by Ho, Jo
Suddenly the doors crashed open as Gideon thundered through the entrance. Spotting me in the waiting area, he ran to my side. "Where is he?”
The kid was still in his work clothes and hadn’t even bothered to wipe the grease stains from his hands. He must have come straight from the garage when he picked up my message. I shrugged helplessly.
"Still being checked out by the doctors. They haven't told me anything."
Gideon marched straight up to the front desk and demanded to be given a status update on Dad's health. Despite his aggressive stance, the receptionist was calm and comforting, having faced endless desperate and frightened family members before. She fed him the same line she had given me and gestured that he should wait by my side.
Defeated, he came back over and sat down. "What the heck is taking them so long?"
I shook my head, not really wanting to think about what the reasons might be. In my experience as a vet, the faster you knew what the problem was, the less serious it was. Gideon’s eyes searched the area looking for something to focus on until they landed on a vending machine. "You want a drink?" he asked.
"I’m fine, thanks," I replied though the reality was far from the truth. My throat felt dry and thick with mucus from not having drunk anything all day. Sam’s thermos with the coffee was still in the truck untouched though I couldn’t summon up the energy to get it. Despite feeling like I’d spent a week in a desert, I didn't want anything. The only way I would feel any better was to know what was going on with Dad.
The doors ahead of us opened and the doctor who had assisted my dad came over to us. His expression was grave but I couldn't tell anything else by his demeanor.
Gideon and I both jumped to our feet. The doctor, whose name was Dr. Edmund Lyman according to the name badge on his shirt, offered a small smile.
"Your father has received a serious head trauma and is still unconscious. At this point, I can't tell if he will come out of it or not, so, unfortunately, all we can do is wait. All other vital signs are good. It's just the head wound that seems to be the issue. Do either of you know what might have caused it?" he asked.
I shook my head. "No. I was out with my... with Sam, but when I came home, I found him on the ground like that. I have no idea what happened. And Gideon was still at work so he doesn't know either.”
"Zeb was home with one of our dogs, Pixie," Gideon offered. "I left the two of them alone when I went to work."
A puzzling thought occurred to me. “Thinking about it, I didn't see Pixie when I got back. The house was silent, I didn't see her anywhere at all.”
The doctor tried to piece the puzzle together. “If something scared her, she might have run off. We’ll keep a close watch over your father. I’ll let you know if anything changes. Obviously, if you find out any information in the meantime, please call and let me know immediately as it might help solve the mystery of what’s happened to him. Other than that, you might as well go home as there is nothing you can do here."
Gideon and I looked at each other, both of us wanting to argue our reasons to stay, but the Doctor was obviously prepared for this.
"Fella’s, even if you stay, he won’t know you’re here. I suggest you go home, get some rest, and wait for my call."
His tone brokered no argument. Having instructed us, he went to the receptionist to check for messages and then was gone.
"I know he's treating Zeb and all, but I don't care what he says. I'm not going home. Where’re Sam and Chase?”
His innocent question hit me like a knife to the heart. With all that had happened I had forgotten my conversation with Sam this morning, but now her words and actions invaded my head. "Sam and I are taking a break,” I said slowly.
Gideon couldn’t have looked more incredulous. He almost laughed, thinking my words ludicrous until he saw that I was serious. The shock left his face to be replaced by concern.
"This is for real? What the hell happened?"
I shrugged. What could I say when I didn't understand it myself? I bit down on my lip, not trusting myself to speak any further. Seeing that I wasn’t willing to discuss the subject any longer, Gideon dropped his line of questioning and moved to another.
“Does Chase know?”
"No. I need to call her back, actually. She's gone with her mom to some woman's shelter."
Gideon froze at my words. "What are you talking about? She didn’t say anything about that this morning?"
"I gather it's something that only came up today. I was with Sam when she called so I didn't actually speak to her."
