared in the dust and darkness. Somewhere down there was the rest of the white paint.

The air was warm and laden with dust. Eve tried to take a breath, and it caught in her throat like peanut butter.

At that moment, she knew there was no chance they’d find Ken that day.

Nothing in this world belonged to her. Not Roman. Not Sharon. Not Mom or Dad. Not Chesapeake Valley. No matter how many cases she solved or lives she saved, there would always be places like this to remind her that there was one constant in this world and that was nature. There would be mysteries and secrets and insignificant doors that led to the most significant things. And what stood in front of her made her feel both incredibly small and incredibly important. It didn’t belong to her. She belonged to it, and she had to protect what had already been scraped, used, and abused. She would find Ken, and she would find answers. And this mountain would wait for her. It marked a passageway and unexplored tunnels that instantly made her job a hundred times more dangerous and complex. What if they went all the way through to the other side? What if it ran all the way through to Pike-San Isabel? She knew now why Stern had chosen this town and had put this pin on the map. This space was valuable to those who didn’t want to be found. The traces of human engineering left enough room for people to take advantage of it. If it had just been the insides of the mountain here, they would have left her to rest.

But Eve knew that the mountains would never rest. They were the true constant of this town.

The door behind her squeaked. Reg stepped out, forcing her down a few more steps.

“Wow!” Reg’s voice echoed. “Hello!”

He called and it rang out a thousand times over, off the stone, the metal and plastic windows.

He chuckled. “Go on, Wicker!”

“Hello!” Eve tried and her higher voice really shot off into the space. “Chesapeake Valley Sheriff’s Office!”

All the words started to overlap, and Reg laughed again.

Eve found herself smiling, despite all of the trouble, the threats and the questions still not answered, Eve knew a few things for certain. Right now, Ken Turnbull was on the run. He would do everything he could to stay away from her. Tommy Little was dead because of him. Derek Stratus was dead because of Tommy Little. And the person who was really behind it all was Elijah Stern. And she knew now exactly why he was here. The reason had not just been his personal vendetta against her mother. It was more strategic and terrible than Eve had thought.

The other thing that she knew was that the people around her really cared for her. And even as she thought of Stern and the horrific things she was sure he’d done in this mountain, she couldn’t help but think of Sharon and how excited she was to tell her of this discovery. She couldn’t wait to tell Agent Castro about this break in the case. She couldn’t wait to embrace Roman and reassure him. Reg would not drive a wedge between them and neither would Jamison. Their feelings for one another had grown into a tangled vine of weeds and roses. Everything that bloomed was the most precious flower that Eve had ever seen and smelled, but the thorns and tangles were so pervasive that her wrists felt like they were covered in sharp cuts, screaming at her to stop picking flowers. If it was only so easy, she would. The roses helped her relax. They made her feel loved and important, and they were patient and kind. And with spring on its way, she hoped for a season filled with flowers to smell. Bring on the thorns and the venom and the consequences with that. If anything, Eve had a lot of bravery, but she felt right now like she was walking face first into a giant, painful rose bush, not as she pushed herself farther down the staircase and deeper into the mine but when she went up and back out. The climb back down was quiet and introspective.

Instead of going all the way down the mountain, she bid Reg and Ivan goodbye and brought Pearl to Roman’s cabin. He was out on the back balcony when she came up, fixing one of the boards in the banister.

“Hi!” she said from below.

“Well, howdy.”

“Did I scare you?”

“I heard you coming from a mile away, sweetheart.”

Eve laughed. “You got dinner plans?”

“Only if you’re free.”

“Otherwise what? You wouldn’t eat?”

“I’d call it a hunger strike.”

He smiled down at her and leaned against the railing, the thick hairs on his forearm blustering in the wind, his dark eyes glistening in the last of the sunlight, catching her from even this far a distance.

“I’d love to cook for you,” he said.

“That sounds great. I’m starving.”

“Me too. You get that door open?”

“We did.”

“And?”

“I don’t even know where to start…”

Sheriff Eve Wicker

Eve met Carter Stratus the next morning at the Red Rock Inn. He was on his way out. He was rolling a suitcase across the gravel parking lot and loading it into his car when she pulled up with the Tahoe.

It was the nicest day that they’d had in weeks. It was sunny and just cool enough to keep the ground dry.

Carter was wearing a beanie, which made him look a lot younger than he was. Eve could picture him as a teenager, causing a ruckus in town. She waved as she crossed the lot.

“Carter!”

“Sheriff!” he pulled her into a sudden hug, leaving his trunk wide open.

“Oh. How you doing?” she laughed and gently pulled him off her.

“I’m doing okay. I’m doing great, actually. I’m so glad what happened happened.”

“You’re glad that Little is dead?”

“Of course. You know why it makes me glad?”

“Why’s that?”

“Because it would’ve made Derek glad. It would’ve made him ecstatic to know that the guy who killed him got it way worse than he did…” Carter laughed.

