She takes a deep drink of the beer. "And that, Casey, sums up Mathias. To him, we are all trifling amusements. Bit players in his life drama."
She's right, of course. Mathias exists in an alternate reality of his own making, where the rest of us aren't quite human. Does that make him someone who'd kill without remorse? Possibly. Kill like this? That's harder to say.
SIXTY
I'm standing on the edge of the woods with Storm as she paces the confines of her leash. Something scampers through the newly fallen snow, and she bolts, yanking my arm hard enough to remind me it may be time to start training or I'll be taking up leash-sledding as my new sport.
"We have to wait for Eric," I say, which of course she doesn't understand, but I say it anyway, as if offering up my excuse to the universe.
Storm whines and tugs and gives me a reproachful look, and I feel the full weight of that reproach. We shouldn't need to wait for Dalton. It's barely four in the afternoon, and I'm armed.
I'm learning to hate the darkness. By midafternoon, it has stolen my day, forcing me to behave as if it's midnight instead. But with a killer loose, I wouldn't want Dalton wandering the woods alone after dark, so I'm not going to do it myself.
When Storm yanks again, I plunk my ass down in the snow. I'm wearing a snowmobile suit, in preparation for puppy gamboling and, yes, inadvertent leash-sledding. So I get comfortable there, earning me looks from Storm that pass reproachful and slide into full-out glower.
"Wait." That's a word she's going to need to add to her vocabulary so I might as well start now. "Wait."
She resumes wandering. I stare into the forest, letting my mind slide to my day. I'm working through Mathias as a suspect, tallying the plus and minus columns, yet another name, another face, keeps sneaking in.
Shawn Sutherland.
This all began when Anders and I left Rockton to chase Sutherland. Then the storm hit. We saw a man in a snowsuit. He dropped Sutherland's bloodied toque and walked away. We took shelter and found Nicole.
The puppy circles, spinning me on my ass, the nylon suit whispering over the snow. The sound reminds me of the man.
Could Sutherland have been the man in the snowmobile suit?
I know now that the man in the snowmobile suit was not the one I'd seen behind my house. The second man was Roger, and he was the only one I'd gotten a good look at. So I needed to separate that part of my killer's ID from my mental picture of Roger.
Imagine the man in the snowmobile suit. Size, weight, build. It could be half of the guys in Rockton, but it does fit for Sutherland.
Back to the beginning. Sutherland leads us into the forest. The storm hits, and he changes into the snowmobile suit and returns to drop off his bloodied toque. A few days later he "escapes" back to Rockton with the injuries to support his captivity story. But none of those injuries are impossible to self-inflict. Rub his wrists raw with rope. Add splinters. Knock his head against something hard. Let himself suffer a bit of exposure. Then come back to Rockton.
Having Roger chase him only added an unexpected--and helpful--flourish to his story. Yet when he discovers we've found Roger, he must act. Sneak out and follow us. Vent his victimized rage on his supposed captor, silencing him before he can talk. When Roger survives, he sneaks in and finishes the job.
As for his nighttime attack, it's easy enough to rig up a ligature. Easy even to use it in a way that'll leave marks.
In this case, I would have been wrong about the reason for Sutherland's attack. He would have already gotten Nicole away and stashed her someplace. Then he came back and feigned his attack to give himself an alibi.
But if Sutherland is the kidnapper and killer, why would he get cabin fever and run into the forest? He unnecessarily drew attention to himself. And what is the chance that we just happened to find Nicole while chasing her captor? It would only make sense if we'd caught him sneaking into the forest and pursued at enough distance to track him to his lair. But that's not how it happened--at all. He declared his intent to leave Rockton.
Which brings up the timing issue, the biggest problem with this whole theory. I can't make the timing work. Sutherland arrived in Rockton barely a year ago. He's one of Rockton's white-collar criminals.
Which explains his cover story. For most people, teaching is a career they know enough about to fake it. Unless they're talking to an actual teacher. Jen says she only asked which grade he taught, but I suspect there was more to it. Anyone could have fudged that answer. I'll have to speak to her.
As I consider timing, something in Isabel's story pokes at the back of my brain. Damned if I can pinpoint it, though.
Think outside the box.
I'm trying to do just that when something moves in the forest. I hear it first, and when I look over, Storm's already on alert. Then she goes wild, yanking on the leash and whining and yelping. I think it's an animal, and I shine my flashlight and instead catch the flash of an arm as a figure moves past a tree.
Someone in the woods.
Yeah, Butler, there are lots of someones in the woods.
Not near Rockton, though. Yet that's what I think of, the settlers in the forest, and my mind snags on that thought, and I'm not sure why--
"Better drop that leash before she drags you."