Chapter 3 - Shadows of the Cascades
The missing bodies suggested two possibilities: either Sarah had escaped into the woods, or Marcus had dragged her away to cover his crime. I immediately demanded a search team be dispatched to the valley cabin, but Miller cautioned restraint. The mountain was unstable after the blizzard, and law enforcement resources were stretched thin.
"I can't wait for your deputies, Thomas," I said, setting down the medical chart. "My sister might be freezing to death right now."
Before I could leave, Lily woke up. Her eyes cleared, and she looked around the vast room, settling her gaze on me. She didn't cry. The trauma of the previous night seemed to have locked her into a quiet, observant state beyond her years.
"Uncle Nathan?" she asked softly.
"I'm here, sweetheart."
"Mommy hid in the cellar under the barn," Lily said, her voice small but steady. "When Marcus came in, she locked him out of the kitchen, but he broke the glass. She told me to run to the road, but she ran to the back door to draw him away from us."
Lily's account changed the search radius. Sarah hadn't been captured in the kitchen; she had intentionally drawn Marcus away to buy her children time to escape into the woods.
Leaving Rosa to watch over the children with two armed deputies stationed outside for protection, I joined Sheriff Miller and a small search team. We drove down to the snow-covered valley where the small, run-down cabin sat isolated among the pines.
The scene inside was gruesome. The kitchen tile was stained dark where Sarah had fallen, and the rear door hung off its hinges. Human tracks led into the dense forest behind the house—two sets of footprints, uneven and dragged, suggesting a struggle in deep snow.
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We followed the trail for half a mile until it intersected with a frozen creek bed. There, half-buried under a fallen pine tree, we found a jacket soaked in blood, a heavy iron wrench, and tire tracks leading out onto an abandoned logging road.
Sarah was gone, but Marcus was actively moving her.
