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“I promise.”
He kissed her, then reluctantly let her go.
She walked to her car, got in and drove out of the lot behind him, her heart in her throat and her mind taking a dark and twisted road she didn’t want to go down but had to face all the same.
“Please, don’t be Angela.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Cyn stood with her back against Hunt’s police vehicle, her arms crossed. Her gaze was fixed on the group of officers standing under the command-center awning. She’d been here for over two hours waiting for them to carry the deceased down from the rugged terrain where she’d been found.
Another family had arrived fifteen minutes ago. Mom, dad, brother and a bereft boyfriend all hoping the body didn’t belong to a hiker who went missing a couple days before Angela disappeared.
A car pulled in beside her, breaking hard and fast, the couple jumping out and ready to rush toward the officers.
Cyn stopped them. “They’re still bringing her down,” she told Mr. and Mrs. Harmon. “What are you even doing here?”
Mrs. Harmon stared wide-eyed at her. “We came to see if Angela and Lana...” She burst into tears.
Cyn held hers back with her anger. “I thought you believed she went to Idaho,” she accused.
They didn’t say anything to that because their presence here told the truth.
“They only found the woman. If you want to know where Lana is, ask your son. He knows. Make him come forward and do the right thing.”
“He doesn’t know,” Mrs. Harmon wailed, pressing her face into her husband’s chest the second he reached for her.
She met Mr. Harmon’s resolute stare. “He knows. That’s why he’s hiding. That’s why he gave you that bullshit story about my sister being in Idaho. She doesn’t know anyone there. The only person she’d go to for help is me.”
“We just want to resolve this.” Mr. Harmon’s words meant nothing.
“Tell him to turn himself in and confess what he did to them. You know what he did, you just don’t want to face the fact the boy you love turned into a monster.”
“He’s not,” Mrs. Harmon spat back at her.
“You know he is or you wouldn’t be here to confirm that’s my sister they’re bringing down. You wouldn’t be crying like that if you believed she was in Idaho, happy with Lana and away from your son.” She bounced off the SUV and took two steps toward the Harmons and looked Mr. Harmon in the eye. “You know your son.”
“I do.”
“Then you know where he’d go if he was in trouble and can’t go to you. It would have to be somewhere he’d feel safe and sure no one would look for him there. Somewhere he could come and go without raising suspicions because he knows the cops are looking for him and his truck. You know. You’re just too afraid to face what happens if you tell and the consequences come crashing down on him. I know you want to protect him. He’s yourson. But what about Lana? She’s out there somewhere. Is she safe? Is she warm? Does she have everything she needs to thrive? My sister was breastfeeding her. Did he get her any formula? Does he have any idea how much milk she needs and how often?”
“He’d never let anything happen to her. She’s just a baby.”
“And my sister loved him, and he treated her like shit. He made her feel small and unlovable and afraid. He hit her. He lost his patience and his morals when he got angry with Angela. What happens when he’s faced with a crying, screaming infant and he doesn’t know what to do?”
The Harmons looked stricken.
“You can’t hide behind ignorance. You knew what he was doing to Angela. You know what he’s done to her now. If you do nothing, like you’ve done nothing in the past, you’re just as guilty as he is for what happens next.”
“He didn’t say where he was calling from,” Mrs. Harmon said, her voice softer, less defensive.
She looked to Mr. Harmon. “For Lana’s sake, tell me where youthinkhe is.”
Mr. Harmon pressed his lips tight and stared off into the distance where a group of officers and search and rescue people carried a basket gurney down a trail with the body of the woman who could very well be her sister. “My father, Rad’s grandfather, has a property between here and Blackrock Falls. I spoke to my dad. He says he hasn’t seen Rad. But there’s a dilapidated outbuilding on the property no one uses anymore. It’s a fair distance from the house. My dad drove by it and said he didn’t see anything. But...”
“What’s the address?”
Mr. Harmon gave it to her and instructions for how to find the outbuilding.
