CHAPTER THREE
Sunday, June 18
4:46 p.m.
Madison Garcia was already starting to regret agreeing to this trip. It had been five years since she and her former friends had taken their last trip into the park—before she’d moved away to college and put all that ugliness out of her mind—and time had softened the memory and heightened her nostalgia.
She loved Glacier. She always had. Seattle was wonderful, but the beauty of the Sound couldn’t compete with the siren call of this park. Even the San Juan Islands that were barely occupied still had a feel of civilization. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but being back in Montana—in the park—brought the stark differences that much more into contrast.
Here, she was as close to at peace as a person could get. “I missed this place.”
Ashleigh Marcinko, her best friend since they were in first grade, rolled her blue eyes. “I don’t know why you love it so much. There isn’t a Starbucks for miles and miles, and the only available men around are these two idiots.” She jerked her thumb at the duo in question.
As expected, Josh Conlon couldn’t let that stand. “Aw, honey, don’t tell me you’re not interested. You were happy enough to fuck me against every available surface for two years. What’s once or twice more for old times’ sake?”
“Engaged, asshole. Don’t be a hater.” Ashleigh held up her left hand and pointed to the massive rock on her ring finger, and then dropped all fingers except her middle one.
“As if that would stop you.”
Madison sighed and looked to Ethan, Josh’s brother. He gave her a small smile, and that was almost enough to make all the crap worth it. It was her fault, after all. He was the one who’d suggested a hiking trip in the park, and she’d gotten spooked—even though they’d known each other since kindergarten and had been meeting up whenever he made it into Seattle, a ten-day hike together seemed like a huge step.
So, being the chickenshit that she was, she’d invited their old friends to tag along. She and Ashleigh were just as close as ever, but Lauren and Josh had faded away almost as soon as she left town. And she couldn’t blame anyone for that distance except herself.
Now she was starting to remember why.
She should have known that getting her best friend and Josh in the same zip code was just asking for trouble. Considering how their relationship ended, she’d considered leaving Josh completely out of the invitation . . . but Ethan was trying to repair his relationship with his twin, and that meant she had to deal with him.
And by inviting him, she’d been forced to invite Lauren as well. So here they were, one big dysfunctional group of friends.
Madison forced a smile and tried to put a positive spin on it. “Guys, come on. It’s too great a day for you to be sniping back and forth.” She still didn’t know why Ashleigh had even agreed to come on this trip. Her friend hated the outdoors, hated hiking, hated anything that reminded her too much of Kalispell.
Most of all, she hated Josh.
“I’ll behave if that jackass does.”
Madison shot a pleading look over her shoulder at Josh. He glared at a spot between Ashleigh’s shoulder blades but gave a short nod. Asking for more from either of them would be a lesson in frustration, so Madison turned back to the path and picked up her pace. Lauren remained farther ahead, seeming totally lost in thought.
Madison knew better.
She caught up to her and forced herself not to let her smile dim. Lauren had dated Ethan for a little while when they were in high school, and despite how things fell out, Madison still wanted to . . . Actually, she didn’t know. Five years was enough time that getting Lauren’s okay for making her relationship with Ethan official seemed silly. It wasn’t like they’d gotten engaged and Madison ran off with him a couple of days later. Things had just sort of . . . worked out.
Her smile faltered, but she fought to keep it bright. “I’m so looking forward to this trip.”
“I know.” Lauren shook her head. “You’ve said so half a dozen times.” She hesitated. “Thanks for inviting me. I know things got weird there for a while.”
Weird was an understatement. She did her best not to think too hard about that. “Yeah, well, you and Josh are together, and Ashleigh’s moved on, and—”
“You and Ethan are dating.” Lauren snorted. “Funny how things work out, huh?”
“Yeah. Funny.” She didn’t find anything funny about the way Ethan made her stomach erupt in butterflies just by being in the same room. He’d grown up. They’d all grown up.
She took a deep breath of the crisp mountain air and forced herself to release the stress that had been plaguing her for weeks. Her job, her family, what she was going to do when she and Ethan finally figured out what they were and what their plans were—all her worries seemed small and mundane here. It was just her, her friends, and the park.
Madison hefted her pack higher onto her back, her legs already burning from the climb. In the past, they’d started their hikes farther south, and it was a whole hell of a lot easier to hike down twenty-four hundred feet of elevation change than it was to hike up it. Totally worth it. She dug her water from the side pouch in her pack and took a long drink. “How are things with you and Josh?” She hadn’t missed the heated look he sent Ashleigh, which seemed out of place since he and Lauren were together now—had been together since the summer after high school.
