Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 125936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 630(@200wpm)___ 504(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 630(@200wpm)___ 504(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
“Hey, that guy today,” Van said, looking at Hale.
“Guy?” They hadn’t mentioned a guy, but then they’d had a lot to talk about because of the alien mating rituals, and then there had been a lot of sex.
Hale nodded and gestured for the photo. Once it was in his hands, he pointed at the guy’s shoulders. “We had to help an out-of-control skier. The body type is roughly the same. I noticed how sloped his shoulders were. I can’t be sure because he’s wearing a coat here, but it could be him.”
“He was wearing a ski suit with a bunch of logos on it, though not the Fs,” Van pointed out. “It was a weird experience. Normally a person would be grateful they hadn’t broken a leg, but he acted like he couldn’t wait to get out of there.”
“And then a couple of hours later Hale almost dies after someone puts a nail in his tire.” Elisa didn’t like how the pieces were starting to fit together. “So if this is the same guy, he knew the two of you were at the lodge. He could have gone out in the parking lot and sabotaged the car. He also could have been in the sedan.”
“We don’t know that,” Nate corrected. “I think we can work on the theory that the man Hale and Van encountered today could be the same one who met with the woman on the video, but we don’t need to expand it yet. We have a description of the sedan. I’ll send Cam out to see if he can find anything like it in the parking lot or on our traffic cameras. We don’t have any up on the mountain, but once you hit the road on either side, there’s at least one that might be helpful.”
“So we’re back to some guy wants to kill me,” Van said, and then put up a hand when Hale huffed. “Or you. Sorry, man. I’m not trying to hoard all the fun for myself. But if it’s the same guy, then he knows I use that car, too. We can’t be sure.”
“Have we heard anything on the second woman? The one Pilar spoke to?” Nate asked.
“We think she probably left town,” Elisa explained. She’d spent a good portion of her morning trying to track the woman down. “I don’t know why she didn’t leave her card or something.”
“Pilar said she seemed frustrated,” Van said. “Maybe she wasn’t thinking.”
Or maybe they hadn’t asked the right questions. “What if she’d already asked people and gotten a bunch of Bliss nonsense?”
Nate sat up straight. “Damn it. You’re right. With the festival ending and the holidays coming up, they might not have thought about contacting me. Or they heard Pilar told you. She probably talked to someone else around town. Maybe the reason she didn’t pass out a card is that she ran out.”
Elisa stood up because she had a job to do.
Chapter Fifteen
Van was still upset as he poured his fortieth beer of the night.
Hale had almost died. Again. He’d seen that truck and known that his best friend in the world was gone and there was nothing he could do about it, and it was probably all his fault.
“You all right, friend?” Alexei Markov was almost too big to fit behind the bar. He’d been working at Trio the whole time he’d been in college, despite the fact his partner was made of money. He’d once told Van that being a bartender was preparing him for work as a therapist.
He didn’t want to be therapied tonight. “Fine.”
Alexei chuckled and took an order from his stepson, Micky, who was working the dinner rush. “Sure you are. Everyone is talking about the troubles with the car. Also, why are you moving into the bunker? I hear it will be crowded. We have a small guest house if you need a place to stay.”
“I am not moving into a bunker.” The rumor mill was at it again. “Hale was joking about that. I’m pretty sure Caleb screwed up and missed Hale’s concussion because something’s wrong with him.”
Hale had been so calm. Not that he wasn’t always calm. That wasn’t the right word. Peaceful. Hale was peaceful, and that wasn’t a word he would have used to describe his best friend. It was like something had fallen into place for Hale Galloway and the world suddenly made sense.
Good for Hale because it didn’t make a lick of sense to him.
Alexei gestured out to one of the small tables in the bar area. “He seems fine to me.”
Hale was hanging around Trio because Elisa had ordered them both to wait here so she could give them a ride home from his shift. Because they no longer had a car, and they didn’t have the money for one. Could they afford a car payment?