Breathe (Colorado Mountain #4)(108)

He pulled it out, looked at the display and took the call.

“Keaton.”

“Blood’s a dead end, brother,” Deck said in his ear.

Deck had called earlier informing Chace he’d be with the officers who combed the woods that morning. Now, he sounded like he was in his truck.

“Nothing?” Chace asked.

“Few drops like they said, leadin’ northeast. Then they disappeared. Maybe he saw them and covered them. Don’t know. Just know there’s nothin’.”

“Tracks?”

“None of those either,” Deck replied. “Wind, snowmelt and settling, even efforts to cover them disappeared. The only thing we found is a trail leadin’ to the north side of town, goin’ in at the Carnal Hotel end and another leadin’ toward the library. Both sets, deep, back and forth, packed. But, you didn’t know he was out there, could be anyone’s since there were so many of them, packed in the snow with snowmelt wiping out individual prints so now it’s just a trough in the snow. But when he got close to the shed, he started to erase them. Smart kid. Didn’t know the trajectory, didn’t know the shed existed, which probably no one knew, by the time he made the effort to get rid of his trail, it could lead anywhere. No one would know where he was heading.”

Chace stopped at the elevator but stood to the side and didn’t tag a button.

“Your take?” he asked quietly and Deck answered immediately, knowing what Chace was asking.

“No f**kin’ clue. Cops say in those hills there are two housing developments, one upscale, one middle income and a bunch of older, individual residences not contained in a development. Beyond that, mountain’s too steep to build homes. Even so, cops say, and I could see for myself, it’d be near on impossible for him to climb up to any of those residences. Slope of the hill gives way to sheer rock face. I’m gonna grab some lunch then go back and look around more, see if there’s some opening where he could climb. If there is, see what it leads to and if he didn’t bother to cover those tracks. It was me, I was nine and someone was beatin’ the shit outta me, I’d be gone. I wouldn’t stay close. But for whatever reason, he went back for more. None of his prints, no one else’s either. No one found him at his shed and did that shit to him then left him there. So, I had to go with my gut, he was stickin’ close for a purpose. What that is, no f**kin’ clue.”

“Siblings,” Chace whispered.

“Say again?” Deck asked.

“Could see him getting beat because someone caught him stealing food or just plain stealing. That’d be jacked but the town is known to have a few mountain families who take care of their own business in an old world way. Those families live outside town, in the hills or up deep in the mountains. It’d be a surprise but I could see it happening. But Malachi is a smart kid, he’d learn not to get caught again and Faye says she’s seen him on numerous occasions with visible evidence of abuse. Personally, I’ve seen it twice. So that’s not it. Also could be he went back to someplace familiar to get food or clothes, got caught, got beat. Or it could be he went back to check on something he cared about, a brother, a sister, got caught, got beat. He wasn’t hiding that shed just from the general population of Carnal. He was hiding his tracks down from wherever he came. He was hiding from whoever’s at home. He’s hiding from everyone.”

“You need to get your boys to run the occupants of those residences,” Deck muttered.

“Yeah but I already checked Colorado Vital Records, Deck, kid doesn’t exist. Not local. Not in the entire state.”

Deck was silent.

Then he said out loud what Chace was thinking.

“This is dark brother.”

“Nope,” Chace returned, “black.”

“Pitch,” Deck whispered and Chace knew Deck was thinking what he was thinking.

Two scenarios.

One, serious hill country, jacked shit where a family existed somewhere in those hills, had minimal contact with the real world and this included procreating and not birthing their babies in a hospital that had records or sending their kids to school.

Two, Malachi and possibly one or more blood or practical siblings had been taken from their real families and were being raised on the quiet by some seriously hill country, jacked person or people who hid them from the real world for nefarious reasons and in order not to be exposed.

Chace had been in that town for thirteen years. Even if there was someone in the hills that lived quiet and eschewed society, they had to mix in some ways. If this escaped his notice, Frank had grown up in that town. He would know about them, he would talk about them, they’d be on cop radar or there would be talk in town. Chace could see people in Carnal letting folks live their life as they saw fit even if they didn’t agree or thought it was whacked. Half the residents were multi-generation hardcore bikers who had been attracted to that town pre-Arnold Fuller as a haven for those who sat a Harley and lived that way of life. So they appreciated this considering they’d chosen a way of life that wasn’t exactly mainstream. That didn’t mean they wouldn’t talk.

This left option two. Malachi had been snatched by someone not right in the head. This meant he could have come from anywhere. This meant he could have a family out there looking for him.

“I’ll eat, go back, comb those woods,” Deck offered, breaking into his thoughts.