Eve didn’t know how he could objectively compare being axed in the face with being shot through the head, but he had managed it.

“Well… I’m glad you’re glad,” she said.

“You could be a politician with the way you talk.”

“No thanks. I wouldn’t want that much publicity.”

“Well, there’s not much you’re gonna be able to do about that. Not after all this and what you’re doing here. I really appreciate you, Sheriff. I think if this had happened somewhere else… Well, maybe nobody would have cared, or maybe they wouldn’t have found me or found Derek so fast. You honestly saved my life and I owe it to you.”

“Well… once you pass that bar exam, how about I come to you for some legal advice? In case I ever need a friend.”

Carter smiled. It dropped but then he pasted it back on again. “For sure! Yes. I’m going to do that. Yes, I definitely am. We can work together.”

“We could! What did you want to meet me today about? I’m happy to see you’re headed back home. Of course, you’re always welcome. But I bet Benjamin misses you…”

“He does…” he nodded. “Well, I wanted to…”

He went to his open trunk and unzipped his backpack. He pulled out a silver urn, holding it in front of his jacket.

“I wanted to ask you to bring this to Devil’s Bridge…”

He held it there and Eve stared at it, looking at her warped reflection in its round shiny side.

“I…”

“I know it’s a lot to ask!” he exclaimed. “I know. But, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking… this whole incident really made me want to do things again. And the bar exam. You’re totally right about that. I’m going to do it. I am.”

He really seemed like he was trying to convince himself.

“If you want to do things, then why don’t you take it up yourself?” Eve asked.

He laughed. “Well, yeah. Very good question. I didn’t think I’d have time.”

“It’s a beautiful day. Why don’t we go up together?”

He looked at her.

“Are you serious?”

“Totally serious.”

“Oh… Okay.”

So Eve and Carter headed across the street. Carter took a second to grab his backpack and Eve grabbed her water bottle, but they didn’t spend much time preparing. They made their way to the parking lot and went straight for the trailheads. Eve had now done this hike several times in as many days, and it was becoming familiar and, better yet, it was getting easier. The sun was on their backs, and she was even sweating a bit by the time they passed by Roman’s area.

Carter was panting behind her.

“Break?” he called.

She replied, “We’re so close!”

But the last leg, the uphill climb, nearly had Carter hyperventilating, and Eve felt a bit bad for pushing him that hard. He made it though, and when they did, he placed his father’s urn on a patch of remaining snow on the landing and jutted both of his arms out in the air.

“The devil won’t take me!” he yelled out.

Eve laughed. “Great work, Carter.”

“You’re an amazing person, Eve Wicker!” he yelled again.

Eve laughed again, not sure what to do with that but enjoying the warmth of his niceties, the sun and the sweat. The stone face above the crevice was also bathing in the sun, casting shadows up and onto his nose and forehead. The trees surrounded the secret cabin on the other side, and with the melt of the morning, Eve could see the corners of its steel feet poking out at the back, just a shred of what was inside.

She had never wanted to come back up here again, but she hadn’t hesitated when Carter had brought out that urn. She wanted to help him and she knew this was what he needed to do before he left.

“So? Do we need to cross? Or where would you like to do this?” she asked.

Carter unzipped his jacket and tied it around his waist.

“Dad would’ve wanted us to cross,” he replied. He gathered the urn in his hands.

“You got it?” Eve questioned and Carter gave her a determined nod.

He approached the edge of the Devil’s Bridge and tiptoed his way on to the narrowing bridge. It would only be a few weeks before it would be impassable again. And then what? How would Eve access the miner’s cabin and the tunnels beyond? There had to be a way because Ken had been getting through. She certainly wasn’t going to be climbing across the devil’s face like Roman had done. Not anytime soon. But she’d do what she needed to do.

Carter got halfway across and pumped his fist in the air before running the rest of the way. Eve followed behind him, having done it enough times now that she felt pretty confident in her footing, but still found herself slipping a bit near the end and she had to tumble into her dismount.

“Whoa!” Carter went to grab her arm. “You good?”

“I’m good.”

“Okay.” Carter held up the urn. “Dad!”

He approached the edge of the crevice and took a deep breath.

“Dad…” he whimpered. “I love you so much. I loved you so much. I didn’t tell you that enough and you didn’t tell us enough either. I know that was hard for you…But I love you. Okay?” he unscrewed the top of the urn. “I love you and Derek loved you a lot. When you took us here, you told me that fear was a waste of damn time! You told us both that life is only worth living when you’re taking risks! I want to take more risks, Dad! Okay? I’m going to do the things I told you I was going to do. I promise you. I’m going to make you so proud.”

He tipped the urn, and with the lack of wind, the ashes tumbled straight down before catching in a breeze under the bridge. Silver remains scattered into the air. They carried and swirled out of the crevice and dispersed into the tops of green pines below. They both stood there in silence. Carter held the empty urn at his side, and Eve was a couple feet back, watching it all unfold, keeping a respectful distance.

