Chapter 4
Rafe found Merrick’s car below the lodge.
Empty.
Engine cold.
No suitcase.
No tracks we could trust after evening snow.
But one valet remembered something.
Merrick had arrived shortly after noon carrying two coats.
His own.
And Elias’s.
He gave Elias’s to Arthur after Arthur spilled coffee down his sleeve.
Casual.
Almost insulting.
A dead man’s property treated like spare fabric.
Then Merrick asked whether anyone had seen a tall blond maintenance worker near the old generator road.
The valet said no.
Merrick left twenty minutes later.
No one had seen him since.
Nerelle listened beside me.
Every detail hurt.
She still refused to sit.
I respected that.
Rosamonde suddenly said:
“There’s an old ranger cabin.”
I turned.
“Where?”
“Past the generator road.”
“How do you know?”
Her expression tightened.
“Merrick used it.”
“For what?”
Silence.
Rafe answered before she could.
“We found records of his vehicle being serviced there twice last summer.”
Not proof.
Direction.
Good enough.
We took two cars.
Nerelle came.
I almost objected.
Didn’t.
If Elias was alive, she had more right to the first sight of him than I did.
Rosamonde remained at the lodge.
Not under lock.
Under watch.
She asked me before I left:
“If he’s alive…”
I stopped.
“What?”
She looked genuinely afraid.
“Ask him what Merrick told him about me.”
Interesting.
Not what happened.
What Merrick told him.
Another split in the story.
The ranger cabin sat dark under heavy pines.
No smoke.
No vehicle.
Inside, one room.
Small stove.
Cot.
Empty food tins.
Recent.
Then Nerelle froze.
On a hook beside the door hung a wool scarf.
She walked toward it slowly.
“My mother made this.”
Her voice collapsed.
Same blue thread as the coat patch.
Elias had been here.
Recently.
On the table sat two coffee cups.
One still damp.
Rafe touched neither.
I looked toward the back door.
Open a crack.
Someone had left in a hurry.
Then we heard it.
A branch outside.
Rafe moved first.
I raised one hand.
“No.”
Nerelle whispered:
“Elias?”
Nothing.
Then a man’s voice came from the darkness.
“Nell?”
Nerelle made a sound I will remember for the rest of my life.
Her missing brother stepped from behind the trees.
Alive.
May you like
And the first thing he said when he saw me was:
“Don’t let Rosamonde know Merrick failed.”
