Page 31 of When the Silence Breaks

“It’s just there.” She gestured.

“I see it.” Next to the bed. And seriously ... panda jammies? He couldn’t help the smile. “I hope you packed the thermals. Those jams aren’t going to work on the mountain.”

She never took her eyes from what she looked at on the desk and simply shook her head. He caught the smile on the left side of her face, though, and moved closer to look over her shoulder.

Sarah glanced up at him, the scent of her freshly shampooed hair filling his senses. But the paper with shaky scrawl drew his attention. “What’s this?” Was he intruding, or did this have something to do with their venture?

“This is the cryptic letter my grandfather wrote. It’s a deathbed confession. He left this for my brother, and that’s why I believe Aaron was killed. For this letter. But then his home, Tessa’s home, was searched. She was followed and was scared for her life.”

“What’s the confession, exactly? Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

She twisted her head to glance up at him, her brown eyes shimmering. “I had to be sure about you.”

“And now you’re sure?”

“I think so, yes. As sure as anyone can be.”

Fair enough. He glanced to what lay on the desk.

“I know it’s cryptic,” she said. “But it’s about a mission that never made the newspapers. My grandfather, Walt Ellison, says thatSentinel One—the name of the World WarII plane that crashed—still haunted him. And he says that he ‘died’ on that mountain.”

“Your grandfather. Not yourgreat-grandfather?”

She shook her head. “He had a family late—in his forties. Then my parents also waited to have children. They were in their mid-thirties.”

“Sounds like my family,” he said.

“My parents died, and Grandpa Walt raised us in a small town in Oklahoma. Grandpa Walt was a hundred and one when he died.”

“What does he mean that he died on the mountain?”

“I wondered the same thing, so of course I did some digging. I can’t find any evidence of my grandfather serving in World WarII,” she said.

“He died on the mountain, but he was never there. What are you getting at?”

“I wonder ... did he reinvent himself and use a different name?” she asked. “And if so, then what would his name have been on theSO? Do we have a manifest, even?”

The historical information was obscure, and probably on purpose.

“I know that sounds out there.” She lifted a shoulder, her expression tight.

“Not at all. I think you could be right.”

“He never claimed to have served. He made kitchen cabinets for a living, and then even after he retired, he loved woodworkand carved amazing wildlife images. Bears. Eagles. Wolves. He got sick about two years ago, and Aaron was at his side when he died only last month. I was ... I wasn’t able to make it in time. I don’t know if he told Aaron and gave him a deathbed confession then or what. All I know is that Aaron left this letter for me in a safety-deposit box. Makes me wonder if he feared for his life, then why didn’t he tell me before? I just don’t understand.”

“I would like to say that maybe he was protecting you, but now here you are, so I’m not so sure.”

“Well, the letter starts with ‘If you’re reading this, I’m dead. This is what some might call a deathbed confession, and I have to tell someone.’” She looked at Ryder then. “The only problem...”

“He doesn’t say all that much,” he said. “And you’re making this trek because you believe your grandfather was on the plane that crashed in the Cascades, or he somehow knew about it, and your brother was murdered. What else haven’t you shared?”

Sarah Ellison was going to get him killed. Get them both killed. The thing was, he wasn’t walking into this blindly. She knew much more than she’d told him—even here tonight—and he was still all in.

She tugged an envelope from the outer zipper of her hiking pack. “This was in the safety-deposit box too. An old topographical map. I couldn’t make heads or tails of it because of the outdated place names. I tried using AI to help me, but it made no sense. I guess now would be the time to show you. Is this anywhere near where you found that metal piece?”

She was onlynowshowing him this? He tamped down his growing frustration. “Let me see that.”

Impatient, he wanted to snatch it out of her hands but waited for her to place it on the desk. She moved the desk light to shine directly on the old, laminated map.