Grave Shadows (11 page)

Chapter 42

Bryce said he was on a bathroom break
when he called. When I told him what I had seen at Jeff’s house, he couldn’t believe it.

“Ash, I just looked in there a couple of days ago. There was still a lot of stuff left.”

“Well, it’s gone now.”

“Then why weren’t the pieces of paper disturbed?” he said.

“Must be some other way in,” I said. “You want me to call the police?”

“Not yet.”

I told him about the men Hayley and I had run into at her aunt’s house.

“Call Gunnar’s boss,” he said. “He might know these guys.”

It felt odd being separated from Bryce, trying to solve two mysteries at once.

Chapter 43

That afternoon was the longest of my life.
With the sun beating down I could hardly think about the beautiful scenery. I might as well have been biking through a desert or some hallway with no windows.

Jeff spoke into a digital recorder, recording thoughts he could include in his next article.

We went through a small town called Minturn, where there was a gas station with American flags flying and a general store. The houses looked like they’d been stuck there between the mountains by God himself.

A sign told us we were going through the San Isabel National Forest. Clouds cast shadows on the mountains on both sides, moving across the landscape like slow trains. I wished I could get on one and ride it to the end of our trip.

“You sure you don’t want to take your parents up on that ride in the van?” I said.

“Keep pedaling,” Jeff said.

With aspens to our right and pine trees to our left, we headed up again. We passed a lake we had seen from Sam’s flyover. People sat on the shore fishing.

“Man, I’d like to do that someday,” Jeff said.

“I’d like to do that right now.”

We rode up one hill and saw a sign that said we were traveling the Tenth Mountain Division Memorial Highway. I remembered something about it from reading about World War II. The tenth was an elite division trained on ski slopes in Colorado to go into Europe and hunt down the bad guys. I wondered if their legs had felt like spaghetti like mine.

We made it to the top of the last hill for the day and rode into Leadville. On a map, it doesn’t look that far from Vail, less than 40 miles, but this trip has taught me never to trust a map. My back felt like it would snap any minute, and my legs cramped. Others around us raised their fists.

The leader, Gary, rode alongside Jeff and me as we hit the town. “Didn’t think you two were going to make it. Tomorrow’s going to be easier.”

That felt like an answer to prayer.

Chapter 44

Hayley told me where Gunnar worked.
I called just before closing and asked for his manager.

“You got him.”

I described the three men Hayley and I had met at her aunt’s.

“Not anybody who works here,” he said.

“Gunnar seem nervous about anything the last few days he was there?”

“Like I told the police, he did seem jumpy. The phone would ring or somebody would walk in the office and he’d get skittish. He just said he wasn’t feeling well.”

“Anything else?”

“Nothing unusual. ’Cept he was always asking for an advance on his paycheck, but I wouldn’t give it to him. I don’t understand it. He always wore old clothes. I don’t think he paid rent to his mother. Only thing he spent money on was his car payment. What’d he need money for?”

Chapter 45

We rode through Leadville
to curious stares along the main street. We passed old brick buildings, gift shops, a bank, and even an antique mall. Colorado Mountain College nearby specialized in teaching about the outdoors.

Houses in town seemed old and some were leaning. A little hotel made me think the Hilton family didn’t have anything to worry about. Signs pointed to a mining museum, and others advertised mountain property.

Jeff and I turned into a campground and found lots of tents and people gathered around picnic tables. We were the last to arrive, and people clapped as we pulled to a stop.

We ate with Jeff’s parents, gazing at Mount Elbert to the west. The Arkansas River was not far away, and I heard we would be riding by it the next day.

Mrs. Alexander kept asking Jeff to sleep in the van, and he finally walked away in a huff.

“Did you move the rest of the stuff from the trophy room?” I said when he was gone.

“We didn’t move anything,” Mr. Alexander said. “Why?”

I told him what Ashley had seen.

“She must have been looking in the wrong room,” Mrs. Alexander said. “We have another glass cabinet in an empty room.”

That was a relief.

I found Jeff in our tent, fuming and trying to get his sleeping bag unrolled.

“I can’t believe they’re following us,” he said. “I wish they’d just go away.”

I pressed my lips together, trying to keep quiet. But I couldn’t. “Why don’t you lay off your parents?” I yelled. “They’re just trying to help.”

Chapter 46

I called Taryn, Gunnar’s ex-girlfriend,
and left a message on her answering machine to call me.

Randy, Leigh’s boyfriend, was over for dinner.

“My mom’s been reading the articles in the paper about Jeff,” Randy said. “I feel sorry for him, but he sure seems to have a strong faith.”

Leigh sighed.

Mom looked at her. “You don’t think his faith is helping him?”

“I don’t want to rag on the kid,” Leigh said, “but he’s probably parroting stuff he’s heard from his parents.”

I put my fork down and wiped my mouth. “I’ve been there when he writes his column. He doesn’t even pass it by his mom before he sends it to the paper.”

“I’m just saying some of the stuff is probably from a sermon he’s heard.”

Mom’s face turned red, and it was her turn to put her fork down, but she kept quiet.

Sam looked back and forth between Leigh and Mom, then asked Dylan to pass the mashed potatoes. If I hadn’t taken them from him, they would have landed in the green beans.

Randy broke the silence. “I don’t know. I think the kid’s working out what he thinks about God in the middle of something really scary. Gotta admire that.”

“I’m sure thinking about God taking him to heaven will comfort him,” Leigh said. “I just don’t think it’s true.”

“Why not?” Randy said.

“God’s supposed to love everybody. Why would he give cancer to a kid? Why would he let those kids die the other day in the trailer fire we saw on the news? Or a mom and her daughter in a plane crash?”

That shut everyone up. Dylan looked at us like there was a bomb under the table, and to be honest, it felt like it.

Leigh finally put her napkin on the table and went to her room.

“I didn’t mean to upset anybody,” Randy said.

“Not your fault,” Sam drawled. “Truth is, there’s a lot more going on than you know.”