🗝️Detective Ryker Viltarin must uncover dark secrets before he loses not only his heart but also his life.🗝️
You're on your own, far from home
The wind is blowing in the top of the pines
A gloomy sky where the sun never shines
Deep...
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Ryker stared at the man as if he had poured cold water over him. Dylan glanced at his comrade with a questioning look. Then he remembered that Ryker had mentioned the missing person's reports at the Bluebird... but that could all be a tactic.
"They say a bear killed your wife. No one said anything about a sister!" Ryker continued the interrogation as if he had also understood Dylan's thought and glanced at Riona again. She looked down in a far too guilty way like a child caught telling a lie.
"I never had a wife. I've always lived here alone. But the villagers like to make up strange stories about the lonely man in the forest. I didn't contradict the stories so that the murderer wouldn't target me while I was looking for him. Almost no one knows that I'm Amelia's brother."
Damn, that didn't sound illogical. It would certainly be stupid to snoop around as the brother of a missing person... and dangerous.
Dylan exchanged a glance with Ryker.
"All right, talk. But you better not be bullshitting us... I'll shoot you in the knee first. And I advise you to speak quickly...!"
He didn't lower the gun, though. 'Beware of regret' was his motto.
The guy hesitated briefly but seemed glad to get a chance to defend himself – or to explain.
"My sister Amelia owned a shop in Silvershore. When she disappeared, I came here to investigate. At first, I thought she might have gotten lost in the woods or..." he faltered and pursed his lips. Then he shook his head. "But I had this crappy feeling in my stomach all the time. She's never been a reckless person. When I saw the wanted posters, it became clearer to me. Since most of the women disappeared in the forest, I moved into the cabin – I wanted to search the forest unobserved and in privacy. As a hunter, it was the easiest way." The guy's brown eyes kept flickering back and forth between him and Ryker. "I quickly recognised the pattern. Women, blonde... too many to be a coincidence."
"And the police?" Dylan asked, and the guy raised his bushy eyebrows as if he had suggested that he could cut down the whole forest to thin it out.
"On average, around 60,000 people a year are reported missing because they get lost in the forests of Canada," the guy said, and his voice sounded bitter. 'Most are never found. The forests are too dense because of the wild animals and dangerous terrain."
