Page 58 of Glimmer in the Darkness

“We can put together what I know and what you know and, I don’t know, learn something. And I’m curious, I guess, how everybody decided so fast that I was a kidnapper and a murderer.”

“Not sure what I can add. You two disappeared on Tuesday night. Search parties went out, stayed out all day Wednesday.”

“Even in the snow?”

“It was raining most of the day. The rain changed to snow Wednesday night. They kept looking, but there were no tracks. They had nothing to go on except the fact that you didn’t have a car, so nobody figured you’d gone far. And Wilson Cage said he saw you on the trail.”

“He did? I didn’t see him.”

James took in that information but wasn’t sure what to make of it. Mr. Cage had told him he’d been in a hurry to get ready for his date. It made sense that, once he realized who it was and that they were fine, he’d ducked back onto the path and returned to the campground.

“I didn’t get a look at him or to hear his voice yesterday. He could be the kidnapper.”

“He had an alibi.”

“So? People lie. Whoever took us tied us up and left us in that cave for hours at a time. He came back with supplies, so he had to live nearby, close enough to walk.”

“The campground’s not exactly near where we are right now. It’s on the other side of the mountain. And anyway, it seems the kidnapper has a much faster way to get up here, an unmarked road or something. It’s taking us forever to find this place, but your kidnapper must have known the area well.”

“Even so, he had to have gone home. The things he brought were old. It wasn’t like… like he’d just picked them up in town.”

That made sense. They were on the far side of the mountain from town now. Not a lot of neighborhoods at the base on this side. Summer homes rimmed the lake, and a few cottages had been built onto the hillside, but most were empty in the wintertime. In fact, Hallie’s body had been found at one of the few houses on this side of Mt. Ayasha that was occupied year-round—a fact Cassidy would have known because it was lived in by the school principal. Vice principal back then. Everybody knew where he lived, which he’d lamented more than once when teens had TP’d the trees in his yard.

James would ask Vince who else wintered here. His mother had lived on this side of Ayasha since before Vince was born.

“Anyway, Hallie’s body was found Thursday afternoon. At that point, authorities became convinced you’d taken her. They called off the mountain search and focused on highways and interstates and bus stations.” He wanted to ask her how she’d gotten away, but he couldn’t quite force the words out. He’d thought his grief from those days was long buried, but it was all coming back. His prayers every night that Cassidy would be found, alive and well and with a good explanation for what happened. He’d believed her dead until Vince had assured him they knew she wasn’t. And then… He hadn’t known what to think.

“That’s it,” he said. “Because your body wasn’t found, because the police had a credible reason to believe you were still alive—your phone call, but only the cops knew that at the time—you became the prime suspect in—”

“Stop.”

“Sorry, but you asked.”

“No, I mean…”

He turned to see her staring up at the hill beside them.

“What?”

“This is it.” Her voice, now a whisper, quivered. “He wanted us to climb this, but Hallie was too little, and he couldn’t do it with her on his back.”

The slope was steep and littered with boulders as if a giant child had stacked them, one upon another. Green poked between the rocks, but very little vegetation grew here. Who would ever think to climb this?

Cassidy, apparently. She scrambled up the first boulder.

“You’re gonna—”

“Shh!” She shot him a look and kept her voice low. “We can do this.”

“Let’s go the long way, the way you went that day with him.”

She kept climbing.

“Wait.” When she turned, he shrugged out of his backpack. “How much farther from here?”

“It’s just”—she waved toward the top of the hill—“up there.”

He looked around, found a large boulder below where they stood, and scrambled downward to it, motioning her to follow.