“When you were a kid?”
She nodded. “What if that’s why someone left me out here? What if I saw something, and even though a three-year-old isn’t a reliable witness, maybe it was still too much of a danger for someone?”
It made sense, though it was hard for him to contemplate someone truly being that evil.
But when Wyatt thought of the voice that had been haunting Elsie, the threat of someone finding her, someone who had always been looking for her...
It fit distressingly well.
“Whoa” was all he could say, ineloquent though it was.
“I know.” Elsie took a deep breath. “What do I do with that? If this is our missing hiker, then I’m no longer needed here. Which means there’s no longer any reason not to tell the Troopers my suspicions. I don’t want them looking into my past, but if it brings her killer to justice...” She shook her head. Her head whipped toward his so fast he was surprised she didn’t actually give herself whiplash. “Is it my fault she’s dead?”
“Surely not. No. Even if it has anything to do with you, the killer made the choice, not you, Elsie.”
She seemed to be considering, sitting there quietly with Willow beside her.
“Wyatt?”
“Yeah?”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Sure. Anything,” he said, meaning it.
After what she’d just shared, after the way she’d finally fully accepted his help despite how hard it had seemed for her, he wanted to give some of that trust back.
“You said you’d changed since high school, and I was just wondering why.”
“It has to do with God.”
“Okay.”
“You didn’t seem too enthusiastic to talk about Him earlier, so I didn’t want you caught off guard.”
“I wouldn’t ask you to change your story to make me comfortable. My story certainly makes some people uncomfortable, but you haven’t walked away from that yet. From me.”
“So in college I was flunking out. I was still the guy you knew back then...”
“Lots of interested girls?”
“Yeah, that.” That was one way to put it. “A lot of people called me a player. That wasn’t really right, though. I’d stay with a girl while it was fun and easy, but as soon as the relationship got deeper or difficult, I’d bolt. Dysfunctional is probably a better word than player.” He sighed. This was nothing to be proud of, and it was hard to talk about now. Embarrassing. But Elsie deserved to know all of him. “And I was drinking too much, too. One morning in my midtwenties, after years of partying too hard, I woke up with a headache, like usual, in someone else’s room, and I barely recognized the girl when I woke up. It’s like something just clicked then, like God finally got my attention. I realized I didn’t want to live like that. It was so meaningless, all of it. I’d been taught that God had a purpose for my life and I decided I wanted to find that and that it wasn’t one woman after another and alcohol. So I quit all of that. I went back to school and got my degree, then moved back home to fly for people like the Troopers. I may start a flight-seeing business one day, show people around the state, but right now I like feeling like I can help people while using the skills I have.”
“Like me.” Elsie smiled, and he could see it, even in the dark. The moon fell on her face, illuminating them a little. Wyatt hoped the trees hid them enough from anyone walking by.
“Yeah. I’m not sure how much I’ve been able to help...”
“Plenty.” She cut him off. “I can’t imagine being here alone.”
“In the woods or on this island?”
“This island.” She went quiet for a minute, and Wyatt didn’t know what she was thinking. He did notice the way she was still beautiful under all this stress.
“So...when God gives someone a second chance like that...”
“I like how you put that,” he broke in, and she smiled.
“Thanks. When God does that, is it like half a chance, though?”
“What do you mean?”
“Like he doesn’t totally forgive you, right?”
“He does. The Bible is really clear that when we ask for forgiveness, He gives it to us.”
“So you have an entirely fresh start.”
“Yeah.”
She was frowning. “You don’t act like you believe it, though.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know. You just don’t seem to act like someone who knows it’s all been erased.”
“I believe it.” Even as he said the words, though, Wyatt understood why she wouldn’t have known his beliefs by his actions. “You don’t believe forgiveness is possible?”
“I don’t know what I believe. You and Lindsay make faith seem so real. Lindsay always has, and listening to you talk now, it’d be ridiculous not to think that sounds appealing. But ever since you told me you’d changed... I don’t know. You seem so careful now. Are you sure you know God has forgiven you?”
