you think of something else, please call me.” She wrote down her personal cell number for Sam.
Sam moved from the window and reached over her desk to take the paper with Rae’s number. She stared at it, tapping one edge with a short but manicured nail. She glanced up at Rae, startling her again with the brilliant blue eyes. “Why should I call you instead of the police?”
Rae arched a brow. “I didn’t say you should call me instead. You should tell the police everything. Offer up anything that can help them. I’m sure you understand why you should tell me as well.”
Sam nodded, a knowing look in her eyes.
“Like you,” Rae said, “I have a personal stake in this—she’s my sister-in-law and mother to my niece. My brother’s wife. My task lies in finding Zoey.”
“What’s she like?” Samara set the paper on her desk.
“Who?”
“My granddaughter?”
Sorrow squeezed Rae. The ache of unshed tears rose in her throat. “Callie is beautiful and wonderful. She’s special.”
I’m so sorry you’ve been denied that relationship.
“Special. The way you say it . . . how so?”
“Callie is, well, she’s autistic. But not in the way people usually think. She isn’t afraid to look people in the eyes or to have anyone touch her. She’s too friendly.” But rigid and inflexible in other ways. “She has the most amazing, beautiful blonde curls. Big blue eyes like her mother’s and . . . her grandmother’s.”
Tears shimmered again in Sam’s eyes as she nodded, a deep, painful frown lining her features. Maybe Sam had long ago prepared for the possibility she would one day hear news her daughter had met a tragic end. Rae was only beginning to understand Zoey’s escape from her past. She had reinvented herself to protect herself as well as her mother. All because of a dangerous stalker? Rae had a feeling much more was going on.
“I hope you find my daughter. I hope someone finds her. And when they do, enough of this. I’m going to see her and be part of her life again. I can’t believe we’ve let Simon ruin our lives like this. But now it can finally be over if only Tawny is found alive.”
“Do you think he could be involved in her disappearance?” Rae asked.
Sam pinned Rae with her gaze. “Simon Astor is dead. The story made the news this week when his remains were discovered.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
From her vehicle, Rae watched the Mountain Valley Adventures facilities. What should she do now? Where should she go? She’d seen on the news the story about remains being identified and had all but forgotten about it. Those remains belonged to Zoey’s stalker, and now Rae’s theory had fallen apart. He couldn’t have been the one who took her two days ago, though admittedly that had been a loose theory.
And now they had reached the forty-eight-hours mark.
Oh, Zoey.
How was Alan holding up? She should call him, but not yet. She needed something to give him hope. She needed to stay focused and keep working before she made that call, because she was sure that she would be down and out for the day after talking to him.
Rae grabbed her camera and took a few snapshots of the place. The wide, flowing river, skirting patches of ice. The lofty mountains, their jagged peaks frosted in thick white icing.
She heard the rotors long before she saw the helicopter swoop in and land on the helipad. A guy hopped out, then assisted others out of the helicopter and piled gear high on the helipad. Skiers sorted and grabbed their skis, bags, helmets, and more. The man she assumed was the guide left them and jogged toward the lodge. Rae took more pictures. She zoomed in on the guy before he disappeared inside the building.
Then she put Sam’s home address into her GPS. Was it the same home where Zoey had grown up? A look at public records might give her that information, though she wasn’t sure it would be vital in her search for Zoey. She could wait and see what else Reggie came up with.
Rae drove slowly down a winding path for a half mile, then found a large luxury log cabin tucked away deep in the woods. Samara Davidson must make a nice living from the heli-skiing business.
Rae examined the GPS map to find what was public land versus what was private and steered along the narrow road until she found a shoulder to park on. She got out of the vehicle and