CHAPTER SIX

TUESDAY, 12:29 A.M.
GRANITE RIDGE CAMPGROUND
BRIDGER-TETON NATIONAL FOREST

Silence enveloped the cab of Harper’s Dodge Ram as Heath drove it back to Granite Ridge Campground. Deputy Herring, a young guy with freckles and a baby face, followed in a county SUV to give Heath a ride back from the campground.

Harper glanced at the dashboard digital clock.

Nearly midnight thirty.

The Ram followed the ring of light on the road. Otherwise darkness pressed in on all sides. Harper barely registered the drive or even Heath’s presence next to her. Images of the day’s horrific events clicked across her brain like snapshots, and she couldn’t shutter them out of her mind.

How many crimes would she witness in this life before it was over?

Harper leaned her head against the headrest. Dr. Jacob said the painkillers would make her drowsy, yet even considering the pills combined with exhaustion, Harper couldn’t fall asleep or shut off her brain.

All she wanted to do right now was curl into a ball on a bed piled high with quilted blankets.

The crunch of gravel jarred her, and she opened her eyes. Heath steered around the small circular parking drive allotted to each camping spot. Lights were on in the camper. Emily had poured her heart and soul into renovating the vintage Airstream.

“Nice,” Heath said.

She had no energy for words and opened the door. By the time Harper had climbed out, Emily was standing in the camper doorway, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. Emily had to have been holding herself back from flying out of the camper and demanding answers. Harper suspected the county vehicle behind the Ram was keeping her glued to the Airstream at the moment.

A flashlight beamed through the woodsy campground. Someone probably heading to the facilities. Heath got out and stood between the Ram and the county vehicle. Before heading to the Airstream, Harper paused and glanced his way.

She wasn’t sure what to do or say next. This all felt so awkward. “Thanks for everything. It was good to see you again.” Running into him tonight after so many years and the manner in which their paths had collided surprised her. Still, their friendship had been all drama at the end. So it made some kind of weird sense that meeting him again would start with drama too. She couldn’t help but wonder if she’d see him again. Or if she even wanted to.

“You’re welcome, and it was good to see you too.” Heath tossed her the keys. “Be sure to lock up and watch out for grizzlies.”

Was that almost a grin? She’d prefer to see the full-on smile, but she couldn’t offer a big smile herself.

Deputy Herring waited in the vehicle. Harper gave a small wave, then turned her back on the two and walked toward Emily. A figure holding a flashlight downward emerged from the shadows and into the light. Mr. Stein, the guy who ran the campground.

“Oh, hey there.” What was he doing here? “I’m sorry if we’re disturbing the campers.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “I came over to see if everything is all right.”

Emily smiled. “Mr. Stein was the one who delivered the news that you were at the hospital and someone would bring you home.”

“You can call me Ken.” He shined the light up and down Harper as though to get a better look, then nodded. “I see you’re all in one piece, with some tape to hold you together. I’ll leave you ladies to your business. If you need some more help”—he looked at Emily—“let me know.”

He disappeared into the darkness, his flashlight guiding his path.

Harper stepped into the camper and released a long exhale. “I never thought I’d be so glad to be back.”

Hands trembling, Harper closed and locked the door, then peered through the mini blinds and watched the county vehicle roll slowly through the campground to the exit. “What was the campground guy talking about?”

“Oh, I had some trouble opening the door, that’s all. These old things. Maybe I should replace the door entirely. He showed me a trick to get it open. But who cares about that?” Emily took two short steps in the small space and hugged Harper. “I was so worried when you didn’t come back!”

Emily released Harper and lifted her hand as though she would touch Harper’s bandages but dropped her hand to her side instead. “Oh, Harper. What happened?”

“It’s only a few stitches, that’s all.”

“A few stitches? I feel so bad that I didn’t go with you. I should have gone.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You had a deadline. Did you make it?”

“Barely.”

“I doubt any of what happened tonight would have turned out differently.” In fact, Emily could have been hurt—or worse, the killer could have seen her too.

Harper went to the pullout sofa bed.

“No. You’re sleeping on the real bed tonight. It’s your turn anyway,” Emily said.

With no energy to argue, Harper dragged herself to the small bedroom and dropped onto the bed.

“Aren’t you going to tell me anything?” Emily asked.

“I’m drugged and exhausted, but I’ll try. I was running and fell and hit my head. I yelled for help and then Heath McKade came to my aid, but a grizzly bear almost attacked him. No one was hurt. I sprayed the bear and we got away. Heath took me to get the stitches.”

“Wait. The Heath McKade? The guy you were so close to growing up? That you secretly had a crush on?”

“What? I didn’t have a crush on him. He was my best friend.”

Emily gave an exaggerated pout.

“Em . . . you were older. Dating. You were too cool for me anyway. Don’t take that the wrong way. I looked up to you and wanted to be like you.”

