Page 132

It didn’t sound like Shelby, or any of the Dixie Warden women.

“Yeah?”

Black’s voice sounded broken.

“I wanted to let you know that I’m leaving town,” she said. “I thought that I could be here but…I just can’t.”

“I understand, Daveigh.”

Daveigh.

The reporter!

She went by Jamie Brand.

“I thought I could be here, and find something, or I don’t know…ideas. Clues. Something. But…”

What was going on with them?

“I’ll keep looking for her, darlin’.” Black’s voice was softer.

But he still sounded sad.

And that made my heart hurt even more.

“Take care of yourself, Black,” she said. “And I hope that you fry Leo.”

Black’s voice held quite a bit of emotion when he replied, “Leo’s not making it out of that cell.”

The woman, Daveigh, laughed.

It sounded watery.

Maybe she was crying?

More silence.

Then Black started to talk, telling me about Daveigh.

“Daveigh’s sister, Blanche, went missing,” he started. “A year ago, I don’t know if you remember, but there was a girl here hiking. She had a YouTube channel that she posted about her daily life. She made a goal after her mom died to climb every mountain that had a trailhead in Montana.”

I remembered her.

Her going missing had been a big thing.

She’d had a huge following on YouTube.

Blanche Brand.

“We found her car at the trailhead that she posted about going to that day. Searched that trail for days and never found a single sign of her.”

I remembered that.

Everyone had been out looking, including me.

I’d paired up with an experienced search and rescue member and we’d hiked that damn mountain for days, veering off the path for any sign of her.

The search had eventually been called off, but I’d known that Black would never give up.