Page 70 of Only the Hunter

One of the police officers steps forward. The conversation continues between the officers and the woman in French.

Outside, the wind picks up, whipping snow against glass.

A flurry of activity commences and we step aside. This isn’t our jurisdiction.

We step outside, into the cold. We’ve already shown the officers the photos on our phone, and they’ve taken over.

Evie exhales, long and shaking, and I see the cost of holding herself together.

I don’t reach for her. Not yet.

“They killed her,” she says quietly. “And they thought no one would care enough to look.”

“They were wrong.”

She turns to face me, eyes blazing. “This goes back to DC. The DOJ. Maybe the FBI. Someone authorized her transfer here. Someone knew this facility wouldn’t ask questions. Someone wanted her gone.”

“Yes.”

“Even if this wasn’t first degree murder, it might as well have been.”

“Yes.”

“I’m going to find out who.”

I hold her gaze. “We will.”

She nods once, sealing something inside herself. Then she turns back toward the ravine, invisible through the trees.

“I’m sorry,” she says softly. Not to me. To Lina. “I’m sorry I didn’t find you in time.”

Snow scatters from the branches as a songbird takes flight.

And I stand beside her, close enough to catch her if she sways, but careful not to take this moment from her.

This isn’t the end of the hunt.

It’s the confirmation.

The trail doesn’t stop at the top of this mountain.

Chapter 16

Evie

The water scalds. I let it.

Heat coats my skin, but it doesn’t touch the cold sitting under my ribs or the stiffness still locked in my fingers.

Eyes closed, I see fragments: The Swiss officers’ careful French. Their polite disbelief. The way they looked at Gabe, not me, when they asked who had authority here. The body bag disappearing into the back of an unmarked van.

Autopsy required, they said. As if there’s doubt about what killed her.

As if exposure and abandonment aren’t enough.

I want to stop this.

Her reason for agreeing to testify.