A Darkness Absolute (Casey Duncan #2)(61)

Sutherland woke in a makeshift shelter that offered no more than basic protection from the elements. He drifted in and out of consciousness—“I don’t know how long. It was so cold, and my head hurt, and all I wanted to do was sleep.” Finally, he woke to realize he was bound and gagged.

His captor watched him. Like with Nicole. Only in Sutherland’s case, that’s all he did. He watched and then he left, saying nothing, not feeding his captive or giving him anything to drink.

Sutherland found a slab of broken wood on that makeshift shelter and used the sharp edge to slowly hack through the rope on his wrist, which explained the splinters. He escaped and oriented himself by the mountains. Eventually, he stumbled onto one of the paths, followed it, and began to recognize landmarks. That’s when his captor found him again. Sutherland fled into the woods, hoping to lose him. He ran until he passed out, not realizing how close he was to town.

I ask if he knows where he was kept, if he could get me back to the spot. It might provide some clues. But while he says he’ll try, his tone tells me he has no idea where to go. He’d escaped and run blindly through the woods.

“The guy who captured you,” Dalton says. “Can you describe him?”

Sutherland nods. “A little taller than me. Dark hair. Dark beard. I—I’m not sure of his eyes. Dark, I think. He’d wear one of those hats that goes right over your head, with the eye and mouth openings.”

“A balaclava,” I say.

“Right. One time, when he thought I was sleeping, he raised it to drink, and I saw a beard. Oh, and he wore winter coveralls. What’s the word? The things you guys wear on the sleds?”

“A snowmobile suit?” I ask.

“Yes. He wore a snowmobile suit.”





THIRTY-SIX

The next morning, Dalton and I are out at dawn, hiking to see Silas Cox, the guy who’d given Jacob the creeps with his bondage fantasies. Jacob said Cox is one of the more settled guys out here, meaning he has a permanent residence and tends to stick to it. That residence is about ten kilometers from Rockton, which we need to do on foot—it’s too far off-trail to take the horses or snowmobiles. It doesn’t take long for me to realize I really need to get working on my snowshoe skills. Or convince Dalton we need cross-country skis. The forest here is dense enough that it’s not like we’re trudging through three feet of snow, but it’s still slow going.

As we walk, I tell Dalton about my meeting with Val.

“Yeah, I imagine she’d be having a rough time of it,” he says. “I hadn’t given that much thought. Whether or not one of her attackers is the same guy, she’ll be wondering how close she came to ending up like Nicole—or Robyn and Victoria. Maybe see if she has a weapon. I’m not giving her a gun, but a baseball bat might make her feel safer.”

“There’s something else,” I say. “We had some weird back-and-forth in regards to your role in her disappearance.”

His brows shoot up. “My role? I told her not to go on patrol. Hell, I forbade it. Council overrode me.”

“She did say you didn’t want her going.”

“Right.” He catches my look and groans. “Is this that shit about me treating her different because she’s a woman? I told her I don’t let anyone go into the woods that soon after they arrive. It was weeks before I let Will on patrol, and no one came better equipped to handle himself in a bad situation. The problem was that he wasn’t accustomed to that situation. The forest.”

He walks a few more steps, grumbling under his breath. “I never know what to do with that shit. I can say gender has nothing to do with it. I can give examples to prove my point. But with someone like Val, I just can’t win.”

“You can’t. I’m sorry. If it’s any consolation, it’s not you.”

“It’s her?”

“No, it’s every man who did push her back because she’s a woman. You’re just the poor guy who has to deal with the accumulated hostility and prejudice. But in this case, you were right not to want her going into the forest. Look what happened. Your concern was justified. Then you responded appropriately, taking all measures to find her. So why was she acting weird about it?”

“Weird how?”

“She brought you into the narrative, and when I asked if you or your actions had any bearing on what happened, she said no. Repeatedly no. But in a way that said yes, if you know what I mean.”

“Holding something back.”

“Right.”

He exhales. “Fuck. I…” Another exhale. “I have no idea, Casey. I really don’t. I told her not to go. I wasn’t with the patrol party. She’s not claiming that anyone lured her from the path. She saw her attackers—and they weren’t me. She’s not questioning the steps I took to find her, which—if anything—were over and above because she’s the council rep and she already didn’t like me. I was up all night with the search party. Even the damned council thought I was allocating too many resources to finding her.”

“You say she didn’t like you before that.”

“Yeah, but it was mostly just the sense that she thought I was some dumb redneck, too young to be sheriff. Dismissing me rather than outright hating my guts, like she does now.”