Return to Laurel Valley: A Novella by Liliana Hart

Author:Liliana Hart [Hart, Liliana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: 7th Press
Published: 2024-05-27T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter Six

“I took the keys off the hook and used your ATV to get here,” she said. “I hope you don’t mind the intrusion.”

“What’s mine is yours.”

“Except privacy apparently,” she said, her smile at odds with the iciness of her voice.

Boone cleared his throat and asked, “How did you get in?”

“Someone was leaving through the back door. Just good timing I guess. I’m assuming everyone already knows who I am, otherwise he would have asked what I was doing instead of holding the door open for me.”

Blaze massaged the back of his neck as the tension there grew tighter.

“Anyway,” she said. “I saw a couple of boats hitched up to pickup trucks out back. Any chance I could borrow one so I can start tracking my skip? I’m thinking he’s probably hiding in a barn or an empty house. And he would’ve tried to get as far outside of town as possible before the storm hit to reduce his chances of being seen.”

“Yeah, that’s the same conclusion we came to.” Blaze moved to the maps tacked onto the wall and pointed to a spot with his finger. “These are your two most likely areas. He would’ve had a lot of miles to cover before the storm hit. Laurel Valley is bigger in square miles than it looks, and the ranches cover hundreds of acres. The next town over is Myrna Springs, but it’s another two-hour drive with nothing in between, so I doubt he’d have kept going before the storm hit.”

“Any empty buildings in that area?” she asked.

“A few. Mostly barns and empty cabins people rent out during the season. They’re most likely all vacant now. The people around here know flooding is a possibility during the rainy season so houses are built up on higher ground. The barns too. It’s just the overflow from the lakes that make the roads flood like this.”

“What kind of vehicle was he driving?” Boone asked, moving to stand beside them so he could see the maps.

Lily kept her gaze on the map, trying to run scenarios in her head while not letting how close Blaze was standing to her make her uncomfortable. “He stole a dark blue Tahoe in South Dakota. I found a gas station attendant who remembered seeing it once we crossed the border into Idaho, and Linda from The Lampstand remembered seeing a dark SUV driving through town yesterday morning. She said she only noticed it because he was impatient to pass her while she was trying to park. There aren’t a lot of places to stop out here for him to boost another, so I have to assume he’s still driving the Tahoe.”

“Any word of an abandoned vehicle sighting?” Blaze asked Boone, since Boone had been on call all morning.

“Nothing yet. But sometimes those back roads don’t have a car on them for days. There are cabins here and here,” Boone said, circling the spots on the map. “One of them is in the flood zone, so unless he’s an idiot, he’s probably not camped out there.

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