Helene slammed the door behind us, hard enough to make us both jump.
“So much for that interview,” I said, glancing up at the sky. The rain had ceased for the moment, but the clouds looked heavier than ever. I started walking down the path toward the main road.
“Liv, I’m sorry,” Gemma said, following after me, looking dazed. I wondered how long it had been since someone besides me had dared to be that rude to Gemma Hill. “I shouldn’t have asked about the fire. I wasn’t thinking. Their poor son…”
“It’s fine,” I told her. “I don’t think either of them would have talked to me about the Dark Road anyway.”
“You’re not mad at me?” Gemma asked, disbelieving.
“I know you were trying to help.”
Gemma smiled over at me. “This is good for us.”
I rolled my eyes but allowed her a small smile in return. “Whatever you say.”
“So what did you think of—” she began, but cut off at the sound of crunching footsteps. We turned to find Anders jogging toward us, looking harried. I guessed he’d just gotten an earful from his wife.
“I’m sorry if I said something to offend you both,” Gemma offered when Anders reached us. “That was not my intention at all.”
Anders waved both of his hands in front of him. “Helene thought you knew, but I told her it’s a misunderstanding.”
“What’s a misunderstanding?” I asked.
Anders hesitated. “About Nik. That he started the fire. It wasn’t in any of the papers, but people in town know. No one wanted to press charges. His injuries were punishment enough.”
At that moment, the clouds let go and the rain came pelting down in a fury.
“Let me give you a ride to your car,” Anders said. “It’s the least I can do.”
By the time we backtracked to Anders’s truck, rain was shooting down in sharp, cold bullets, and we were soaked. We climbed into the cab, which just had one bench, so I ended up sitting in the middle with my knees in the way of the gearshift. Anders tried to reverse, but the truck tires spun out in the mud of the unpaved drive, and then caught so suddenly that the truck whipped backward.
Driving past the cabin, I saw Helene glaring out the window, watching us depart.
Anders drove in silent concentration, but I didn’t want to waste my last minutes with him. I had to keep him talking.
“Why did you leave Norway?” I asked.
Anders slowed to steer around a deep pothole. “We love our country,” he said. “But winter was intolerable. No sun for sixty days. It can feel like sixty years. It takes a toll on the mind, and it is especially difficult for children like our son.” Anders glanced over at me, hesitating, but after a pause he continued. “Nik had…developmental problems. So when we had an opportunity to leave Norway, we decided that would be for the best. And it was good here for a while…until the fire. And the disappearances.”
The windshield wipers could barely keep up with the rain, it was pouring down so fast now. Ahead, I spotted my car, a smudge of black through the downpour. And there was another vehicle parked next to it near the trailhead. A sheriff’s sedan. A man in a tan uniform and a black anorak bent to peer through the windows.
Shit.
Anders pulled up behind the sedan. The uniformed man peering in through the windows straightened and turned in our direction. Sheriff Lot smiled grimly and gave me a cheerful, mocking wave.
“Thank you again for the coffee and the ride,” I said to Anders, and Gemma echoed my gratitude. We hopped out and hurried toward my car.
The sheriff grinned at me from the cave of his hood. “Nice to see you again, Ms. Hendricks. How about you two follow me back to the station, where we can dry off and have a conversation?”
“About what? We haven’t done anything wrong.” Our cameras were hidden inside our jackets. He couldn’t know we’d been filming.
Lot made as if to tap the glass of the driver’s-side door of my car, but there was no sound. I stepped closer to the car and realized why. There was no glass. Someone had broken the window. Glass shards littered the ground and the driver’s seat.
“Figured you’d want to file a report,” Lot said.
I pushed past him and threw open the door, but a cursory search only confirmed what I already knew.
The wolf mask was gone.