CHAPTER ONE
Deputy May Moore sat at her kitchen table, scanning her laptop, scrutinizing the area maps and lists that she had set out on the screen. She was on the hunt, and determined to find what she needed.
"I'm not going to let you hide away," she whispered determinedly.
Even though it was a bright and sunny midsummer morning, the memory of the video that a stranger had loaded onto her laptop two weeks ago made her cozy cottage feel like a dark, uncomfortable, and unsafe place.
She couldn't believe that she'd received an actual warning to back off from the re-investigation of her sister's missing person case.
Someone had been waiting outside her parents' house in the small town of Fairshore, Minnesota, on the day when she'd had the terrible fight with her eighteen year old sister, Lauren. Someone had videoed the fight.
May was sure that person must have followed Lauren as she'd stormed off to the lake, and had taken her.
Now, this anonymous person had sent May the video, with a message to back off, to stop re-looking into the case, to stop trying to find out what had really happened ten years ago. Or they would take action.
May shivered as she thought about it.
Knowing that someone in this quiet neighborhood was following her movements, and knew she’d reopened the case, was scary. Terrifying, in fact. She had no idea who was watching her, who knew what she was up to, and who had actually broken into her house to leave this video on her laptop.
That was chilling. But May was fighting her fear. She was not going to give in to this cowardly warning. For a start, she’d bolstered her home security. Now, there were cameras outside the front door and side door, and also in the lounge and bedroom. Nobody was going to approach anonymously. Not anymore. She had a new security gate at the entrance to her bedroom, which she locked at night, so she wouldn’t wake with a stranger standing over her bed.
And she was doing her best to work out who this person was. Who had lived in the area ten years ago? Who had been within sight of her parents' house? Who would have been able to stand nearby and watch, without causing suspicion? Who had the neighbors been?
There had been some movement in town. Some homes had been rented by tenants, who'd gone on to live elsewhere within Fairshore, or moved out of the area completely. Some families had split up, some had retired.
But May was sure she was looking for someone who had lived in or near the town then, and who still lived in or near the town now.
Keep your enemies closer. That was a saying she had always felt was very meaningful, and it resonated with her now. Perhaps that was what this person had done, figuring that she was the enemy, and might one day go looking for answers. Who knew if someone had been watching her for years? She felt unsure of everything right now.
May rubbed her eyes, pushing back a lock of her tawny blonde hair, fastening it under the hair grip again. No matter how difficult it was, she was going to narrow down the field of people who had the means and the motive to do this.
Because, if she did, then surely it meant there was actually a chance that Lauren could be found?
Disappeared without a trace did not necessarily mean dead. May had always wondered and worried why they'd never found her sister’s body, despite a massive search and so much time passing. That fact had gnawed at her.
But as she checked her watch, she realized her search would have to wait for now.
Obsessed as she was with knowing the truth, and finding the source of these threats, she could not let it interfere with her duties. And, as the new county deputy for a couple of months now, May tried to set an example by being the first of her team to get to work every day.
It was seven-twenty-five a.m., and time for her to leave. The drive from the rural outskirts of Fairshore, where she lived, to the police department, took just five minutes. It was a small town.
She closed her laptop and packed it away. She checked that the back door of the house was locked and that all the windows were closed. It was deeply disturbing to her to feel a thrill of fear that someone might break into her house while she was out, and leave another warning message - or worse.
May didn't want to think about what the worse might be. But she had to be brave. She had to take the stance that by threatening her, this person was showing that they existed, and that they were threatened by her. That was the truth of it, and what she had to focus on.
They were real. And she was getting closer. They were the one who should be afraid now, not her.
As she left, locking the front door carefully behind her, May heard her phone start ringing.
She rummaged in her purse and pulled it out, her pulse quickening as she saw it was Sheriff Jack, her boss, on the line. A call from him before working hours usually meant an emergency, and May picked it up fast.
"Morning, Sheriff Jack?"
"May. We have a serious situation here."
She could hear it was serious. Jack sounded as stern as he ever did. She could imagine her gray-haired boss would be frowning, the lines that were etched on his face looking suddenly deeper.
"What's the situation?" she asked anxiously.