No One But You (Silver Springs #2)(98)

“Easy. I worked fifteen hours that day so that I could finish the bunker I was building in time to head home to my family. Still didn’t get done, had to go back two times after because I’d screwed up and needed to fix what I’d done wrong, but I wanted to be there for Valentine’s Day. My wife had just received a call from her doctor, saying she was cancer-free. We were going to celebrate.”

“Congratulations,” Dawson said. “I hope your wife is still in remission...”

“Sure is. Just had her annual checkup.”

“That’s wonderful. So...you were returning to Santa Barbara?”

“Yeah. I would’ve given the guy a ride, but I had so much equipment in the back of my truck that I’d had to put my luggage in front. Wasn’t room.”

Too bad Dawson hadn’t also refused. But he’d felt confident he could handle himself, if necessary, and he’d never dreamed he’d need to fear for his family. “He spoke to you? Asked you for a ride?”

“He did. I was sort of tempted to figure out a way to make it work, like I said. But I was too loaded.”

“When did you go to the police to let them know you’d seen this person?”

“Not until a few weeks later. I learned of the murders when everyone else did. It was all over the news. But I didn’t think I had any information—not until after they arrested you and I saw a clip where the anchor gave your version of the night’s events. Then I realized that I’d seen the same guy.”

“You don’t happen to know where that hitchhiker is now...” Dawson held his breath, but the crushing response came anyway.

“No clue. Could be anywhere.”

Dawson let his breath go as he struggled to cope with the bitter disappointment. But then Oscar spoke again.

“I can tell you what he was doing in town, though.”

“You can?” Dawson’s hope skyrocketed again, almost giving him an emotional whiplash.

“Yep. Told me he came to see his little brother at the boys ranch you folks got out there.”

“New Horizons.”

“That’s it. I remember because he was royally pissed that they made him leave at lights-out, wouldn’t let him stay on campus even though he had no way to get back to Santa Barbara, where he had friends.”

Dawson clenched his fist. There was the connection he’d been looking for, and what a hopeful connection it was! His heart began to race as he considered the implications. Because of privacy laws, Aiyana wouldn’t be able to give him a list of all the students she had a year ago, but she had to have access to such a list, and he felt certain she’d be willing to call them all herself, if need be.

Dropping his head in his free hand, he had to blink several times to overcome a sudden upwelling of emotion. At last, he had a small break that could lead to the one thing he craved more than anything else: justice. “Thank God.”

“You don’t think what I’ve told you will do any good, though, do you?” Oscar asked. “I mean it didn’t do any good when I reported it last year.”

Filled with a new sense of resolve, Dawson lifted his head. “I didn’t know about it last year.”

*

Chief Thomas had asked Sadie to call him when the arson investigator was done. He wanted to meet him, to speak with him. She’d just texted Dawson that he was leaving soon and was about to let Chief Thomas know as well when Damian Steele said he was going to swing by the police station on his way out of town, anyway. Figuring that would take care of it, she asked if he’d found anything.

He explained that he needed to do some more research and run a few tests before answering that question, but he left her with the promise that he’d be in touch as soon as he had any news.

“Something has to go my way eventually,” she muttered as she walked around to the back.

A flood of nervous energy made her feel slightly shaky as she opened the door and saw all of her belongings from the living room, bedroom and bathroom piled up and crammed into the small kitchen. She wouldn’t be able to get through to the living room from here even if she wanted to go in there. The firefighters had blocked it off. But, after taking a cursory glance at the towels, one nightstand, a side table, two lamps and a couple of boxes of storage items from the coat closet, she realized that there were no surprises here. The couch must’ve been destroyed. The mattress she’d used as a bed and a second rickety nightstand were gone, too. So were a lot of Jayden’s clothes and toys and her own clothes. Everything that had been against or near the wall that went up in flames would need to be replaced.

Thankfully, none of those items held any sentimental value. But neither did any of the stuff in here. She went through the boxes carefully, just in case someone had put her photographs inside without making a note of the fact that they’d found the one thing she’d been asking for. But there were no pictures.

Her hands felt clammy and she had a tension headache by the time she finished. She’d been told to stay out of the other side of the house, but she’d watched Damian Steele go in there and come out unscathed, and she wasn’t about to wait another day before launching a full-fledged search for her photos. She needed some resolution, some peace of mind there, at least.

She went outside and around to the front, where she made sure no one was watching before letting herself into the living room.