Would Amarok be able to give them that “word”? What did he have as far as evidence? Last night, Evelyn had mentioned he’d taken what he’d collected at the cabin to Anchorage to be evaluated. So he had something.
Must be the blood, Jasper decided. Hard though Jasper had scrubbed, he couldn’t get it out of the mattress where he’d tied Kat to the bed. That was why he’d gone to the trouble of carrying the mattress up to the loft. He’d thought there’d be less chance of it being seen.
Apparently, his extra work had been wasted.
Was there anything else?
He looked over, once again, at Evelyn. He didn’t have to worry about her or Amarok noticing him. They were too comfortable in their surroundings, too wrapped up in each other.
But Amarok wouldn’t stay wrapped up in Evelyn for long. Because he was on a mission to bring Jasper down.
Jasper felt his muscles tense. His mistakes were regrettable. Word of Leland’s sister was spreading, and with that piece of scalp now in Amarok’s hands, it wouldn’t be long before folks realized they were dealing with far more than a missing person. Everyone would soon be crying murder, which would send the whole area into a panic—exactly what he’d tried to avoid by killing Leland’s sister in the first place.
Damn it. The people of Hilltop and everyone at the prison would be searching everywhere for their bogeyman.
But Jasper didn’t look like a bogeyman, and they knew him. Sometimes the best place to hide was in plain sight.
“So what do you think happened?” he asked Terrell.
“The way the sergeant’s acting? Must be another murder.”
“No kidding! Why do you say that?”
“You know who Phil Robbins is, right?”
“Of course. He’s the Public Safety Officer who helps clear the roads during winter, sort of acts like a deputy to the sergeant.”
“That’s him. Well, his wife—you know he got married just a few months ago—is a friend of my wife’s sister, and she said he found a lot of blood on one of the mattresses at the cabin where that woman was staying.”
Jasper feigned concern. “Wow. But what’s the big mystery? It was probably one of the hunters who killed her.”
“The investigation doesn’t seem to be going in that direction.”
Forcing himself to pause for a drink, so he wouldn’t look too eager for the information Terrell was providing, Jasper embraced the hot burn of the whiskey as it rolled down his throat. “Why not?” he asked when he’d swallowed. “Do they have evidence to suggest it was someone else?”
Terrell lowered his voice. “Phil told his wife that the sergeant believes it’s the bastard who slashed Evelyn’s neck when she was only sixteen. That he’s here now.”
Jasper set his glass down so hard some of the liquor splashed out. Terrell rocked back, out of the way, but Jasper quickly covered for his reaction. “Whoops! That almost got away from me,” he said as he dried his hand with a napkin from a stack Shorty kept on the bar. “Anyway, I hope what you said about the guy who nearly killed her—that he’s here—isn’t true. That dude’s crazy.”
“Not crazy. Twisted. A sicko. Like the other psychopaths at Hanover House. You work there, too. You know what they’re like. He’s a sadist, a serial killer. No one’ll be safe if he’s come to town.”
Jasper had always known he was different, but he didn’t appreciate anyone talking about him in such derogatory terms. He’d rather be the hunter than the prey. “Even if that’s the case, I’m not convinced we should get too worried.”
Surprise registered on Terrell’s face. “We shouldn’t be worried? Who’s he going to attack next?”
Jasper clicked his tongue to show skepticism. “This is such a small community. A stranger would stand out. We’d be able to spot him a mile away.”
“Yeah, well, no one’s spotted him so far, and yet we have a woman who’s missing and very likely dead.” Terrell threw a bill on the counter and got off his stool. “I’m just glad I live in Anchorage.”
“Yeah. Me, too,” Jasper said.
“See you at work.”
Jasper nodded good-bye. Then he saw Evelyn get up to leave. She was taking Amarok’s Alaskan malamute with her, which meant she was going home alone. No doubt the dog was supposed to protect her.
Jasper told himself to do nothing, to let her go. He’d be much smarter to lie low and let the shitstorm he’d kicked up blow right past him.
But if he’d left something he didn’t know about at the cabin, some piece of evidence that could be traced back to him, the storm wouldn’t blow by.
This could be his only chance.
14
When Evelyn got home, she was surprised to find Phil’s truck sitting in front of the house. What was he doing here? Surely he knew Amarok wasn’t home.
She waited for Makita to jump out before she closed the door of her Toyota Land Cruiser. “Looks like we’ve got company, boy.”
Amarok’s dog followed her to the truck, but Phil wasn’t in it. Evelyn turned around, thinking she must’ve missed seeing him waiting on the porch, but he wasn’t there, either.
Since Makita had already set out to mark his territory, she whistled to call the dog from the telephone pole, which was about the only thing he could reach, thanks to all the snow, and went to let them both in.
The door was locked, as she would’ve expected, but Phil opened it from the other side before she could get out her key.
“Hey there,” he said. “You’re home, huh?”
Evelyn blinked at him. “Yeah, I’m home. What’s going on?”
“Amarok didn’t tell you?”
“No.…”
“He called me to say he isn’t sure he’ll make it back tonight. He’s going out to that cabin, wants to throw on a pair of snowshoes and take a look around, see if it would be possible to walk to another cabin in the area.”
“This late?”
Phil rubbed his beard growth, which was turning gray, and gave her his usual amiable smile. “It’s dark eighteen hours a day this time of year. What difference does it make?”
She didn’t like the idea of Amarok being out in the mountains alone, especially now that they were fairly certain they were looking at two murders. Two dead people suggested a different kind of killer, one far more dangerous than what might initially be expected from a missing person case. “He’s had so little sleep. And he’s already worked hard today.” She didn’t want him to encounter Jasper or anyone like Jasper when he was compromised in any way.
“Amarok can take care of himself,” Phil said.
Against the elements, maybe. Against the wild animals he’d lived with all his life and the occasional drunken and disorderly asshole. But he’d never come up against someone as callous and evil as the man who’d nearly killed her. Jasper would stop at nothing to gain the advantage and he wouldn’t fight fair. She didn’t care if Amarok was a big, strong man; a bullet or a knife, especially one coming at him unexpectedly, could kill him, just the same as anyone else.
“I’d rather he went out there tomorrow, after he’s had some rest.” Intending to call and see if she could con vince him to wait, she started for the phone, but Phil stopped her.
“You won’t be able to reach him. He’d just decided to go when he was leaving the Moosehead, which is why he only called me. He said he couldn’t reach you.”
“How’d you get in? Did he bring you the key?”
“No, he told me to let myself in with the key in his desk.” He gestured at the counter, where he’d put the house key Amarok had given him.
She felt a little better knowing that having Phil watch over her for the night had come as an afterthought to Amarok, that he hadn’t sat there all through dinner and simply not said anything. He was so worried when she left the bar, he’d called Phil to ask for this favor, which wasn’t quite as high-handed as it might have seemed. If she hadn’t gone to pick up a file she’d forgotten from Hanover House and then stopped at Quigley’s to buy coffee and a few other staples, she might’ve had some input on the matter. But since it’d taken her an hour to get home, Phil was right. Amarok would be gone.