Never Tell Them, N.L. Hinkens [unputdownable books txt] 📗

and someone else takes over your cabin. Cycle of life.” He hesitated before continuing. “I told you to check Tom’s pockets before I put him in the ground.” He gave a self-conscious shrug. “No sense burying a good knife or a pipe. That’s when you found it—the driver’s license.” He trained his eyes on Ray. ”I never saw a grown man turn white so quickly. You were shaking worse than you are now. I asked you what was wrong, and you handed me the license without saying a word. It didn’t mean anything to me. I figured some camper must have lost her pack and Tom found it. Then you told me it was a Booneville girl who’d gone missing years ago.”

“Katie Lambert,” Ray said, his stomach twisting as the hard truth sank in. He should be relieved it wasn’t him behind her disappearance. But all he felt was empty inside. It was equally gut wrenching to think that his own brother had abducted a young girl, murdered her, and buried her in these woods—he figured she had to be dead, or she’d have turned up by now.

Buck gave a grunt of acknowledgment. “Lambert, yeah, that’s the one. Once you found her license, you got on board with me getting rid of Tom’s body. You didn’t want to spend the rest of your life in prison for ridding the world of a monster.”

Ray let out a despairing sigh. “So you buried him right away?”

“Before his body was cold,” Buck said. “I agreed to keep my mouth shut, so long as you took the boy with you.”

22

For a short while after Ray left, Sonia sat in the campground parking lot with the car engine running and the heater on. She stared out at the drenched forest, questioning whether she had done the right thing by bringing Ray here. She’d wanted to help him get the answers they both needed. But, after learning that he believed his brother was alive, she realized she might have taken on more than she’d bargained for. What if they got into another fight and Ray got hurt? He wasn’t in great shape after his accident. Or what if he became disoriented on the way up to the cabin? It would be on her head if anything happened to him. His doctor had stressed the importance of someone keeping an eye on him for several days. A strenuous hike in inclement weather was hardly what he had in mind. He hadn’t even cleared Ray to drive, for good reason. He was supposed to be at home resting, allowing his body and mind to heal in a warm, safe environment. And she was supposed to be the levelheaded neighbor tasked with overseeing his recovery.

Sonia nibbled nervously on her nails. Her mother would be livid if she knew what she’d done. She didn’t feel much empathy for Ray—even after his accident. She didn’t trust him. The fact that he’d neglected his mother all these years had sealed her opinion of him before they’d even been introduced. Sonia couldn’t blame her. Evelyn’s suspicions weren’t entirely unfounded. But Sonia had always trusted her instincts about people. When Ray opened up to her about his childhood, she’d heard the pain in his voice, recognized his wounded spirit. She felt sure his intentions toward Henry were good.

Whatever the reason for the distance between him and his son, Ray needed help getting to the bottom of it. Hopefully, this trip to the cabin would be a good place to start. Ray seemed eager to mend the broken bridges in his relationship with his brother. Maybe meeting up with him again would be healing for them both in more ways than one, if they could keep their tempers in check this time.

Sonia glanced at her watch. Time to quit procrastinating and get something done while she was here. Several design deadlines were looming, and she could use the uninterrupted time to knock out a few sketches. She slid across into the passenger seat, so she’d have more room to work, and reached into the back for her portfolio. After unscrewing the flask of hot tea she’d brought along, she poured herself a cup, and then leaned over to turn off the engine. Running the car for four straight hours wasn’t an option. Besides, it wasn’t as cold as she’d expected it to be—between the hot tea and her North Face jacket, she reckoned she’d stay toasty.

Opening up her portfolio, she studied the design schematic she’d prepared for her new clients who had recently moved to the area from New York. It was an exciting project at the higher end of her usual budget allocation, which gave her a lot of room to play around with the ideas they had gathered on Pinterest. Now, it was her turn to translate their motley collection of pins into a perfectly coordinated vision for a functional and stylish house. They favored the industrial loft look which would be an interesting challenge to pull off in their new four-thousand-square-foot single-family home. She would begin by sketching room layouts for the three different options they had requested.

She hummed happily to herself as she worked, enjoying the inspirational backdrop of nature and the gentle tap of the rain on the roof. The creative process was particularly liberating without access to Wi-Fi or Photoshop. She sketched swiftly, the ideas flowing steadily, already envisioning blowing her clients’ minds with her imaginative presentation. It wasn’t just about the design itself—knowing how to present her ideas was half the battle, and Sonia had a knack for helping her clients catch her vision for their space in a way they could relate to.

Reaching into the back seat for her case of colored pencils, she caught sight of something peeking out from underneath the passenger seat. Frowning, she reached around and retrieved it with the tips of her fingers. A driver’s license. Had it fallen out of Ray’s bag when he tossed it into the back? Flipping