Read Online Peak Road - A Short Thriller (Jon Stanton Mysteries Book 10) by Victor Methos - Free Book Online Page A

the concrete. “You don’t believe my mom, do you? About what she saw?”
    “I don’t think she’s lying, if that’s what you mean. I just think she’s mistaken. When visual images travel from our eyes to our brain, our brain has to interpret them. Sometimes, because of factors we can’t control, our brains interpret them badly, and we see things that aren’t really how they are in reality.”
    “So what’d she see then?”
    “I don’t know. My guess is an animal.”
    “Have you talked to Trent yet?”
    “We’re going later this morning to catch him at work. Jennifer, if anyone asks you anything about us—”
    “I’ll let you know right away,” she said.
    We stopped and looked at each other for a moment, then she leaned in and kissed me. I didn’t participate, but I didn’t fight it off. She pulled away, smiled, and we started walking back to her house.

 
    15
     
     
     
    Mickey changed our motel room. We asked the front desk clerk later that morning if anyone had asked about us, but he said no. That meant whoever had been in the room had followed us and watched to see what motel room we were in. It was unusual for either one of us to miss somebody tailing us.
    We set out for Royal Lumber to interview Trent. The lumberyard was small but seemed to have a lot of employees. Many small towns had a central business that employed most of the town. When that business went bankrupt during an economic downturn, the entire town went under. I’d been to several towns in California where that had happened. The only people who stayed were the ones who didn’t have the means to leave, robbing each other of what little they had left.
    We parked near the office, which was just a long trailer, and stepped out of the car. The sound of machines cutting lumber filled the air, which tasted of sawdust. Several men wearing hardhats walked around, and a few glanced at us.
    I climbed the steps of the trailer. Inside, two men sat at a desk. One stared down at a stack of papers, his glasses perched on his nose. The other one was drinking something out of a Styrofoam cup.
    “Excuse me.” I took the chance and flashed my badge. It said Honolulu PD on it, but I guessed they couldn’t see it from where they were sitting. “We’d like to speak with Trent Erby, please.”
    The man sipping out of the cup put it down on the desk. “What do you want with him?”
    “Need to ask him a few questions about a pending investigation. Is he here?”
    The young man rose. “I’m Trent.”
    We went outside and stood near the trailer. Some of the other men were watching us, and Trent said, “We can talk over there.” He pointed to a bench set up among a thicket of pine trees. It was far enough away that no one else could hear what we were discussing. Trent sat on one side of the bench, and I sat across from him. Mickey stood.
    “We’re helping Sheriff Briggs with the investigation into the death of the Noel family.”
    His face turned a light red, and his jaw muscles clenched. “I knew Danny real well. When I think about what happened to him… I just wanna…”
    “I know.” I nodded. “That’s why we’re here. We’re gonna find who did this.” I let a beat pass in silence. “I wanted to talk to you about something else. You and your brother, Travis, were camping once, and you saw something… unusual. Is that right?”
    He looked up at Mickey then back at me. “Who told you that?”
    “Does it matter?” Mickey asked.
    “No, I guess not. I just don’t talk about it. Some people know, but some people think I’m crazy.”
    “Tell me what you saw, Trent,” I said.
    He looked back at the men as though making sure none of them were paying attention to us. “We were up at Veil Falls. It used to be a waterfall, but the water dried up a long time ago. It’s a gorge now. If you camp up on the ridge, though, you can see the entire valley. We were camping there and sitting by the fire. I think I was talking about something,