Target on the Mountain by Elizabeth Goddard (the chimp paradox .txt) 📕

“What?” She hadn’t realized she’d made her decision yet until this moment. “I can’t go back, Dad. I can’t go back to work on investigating other crimes when my mind will always be on finding Sarah’s killer. Don’t you want justice for her?”

“Ryan can give us that, Tori,” Mom said. “You should trust him.”

“I do trust him.” She rubbed her arms. But apparently not as much as her parents did. What was the matter with her anyway?

Dad approached and hugged her again. He released her and gripped her shoulders to level his gaze at her. “Mom and I will come to stay out there in South Carolina with you. We’ll do anything we need to do.”

They were overreacting, but could she really blame them? They were terrified for her, and she hated doing this to them.

Mom tugged tissues from a box on a side table. “We considered moving even before yesterday. There are just too many memories here. I don’t know if I can stand it. We could move to be close to you.”

A lump grew in Tori’s throat. “But you don’t have to move to be close to me. I’m here. And you don’t want the person who took Sarah from us to scare us away. Sarah wouldn’t want you to leave one of the most beautiful and amazing places in the world because you don’t want to be reminded of her.” The words sounded more cruel than she’d intended.

But I moved away from the most beautiful place... And people who loved me. A man who loved me.

Mom’s eyes teared up again. “Please, just consider it.”

She nodded. “Okay. I promise I will.” That was the least she could do.

Tori turned and hurried back to the bedroom. She fell onto the bed.

“God, what am I going to do?” They’re going to drive me up the wall.

When all was quiet in the house, she snuck out of her room to snag another cup of coffee. Dad had made another pot and left her mug out for her, knowing her too well. She hurried back to the bedroom and set her laptop up on the desk. Working to figure this out was the only way to move past the grief.

She waited for her laptop to boot up. If she’d needed more confirmation that Sarah had been the main target, she’d just gotten it with the break-in at Sarah’s home. After the attempt on her life on the river, she hadn’t needed the confirmation, but she was glad Ryan now seemed convinced.

She realized now the burglar hadn’t entered the home and waited for her return in order to kill her, the way the shooter on the river had. No. She’d stumbled upon a simple break-in. That left her confused about what was going on. But she feared that whoever had been searching the house might have gotten what they’d been looking for. If so, she wouldn’t have that clue to know what had gotten Sarah killed.

Her laptop booted up, Tori pulled up the emails she’d received from Sarah. She never deleted an email, for which she was now grateful. She started reading as far back as she could retrieve the emails. Distance hadn’t diminished Sarah’s relationship with Tori, but Tori’s job had prevented her from being as engaged as she should have been with her family.

Tears burned down her cheeks and she accepted they wouldn’t be the last, as she continued to read, searching for that one email that could possibly give her a clue.

Her cell rang. Ryan. Her heart warmed with the thought of him—which aggravated her. She needed to stay focused on the case, not get distracted by an old flame. Still battling annoyance with herself, she answered, “What have you found?”

He snorted. “Can we back up to hello or hi or how are you?”

“Why waste time?” She leaned her forehead against her hand. “I’m sorry. Hi, Ryan. How are you?”

“That’s more like it. Rough morning?”

“You could say that.” She kept what had happened with her parents and their suggestion of moving to South Carolina to herself. “So, was this just a friendly call to check on me?”

She hoped not, though at the same time, she liked the idea.

“Yes and no. Now that I’ve checked on you, I have some news. First, your dad called me and asked me to keep the bungalow under crime-scene lockdown.”

Dad! She sucked in a breath. “What?”

“He doesn’t want you moving back there. I can’t blame him. I advised you against it.”

“So when do you think I can move back in?”

He exhaled loudly. “It’s ready now. The crime scene techs worked late into the night and finished up this morning.”

“I’m so glad. Did they find anything?”

“Time will tell, Tori. Please be patient. You know these things take a while.”

“Right. Okay. Thanks for letting me know. And thanks for releasing the crime scene. I’m going to move back to the bungalow. I need to be in town for Mom and Dad, be accessible to them, but living with them is...hard.”

“I understand.”

Ryan had three siblings and they, along with his parents, lived in the Mount Shasta region. Close enough to be together for important events, eat Sunday dinner or hang out, but not too close.

“It’s worse now because they’re smothering me.” Tori squeezed her eyes shut. She hadn’t meant to reveal so much of what was going on.

“Honestly, Tori, I don’t blame them.” The tone in his voice made her think he would like to do the same. But she must be hearing things.

“Thanks for calling to let me know.”

“Wait, don’t hang up yet,” he said.

“Is there something else you want to tell me?”

“Yes. I’m standing at the front door.”

After ending the call, Ryan stood at the front door waiting. He didn’t want to knock or ring the bell and disturb her mother and father, especially after what Tori had just told him. Plus, they would ask questions for which he had no answers. Tori might do