Semi-Psychic Life (Glimmer Lake #2) - Elizabeth Hunter Page 0,52

Josh wanted to really be alone, that’s where he’d go. The cabin is livable in winter. It’d be cold as hell, but it has a stove and a good roof. It’s just inaccessible with the roads.”

“Which way?” Mark asked. “How far it is?”

“It’s remote.” Val shook her head. “We’ve got to get this stuff packed in a hurry and get back to Glimmer Lake. I need to call Sully.”

Chapter 17

Mark was looking at the old hiking maps he kept in his glove compartment on the way back up the hill while Robin drove the truck.

“I’m not positive, but I think we took this road,” Mark said. “The town is marked—it says Keane right here—but they show it right on the highway, and it’s not. You have to take a fire road a couple of miles back to get to it.”

“Do you think we should just rent some machines and go ourselves?” Robin asked. “Will Sully have to arrest Josh if he finds him?”

Mark looked up. “I think the best way out of this is if Sully is the one who brings Josh in, don’t you? If he’s been back there, he probably has no idea any of this has happened. If Sully is the one to tell him and Josh comes back voluntarily with him, this will all get cleared up faster.”

“Okay.” Val nodded. “That makes sense. So we just have to convince Sully that this is where Josh is and he’s probably been there the whole time.”

“I just can’t believe he didn’t tell you he was going to this remote cabin,” Robin said. “How could he not realize the boys would worry? Didn’t you say Andy calls him almost every day?”

Robin got out her phone and put her voice mail on speaker to play Josh’s call.

“Hey, Val. I know it’s late, but this weekend isn’t going to work out to take the boys. Shit got complicated at work and—” The phone cut out. “—you can tell them next week I’ll be—” Josh’s voice dissolved to crackles. “Anyway, it’s a lot to think about, so I’m going to need—” More silence. “—could call me I’d actually appreciate it. Okay. Later.”

Robin groaned. “Shit. Okay, hearing that, it’s entirely possible he did tell you he was going out of town and the reception was just crap.”

“If he was driving to the cabin, the signal was probably cutting in and out,” Mark said. “Once you get past Highway 67, it’s nothing but dead space.”

“Which would also explain why he’s been radio silent for the past week and a half.” Val mentally urged the truck to go faster. “Do you think Sully will buy it?”

“What’s to buy?” Mark asked. “This is the most logical explanation by far. Josh taking off to gamble in Vegas with a client’s money never made sense. Josh ditching his job and kids to navel-gaze in the woods for a couple of weeks is completely in character.”

“True.” Val sat back in her seat. “I just hope Sully is willing to follow me out there.”

“You?” Mark asked.

“Do you remember how to get there?” Val asked.

“No.”

“He’s not going to find it without someone who knows the area.” Val just hoped she could remember. It had been a good fifteen years since she’d been out to Keane. She was hoping the landmarks hadn’t changed too much.

Sully wasn’t as enthusiastic as Val had hoped. “Keane?”

“Yeah. His family has a place up there.”

“No one lives in Keane during the winter. The forest service doesn’t allow it.”

“I don’t think they can technically forbid people from going to their own property in the winter. They just don’t plow the roads. And since when did people listen to the forest service when it comes to their cabins?”

Val was sitting across the desk in Sully’s office. Robin was sitting next to her. Mark was leaning against the wall. It was nearly five o’clock, and everyone other than a lone deputy manning the phones had left the sheriff’s building.

Sully glanced at Mark. “You been to this place in winter?”

“Yeah, but it’s been a long time. Val’s gonna have a better chance of finding it.”

“Oh, I know where the town is,” Sully said. “I’m just wondering how harebrained you have to be to head up there when the snow comes. It can fall over the roofs of those old places in heavy years.”

“It’s a two-story cabin,” Val said. “Pump house for water. Good stove. With the right supplies, you could live up there for a while, especially if you had a