She Once Vanished, page 19
“She must have been traumatized by her disappearance. Something must have happened, don’t you think?” he suggested.
“What could have happened? Traumatized? She just had a fight with Dain. Took off to have some alone time. Why would that stop her from posting? Maybe she got hit in the head. You hear about things like that. People losing their memories, losing their identities and having to start over.”
“Do you think that’s what happened?” Zachary pictured Marvin hitting Elysse over the head. Was that why he’d made the suggestion? Had he tried to approach Elysse? Been spurned by her and ended up in a fight? If she’d suffered a head injury, that could explain her not reaching out to anyone.
But did it explain the erratic travel pattern? Going to Canada? Elysse must have told the border guards something about why she was going to Sudbury. If she’d said she didn’t know who she was or what she was doing, they wouldn’t have let her cross the border without some kind of intervention.
But then she had come to Salt Lake City, to this mall, and that was where they had found him. Had she met Marvin there? If so, had she done so on purpose, or had Marvin engineered it?
“We should sit down,” Zachary suggested, motioning to the tables and chairs of the food court.
Kenzie raised her brows. Probably wondering how either one of them was going to be able to eat anything more.
“Just a coffee,” Zachary told her. “But when we meet another fan… we should take a few minutes to talk. Not everyone shares our interest.”
Marvin looked unsure, then nodded and sat down at the table.
“You guys stay here. I’ll go get the coffee,” Kenzie told them.
Zachary sat down with Marvin. He didn’t say anything, waiting to see if Marvin had anything to confide now that it was just the guys.
“So, how long have you been following Elysse?” he asked when Marvin didn’t offer anything.
“I don’t know. A couple of years, I guess. I can’t believe she would abandon her fans like that. After how loyal we have been to her, how much time we’ve spent following and supporting her.”
Zachary nodded. “It’s hard being left without someone you have been with for so long.”
For him, that person was Bridget. But he figured Marvin felt the same way about Elysse. Obsessing over her, worrying about her, wondering what had happened to her and whether she was okay now.
Marvin leaned toward him. “You get it,” he agreed. “After all that time together, suddenly she’s gone, and it’s like… she left an empty hole in my life. I don’t know how to fill it. Other people roll their eyes at me, and they say if I’m missing her posts, I just need to find someone else like her. Anyone else. And they think that will be enough. Then I will be… fulfilled. But it doesn’t work that way. You can’t just substitute one person for another. They aren’t swappable.”
“Of course not. Would they say that if you lost a spouse? ‘Well, just go out and find another woman’?”
“That’s right. Exactly. You can’t replace someone like Elysse.”
“Did you ever try to get in contact with her? Find out what was going on?”
“She hasn’t even been in contact with her family. No one knows why she’s just gone quiet. But I think it’s like I said… she must have been hit over the head or something. Lost her memory. And she’s trying to build her life again, but how can she when that big part of her is gone?”
“I was in Vermont when it happened. You should have seen the response… how many people were looking for her, searching everywhere. The number of fans who flooded the area, hoping to be able to find her.”
Marvin opened his mouth, on the edge of confessing that he had been in Vermont too. He had been following her, had been showing up on her shoots. Talking to her and getting his picture taken with her, or working up his courage to do so. His eyes were alight and his mouth opened.
“Here we go,” Kenzie announced, plopping the coffee cups on the table and distributing them.
Marvin sat back, startled, and closed his mouth.
“I bought some cookies,” Kenzie told them, setting a small box of big, round cookies in the middle of the table. “Figured you guys might want something a little sweet with your coffee.”
“Thank you,” Marvin said politely, reaching for one of them, “that was very kind.”
Zachary helped himself to one as well, though he was full and didn’t know if he would be able to do much more than nibble it. But he wanted to mirror Marvin’s actions as much as he could. Establish a relationship between them. Mutual love of cookies, coffee, and Elysse Allan.
39
In the end, Zachary and Kenzie didn’t manage to get much of anything from Marvin. Zachary was sure that he was the bushy-bearded man Kristy had referred to. But she hadn’t known whether there was anything going on with him, whether he was dangerous to Elysse or just another non-threatening fan.
Zachary took a few selfies with Marvin to send to Kristy. They exchanged phone numbers, Zachary noting Marvin’s down carefully and giving his own with the digits reversed so Marvin couldn’t track him down or start harassing him. He would have Heather do some deep research on the man and see whether there was anything suspicious in his past.
After discussing whether to stay in Salt Lake or go on to their next stop, they decided to go on, so Zachary booked a flight to Phoenix. This was a shorter flight, and Zachary was rested and eager to learn more about what had happened to Elysse in Arizona. It was only a short flight, and he didn’t sleep through it this time.
The weather in Arizona was balmy. No more snow or winter coats. They both carried their winter clothing and breathed in the warm air deeply. Too deeply for Zachary. He held his hand over his protesting ribs, trying to calm the flare of pain.
“It’s nice here,” he told Kenzie in a strained voice.
