He supposed it could be. If Leland had returned to the cabin in time to get off the mountain, where else would he go? He’d be stranded in Hilltop, same as Jasper—who had the woman this man was so frantic to find in the bed of his truck only ten feet away.
The realization of what was happening sent a jolt of adrenaline through him, clearing the cobwebs and making him hyper-alert. He climbed out of bed and went to the window, where he parted the drapes, but the glass was too foggy to be able to see clearly.
What time was it? It was still dark out, but that didn’t mean anything. The length of days in Alaska swung so widely—from more than nineteen hours of daylight in mid-June to barely five during the winter solstice in December. It could be late morning and still look like it did now.
He hoped it wasn’t too late. He’d set the radio alarm on the nightstand for four, but it was blinking zeroes. The power must’ve gone out after he fell asleep.
He checked his watch and relaxed; it was only three. If the road was open and he left now, he could dump the bodies and be back in time to reach the prison by one.
Good thing he’d let another CO pay him fifty bucks to trade shifts! Otherwise, he’d have to head back to Hanover House right now, since he most often worked the early shift.
He cracked open his door so he could see and hear what was going on. As the men continued to argue, a third guy came out of the room closest to Jasper’s and tried to talk some sense into Leland, too. “You heard what Sergeant Murphy said. He’s got this. He’s gonna do everything he can to find your sister.”
So that was Leland’s connection to the woman he’d murdered. He was her brother. At least she wasn’t his wife. Jasper figured Leland should be grateful for that.
Leland tried to shove the others away. “By the time the sergeant goes back, it could be too late.”
It was already too late. Leland was a fool. But Jasper didn’t care if the guy risked life and limb returning to the cabin. He just wanted them all to clear out so he could leave. He preferred not to be seen in the same vicinity or have them observe him driving off at such an odd hour. Anyone could get snowed in, and since the motel was now full, he certainly wasn’t alone. But he knew better than to do anything that might attract Amarok’s attention. He couldn’t account for the hours after he’d left the prison before he got snowed in, couldn’t say he was at the Moosehead or the Quick Stop or even The Dinky Diner. This was a small enough place that there’d be people who could refute any claim he made, and those people would be easy enough to find.
Better to keep his head down a little longer.
He closed the door as the two men who were trying to talk Leland into staying started wresting his keys away from him, which caused Leland to break down crying. When Jasper heard his deep wail, he had to peer out again. That emotion, that profound grief, was a curiosity to him. He’d never experienced anything similar, couldn’t even begin to imagine what it was like.
But he never tired of studying it.
Terror was another interesting emotion.
6
Harold Childress. Evelyn sat at her desk at Hanover House and stared at the name of her former therapist on a greeting card he’d given her the last time she’d seen him, nearly six years ago. Forty years older than she was, he’d retired nine months before their last meeting, so she’d no longer been his patient. They’d gotten together for lunch, as friends.
She wished she could talk to him again. Although he’d never experienced anything remotely like the trauma she’d been through, he’d possessed a wise mind and an understanding heart. No one else could soothe her fears in quite the same way. No one else could shine such a bright light on the goal of normalcy or show her a clear path for reaching that target. His rational thinking made so much sense to her.
But she couldn’t reach out to him, not anymore. He’d had a heart attack and died not long after that lunch date. And now Jasper’s attempt to kidnap her two years ago, the corruption she’d battled when she first started Hanover House, the stalking behavior of the psychiatrist who’d helped her launch the facility, the recent murders of two more of her friends in Boston and Lyman Bishop’s attempt at revenge—all of that had reopened old wounds.
She put the greeting card carefully back inside her drawer and gazed at the Starship Enterprise model on her desk. Brianne, her sister and only sibling, had given it to her at her going-away party before she’d left Boston. A small placard at the base read: “Going where no man or woman has gone before.” Back then, Evelyn had thought she’d make such great strides, had been determined to break new ground in psychopathy, which was the reason for that analogy. Plus the fact that she was moving to the last great frontier. But now? She felt like the Enterprise after it’d passed through an asteroid field and sustained too many hits. Not only were her shields inoperable, she could no longer escape the gravity of the alien world, the one inhabited by the monsters she studied, the one that held her captive.
Perhaps all the people who’d second-guessed her in the beginning—her parents, so many of her colleagues, the opponents she’d faced when trying to establish Hanover House—were right. Perhaps she couldn’t handle what she’d set out to do.
She thumbed through the contacts on her old-fashioned Rolodex, which she used since she didn’t have a smartphone. She needed to find another Harold. Fast. But who could replace him? Although she worked with five psychologists, she couldn’t go to any of them for help. She’d consider Stacy Wilheim, the only other woman on the team, except that she couldn’t confess her weakness even to Stacy. Not when Stacy and all the rest of the mental health professionals she’d hired had dragged their families and pets, if they had them, to this frozen wilderness expecting their fearless leader to be like Captain Kirk—strong, resourceful, always successful in the end.
She supposed she might be able to find a therapist in Anchorage.
She keyed “psychologists, Anchorage” into the search engine on her computer and several names populated the screen. But as she scanned the addresses, they all felt too close to Hilltop. She’d been on the news so many times while lobbying for this facility. She could easily be recognized going in or out of one of their offices and couldn’t risk being questioned.
She had to remain stoic, had to forge ahead despite the crippling fear, the nightmares, the pressures of her job and the dark and cold of this place.
And she would, she told herself. She was just experiencing a moment of uncertainty. She’d functioned quite well since moving to Hilltop, despite everything that’d happened. She wasn’t sure why she was struggling now that it was all over, but at least this was Thursday. If she could get through today and tomorrow, she’d have a short break from work. “Dr. Talbot?”
Closing out of her browser, Evelyn glanced over to see her assistant, Penny Singh, who was less than five feet tall, standing in the doorway. “Yes?”
Penny looked confused. “You’re late for your session with Bobby Knox.”
Evelyn blinked as she checked the clock. Where had the past twenty minutes gone? She hadn’t even eaten the lunch Amarok had packed for her. It was still sitting, untouched, at her elbow. “Oh, right. Of course. I’m on my way.”
“There’s something else.”
Evelyn closed the file that lay open on her desk, since she needed to take it with her, and stood. “What’s that?”
Penny winced as she pulled an envelope from behind her back. “You’ve received another letter from Dr. Fitzpatrick.”
Evelyn cocked an eyebrow at her assistant. “You mean Inmate Fitzpatrick?”