Lauren gave her a sweet smile. “Fine.” Her friend didn’t look much older than she had at eighteen, her big brown eyes and smooth brown skin just the same as when they were thirteen. She turned to look up the path. “It’s good that we brought ice axes. There’s a snow warning on a couple parts of the trail.”
Nice change of subject.
Madison let it go. It wasn’t her place to meddle, and she had enough worries of her own. It had been a few years since she’d hiked a trail that required the ability to self-arrest—to use an ice ax to stop herself from falling if she slipped on the snow—but she’d come prepared. “It will be okay. We’ve done it before.”
“Yeah.” Lauren’s mouth twisted, the only sign that she wasn’t perfectly happy with their current situation. “Things are a lot different now.” She shot a look back down the trail. “A lot is different than I thought it would be.”
“Me, too.” She glanced to where Ashleigh was trudging along, her blonde head bowed and her shoulders set in a rigid stance that only seemed to appear around her ex. Josh had the same look on his face, though at least he’d stopped glaring at Ashleigh and was now talking in low tones to his brother, Ethan. Ethan just nodded without saying anything back.
He looked so perfectly in his element out here, his broad shoulders filling out his long-sleeved T-shirt, his strength readily apparent by how easily he made the climb, his focus laserlike on Josh. He must have sensed her watching him, because he looked up and gave her that sweet smile that had her grinning back like an idiot. God, I like him so much.
“You two are just too precious.”
Madison shook her head and resumed her climb. It was a good thing she wasn’t asking for Lauren’s blessing, because that snide tone just about guaranteed that she wouldn’t get it. “Things change, Lauren. That’s life. You and Ethan didn’t work out—and I think we both know why—so you don’t get to be rude about my being interested in him.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she knew she should have kept silent. They had nine days left in this trip, and antagonizing Lauren was a surefire way to get Josh riled up, and then Ashleigh would take it over the top, and it’d be a complete shitshow.
Maybe Ethan and I can just break off from the rest of the group.
She knew better. Ethan wasn’t a coward who wanted to avoid this, and that meant she couldn’t be, either.
They hadn’t even been hiking a full day, and everyone was already questioning their decision to come on this trip, herself included. Well, too bad. They were here, and they were going to make the best of it. Madison would keep a positive attitude if it killed her.
Sunday, June 18
6:05 p.m.
Vic thought he was prepared. He wasn’t the type of man to spend too much effort worrying about what could possibly happen—it made more sense to deal with what did happen. He knew seeing Maggie again after all this time would be a shock, but they’d been partners for twelve months at best. There was no reason to think he couldn’t roll with this development the same way he rolled with every other.
Then he arrived at the Goat Haunt ranger station. He followed Wyatt out of the chopper, using a hand to shield his face from the wind the blades created. The ranger station was set against Upper Waterton Lake, and with the mountains in the background, it could have been a scene out of a painting.
All of that paled in comparison to Maggie.
She looked good. Better than good. During her time as his partner, she’d been too thin, running on too little sleep and too much coffee, and her health had suffered as a result. Obviously being a park ranger agreed with her. The unfortunate uniform did nothing to hide how her curves had filled out, her body honed from the many hours of hauling around a pack similar to the one he now carried. Her hair was longer, too, the dark locks pulled back into a braid that hit just past her shoulders.
But she was still Maggie.
Even in the bright sunlight, he could see the way her dark eyes flashed as her shock wore off. And her nose, the only feature of hers that could never be termed pretty, was the same—long and slightly crooked from where it’d been broken in the FBI academy.
Maggie shook off her paralysis faster than he did. She frowned. “What are you doing here, Vic?”
“Agent Sutherland’s here for the murder.” Wyatt stepped forward, breaking what remained of the spell cast between them.
Rationally, Vic knew it had lasted seconds at most, but it felt like a small eternity. He struggled to put the past in the appropriate box to deal with when they weren’t on a case. When we aren’t on a case, I’ll leave . . . He shut the thought down. He had a duty to the victims, and letting himself get distracted by Maggie wasn’t going to find the unsub.
Even if Maggie was a bright, shining star in the midst of darkness.
He moved closer and slid off his pack. “Where’s the best place to talk?”
For a second, it looked like Maggie would pepper him with more questions, but she finally nodded. “This way.”
Wyatt cleared his throat. “You do what needs to be done, Maggie. I’m headed back to headquarters to see if I can nail down who this girl was.” He shot Vic a look. “I’m sure you have a partner arriving at some point.”
