Page 18 of Her Final Hours (High Peaks Murder, Mystery and Crime Thrillers #3)

“That may have been true,” he said, referring to the corruption that had pulled him back to High Peaks.

Noah’s gaze shifted down, observing the contents.

Among the items nestled within was a blown-up photo of Payton Scott — a snapshot frozen in time.

It was an old school photo. Memories flooded his mind as he recalled the day vividly.

He could hear her voice, her laughter. He’d forgotten to tame his unruly hair, which amused Payton to no end, along with his mother when she got his copy.

The photo before him depicted Payton at sixteen, full of life and innocence.

Looking at her joyful expression, he couldn’t help but feel a pang of sadness.

Little did either of them know then that she would be gone a little more than two months later.

It was a constant reminder of a case that had haunted him and, evidently, Helen.

Silently, he took the photo in his hands, his fingers gently tracing the edges. The weight of the past seemed to hang heavy in the air as he looked over at Helen. “She was a bright girl. Full of so many potentials,” he remarked softly, his voice full of empathy.

Helen met his gaze; emotion flickered across it — pain, regret, determination, and maybe a hint of lingering hope.

“Yes, that’s what I was told,” she replied.

“There are so many unanswered questions, so much unfinished business. That’s why I keep these boxes.

Every month I go back through them, hoping that I might find something, you know — something I overlooked. ”

He understood that obsession. His ADHD had plagued him in many areas of life, his work as an investigator not so much. It had given him an advantage. His keen eye for details gave him multiple chances of seeing things that might have been missed.

“I have more back there — on the other girls, but I guess Payton has always stood out as she was the first. The first real case that I never got answers to. It was also the only one with any persons of interest connected to it.”

The case of Payton Scott had left its mark on both of their lives, weaving an intricate web that refused to be forgotten.

A quiet determination filled the room as they sat there amidst the stacks of papers and relics of the past —just two like-minded individuals bouncing questions off each other, hoping for an answer.

Outside, the harsh wind continued to assault the windows, as if trying to match the storm of emotions within them.

It was then she slipped some papers before him. Instantly he recognized it. It was a statement of what happened on that fateful day. “Have you been back there?” she asked.

“No,” he replied. “The Heart Lake Campground is only fifteen minutes south of High Peaks, my father would say. It was the reason why he picked it. He told my mother he could dash back and forth and still do his work. It was the usual excuse.”

Among the many campgrounds dotted throughout the Adirondacks, Heart Lake was a favorite with thousands of people who visited yearly.

It offered everything. The vast shoreline stretched around a shimmering lake for swimming and paddling.

There were also countless trails nestled in the wilderness that surrounded it.

Thirty-two camp sites, sixteen lean-tos, and six canvas cabins.

He knew it well. Those who preferred a more comfortable experience could use one of the rooms inside the lodge on the property.

Like his own family, Payton’s family went there most years because it was cheaper than carting them off to Florida and forking out for expensive hotels.

In time, Jenna Moulton began joining her, though that was a very different case.

When the summer rolled around, her hard-working parents wanted to fly away to international destinations.

After doing that one too many times, Jenna asked if she could stay with Payton’s family. They obliged. It was a win-win.

“Couldn’t have been easy juggling the work of a sheriff and a family,” she said.

“No. I don’t imagine it was. I understand now, but back then, I was just a kid…” Noah trailed off as he re-read the statement he’d given police.

“So you lied?” the cop had asked.

“No. Yes. I mean, we bent the truth. We’d done it before,” Noah replied.

“Skinny dipping?”

He’d nodded.

“And you told her parents that evening that you were taking her to your campsite for s’mores?”

“She was staying in the lodge. Yes. As I said, we had done it a few times that week.”

“On the south side of the lake.”

“That’s right.”

At sixteen, he had no idea what might happen to him. Although his father was the sheriff, he could only assume that not even Hugh could stop the law from tossing his ass in jail if it was found that he was to blame.

“And so you swam, and then what?”

“We got out and…”

“You and Jenna?”

“That’s right.”

“And had you been drinking?”

“No.”

“Smoking pot?”

“A little.”

“Before or after you swam?”

“Before.”

“And you say you saw Payton out of the water and toweling off before you left?”

