Wind River Wrangler (Wind River Valley #1)(90)

Her hand crept against her neck. Throat tight, Shiloh asked, “How many guns did he buy?”

“He’s got a pistol and the .300 Win Mag. The man in custody said he also bought a SOG.”

“What’s a SOG?”

“It’s a black ops knife that a lot of operators prefer when they’re hunting tangos. It’s a short blade, maybe seven inches long, but very easy to maneuver in tight quarters.”

Shiloh’s stomach clenched. “Oh, God, Roan.”

“What?”

“Anton had an arsenal of knives when he lived with us.”

“You’d mentioned that to me earlier. Does that SOG ring a bell?”

Tightly shutting her eyes, her voice tight and low, she said, “Yes. It was his favorite knife. He called it a gutting knife. He used to try to tell me about how he gutted his kills over in Africa. My mother would walk in and hear him telling me this horrible stuff, get angry, and tell him to shut up, that it was upsetting me.”

“What a sick bastard. Your mother was right to stop him.”

“Yes, well, believe me, I had nightmares for months after that because he described it in such awful, bloody detail.”

“So, he had a SOG knife?”

“Yes.”

“What kind? Do you remember?”

“I-I don’t . . .”

“If I sent a JPEG of the knife to your phone, could you look at it and see?”

“Yes.”

“Hold on . . .”

Shiloh saw the color photo of the knife pop up on her screen. “Yes, that’s it.”

“It’s a SOG SEAL knife,” Roan said.

She heard the grimness in his tone and it sent chills scattering through her spine. “What does it mean?”

“It means nothing at this point, Shiloh.”

“Did they find Leath’s rental car?”

“Yes. It was abandoned alongside the highway at a rest stop about two miles from the town of Wind River. It was dusted for prints and they are his prints.”

Frowning, she said, “Then where did he go?”

“Might have hitchhiked. Thumbed a ride from a passing car. Or an eighteen-wheeler. No one knows. Sarah has distributed the updated picture of Leath to the Forest Service at the Salt Range and Grand Tetons headquarters. Ray Paulson, the supervisor, is sending it out by e-mail to all his rangers. The rangers are going into the camping sites and asking campers if they’ve seen him. There’s a huge net starting to be created, Shiloh. Sooner or later, someone will have seen Leath. It’s just a question of when and where.”

She wasn’t sure if that was good or bad news. Rubbing her neck, she muttered, “I can feel him around, Roan. I swear . . . I can. Sometimes, I think it’s my imagination gone wild. Other times, I know he’s nearby.”

“I don’t disbelieve you,” he said heavily. “Remember? The cabin sits out in a flat area. You can see someone coming from a long ways away.”

Swallowing against her tight throat, Shiloh nodded, warily gazing around, looking at each window to see if she saw anyone standing there looking in on her. “Yes, I remember.”

“The car rental company manager identified Leath from the original color photo of him. At that time, he had his blond hair. Sarah said he later dyed it brown after arriving here.”

“That’s good to know. To me, it means he intends to stick around. He’s trying to camouflage himself so he can’t be identified.”

“Right.”

She chewed on her lower lip. “When are you coming home?”

“Soon. Can I get you anything from town?”

Shiloh thought of a lot of smart rejoinders but said, “No, just you. I feel better when you’re here with me.”

“So do I, Darlin’. I’ll call you when I’m on my way out of town. I’ll be there shortly. I like coming home to you.”

HOME.

Shiloh ended the call and slipped the iPhone into her pocket. Home. She gazed around the radiant cabin, absorbing the reddish-gold color of the main logs above her head. Roan had made this cabin with his own hands, his own sweat, following a dream. And he’d manifested that dream into this incredible cabin. And it was a home with them in it, she realized. It felt right to Shiloh. And good.

If only Leath would be caught.

*

Shiloh sensed Anton Leath around. She didn’t know where, but she could feel his dark presence as she continued to clean the cabin. Her mind was whirling with all kinds of dreaded scenarios. Most of all, Shiloh couldn’t get the vivid murder of her mother out of her mind. In the background, she heard the rumbling of a thunderstorm. It wasn’t unusual, Roan had told her. They were created by the jagged-toothed Wilson Range mountains and then would roll furiously across the valley, pouring inches of rain over the lush, grassy area.

Hesitating, she went to the window and saw a huge, dark mass of roiling clouds blowing over the Western mountain range, coming directly her way. She loved thunderstorms and loved to run up to the top of the building, stand beneath an overhang, and watch one march across the city. Lightning didn’t scare her and she loved to feel rain against her face. It always made her feel so alive. There was a massive, wide curtain of dark rain beneath the thunderhead as it rushed toward the cabin. A little excitement replaced her worry and anxiety.