“Don’t you already have all the notes?”
“I do, but I’d like to hear it from you now, and then draw my own conclusions.”
Taking a deep breath, she started in. “It was just like any other day. Jane was ten, and Dakota was barely seven. I didn’t work at the time. I stayed home and took care of the house. I had married Dakota’s father, Carl, a year before she was born.”
“Is Carl at work?”
“No,” she smiled softly. “Carl died on the job five years after Dakota’s murder.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry. What did he do?”
“He worked at the mountain rescue.” She sighed heavily, her eyes moving to the mantel again. “After they found Dakota, he took every job very personally. He didn’t want anyone to ever feel what he did, so he took great risks. One too many, as it turns out.”
That was just horrible. What this poor woman had been through was just awful.
“Anyway, Carl was at work that day, and he was up on the mountain, dragging climbers down because the blizzard was moving in fast. He didn’t even know Dakota was missing until hours after I came home to find her gone.”
“Can you tell me more about that?”
Shaking her head, she pressed her fingers to her lips. “I’ll never forgive myself for leaving her alone. Jane was at a sleepover at her friend’s house.”
She took a shuddering breath and continued.
“They had predicted snow, but nothing like the system that was moving in. Anyway, I picked up Dakota from school, but Jane took the bus with her friend. I was going to go straight to the store, but Dakota kept telling me she just wanted to go home. She said she wasn’t feeling good.”
“Upset stomach or something else?”
Sydney looked surprised by the question. “Yes, why do you ask?”
“I’d just like all the facts,” I smiled.
It might be nothing, but if it tied in somehow, I had to find out.
“I took her home and locked the door behind me, and then I ran to the store. I was in there maybe fifteen minutes.”
“And how long does it take for you to drive there?”
“Five minutes at the time. The traffic at the curve is worse now, but back then, it wasn’t so bad. But the snow had already started when I left for the store. I thought I had plenty of time before it got bad.”
“How long did it end up taking you?”
“A little over five minutes there, but by the time I left, it was practically whiteout conditions. It took me at least fifteen minutes to get home.”
“So, you were gone for about thirty-five minutes or so?”
She nodded. “I got home at four-thirty. I remember looking at the clock and thinking it would be another two hours before Carl got off his shift. I grabbed a few bags and rushed to the door. I could hardly see anything with how badly the wind was blowing the snow.”
“Did you notice any footprints as you ran up to the house?”
“No, but that wouldn’t be odd even if someone had gone to the house. With how bad the drifts were…”
She shook her head to pull herself together before continuing.
“Anyway, I shoved the door open and called for Dakota to grab the bags as I brought them in. Then I went back outside and got the rest of them. I slipped a few times before I got back to the house, and when I got back to the door, I remember being really upset that Dakota hadn’t moved the bags.
“I yelled for her again, but she didn’t answer. Even then, I should have known something was wrong. Dakota always came right away when I called.But she didn’t. I took off all my winter gear and hauled all the bags to the kitchen…”
Tears filled her eyes as she covered her mouth. “I put all the groceries away before I went to find her. By then…how long had she been missing?”
