Nick thought about that for a moment.
“It will be embarrassing. They’re going to want to know why I just drove away and left him there.”
“That doesn’t matter. People panic and they do the wrong thing. It doesn’t matter as long as you do the right thing in the end,” she said.
Nick took a breath. “Yeah. Okay. You’re right.”
He dug in his pocket and came up with his phone. Amber leaned against her door and watched him. At the end of the hall, the door to the suite opened. Aaron came out, fully dressed. He strode down to where they were.
“Hey,” Aaron said. “Are you about to call the cops?”
“Yeah,” Nick said.
“Hold on. I have a better idea. Send a message to Ricky.”
Nick thought about it for a second and then asked for the number.
Aaron leaned against the wall near Amber.
“So, I guess he’s serious,” Aaron said to Amber.
She nodded. “Yeah. I think he is.”
“That’s what Jennifer said. She said that Nick would never be a part of a joke like that and I had to agree that she was right,” Aaron said.
Nick’s phone rang. He answered it, said hello, and then started to explain what happened.
They listened as he said, “I don’t know—maybe it was an animal? I didn’t get a look at it. I drove back to the hotel and then Aaron told me to message you.”
Aaron shook his head as Ricky on the other end of the phone asked questions and Nick responded with more details. They got the story in little chunks.
“This is nuts,” Aaron said to Amber.
“From what I’ve heard, around here ‘nuts’ is sort of normal,” she said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Aaron asked.
“Yes. Yes, I will,” Nick said. He punched a button on his phone. “I’m supposed to wait in the lobby for him to come down. Then we’re going to drive back to the train tracks.”
“I’ll come with you,” Aaron said. “You have Riley’s car? Maybe I’ll follow behind.”
“I can’t sleep anyway,” Amber said. “I’m coming too.”
# # #
Ricky came down to the lobby, with unlaced shoes and still putting on his jacket.
“You’re a sheriff, right?” Nick asked him.
“Deputy,” Ricky said.
“And you’re sure we shouldn’t call anyone else?” Amber asked.
Ricky nodded. “Depending on what we find, we’ll call it in. I’ll ride with you and you tell me the details again on the way,” he said, pointing to Nick. “You two follow. When we get there, stop down the road a piece and stay in your car until we signal you, got it?”
Aaron and Amber nodded.
Nick and Ricky veered to the right, where Riley’s car was parked near the curb.
Aaron pointed to where he was parked.
“Nope,” Amber said. “We’re taking my car. I’ve got my stuff in back.”
Aaron shrugged and changed course. “Okay.”
After Amber touched the door handle, the doors popped open and they got inside.
“New car?”
She nodded. With a quick turn of the wheel and a hasty reverse, she aimed the car towards the taillights that were already pulling away. Amber caught up with Riley’s car in a matter of seconds. Aaron gripped the armrest as she whipped around the turn.
“So, you just moved up here this year?” Aaron asked.
“Yeah. It’s been a bit of a transition, getting used to the weather, but I like it so far.”
“We haven’t even had any weather yet,” he said.
“That’s what people keep telling me. We had a hard frost already. It killed the flowers I had on the back porch. People around here don’t seem to understand what fall is supposed to be like.”
Aaron laughed.
“So, who is Ricky? I met him briefly at the bar this evening. He’s a deputy?”
“Yeah,” Aaron said. “Just started. He’s good friends with Riley’s brother, so I thought it would be safer to start with him just in case this really is some kind of an elaborate prank, you know?”
“I don’t think it’s a prank,” Amber said.
In front of them, Nick was driving fast. He probably felt emboldened by having a lawman at his side. Either that, or he really was panicked about getting help for Riley. Amber was having no problem keeping up.
“You don’t?” Aaron asked.
She shook her head.
“And you still came along?”
“Call me curious,” she said.
Nick had to slow down. The road made some tight twists as their elevation dropped and they descended into the valley. The problem was that Nick didn’t slow down enough. Aaron caught his breath and reached out and grabbed the dashboard when he saw the back end of Riley’s car start to slide to the left. Amber never lost her cool. She slowed aggressively before the turn as Nick turned into his skid and straightened out just in time.
Aaron took a deep breath and let it out as he said, “Whoa.”
“Yeah,” Amber agreed.
Nick was much more cautious after that. They didn’t pick up any real speed again until they were on Route Two, following the river. There, the road was relatively flat and the curves were more gentle. Aaron leaned forward and looked up at the moon.
“It’s not snowing yet here, but I guarantee it will be soon. Have you driven in snow?”
“Not yet,” Amber said.
Aaron looked through his window, catching glimpses of the river through the trees.
“We used to go fishing up here a lot in the summer.”
“Yeah?” Amber asked. “Catch much?”
“Never,” Aaron said with a laugh. “I guess it wasn’t about the fishing. It was so boring, growing up around here. We were just starved for something to do.”
“Seems like a great place to grow up.”
“It was. Definitely, it was. It was just lost on us, you know? Kids who grow up around here don’t seem to understand how great they’ve got it until they move away. I was lucky—as soon as I went away to school I began to understand what a great place I moved away from. For a lot of people, they go off, get up to their eyeballs in debt, and then realize that they can’t afford to move