“I’m sorry if I made you feel that I was too cool to be your best friend,” Emily said. “I didn’t mean to.”

“It’s okay.”

“But seriously, Heath?” Emily’s eyes widened. “I can’t believe he was the guy.”

“Yep. He rode up on a horse like a knight in shining armor, only wearing a Stetson.” She might have actually told him that too. She hoped he hadn’t thought she was flirting.

“Wow. Well, what did he say? He remembers you, doesn’t he?”

“Sure. It took him a minute. It’s not like we instantly recognized each other after more than twenty years.” Harper shifted on the bed and pulled the covers over her, the memories of the evening gone wrong gripping her again. “Emily, there’s a lot more I need to tell you.”

At Harper’s serious tone, Emily eased onto the edge of the bed. “What is it? You’re scaring me.”

There was no easy way to tell her. “I witnessed a murder.”

A few seconds ticked by as Emily absorbed her words. “My first thought was to say you’re joking, considering I write murder mysteries. But I can see you’re not. What happened?”

Harper shared the morbid story with her crime-writing sister. She wished this would be the last time she had to relive the events, at least for a few days, but she knew the sheriff’s office investigator would have more questions. With exhaustion and grief rippling through her, Harper pressed her face into her hands.

“Oh, sis, I’m so, so sorry. After everything you’ve been through already, I don’t understand why this had to happen.”

Harper closed her eyes and listened to her sister’s soft sniffles—her tears on Harper’s behalf.

“You don’t deserve this. You don’t deserve any of what’s happened to you.”

The room grew so quiet that Harper thought Emily had left her to sleep, but she heard another sniffle. Harper opened her eyes to study Emily. She hated seeing her sister upset.

“I know we were supposed to head home tomorrow,” Harper said, “but the sheriff asked me to stay a few more days in case he has questions. As soon as possible, I want to go home.” Maybe after all these months, she would see the therapist again. She’d been close to feeling like she’d had a breakthrough, but then a murder happened right before her eyes.

“Okay, but let’s not forget to look at the old house before we leave. I’ve been thinking about that for months.”

Oh, great. “I don’t want to see it now. I can’t. Not after what happened today.”

That house was already sullied by a murder—the murder Harper had witnessed as a child. Her father’s. Then her mother whisked them away to Missouri to start over, even changing their surname.

Emily scrutinized her. The move had probably been hardest on her—she’d left friends behind. A boyfriend. She’d been popular in school. Harper had left Heath behind. And yeah, maybe Emily was right. Maybe she’d had a little bit of a crush—but they’d only been twelve going on twenty-one.

“Sure, I understand.” Emily touched Harper’s arm and rubbed, attempting to comfort her. Well, it wasn’t going to work. She didn’t want to be comforted. “Get some sleep.”

Her sister slipped out of the small room and shut the door.

Now Harper hoped she could actually sleep.

Instead, the murdered woman’s eyes haunted her. The woman’s fear. The realization that she was about to die at the hands of a killer, no matter her efforts to escape. Harper felt the woman’s terror to her core. She hadn’t turned away from the horror, from the blood—everything she’d wanted to escape over the last year—no. She’d taken the right images.

The victim.

The murderer and the scene as a whole.

Then she’d kept watching through the zoomed lens to take in as much as she could. She’d committed to memory an image of the victim, with her dark hair pulled into a ponytail and her bright pink T-shirt and khaki cargo pants. The hunter dressed for tracking backcountry big game.

Oddly, the homicide survivor’s guilt that she’d worked hard to free herself from had raged back to life. Once again, she had survived while someone else died. She’d been on the sidelines and there’d been nothing she could do but watch—but that was far more than she’d done in the past when she’d chosen to run and hide.

This time she hadn’t looked away. She’d seen the man who committed the crime. Taken a picture of him. Though with a rifle covering half his face and the shadow from his cap hiding the other half, the picture would do no good. In the end, she ran away. With his high-power scope and long-distance rifle, he could have shot her, so she had no choice.

Still, if she had stayed, maybe she could have gotten a better look at him. Watched him make his way to a vehicle. Something.

But the victim? Harper couldn’t get her face out of her head, and maybe this time she shouldn’t.

“Wake up.”

Harper opened her eyes and found Emily standing over her. Morning light filtered through the mini blinds. So she’d slept, after all.

“There’s someone here,” Emily whispered.

Harper sat up on her elbows, waiting for the details. “Well? Who is it?”

“It’s a deputy. He needs to speak to you.”

Was it Heath? He’d mentioned being a reserve deputy.

Harper groaned. She was already in sweats and only had to slip on a hoodie. She finger-combed her hair, then met him at the door. It wasn’t Heath. Funny that she was disappointed.

“Deputy Herring, what can I do for you?”

“We can’t find a body. I’m going to need you to come with me.”