Miles Lindgren's Arc

Chapter 11 of 13

Chase pulled the camera bag over his shoulder before Miles had even reached for it. "I'll take point on this one." Miles paused, halfway into his coat. "You're deciding that now?" "You've had a rough morning. Figured I'd take this one." Chase said it easily, already moving toward the door. "Makes sense, right?" Miles didn't answer right away. "Fine," he said instead, grabbing the tripod from the trunk. David came out onto the porch at the sound of the car, grin sliding easy into place, genuinely pleased to see them. "Back already? Don't even get a lunch break between visits anymore." "Got a few follow-up questions." Chase kept his tone light. "Mind if we get this on tape?" "Sure. Whatever you need." David leaned against the porch railing, relaxed, hands in his jacket pockets. Miles set the tripod up near the steps instead of taking the camera himself, angling it wide enough to catch all three of them. Chase glanced at the setup, then at him, something flickering across his face before he let it go and turned back to David. "We pulled some records," Chase said, once the light blinked red. "Hunting and poaching citations near the ice-cutting operation, that week Dani disappeared. Came up empty." "Figured it might." David shrugged, still easy. "Told you I couldn't remember much." "We found something else, though." Chase pulled the folded citation from his jacket, unfolding it slow. "Trespassing. Posted property. Same week." David's posture shifted, just slightly, the easy lean off the railing straightening. "Yeah?" "Your name's on it." David went quiet a beat, something genuinely caught off guard flickering across his face before he covered it. "That's, yeah. That's mine." He cleared his throat. "Forgot that was even still on file." "You told us you didn't have a reason to be out there that week," Miles said. Chase's eyes cut toward him, quick, surprised at the interruption. Miles didn't look away from David. "I mean, I forgot about it, honestly." David rubbed the back of his neck, still trying for casual, though something tighter had crept into his voice. "Old citation. Wasn't exactly top of mind." "Three days before Dani disappeared." Chase's voice came fast, folding back into the lead. "That's a tight window." "Coincidence." David's shrug had gone stiffer now, less convincing. "This town's small. Everybody's out in those woods eventually." "On posted property? Specifically?" Miles pressed, before Chase could soften the question. David's jaw ticked. "I used to go out there sometimes. Just to get away from things. Didn't think it was a big deal." "We know Dani was out there too, that same week," Miles said. "Somebody mentioned a car parked near the tree line." Chase's jaw tightened, though he stayed quiet, letting it play out. Something shifted hard behind David's eyes, every trace of ease gone from his face now. "I don't know anything about a car." "You sure?" "I said I don't know." His voice sharpened, real edge in it now. "I told you I went out there sometimes. Doesn't mean I saw her. Doesn't mean I saw anybody." "We're just trying to get an accurate timeline," Chase said, stepping back in, calmer, though the calm itself felt like a correction aimed as much at Miles as at David. Miles caught it, felt something small and irritated flare in his chest, and said nothing, jaw tight. David didn't answer right away, arms crossing now, gaze fixed somewhere past both of them, toward the tree line. "I don't have anything else for you," he said finally, clipped. "I got cited. That's the whole thing." "Okay." Chase folded the citation back up. "Look." David exhaled hard, some genuine frustration breaking through now. "I don't know what you think you're going to find, digging around in something this old. It doesn't mean what you want it to mean." "We're not trying to make you the villain," Miles said, before Chase had the chance. Chase's mouth pressed into a thin line, saying nothing, though Miles felt the silence land pointed anyway. Something moved behind David's eyes, fast, there and gone, his mouth opening slightly like he might say something real before he caught himself and shut it again. "I've told you what I know," he said. "You two should head out. Got work to do." Neither of them pushed further. Miles broke down the tripod without a word, and they thanked David for his time, the words landing hollow between all three of them. David didn't walk them back to the car this time. Once inside, Chase started the engine before either of them spoke. "You jumped in a lot back there." "You kept smoothing everything over the second it got real." Miles kept his eyes forward. "I had questions too." "I wasn't trying to shut you out." "Didn't feel like that from where I was standing." "Well, maybe next time you could actually say something instead of just glaring at me through half the interview." Chase's voice had an edge now, sharper than it had been in days. "I made a call. I thought it was the right one. I'm sorry it wasn't, but I'm allowed to make a decision without you deciding it's some big offense." Miles turned to look at him properly. "It's not one decision, Chase. It's every decision. All week. Deciding what we're posting, deciding who talks to a source first, deciding I need a day off before I've even said a word about it." "Because every time I ask, you say fine, and then I find out three hours later it wasn't actually fine, so forgive me for trying to save us both the trouble." Chase's grip tightened on the wheel. "I don't know what else I'm supposed to do here, Miles. I've tried backing off. I've tried stepping in. Neither one's landed right, and I'm running out of versions of myself to try." "That's not fair." "None of this has been fair in two years, and I'm tired of being the only one who seems to notice that." His voice climbed, real heat in it now, something that had clearly been sitting coiled for longer than this one afternoon. "You want me to stop making decisions for you? Fine. I'll stop. I'll stop trying to make any of this easier, since apparently the only acceptable version of me reads your mind perfectly every single—" He cut himself off hard, jaw clenching, both hands white-knuckled on the wheel. The silence that followed felt loud. "Forget it," he said finally, quieter, all the heat draining back out of his voice as fast as it had come. "Forget I said any of that." "Chase—" "It's fine." He pulled out onto the road, eyes fixed straight ahead. "You're going to be mad either way. Doesn't matter what I do." Miles sat with that a long moment, something heavy settling in his chest that had nothing to do with David or the citation at all. He looked out his own window instead, and the two of them drove the rest of the way back in a silence that felt heavier than any of the ones that came before it.