It wasn’t a question, but Vic nodded all the same. “He’ll be here by the end of the day.” Twelve months ago, it would have been Eden Collins. He didn’t have it in him to begrudge her her happiness, but working with her replacement irritated the hell out of him. Tucker Kendrick was a good agent, but he was a pain in the ass, and his sense of humor left something to be desired.
“Excuse us.” Wyatt pulled Maggie to the side, just out of earshot.
In an effort to give them more privacy, Vic wandered closer to the lake’s edge. Even the small group of people milling around the picnic tables while they waited for the ferry couldn’t combat the devastating beauty of the view.
I can see why Maggie chose this job.
He shook the thought off and turned to the west, studying the mountains. If someone was an experienced hiker, they could enter the park at any point and hike off-trail to reach the point where there would be victims to choose from. It didn’t mesh, though. There were too many things left to chance—the finding of an appropriate victim being one of them. While it was possible the unsub had stalked the woman long before she came to the park, that didn’t line up in his head, either. There was something off about this case, though he couldn’t put his finger on what it was.
“Hey, Vic.”
All his thoughts dried up as he turned to face her. He tried to focus on the case, but all he could see was her. “You look good, Maggie.”
She raised her eyebrows. “You do, too. How’s Janelle?”
He tensed, waiting for the pain to lance through him at the thought of his ex like it had the first year after they divorced, but it was a wound that had long since healed. He dragged his gaze away from Maggie to look back at the mountains. “We divorced five years ago. I’m single now.”
“I’m sorry. Was it—”
“No.” Even after all this time, he knew what she was going to say—how her mind worked. “She was angry about the kiss, but it wasn’t the final straw.” That came later. He hadn’t thought about his ex-wife in a long time. Their marriage had gone down in flames, and she’d never let him forget that it was his fault.
It had nothing to do with Maggie. Not really. Him losing his damn mind in that moment when he kissed her all those years ago was a symptom of the problem, not the problem itself. He’d married Janelle because it seemed like it was the thing a normal, well-adjusted person was supposed to do once they hit twenty-five. His own parents had divorced before he was born, and he’d been raised by his mother in Philly. A part of him had craved the normalcy that came with following what society declared was the usual sequence of events.
He’d met Janelle at a coffee shop he’d frequented while he was in the FBI academy. She was on her way to law school, and it had seemed like they’d fit, so he’d pulled the trigger.
It wasn’t until the first year of their marriage that he realized what a terrible mistake he’d made. She wanted more than he could give—wanted him to be the traditional guy he’d sought to emulate.
Normal men weren’t so comfortable around murder. They didn’t travel across the country seeking out monsters. They played golf and aimed for jobs in upper-middle management.
No, his marriage falling apart had had nothing to do with Maggie and everything to do with the ways he and Janelle had failed to adapt when dreams crashed into reality.
It wasn’t something he’d thought about much in the last five years.
That, more than anything, allowed him to set it all aside and focus on what really mattered—the murder. He jerked his chin at the surrounding mountains. “How do you keep people from crossing the border?”
“Motion cameras, kind of like the ones hunters use.” She took the change of subject without a hiccup. “Have you talked to Kat—Dr. Huxley?”
“Yeah.” Of course she knew the medical examiner—and apparently she knew Dr. Huxley well enough to be on a first-name basis. He forced himself to focus. “Though before we get into what she found, I want your impression of things.”
She jerked back. “What?”
“Maggie, you were BAU.”
“For a year.”
He shook his head. “You had the training. It might be a while ago, but that sort of thing sticks—and it’s more than either of the other rangers on the scene can say. I’ll talk to the kid when we’re through, but I want you to walk me through it.”
She chewed at her bottom lip, an old habit of hers. “It’d be easier to walk you through it if we were at the scene. You’re going to want to head up there anyway, so we might as well save it until then.”
He considered arguing, but she was right—he wanted to see the spot where the body had been found. Vic glanced at the sky. “It’s three miles from here?”
“Approximately. Though the elevation change will slow us down.” She shot a look at the pack by his feet. “We can wait for morning. It’s a day trip at best, and we’re starting late.”
More wasted time. The clock ticked away in his head, counting down until when they lost the unsub again. Vic had arrived within hours of the first two murders, and he’d worked both cases until he could actually feel them go cold around him. The more time they gave the unsub, the higher the likelihood of him slipping through Vic’s grasp again.
He couldn’t let this bastard get away a third time. He refused to.