She looked at him, frowning. “Yes, it is. It’s lovely. I think I understand why the snowbirds like to stay here.”
Zachary tried to imagine what it would be like to stay that warm all winter. There was fruit on the trees, and people were walking around in shorts. It felt like stepping into another world.
“I’ve lived in Vermont my whole life. I’ve never known anything but snow during the winter.”
Kenzie nodded her agreement. “This is much nicer. I always thought I would miss snow at Christmas. But looking around here… I’m not so sure I would. I could always watch snowy Christmas movies on TV.”
Zachary chuckled. It really was different. Christmas was barely behind them, but it couldn’t feel farther away.
Using his phone to do a little research, he found there wouldn’t be time to get to the Grand Canyon to do anything constructive that afternoon. Instead, he would have to use the time to contact the law enforcement officers involved with Elysse’s reappearance and arrange to see them the next day.
“Dinner and a movie tonight?” he suggested to Kenzie.
She looked surprised. “I thought this was a business trip. You’d be breaking out the laptop and doing some more research.”
“It’s also a getaway weekend. The laptop can stay put away one night.”
“Well, that sounds very nice. I’m still full from our business lunch, but maybe an early movie and late dinner.”
“I could do that.”
“Better see what’s playing,” she motioned to his phone. “We’ll need time to get the luggage, rent a car, and maybe a hotel room before the show.”
Zachary ducked his head and buried himself in making arrangements for their date.
The movie was pleasant, as was the restaurant. They didn’t know which hotel Elysse had stayed at while she was in Arizona, so they were free to book something nice, an upgrade from the Hideaway Inn. It wasn’t hard—anything was an upgrade from the Hideaway Inn. Zachary found a nice suite with a king-size bed and a hot tub and, after dinner, they relaxed in the hot tub, liberated a few sweet snacks from the minibar, and cuddled before bed. Kenzie was horrified by the bruises she could see when he undressed for the hot tub, but he did his best to convince her that his injuries looked worse than they were and to distract her attention from them.
They didn’t have any wine, since alcohol was contraindicated with Kenzie’s meds. Zachary considered whether to take a sleep aid to make sure he got a better sleep but, once again, he couldn’t bring himself to. Not when someone could easily break down the flimsy hotel room door. It was a card key door rather than a traditional key lock, and Zachary knew only too well how easy they were to hack with the right equipment. And the security lock on the inside of the door was no barrier at all to an experienced burglar.
Even with no electronic equipment, a well-placed battering ram or kick beside the lock could easily break through the door frame.
Kenzie fell asleep curled up against him, the smell of her curly hair in his nostrils, her body warm and soft and comfortable. But he couldn’t fall asleep himself. He again needed to keep watch over his mate, to make sure that nothing could happen to her.
Even though there was nothing at all he could do if two masked men burst through that hotel room door intent on harm.
40
Zachary put a couple of ice packs over his eyes briefly before Kenzie woke up in the morning, hoping to eliminate any redness or bags under his eyes so Kenzie would not suspect that he had not slept again.
By the time she woke up, Zachary had already ordered room service, and her traditional toast and marmalade breakfast was on its way.
“What’s on the agenda today?” Kenzie asked, yawning widely and stretching. “How much time do we have?”
“There’s time for breakfast and a shower, and then we’ll drive to the Grand Canyon and meet with one of the Rangers who talked to Elysse when she was found.”
“Are they going to tell you anything?”
Zachary shrugged. “Well, I told them what I am here for, and they said to come in, so I hope they aren’t just going to slam the door in my face when I get there.”
“It would be pretty bad to make the trip all the way here just to be shut down.”
“Well… if I can’t talk to one of the investigating officers, I’m sure I can find someone else who was around when she was found. It was big news. A lot of people were involved in ‘rescuing’ her. Maybe I could talk to the reporter who interviewed her.”
“She wouldn’t tell you anything other than what was on TV.”
“Maybe not,” Zachary agreed. “But maybe she would at least give us a hint.”
“If she knew that Elysse’s story was a lie and that she had really been somewhere else, she would have broken that story. That would have been big news.”
“Not if she didn’t have any proof about what happened. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t know anything. Or wouldn’t be interested in meeting someone who might know something.”
“What would you tell her?”
Zachary pursed his lips. “I’m not sure what, but it would have to be something worth her while.”
“Yeah, and so far, you don’t have that.”
“I have the trip to Canada. And the stalker in Salt Lake City.”
“Well… yes.”
“Neither of those things have been reported on yet. They would be eager to get some of the information I have.”
A hotel employee arrived with the room service breakfast and they sat down to eat.
“Did you have a good night?” Kenzie asked.
“Better than the night before.”
Even if he hadn’t gotten any sleep, the larger suite meant that he could walk around without fear of waking Kenzie up, lie down on the couch if he thought he might be able to catch a few Zs, and work on his computer with a Wi-Fi connection. There were a hundred or so channels on the TV, but he just turned it on quietly to the first familiar channel to keep the restless, worried part of his brain occupied while he worked.
