False Step

by Victoria Helen Stone

live view of a narrow road overhung with lodgepole pines. The swirling lights of police cars flashed against the green. A button-nosed reporter gestured somewhere to her left, but the police had cordoned off the area, and the cameras couldn’t get closer. More trees filled the screen. More lights. The producer ran the footage of Johnny again. Veronica felt frozen, her hands and feet going numb. Johnny—her Johnny, for better or worse—had found little Tanner Holcomb and would return him to his family. Johnny hadn’t even been part of the search. He’d just gone out for one of his normal hikes, same as he did once or twice every week when there wasn’t snow on the ground. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Lee,” she murmured. “I think I’d better go.” “Of course!” Mrs. Lee agreed. “Of course you’d better go.” But why? Veronica wasn’t sure. She just knew that her body was shifting from cold to hot, and she could feel a dozen eyes on her face. Mrs. Lee made a shooing motion. “Go to your husband. I can do these