“Might have hitchhiked. Thumbed a ride from a passing car. Or an eighteen-wheeler. No one knows. Sarah has distributed the updated picture of Leath to the Forest Service at the Salt Range and Grand Tetons headquarters. Ray Paulson, the supervisor, is sending it out by e-mail to all his rangers. The rangers are going into the camping sites and asking campers if they’ve seen him. There’s a huge net starting to be created, Shiloh. Sooner or later, someone will have seen Leath. It’s just a question of when and where.”
She wasn’t sure if that was good or bad news. Rubbing her neck, she muttered, “I can feel him around, Roan. I swear . . . I can. Sometimes, I think it’s my imagination gone wild. Other times, I know he’s nearby.”
“I don’t disbelieve you,” he said heavily. “Remember? The cabin sits out in a flat area. You can see someone coming from a long ways away.”
Swallowing against her tight throat, Shiloh nodded, warily gazing around, looking at each window to see if she saw anyone standing there looking in on her. “Yes, I remember.”
“The car rental company manager identified Leath from the original color photo of him. At that time, he had his blond hair. Sarah said he later dyed it brown after arriving here.”
“That’s good to know. To me, it means he intends to stick around. He’s trying to camouflage himself so he can’t be identified.”
“Right.”
She chewed on her lower lip. “When are you coming home?”
“Soon. Can I get you anything from town?”
Shiloh thought of a lot of smart rejoinders but said, “No, just you. I feel better when you’re here with me.”
“So do I, Darlin’. I’ll call you when I’m on my way out of town. I’ll be there shortly. I like coming home to you.”
HOME.
Shiloh ended the call and slipped the iPhone into her pocket. Home. She gazed around the radiant cabin, absorbing the reddish-gold color of the main logs above her head. Roan had made this cabin with his own hands, his own sweat, following a dream. And he’d manifested that dream into this incredible cabin. And it was a home with them in it, she realized. It felt right to Shiloh. And good.
If only Leath would be caught.
*
Shiloh sensed Anton Leath around. She didn’t know where, but she could feel his dark presence as she continued to clean the cabin. Her mind was whirling with all kinds of dreaded scenarios. Most of all, Shiloh couldn’t get the vivid murder of her mother out of her mind. In the background, she heard the rumbling of a thunderstorm. It wasn’t unusual, Roan had told her. They were created by the jagged-toothed Wilson Range mountains and then would roll furiously across the valley, pouring inches of rain over the lush, grassy area.
Hesitating, she went to the window and saw a huge, dark mass of roiling clouds blowing over the Western mountain range, coming directly her way. She loved thunderstorms and loved to run up to the top of the building, stand beneath an overhang, and watch one march across the city. Lightning didn’t scare her and she loved to feel rain against her face. It always made her feel so alive. There was a massive, wide curtain of dark rain beneath the thunderhead as it rushed toward the cabin. A little excitement replaced her worry and anxiety.
When it got closer, Shiloh was going to sneak out the back door, stand on the rear porch, and watch it just as she watched them in Manhattan. Judging from the speed of the storm, it would be here very shortly, sweeping across the Idaho border, heading east toward them. She was sure the town of Wind River was taking a beating of wind and rain, lightning often striking the area.
Her iPhone rang again.
“Hello?”
“Shiloh? It’s Roan. I’m going to be late. We just got hit by a big thunderstorm and it looks like it’s headed directly for the Wind River Ranch. The streets are flooded and there’s all kinds of traffic snarl. There’s also two accidents just outside of town on Highway 89 north. I’m stuck here on the highway while they get the ambulance to get people out of those two cars. I’m sorry.”
She smiled a little, going to the back door, looking out the small window in the massive door at the storm. “Funny, I heard the rumble of thunder and I went out back to look and saw it over the town. I figured Wind River was getting slammed by the weather.”
Roan laughed a little. “Yeah, this is one of those spring storms that plays hell on everything and everybody. You haven’t seen them in action. Looks like it’s heading directly toward our cabin from what I can see.”
“Yes, it is. Fast, too.”
“There’s going to be a lot of local flooding,” Roan warned her. “That cabin sits out on a flat valley floor and this is a downpour. It’s going to turn grass into mud so don’t go outside. Okay?”
“I thought I might go out the back door, stand under the porch roof, and watch it. I love storms. You okay with that?”
“Sure. So you’re a storm lover? Something I didn’t know about you.”
Her heart warmed and swelled with love for Roan. “As a kid, I’d always beg my parents to take me for a walk out in the rain when there was a storm in the city. I’ve always loved the wind, rain, thunder, and lightning. I was never afraid of it.”