Taking out my phone, I dialed Chase’s number. Instead of the ringtone I expected, however, the call went straight to voicemail. There wasn’t even the few seconds delay that would signify bad reception. For the call to go through to voicemail so quickly, it meant only one thing.
The phone was turned off.
An uncomfortable feeling started inside my stomach. Seeing my face, Gideon spoke. "What is it?"
"Her phone’s off."
59
Chase
Darkness surrounded me.
My head felt foggy and my mouth was parched. I felt like I hadn't had a drink in days. I must've had the worst sleep of my life to be feeling like this. My body ached, and I shivered, unexpectedly cold. I reached over to stroke Bandit but instead of his soft fur, my hand touched something cold and damp. It took a few moments for me to realize what it was.
Dirt.
Confused my eyes flicked open. Instead of the ceiling I expected to see, there were a canopy of leaves suspended above me. Beams of light struggled through the dense foliage but they had such a long way to go that the area immediately around me was dark and unwelcoming.
Where the heck was I?
I pushed myself to my knees and looked around me. There was nothing but endless trees as far as my eyes could see. Straining my ears, I listened for sounds of civilization. Voices, a car, anything that would signify I wasn’t a million miles away from people, but there were just the birds screeching over me, and the wind rustling through the bank of trees. This was like a terrifying dream that I hadn’t woken up from.
What was I doing in the middle of a forest?
Where was Bandit?
I tried to call for him, but the words stuck in my throat. I swallowed painfully and tried again. This time I was able to yell out his name although my voice sounded weak and fearful.
There was no response.
I screamed his name, louder this time, more desperate, but still, there was nothing. No answering bark or the joyful sound of him crashing through the forest towards me. Wherever he was, it wasn't here.
I stood up, frantically trying to remember where I had been before I woke up here. I was in a car, wasn’t I? I remembered watching mom drive to the shelter. Bandit was in the backseat and we were both eating breakfast.
The muffins.
It all came suddenly crashing back to me. We were both eating the muffins mom had given us and that was the last thing I remembered. Was there a car crash? Had we been in a crash and I somehow crawled here to safety?
I looked down at myself but couldn't find signs of any injuries and my clothes were undamaged so my theory had to be wrong. Had Mom taken off with Bandit? But she didn't know anything about him. She had no idea he was special, so that made no sense either.
My heart was beating in my chest and I felt hysteria rise up inside me. Where was he?
Suddenly I remembered my phone. I just had to call Sully, and he'd find me. Sam used phones to locate people all the time, I knew that from experience. I reached into my pocket only to find that my phone wasn't there. Growing increasingly desperate, I patted my pockets, but it was no use, my phone was gone.
And then the panic really took hold.
60
Sully
Gideon and I rushed home to the ranch.
We were hoping desperately that when we got there, we’d find Chase and Bandit in the kitchen eating us out of house and home, but only
oppressive silence greeted us. We searched the place but couldn't find signs of them or Pixie. I had drilled into them the importance of being contactable at all times so this vanishing act was a bad sign.
A really bad sign.
I punched in a number on my phone. It ran countless times without being answered. Just as I was beginning to think it never would, Sam's voice came on the line.
"Sully, I don't think we should be talking right now."
Hearing her voice almost broke me but I forced myself to focus, my concern over Chase and Bandit overriding even my own turmoil. "I'm not calling about us. Listen, some things have happened: Dad had an accident, he’s unconscious and in the hospital, and Chase and Bandit are gone."
“Wait, what did you say?” Her concern and confusion radiated down the line.
"I got home after our talk and found Zeb on the floor unconscious. And there’s something else — he had a spy cam in his hand. It looks like he found it under that glass bowl in the living room. I think he was attacked because he found that camera. There's a nasty bump on his head and he hasn't come to yet. I tried calling Chase after I got to the hospital but her phone went straight to voicemail and she knows better than to turn it off.”
“That’s… OK. When did you last hear from her?” Sam asked, her voice suddenly taking on a professional tone as the sheriff in her kicked in.
