Jem hadn’t thought about that.About Tean dragging him out of the tree well, about the weight of his unconscious body, about the fact that they were lost in a blizzard and might have frozen to death even if they were both in top condition—which by that point, they definitely weren’t.
“Sorry,” Jem said.“Kind of a messed-up day, you know?”
Vaughan waved the words away.“I can’t take any credit.It was luck.We had a couple of alarms go off on outbuildings.”
“This place must really care about its property if they’re sending you out in a blizzard to see if the locals are trying to steal their snowmobiles.”
“Jem,” Tean said.
“No, he’s right.”To Jem, Vaughan said, “Normally, it would be kids messing around out there.Some of them local.Some of them not.But with the storm this bad, I thought maybe someone was trying to find shelter.”
“Did you find anyone?”Tean asked.
Vaughan shook his head.“Someone had been in there.Stole a few things—tarps, plastic sheeting, propane tanks.Trying to stay warm, it looks like.”Exhaustion made the next words heavy.“I’ll take another pass later tonight and see if I can find where they’re holed up.”
He didn’t saybefore it’s too late.
“What about Stephen?”Jem asked.
“I wanted to talk to you about that.His stuff is still in his room, and we deactivated his key.Maybe that’ll force him to the surface.He’s not going anywhere in this storm, but it’s a big property, and there are lots of places he might hide.”
“And Nora?”
“She says she spent the day shopping.”He hesitated.“She didn’t buy anything, and the cameras still aren’t working.”
“So, nobody knows where Stephen is,” Jem said.“And nobody can confirm Nora’s story.That’s the update.”
“I also wanted to talk to you.I’d like to hear your version of things.”
Jem told him everything: from finding the door to the chalet with the latch taped back to falling into the tree well.
Vaughan nodded, but he said, “When I checked that lock, I didn’t find any tape.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?I’m lying?”
“Jem,” Tean said.
“It means what I said,” Vaughan said.“The lock wasn’t taped.What does that sound like to you?”
“It sounds like someone went back,” Tean said.“Removed the tape.”
Jem rubbed his mouth.It took him a moment before he trusted his voice to be even.“Who?”But he answered his own question a moment later.“Whoever killed Tafton.”
“Right now,” Vaughan said, “we don’t know that anyone killed Mr.Ahlstrom.There’s a suicide note.It’s handwritten.”
“Yeah,” Jem said, “because someone forced him to write it at gunpoint, and then they marched him out there to die!”
Tean grabbed Jem’s wrist and squeezed.
Jem wiped his face.He was still sweating.
“I’m not saying you’re wrong,” Vaughan said.“But I’ve got a responsibility here, and there are two people who are dead, and that means I need to do my job the best way I know how.That’s keeping everybody else safe until the sheriff can get here and sort this out.”
“What are you saying?”Jem asked.He turned to Tean.“What’s going on?”
“I’m saying the safest thing for everybody is to circle up and hold position until the storm breaks.”
It took a few seconds longer than it should have—maybe because Jem was still waking up, maybe because of the day he’d had.“You want us to stop trying to find whoever’s doing this?”
