I was met again with tightly closed shutters and a dead-bolted door. I leaned my forehead against the wood. This was it. Climbers was the last of the stores on the row. I didn’t dare cross the street to the other businesses, all of which were already closed.
My skin started to hurt. The temperature must have dropped again. I wanted to sit down, huddle in my coat against the elements. But I knew I needed to keep moving, keep the blood circulating. How long before hypothermia would set in—?
The roar of an engine and two blaring lights momentarily shone through the snow at the end of the boardwalk. Gears shift loudly and ice crunched.
“Wait!” I cried out, daring to hurry alongside what remained of the wall. I slipped a bit and caught myself on the edge of a shutter. “Wait!”
The headlights began to diminish as the truck went in reverse. I stepped out away from the wall and waved my arms, scuffling a few inches along the wood floor.
I misjudged, and dropped off the edge.
Waves of pain shuddered through my kneecap as I landed. The headlights were now pointed in another direction, and I could barely make out the cab of the truck. I cried out as I forced myself to stand and shuffle through the foot of snow now on the ground over to the truck window, slamming my palm hard against the glass.
“Jesus Christ!” Said a muffled voice from within.
“Wait!” I whimpered.
“Good God, who’s out there?”
The door opened and a man in a red-checked hat with flaps over his ears looked out at me, astonished, with ice-blue eyes under the rim of his hat.
“Joe!”
“Miss Lynn?” said the proprietor of Climbers, sliding out of the truck. He helped me stay upright as I hissed in pain, holding my knee.
“What in God’s name are you doing out here?” He put my arm around his shoulder and helped me limp around the plow of the truck and over to the passenger door. He practically lifted me into the seat, and hurried back around.
He got in and shut the door, turning up the heat. “What are you doing?”
My eyes closed in pain. “I had to see if any of the stores were open.”
“Why? What in the world were you needing that badly that you had to come out in this storm?”
“I needed to find a phone.”
“And you thought you’d take a stroll? That was a pretty damn stupid thing to do. I closed up hours ago, but left some propane tanks here that I needed. If I hadn’t needed to come back so desperately, you would have been up shit creek, lady. Have you lost your mind?”
I slowly looked to him. “I found my grandson. My friend has gone to get help. I won’t bother telling you everything that’s happened, but I have to try to get to him.”
“You found your boy?”
I nodded. Joe leaned his wrist on the steering wheel. “Well, where is he, then? Why isn’t he with you?”
“Because he didn’t remember me.”
When he didn’t respond, I cautiously turned back to him. He was staring out the windshield. “He didn’t remember?”
“What’s happening in this town? Why can’t my grandson remember me? Why do you not have a memory? Why does Sarah up at the inn not have a memory? And why would the police go to such lengths to get us out of town?”
“The police?” The lines around his eyes creased.
“I found my grandson with other children at the park, and some woman boarded him on a bus and called for police. Some men showed up and took me and my friend Roxy into custody, and then we were told we needed to leave immediately. They clearly had other plans for us, and Roxy got us away. Now the police are looking for us.”
“Argentum doesn’t have a police department. We have one officer, Chief Max, but he’s a good ten years older than me. And there’s Milford, but he’s not even full time. Was it those two old boys who took you into custody?”
I hugged myself, feeling suddenly colder. “The men I met were not old. These were young men, in dark uniforms.”
Joe muttered a curse under his breath. “I’ve seen them before. Only once. I worried this might happen, when you showed up asking about your missing grandson. I tried to discourage you. I hoped you and your friend would leave. I guess you’ve probably figured out you’re not the first who’s come here looking for someone.”
“It was you, wasn’t it? Who left that warning note in my room.”
He sighed. “Like I said, I tried to discourage you.”
“Whoever came here looking before… did the police take them away too?”
He turned the wipers to a faster setting as the snow began to pile up on the windshield. “It was a while ago. I don’t know what happened to them. They were a couple, I guess. Young. Glasses. Tried to act natural. Said they were new to town. Wanted to know if I knew other new arrivals, so they could join a ‘newcomers’ group. Once they warmed up to me, they started showing me pictures of some people they were looking for. Said they were some kind of researchers or something.”
I swallowed. “You called the police?”
“No. I didn’t recognize any of the people in their photographs, and they left. They made the rounds, like you did. Not four hours later, I saw them hauled out of Scotty’s over there, by some cops I’d never seen before and two others wearing suits. I met up with some of the old boys at the bar later, and they said some officers just came in and seized them. The regulars at Scotty’s thought they were out-of-town cops with some agents from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, which explained the black suits.”
If it were possible, I felt even colder. “What happened to them?”
He shook his head. “Don’t know. Honestly, didn’t think much about it until you came along. I got a bad feeling… you seemed so nice. Not like that couple, you could tell they were only a bunch of academics. They never even said why they were looking for those people, never said they were missing. But it started to add up a bit after you left that first time. I didn’t want anything to happen to you.”
“Are you afraid of these… officers… too?”
“I don’t even know who they are. And even if I did, am I afraid enough to turn you over to them? The answer is no.”
“Because Sarah up at the inn certainly is afraid. She called one of them to let them know my friend left town. I’m sure they’re back at the inn now, looking for me.”
“Good God, Sarah.” He whistled. “Nice girl, but as nervous as a whore in church. Forgive the language. The medical center helped her find a good job, and I think she even dates some nurse at the hospital. She brought him into the store once. How the world would she even know those poser cops?”
“They didn’t seem like posers to me. And I’m worried to death about my friend, who drove off to find help. And my grandson; I know he’s here. Could it be that he’s a patient at that the medical center you’ve mentioned, just like you were?”
Joe exhaled through his nose. “I saw a few kids when I was in the hospital. Not many, though. You said your grandson was put on the bus by a woman? Was she a lady who looked like she had at least twenty years on us? Miss Cliff her name?”
“Yes! That’s what William called her. And before she called the police or security or whatever they are, she told me to leave now. Like she was afraid for me.”
“Verna Cliff is not the friendliest of folks in town, and she’s a closet alcoholic. But she’s in charge of the small day care for the hospital kids. Even though she’s got to be in her late eighties—shoot, maybe even nineties—she still lives on her own. She actually stays a few houses down from me.”
“Joe,” I began, “I already have risked my best friend’s life. I cannot fathom the idea of getting someone else getting in trouble. I promise you, I will tell no one that you took me to her house. But I would be forever grateful if you would. She tried to warn me. I have to find out why.”