McDade saw a face at the door’s window, and then a hand beckoning her and Noble. They left Fletcher sitting alone in the room, and stepped into the hall, where FBI agent Greg Rayner was scrolling through his tablet.

“Seaver’s camper isn’t the same make as the one in the video. And Seaver’s credit card records confirm he was in Berlin, New Hampshire, at the time Samantha Moore disappeared.”

Rayner showed them the records.

“He was at a casino, and look. The security team there provided footage from the cameras for that time.”

Rayner tapped a video file and played footage at an accelerated speed showing Fletcher Seaver sitting at slot machines.

“Berlin’s ninety minutes away from Spiritsburg, so Seaver couldn’t be involved,” Rayner said, looking at his colleagues. “It rules him out.”

Noble and McDade exchanged glances.

“We’ll have to release him,” Noble said.

CHAPTER 48

Northeast Kingdom, Vermont

Sam’s eyelids fluttered open to darkness.

A whistling wheezing sounded as she battled to breathe.

She tried to move, but couldn’t.

She was immobilized.

She rasped, and her chest issued an alarming tingling. Pain shot through every fiber and nerve. Unrelenting pressure on her entire body limited the expansion of her lungs.

Asphyxia.

I’m suffocating.

She remembered the rockslide—burying her, pinning her, stealing every breath. She didn’t know how long she’d been in and out of consciousness; she was thirsty, hungry, and had to pee. But none of it mattered.

I’m being crushed to death.

Lying facedown, her arms outstretched, she was encased in stones.

Again, she tried to move.

It was useless. She was entombed.

I’m going to die here.

Tears rolled down her skin.

Will it be like going to sleep? Will another person find my bones?

Sam thought of Kevin, then her Aunt Lori and Uncle Mac. She thought of her friends, and the life she’d lived, and the life she’d dreamed of. Trying not to sob, she sent them love and good-byes. She tried to remember her father’s smile when she was three, as he tossed her high into the air before catching her, making her feel like she was flying. “You’re my little angel,” he’d tell her. “Flying to heaven and back to me.”

Her mother’s face came to her.

Her mother was so beautiful, so loving, and so brave. Fighting her cancer with everything she had, never surrendering.

Never giving up.

Mom.

Fighting.

Fight.

Mom wouldn’t want me to give up.

In the darkness, in this would-be coffin, Sam could hear her mother’s voice.

Don’t give up! Fight! Fight for your life!

She would fight.

I’m still alive. I’ll fight.

She had to save herself.

Concentrating, she tensed.

Oh God!