Page 23 of Tangled Past
Chapter Nine
The footprints stared back at Asa like an accusation. Fresh. Deep. Deliberate. Letting them know he could get to Maya whenever he wanted.
A sharp pressure settled painfully beneath Asa’s ribs as he crouched beside Eli, brushing snowflakes away from the nearest track.
JT joined them, his gaze sweeping the tight cluster of pines. “Declan and Will are following the trail into the trees. Visibility drops fast. It’s thick back there.”
Asa pushed to his feet. “It’s not just thick. It's an ideal cover for a man used to working in this familiar terrain for decades.” He turned to look at her. She stood a few feet away, wrapped in his jacket, arms crossed tight across her stomach as if holding herself together. Snow dusted her hair, her breath rising in small clouds, each one trembling at the edges. She looked shaken but not broken.
She’d come back to this place even though it terrified her. Even though it had buried the worst night of her life so deeply she hadn’t uncovered it for twenty-five years.
Asa walked over to her. “You holding up?”
Her eyes lifted to his, wide and haunted. “I don’t know anymore. He had the chance to kill me that night, but he didn’t. And now he’s following me around the island. Followingus.” Her hands tightened on her arms. “Why isn’t he done with me? What does he want?”
“He’s worried,” Asa said. “That tells me he knows you can identify him. Maybe for my father’s murder. Maybe for more.”
Her breath caught. “More? You think he killed more people?”
He wished he could give her certainty, but the truth was heavier than that.
“It’s possible he’s killed others. My father was looking into something before that night. I didn’t know it then, but I know it now. He told the dispatcher, ‘loose ends at the Hardesty barn.’ He only used that phrasing when he thought something connected.”
Maya’s breath caught. “Connected to me?”
“To someone,” Asa said. “Maybe your mother. Maybe the person who brought you here.”
Her expression changed. A sharp, disoriented fear mixed with something deeper. “I don’t remember my mother. Not really. Just . . . flashes.”
JT and Chief Will Kelly approached, both men’s breath fogging in the cold.
“We followed the footprints for a while until they seemingly vanished, almost as if he disappeared into thin air. Maybe he had a shortcut that we didn’t see. We’ll widen the perimeter in any case.” Will glanced back toward the woods. “Sweep both sides of the trail. If he’s still close, we’ll corner him.”
“Thanks,” JT said. “We need to regroup inside. Let Will, Declan, and Eli handle the search.”
Asa turned to Maya. “I know you don’t want to go back in, but we could really use whatever memories that might come to you from the barn. Even if it’s small or seems insignificant.”
She swallowed, her breath trembling. “I’ll try.”
He admired that. Not the willingness to relive trauma, but the strength it took to say yes, even when fear shook her voice.
Inside, the barn felt colder the second time. Damp old wood creaked under their boots. A faint smell of smoke lingered after all these years.
Maya walked slowly around the space, her floorboards creaking beneath her feet. When Maya reached the center of the barn where his father’s body had once lain, she looked down, her eyes tracking an invisible outline on the floor. “How did I get here?” She swung toward Asa.
“What do you mean?”
“I was four. How did I end up in this barn with your father? Where were my parents? Why were we hiding?”
Asa swallowed hard. He knew pieces now. Fragments. Things he hadn't understood as a boy. He repeated them to Maya. “My father came here alone. He got a call from the dispatcher. I remember that. She said something about ‘loose ends at the Hardesty barn.’ He left immediately.”
JT stepped closer, listening intently.
Maya clenched her fingers. “Loose ends. Meaning what?”
“I’m not sure. Something that didn’t add up would be my guess,” Asa said.
Rachel glanced at Asa. “Maybe he was investigating something before the murder. Something involving Maya’s family.”
