Chapter 3 - The Man Who Was Supposed to Be GrievingSam Cole had spent twenty-eight years as a paramedic before retiring to Durango.
He didn’t panic easily.
Claire discovered that within seconds.
“Can you walk?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Good. Then we move now.”
Claire looked toward the ridge.
The figure had disappeared behind the trees.
“He saw me.”
“Maybe.”
“It’s Ethan.”
“You sure?”
“No.”
Sam pulled Claire’s right arm over his shoulder.
“But if it is, he thinks I’m dead.”
“That makes staying here a terrible idea.”
They moved.
Claire tried to keep her weight off her injured leg as Sam guided her along an old game trail away from the river.
Every hundred feet felt like a mile.
“Do you have a phone?” Claire asked.
“Satellite messenger.”
“Call the police.”
“I already hit SOS when I found you.”
Claire looked at him.
“You did?”
“You fell off Raven Falls. You’re bleeding from the head. You tell me somebody pushed you. That qualifies.”
Under any other circumstances, Claire might have smiled.
Instead she glanced behind them.
Nothing.
Sam’s satellite device vibrated.
“Rescue team’s coming from the south trailhead,” he said. “Forty minutes.”
“Too long.”
“That’s the fastest option.”
Claire swallowed.
“What if he gets there first?”
Sam studied her.
“You said boyfriend?”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
“Fourteen months.”
“You live together?”
“He stays at my house most nights.”
“Does he have keys?”
Claire’s stomach tightened.
“Yes.”
“Access to your money?”
“No.”
She answered too quickly.
Sam noticed.
Claire thought about it.
Ethan knew the security code to her house.
He knew where she kept financial documents.
He knew the password to her home computer because she had once asked him to print tax records.
He knew the name of her attorney.
He knew—
Claire stopped walking.
“Oh my God.”
“What?”
“Three weeks ago.”
Sam waited.
“Ethan kept asking whether I had updated my estate plan after my divorce.”
Sam’s face hardened.
“Did you?”
“No. I told him Ava gets everything.”
“Ava?”
“My daughter.”
Relief should have followed.
It didn’t.
Because another memory had surfaced.
Insurance.
Claire’s company had undergone an executive benefits review four months earlier. She had signed dozens of documents electronically.
One had involved an accidental death policy.
Claire couldn’t remember the beneficiary.
She had assumed it was Ava.
Had she checked?
No.
Her phone was in Ethan’s possession.
Her email was accessible from that phone.
“What does he gain if you die?” Sam asked.
“I don’t know.”
“That’s what you need to find out.”
They continued.
Twenty minutes later, Claire heard a helicopter.
The sound nearly made her cry.
A county rescue team reached them on a wider section of trail.
A deputy came with them.
Deputy Elena Ruiz looked at Claire’s injuries, listened to her explanation, and immediately asked the question Claire had been dreading.
“Where is Ethan now?”
“I don’t know.”
Ruiz contacted another team near the summit.
The response came three minutes later.
Claire watched the deputy’s face.
“What?”
Ruiz lowered the radio.
“They found your boyfriend.”
Claire’s heart accelerated.
“And?”
“He approached two hikers about fifteen minutes ago. Said you slipped near the waterfall.”
Claire stared at her.
“He said what?”
“He claims you lost your footing while taking a picture. Says he tried to grab you.”
“He pushed me.”
“I understand.”
“No, you don’t. He planned it.”
Ruiz’s expression remained professional.
“Claire, we’re treating what you said seriously.”
Claire hated how carefully she said it.
Like someone handling a frightened animal.
Then Ruiz continued.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“Ethan is with search and rescue right now.”
Claire blinked.
“He’s helping look for your body.”
The words felt obscene.
Ruiz watched her reaction.
“He doesn’t know you’ve been found.”
Claire slowly looked toward Sam.
For the first time since the fall, something colder than fear entered her mind.
An opportunity.
“Don’t tell him.”
Ruiz frowned.
“What?”
“Please.”
Claire stepped closer.
“If he thinks I’m alive, whatever he planned disappears. Whatever evidence exists disappears.”
Ruiz remained silent.
Sam spoke.
“She has a point.”
The deputy looked between them.
“I can’t promise anything. But I can contact the sheriff before your identity is broadcast.”
Claire nodded.
“Do that.”
As rescuers prepared to carry her toward the helicopter, Ruiz’s radio crackled again.
A ranger’s voice came through.
“We recovered a backpack from Bennett’s companion.”
Claire turned.
Ruiz lifted the radio.
“Contents?”
A pause.
“Wallet, phone, car keys, medication. Everything appears to belong to the missing woman.”
Claire closed her eyes.
Ethan had kept her backpack.
Then the ranger added something that made Ruiz look sharply at Claire.
“One unusual item.”
“What item?” Ruiz asked.
“A second phone.”
Claire opened her eyes.
Ethan owned only one phone.
At least, that was what he had always told her.
Ruiz asked, “Where was it?”
“Hidden inside the lining of Bennett’s backpack.”
Claire felt the mountain air disappear from her lungs.
Someone had sewn a secret phone into her bag.
And the last outgoing message on it had been sent three minutes before Ethan told Claire to close her eyes.
May you like
The message contained only four words.
“She trusts me completely.”
Related Stories
