The next evening, Dana visited his father’s workplace where he was serving his second day as chief deputy. The sheriff wasn’t in and Dana’s father was working alone for the evening.

“Hey, Dad.” Dana said as he sat the bag of powdered donuts on the desk. They were from the local diner, and while they weren’t as good as the ones Mom used to make, they were passable. “Donuts for my favorite cop.”

“If I didn’t love these so much, I’d say you were trying to make a statement.” His father said as he looked up from the paperwork on his desk. “An unflattering one at that.”

Dana lifted his hands in a wry shrug. “I can’t help it if you're a walking cliché.”

His father chuckled. “Well, as much as I’m going to ruin my dinner over a long night of paperwork, you and Kalen still need a decent meal. What do you say to a pizza or Chinese takeout?”

Dana snorted. A decent meal, indeed. “Do they even have a Chinese restaurant around here? Or would I have to drive over three hours to the big city to get it?”

“Point taken.” His father grinned. “Pizza, it is, then. Save a slice or two for me?”

“Sure thing.” Dana said as he stepped over to a rather large tack board covered with missing persons flyers. “Provided Kalen doesn’t take my fingers off when I try to commandeer the last couple of pieces.”

Dana paused as he took a moment to peruse the tack board full of missing persons posters. He noticed the majority in the region were Métis people, especially young Métis men.

Dana thought back to last night, that boy’s frightened expression as he looked up at Dana… Dana tried to force the memory away when he began to recall the moment the young man stopped breathing, but the image was seared into his brain.

“A lot of these are Métis.” Dana commented. He made a brisk gesture toward the tack board.

His father nodded in agreement. “There does seem to be a lot in the region, though I find it strange that no bodies ever turn up even when they go missing during the dead of winter and the ground is frozen.” Dana knew his father meant that if it was the work of a serial killer, then frozen ground would make it all the more difficult to bury a body.

His father was silent for a moment, then he pulled his keys from his pocket and laid them on the desk. “Be careful heading home, okay kid? There’s no need for you to wait for your old man. Take the Rover and I’ll drive the patrol Jeep home tonight.”

Dana almost cracked. It was only a matter of time before the Métis kid’s body was discovered. He needed to tell him. Should have already told him…

But Dana’s tongue refused to form the words that he so needed to get out, so he gave up on it with the internal promise to himself that he would find a way to fess up tonight after his Dad got home. He’d rewarm the pizza for him and tell him then. Or better yet, scratch the nuked pepperoni and mushrooms. He’d cook tonight. It would be a much needed distraction while he waited for his dad to get home.

“Of course, that means you’ll have to pick up the brat from basketball practice.” His dad said with a grin as he opened the paper bag and pulled out a donut.

Dana chuckled. “I think that’s a fair trade.”

Dana headed toward the door. “I’ll see you at home, kay?”

“Sure kid.”

Dana left the precinct and headed to the store. He felt guilty about last night. The sneaking out, of course, but mostly what he’d gotten himself into. He wished he’d never met Greg Bronson and his friends. Wished he’d never talked to them. He felt like such a fool.

Instead of pizza, he purchased the necessary ingredients for spaghetti and meatballs, something his father and Kalen both loved to eat. It was something Mom often cooked and it was fairly easy to reheat.

It was dark by the time he paid for his purchases and left the store. As he headed out to the Rover, he checked the time on his phone. Twenty minutes until time to pick up Kalen from basketball practice.

Dana laid the phone on the dashboard of the Rover and then proceeded to load the groceries into the backseat. The air came out of his lungs in bursts of smoke. He felt the chill on his face like pinpricks.

Suddenly, Dana heard something in the wooded area lining the far side of the parking lot, a cracking sound that bore a suspicious resemblance to the sound of someone or something stepping on dry twigs. His gaze darted in the direction of the sound as it came again. He scanned the outskirts of the parking lot, but couldn’t make out any sort of movement.

He was second-guessing his decision to park on the edge of the wooded area of the parking lot as he tossed the last of the bags into the backseat and slammed the door shut. He moved to the driver’s side front door and pulled the handle.

No sooner had he opened the door than someone grabbed him from behind. He flailed his arms wildly and started to scream out, but a hand clamped over his mouth, stifling any sort of sound he attempted to make. He registered a pungently sweet scent that burned his nostrils and felt himself falling into a dark abyss. He clung to the last vestiges of awareness, only vaguely registering he was being dragged backwards, toward the tree-lined edge of the dark forest.

His head was forced backwards as he tried to fight against his captor’s strong embrace. Fatigue quickly weighted his limbs, making it impossible to fight, much less move them. His sneakers scraped uselessly against the frozen pavement. They were useless shoes in this type of weather, offering little traction even in just the short walk to and from the store. His dad was going to take him and Kalen to get better shoes later in the week.

He blinked his eyes, trying to fight against the need to close them. The last thing he saw was the eerie beauty of pristine snow falling from a cold black sky.