“Yeah. Look, we wouldn’t have left her back there if she hadn’t told us to go on or if we hadn’t done it several days in a row. There hadn’t been an issue before. She was supposed to come back to the campsite for s’mores but….”

“She never showed up. Did you see or hear anyone else out that night?”

“There were others. Teens, I mean, we could hear. Vehicles driving in and out. Some guy was smoking a cigarette.”

“You have a description of this guy?”

“Yeah.”

He reeled it off. It was vague at best. His recollection wasn’t good. They had taken Jenna aside and asked her the same questions. They’d seen this guy standing beside a blue truck, an older, beat-up pickup with a light bar of two square lights and two round ones.

“And you say you’d seen him before?”

“The night before.”

“So he was a camper?”

Noah shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, there are many people, friends, families, and guests at that place. He could have worked for the lodge.”

“And all this was on the east side.”

“That’s correct.”

“So you didn’t notice anyone else watching?”

“No. Look, it was dark. We saw that guy earlier in the day.”

“I thought you said you saw him that night.”

“Did I?”

The cop read back his words again. Noah was getting confused and anxious. “Listen, trees surround that lake. That’s why we picked the south side. We could still see the campsite. It was in full view through the trees. I figured she would follow a few minutes after us.”

“So you never went back to see why she didn’t show up?”

“Of course we did, but she wasn’t there. All we found was her towel and flip-flops.” He sighed. “I already told the other deputy this. Look, is my father here?”

“He’s been notified. He’s on his way.” Pages flipped in the deputy’s notebook. “And so that was around ten-twenty, you informed her parents.”

He nodded.

“And you say this happened around….”

“Nine fortyish.”

“Why did you wait so long?”

“Because we tried to find her. We didn’t want her to get in trouble.”

“Because you weren’t supposed to be out there.”

He nodded .

“It wasn’t because you or Jenna disagreed with Payton?”

“What?”

“Well, you said...” he flipped his pages. “That she wasn’t in the best mood that night.”

“Right. But that wasn’t because of us. She had some problems at home. She never said what. We never asked.”

“How about you take me through it again from the start?”

Back then, he thought the cop was a moron, but in hindsight, he knew he was looking for holes in his account that would conflict with Jenna’s.

They had separated them and asked the same questions, and then, days later, they pulled them in to form a picture of what the man who’d been watching them looked like.

“This was the original composite they put together from the Identi-Kit, right?” Helen said, sliding what he’d seen so many years ago across the table to him.

A flash of recognition, a moment in the day when they’d seen the guy that Jenna called creepy.

Back then, there was no immediate sketch.

It required selecting eyes, hair, face and facial hair. Noah nodded.

“We ran with that composite and got thousands of leads. We checked known offenders, looking for a blue truck with a light bar on the top that matched the one you described.”

“Were there any persons of interest, people that you were focused on that you felt could be responsible?” Noah asked.

Helen nodded, taking back the suspect composite.

“Three. Caleb Mitchell, a taxi driver in High Peaks, then there was Adrian Lopez, a landscaper who was eventually arrested for abduction, rape, and murder of multiple women in the area; the youngest was fourteen. He was the most promising, owning a blue truck that matched your description. He was operating at the same time when Payton went missing, and had done work at several of the missing girls’ homes.

However, he died of cancer in prison before we could interview him.

His truck gave us nothing. Some in law enforcement still believe it was him, though.

The third was Lucas Blackwood, a camp counselor. ”

The mention of a camp counselor caught his attention, reminding him of Callie’s connection with the missing girls.

“So you knew about the connection?”

“Of course, we didn’t have any evidence besides rumors, and the district attorney wouldn’t drag him into court without a solid case. So we put him under surveillance for months. Nothing came of it. Clean as a whistle. Not even a visit to an adult website.”

“What was the accusation against him?”

“He was a little too friendly with some of the girls. He’d met all the girls at one time or another.”

“He still working at the camp?”

“I believe so. He was a young man when I knew him.”

“You have their details?”

“I’ve got a hell of a lot more than that.

Hold that thought.” She got up and walked out, still talking, her voice rising in volume so he could hear.

“There were a lot of campers that took camcorder video during their stay. We ran IDs and questioned everyone. Let me get the boxes for you. You can take them back. It will take you a while to fish through them.”

The kettle whistled again; its shrill sound cut through the air as Noah prepared for what would become a long night of delving into the depths of the past once more.