Page 166 of Rangers Unexpected Return

“She left it for me,” Rylie whispered.

Trigger placed an arm around her.

I opened the envelope carefully.

Inside was a single sheet of lined notebook paper and an old photograph.

The photograph showed the lake at night. Several teenagers stood around a fire. The image was dark and blurry, but the faces nearest the flames were visible.

Rylie.

Emily.

The other seven women who had later been murdered.

A man stood behind them.

He wore a deputy’s uniform.

His face had been scratched away.

“What does the letter say?” Rylie asked.

I unfolded the paper.

Emily’s handwriting covered both sides, cramped and uneven.

I read the first lines aloud.

“Rylie, if you find this, don’t give it to Sheriff Mills. Don’t give it to either of his sons. One of them knows what happened at the lake.”

Rylie tightened her grip on Trigger’s hand.

“One of them,” Mace repeated. “Robert or Evan.”

I continued reading.

“I saw him take the box from Cabin Nine. He said he would hurt all of us if I told. The names are inside it. So are the pictures. I opened it when he wasn't looking.

He knows what we did at the campfires. He knows what each of us confessed.”

Rylie’s face went pale. “Confessed?”

“What happened at those campfires?” I asked.

“We told secrets. It was a game.”

“What kind of secrets?”

“Things we had done. People we liked. Things happening at home. We promised none of it would leave the circle.”

“But someone recorded you,” Mace said.

Rylie stared at the empty space inside the cabinet. “The box.”

The seven murdered women hadn’t been selected simply because they attended Camp Eagle River.

They had shared secrets around that fire.