“I guess…” he turned around and clamped the lid of the urn back on with a jarring sound. “I guess that’s it.”

“You did a very good and very brave thing today,” Eve said.

Carter gave her a small smile, his eyes welling with tears.

“Thank you,” he said in a broken voice.

He shook her hand and said, “Welp. I guess we have to cross back over… Ladies first?”

“You know, I’ll actually catch up with you. I just need a few minutes to grab something from this cabin first.”

“Sure! Sure. No problem.” Carter took a deep breath and one more look at the crevice and trees that his father’s remains now coated. Then, he took several fearless steps across the bridge, as if he’d done it a thousand times before. He turned back to Eve with a grin and Pearl turned to Eve with a confused look when they didn’t follow him.

Eve didn’t have anything to pick up in the cabin. A part of her wanted to barrel down through the tunnels and just search like a mad man, see if she could find anything to lead her to Ken or Stern. But, she needed to be smart and strategic about this. She needed her team.

She walked into the cabin, the dust in the air illuminated by the sunny day. The desks lined one side and the cots lined the other. The chair in the middle where Derek Stratus’ body had once sat had been pushed to the side by Ivan, so now it was like he had never been there with an axe in his head. The corner by the window where the sniper had once sat was virtually untouched. The box of bullets was situated against the wall, and the window was even still cracked with an occasional breeze whistling through the small room. And straight ahead was the message painted on the wall with her name on it: Wicker is dead!

She didn’t know why she had wanted to look at it, really, but she knew it was important. She didn’t want to clean it. She didn’t want anyone to touch it until they had cleared and sanctified this cabin of its dark past. Pearl whined. If somehow she could read, she was expressing concern and sympathy, nudging her snout against Eve’s pant leg to let her know she was there for her.

Despite the message, despite the hiking, the helicopter rides, the axes, the fire escapes and bulletproof vests, Eve Wicker was very much alive. She was more alive than she had ever been, and this threat in paint wasn’t going to change that. Whoever had written it, Ken, Stern or another Vine member, they had no power and control over what she did with her life. They were not stronger than her, and they would have to get through mountain-sized tribulation in order to get to her.

She moved up to the wall and ran her fingers along the paint. It was absolutely dry. It was as if it had been here as long as the cots and would eventually become another part of Chesapeake Valley’s dark history. Ken, or whoever, had gone out of their way to let her know that they were after her, but she had already known that. So she had to wonder what he was really trying to accomplish and say with this. Maybe “screw you for losing my sister”.

She sighed into the wood and flattened her palm against it.

Pearl barked. She was sitting in the doorway with the sun at her back, putting her in a border collie-shaped silhouette at the front of the cabin.

“Alright…” Eve agreed. “Let’s go.”

Pearl barked happily again, and Eve exited out into the melting snow and sun-filled winter day. She overlooked the cabin and the face of the devil one more time as they crossed the bridge and the landing to head back down the foothills. Her mind whirred. The message had imprinted itself behind her eyes. But she wasn’t scared of it. As her boots slipped expertly between stone, she had no hesitation or question of what she was going to do next. She would show Ken Turnbull and Elijah Stern exactly how alive she was.

Hello wonderful reader!

Thank you so much for picking up THE SECRET CABIN and joining me on another adventure in Chesapeake Valley! I know this one took a little longer to reach your hands, and I truly appreciate your patience. This story came with its fair share of late nights, rewrites, and snacks (lots of snacks). There’s a particularly difficult, emotional conversation between Eve and Roman that gave me more than a few gray hairs. It’s emotionally layered, stormy in every sense of the word, and one of the more challenging scenes I’ve ever written. I wanted it to feel raw and real, like the kind of conversation that leaves a mark. I hope you found the weaving of all of the emotions from all sides engaging and that it stays with you.

I’m so grateful for your support, which allows me to keep writing and bringing these stories to life every day. As an independent author, I rely on wonderful readers like you to help spread the word. If you enjoyed THE SECRET CABIN, it would mean the world to me if you could take a moment to leave a review and recommend it to others who love mystery thrillers. Your feedback and recommendations make it possible for me to keep telling these stories and reaching new readers. Every review, whether it’s a few words or a longer reflection, makes a huge difference. So, thank you in advance for your support—it truly means everything to me!

If you’re already wondering what’s next for Eve and Roman, THE SILENT ENEMY will take their story to a whole new level. A series of break-ins spirals into something far more dangerous when Eve discovers they’re connected to a viral illness spreading through the town like wildfire. With panic rising and trust in short supply, Eve finds herself facing a threat she can’t see… and feelings she can’t ignore. With high stakes, heart-pounding twists, and a town on the brink, this next chapter is one you won’t want to miss.

By the way, if you find any typos or want to reach out to me, feel free to email me at egray@ellegraybooks.com

Yours truly,

Elle Gray

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