“Well, it couldn’t have been much worse,” Kenzie laughed. “I’m glad you had a better night.”
Ranger Eric Poulsen was in his thirties, ruggedly handsome, just as Zachary had expected a ranger working in the Grand Canyon to be. He assumed there was a whole crew of law enforcement officers working in the area, varying widely in age and gender, but this cop was right out of central casting. The epitome of a National Park Service Ranger. Short dark hair under his Ranger hat, a muscular, well-proportioned body under the crisp uniform, and an air of competence.
He met them in his office, a small, rustic building on the North Rim that looked out onto the scrubland. The fresh air wafting through the windows of the station was scented with dust and pine.
“So…” Poulsen motioned to the visitor chairs for Zachary and Kenzie to sit down. “I’m not sure I can be of any help to you. I understand that you are following up on the disappearance and reappearance of Elysse Allan last year, but… I’m not sure what help I can be to you.”
“Well, you’re the one who found her,” Zachary pointed out. He took a sip of his coffee. Not bad for the ancient-looking coffee machine that hissed and burbled on the counter on the far side of the room.
“Well, not exactly. I talked with Elysse after she was discovered, but I wasn’t the one who found her, and she was not in need of any services.”
“What kind of condition was she in?”
“She seemed fine. Like most of the tourists around here. Hot and sweaty. A lot of them are not used to hiking or haven’t anticipated how much physical activity is involved in exploring the canyon, even if they are with a tour company. Elysse looked like she’d been around for a few days. Other than that… I mean… there wasn’t anything that stood out to me. Other than the fact that she was the person pictured in the ‘missing person’ bulletins that went out from Vermont.”
“You had no doubt?”
“No, of course not. The pictures were clear. And there were plenty of other pictures available online if there was any question. A person that well-known can’t exactly be misidentified.”
41
Zachary nodded. “So… tell me about it. How was she found and how did you get involved? Did she have a medical emergency or call for help?”
“No. The girl didn’t want to be found.” Poulsen considered what to say. He tapped his pencil on the desk. “Well, that might be overstating it. She wasn’t trying to be found. She wasn’t lost. She didn’t reach out to us. But she wasn’t exactly hiding.”
Zachary looked out the window at the vast expanse of wilderness. He had done a little research on disappearances in the Grand Canyon and discovered that while many people were reported missing temporarily, most were found within forty-eight hours. But there were still a number of people who had disappeared there and never been found. They were, he assumed, people who had wandered off the trail and ended up in situations they had not bargained for. It was just too vast an area to search and, like the wilderness areas in Vermont, could hide human remains for years.
And that was people who had not intended to disappear. If someone were actually hiding there, actively avoiding detection, how long would they be able to go without being found? It was impossible to tell. Properly provisioned, someone could be out there for weeks.
But Elysse had not been; she had been there for two or three at the most. Had she been trying to avoid detection? He didn’t believe she had just gone there to look at the sights she had missed while there with Dain.
“So she was just… wandering around? Was she on her own? Part of a group? Did she pay for a tour?”
“There are a lot of self-guided tours. Tourists can take walking pathways from one place to another. Obviously, you can’t go as far on foot as on one of the donkey tours, but you can get around.”
Zachary nodded. “Was she here by herself?”
“Yes.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yeah, she was on her own. She was just… touring the canyon like hundreds of other visitors. I assume she wanted to stay anonymous and enjoy her time exploring, but she couldn’t because she was so well-known. Someone recognized her. Insisted that the police get involved.”
“How did they do that?”
“Called the police, said that she was a missing person, that she was in trouble, might be in danger. Whatever it took to get us out there.”
“And this was just a random tourist? Someone who happened to be a fan? You didn’t get the feeling that it was staged?”
“What do you mean? That the woman who called us was supposed to do that? That she was in on it?”
Zachary raised his brows, waiting for the Ranger to consider it.
“I don’t think so, no. Miss Allan was not particularly happy about law enforcement being called. Insisted that since she hadn’t done anything wrong, there was no reason for the police to be involved. She understood that she had been reported missing, but she said that wasn’t a crime. And she was right, of course.”
“But you still had to investigate.”
“Sure. Establish her identity. Confirm whether she was there under duress, whether she or anyone else was in danger. Whether any crime had been committed. Just generally to get it straightened out.”
“The fan was just a random fan? Hadn’t been there looking for her?”
“Yeah. She was there on a pre-booked tour. With a group. Nothing suspicious. There wasn’t any reason to investigate her.”
“Did you get her name?”
“It’s in my notes, but I don’t see how that is relevant. I would say that is private information that you don’t need. We took down her information for a witness statement, but there wasn’t anything else for us to investigate.”
“What did Elysse say about why she was here?”
“Well…” Ranger Poulsen picked up his big coffee mug and took several swallows. “The first thing she did was to deny that she was Elysse Allan. Claimed that it was a matter of mistaken identity. She gave another name—I can’t even remember what it was. It wasn’t relevant to anything—and said she was just there on vacation to see the Grand Canyon. Canada… I think she said that she was visiting from Canada.”
