Alaskan Mountain Pursuit Elizabeth Goddard (best short novels .TXT) 📖

said as she finally stood. “It was extremely helpful.”

“I hope something helps you find who is behind this.” Mrs. Hunt shuddered. “I don’t know if I’ll ever feel like the world is a safe, good place again, but him not roaming the streets would go a long way toward that.”

“I understand.” Summer smiled sympathetically. And she did.

Clay stood also and walked to the door before Summer, to check for threats outside, she assumed. He stepped out before she did and walked down the steps of the front deck, not far but close enough to give her a tiny bit of privacy with the woman she’d felt an unexpected connection with.

“Dear.” Mrs. Hunt laid a hand on Summer’s arm as Summer started to step through the front door. “Could you do something for me?”

“If it’s within my capabilities, of course. I really appreciate the information you gave me today.”

Mrs. Hunt didn’t say anything for a minute. Summer started to prompt her for an answer, since Clay was still walking toward the car in the driveway and she felt she needed to hurry.

But then the older woman met her eyes. When she did speak, her voice was slow, gentle, firm. “My daughter...she’s with Jesus now. She knew Him. But her time here is finished. Yours isn’t, Summer.”

Summer’s eyes stung as tears started to gather at the edges.

“Here is what I’d like you to do for me. For Jenna.” Now Mrs. Hunt’s eyes were watering. She didn’t break her gaze though, kept her eyes straight on Summer’s and Summer couldn’t look away. “I want you to live, dear. Really, truly live without regrets. Fully. Freely.”

There was no need to ask what she meant, to think about how her life would change if she did that. Summer already knew. Instead, she nodded. She owed it to the woman and the daughter she’d lost.

To herself. To the tiny unborn baby daughter she had lost three years ago.

“I promise.”

TEN

Summer had been quiet since they’d left the Hunts’ house. Clay had driven her to several more places after that, but so far no one had answered the door. He didn’t know if they were just not responding to people they didn’t know or if they’d left town until the man behind the death of their loved ones had been caught. Either would make sense.

Someone finally answered at the fourth house they drove to.

It was the sister of one of the victims. “Who are you?” was the first thing she said when Summer knocked on the door.

“I’m trying to learn about your sister.”

The door shut most of the way.

“The same man who killed her is trying to kill me.”

Even Clay caught his breath at Summer’s words, at the reality of them and the way they didn’t pull any punches. The woman at the door blinked, opened it wider. “Come in.”

The conversation that followed was much like the one with Mrs. Hunt, in Clay’s opinion. They didn’t learn anything new, just what they knew already. The woman said that her sister, Amanda, had lived with her, but had been on a camping trip in Chugach State Park, the mountains behind Anchorage, when she’d disappeared, and then her body had been found a few days later.

“Did she hike often?” Summer asked with a frown.

“Every weekend and at least two days a week after work in the summer. She loved all outdoorsy kinds of things.” A small smile escaped the woman’s face. “She’d just started to learn stand-up paddleboarding. Amanda was just always outside.” The smile disappeared. “Are the police any closer to discovering who did this?”

“Aren’t they keeping in touch with you with updates?”

“They are,” she admitted. “But there haven’t been any lately. I’ve been wondering if they’re even still working on this or if they’ve given up.”

The frustration in her tone was evident, and Clay guessed that the kind of helplessness she was feeling must be grating.

“They’ll let you know,” Clay told her with confidence.

“But you must not trust them to do their jobs, either, if you’re out trying to get clues or other information.”

Summer looked at Clay. Both of them seemed to be thinking. Summer was the first to shake her head slowly. “No, I do trust them. But I can’t sit by and be nothing more than a victim. I can’t be helpless. I’ve got to do something.”

“So this is for you.”

Summer nodded. “It’s for me.”

It was another glimpse into the kind of person she was, and Clay admired her more for it. To say that she trusted the police—and to mean it, Clay could tell she did—but to also know herself well enough to know when she needed to do something... Summer was thoughtful, self-aware and brave. And beautiful, not that he was supposed to be noticing that.

If they weren’t in the middle of this case, he might be close to admitting that she intrigued him more than the sister of a friend really should. Might be close to admitting that in normal circumstances, he’d have asked her on a date by now, tried to figure out if she felt the same fascination with him that he did with her.

“Thanks for your time,” Summer said and they walked back to the car. “Gorgeous view,” she commented before they climbed in.

They’d driven up to an area of Anchorage that Summer had told him on the way there was called The Hillside. “There are tons of hillsides here. What about those houses, are those on The Hillside?” He’d pointed to a cluster of large, nice homes on a hillside up against the mountains.

She shook her head. “Stuckagain Heights.”

“But they’re on a hillside,” he’d teased, and it was one of the lightest moments they’d had in days. They’d needed the levity, both of them. Human beings were only meant to sustain the intensity they’d been running at for short periods of time. They were both dangerously close to running out of steam.

Now, as Clay maneuvered the car carefully back down the mountainside, he kept his eyes on the