Free The Sunset Witness by Gayle Hayes

town and not a place I felt inclined to explore.  I was relieved
to find so many of the services I'd need and had not thought about until I saw
them.
    I'd not return to Hoquarten to see Sarah.  I did not
feel the need to file a missing person report.  It would have been one thing if
I'd not heard from her at all, but she'd responded with an email the day
before.  I thought about her reply.  She thought it was a great idea for me to
drive to Hoquarten instead of her coming to Sunset.  She would be up early
unpacking.  I could get there whenever I wanted.  Possibly, Sarah's email had a
different meaning.  What if she were not in the area at all?  Of course she
would have thought it a great idea for me to go there instead of her driving to
Sunset.  Maybe she would be up early unpacking somewhere else.  It wouldn't
make any difference when I arrived in Hoquarten.  That scenario didn't make any
sense.  Why would she send such a deceptive email?
    I never would have moved to Sunset except Sarah was
going to be close.  My old friends had scattered to various corners of the
world.  Sarah and I remembered the same people, places, and events.  Our
friendship had survived the kind of blows that should have caused its demise. 
Perhaps she would have preferred that it had ended.  I chose to forgive and
forget.  My parents were proof that hate destroys the person who harbors it.
    Still, I felt hurt and confused by the idea that
Sarah might have deceived me again.  There must be another explanation. 
Possibly her email account had been hacked and someone else was responding to
me.  Still, we'd not spoken by phone since I arrived.  She never was very good
about returning phone calls.  I'd been in Sunset for four days.  There should
have been some time when we would have connected.  Possibly, she did not want
to be confronted with my questions or to have her location compromised. 
Perhaps Detective Gannon was right.  Sarah might have been so terrified of the
man she saw in the parking lot that she was in hiding even from me.  I wasn't
comforted by the thought.  Had she put me in danger by luring me to the beach
house to protect herself?
    By the time I arrived in Sunset, I was weary of
thinking about Sarah.  She was probably fine wherever she was, and I was stuck
with the mess she left behind.  The thought triggered painful memories.
    Nate had dreamed of moving to Montana after his
family visited Glacier National Park when we were in high school.  By the time
we graduated, Nate and I'd become inseparable.  We'd applied to the University
of Montana and were accepted.  When we weren't studying or in class, we were
outdoors.  I was never athletic, but Nate and I regularly hiked to the M on the hill above Missoula when we didn't have time to go farther.  On longer
trips, we camped and hiked on trails all over western Montana.
    We were supposed to work in Glacier together during
the summer between our freshman and sophomore years.  Instead, he stayed in
Missoula.  I worked in Glacier as a dining room attendant.  I was never sure
why Nate started drinking too much, but I always wondered if it started after
his nineteenth birthday.
    He seemed all right when I left for Glacier.  I
arranged to switch weekends with another attendant so I could surprise Nate for
his birthday.  I bought his favorite cake at Bernice's Bakery in Missoula.  When
I arrived at the house, he was gone.  The couple we shared the house with was
touring Europe for the summer.  Nate was never taught how to clean up after
himself.  I started cleaning the house and stripped the bed so we would have
fresh sheets while I was there.  Then I realized Nate had been with someone
else.  Even then, I felt partly to blame for spending the summer in Glacier.
    I was packing to leave when he walked in with Sarah. 
He said he'd just picked her up at the airport.  I knew he was lying.  Aside
from her overnight bag, I'd found a small gold cross that