"Not since this morning when she left. She left me a voicemail which I only picked up after we spoke this morning. She said she'd gone with her mom to a woman's shelter. She wanted to help get her checked in. Her mom said she was going to leave that guy she’s with so I guess Chase thought it was her duty to go with her."
"Duty? Chase doesn't owe her a thing.” Sam said firmly.
"You and I know that, but Chase, despite everything she's been through, she's a sweet girl. She cares about people even when she shouldn't."
"I know, it's one of her best and worst qualities," Sam said immediately concerned. “I’m assuming Bandit is with her?”
“Yeah,” I replied.
“Come to my office, I’ll see what we can do to find her."
"Thanks," I said relieved and grateful for her help.
"Of course," Sam said. “Whatever is happening between us, she's still my family, Sully. You both are."
There was a lump in my throat the size of Texas so I didn't trust myself to answer. I nodded, even though she couldn't see the gesture.
"We’ll be there in ten minutes."
61
Sully
Less than thirty minutes later we were pacing Sam's office.
Brad, her deputy was putting a trace on Chase’s phone. At my appearance, he had given me an apologetic smile, knowing that Sam had found out about my personal request. He even apologized before I shrugged it off. The man hadn’t done a thing wrong, besides we had something much more worrying to contend with right now.
I wasn't sure how the trace worked exactly but it wasn’t anything near as exciting as they made it seem in the movies. The process was long and laborious and as yet we had come up with nothing.
“We’re not getting a read on her phone but that's because it's off. We’ll only be able to get a hit once it's turned back on again. Unfortunately, the last known location was here. We have to wait to see if the trace picks up anything again.”
"I can't believe she's gone off with her, what could she be thinking?" Gideon exclaimed, fury masking his concern. “I knew we shouldn’t have let her into the house that first time. We’re stupid for trusting her!"
"What's done is done, let's not torture ourselves over things we can’t change,” Sam said evenly. “We don’t know that her mom has done anything. There could be a simple solution to this like her phone has run out of charge. Still, I’ve put out an alert, just in case. If she hasn't gone far, we’ll find her."
I couldn't help but hear the disclaimer in her sentence. "If she hasn't gone far?" I looked at the clock then checked my phone for the time of the voicemail message. It was at least six hours since any of us had spoken to Chase. Six hours could give someone quite the head start. “What about that spy cam, can you get anything out of it?”
“I don’t know. I’ve given it to our tech guys. They’ve already explained that it’s an internet IP wireless camera, which basically means that it broadcasts what it sees to an online storage facility. They’re going to see if they can find out where that is. If we can get in, we’ll be able to see what they’ve seen. If we get really lucky and they haven’t decrypted their IP address, we may be able to find them that way.”
“But we’re never lucky though are we? If they’re smart enough to get into our home and wire it up without any of us knowing, they’ve probably got that area covered.” I didn’t like how I was channeling Negative Nancy but the odds seemed so against us.
"What about Bandit?" Gideon said. "What about the tracker you put into him?"
Sam frowned at me. "What tracker?"
"After what happened with Forbes, I put a tracker inside Bandit!" I had completely forgotten about the thing. “Gid, I could kiss you right now!”
He grinned at me, suddenly relieved. “Please, don’t. Just find them that’ll be good enough for me.”
I ran to the computer and called up a website. It was a network that we vets used when we were trying to trace missing animals. It was a little like having a microchip that also functioned in a similar manner to the locate your iPhone facility Apple provided its products. I opened a second window and logged into my email, scrolling through the messages until I came to the one I wanted. When I had put the tracker inside Bandit, I had registered it with this website. As part of the service, the website had emailed me Bandit’s reference number, the one I would need if he ever went missing. I typed in that number now and hit enter.
We waited anxiously as a timer spun around on the screen. Finally, a map loaded with a beeping icon. "That's it!" I said. “That's Bandit!" I hugged Gideon, yelling into his ear. “Well done!”
After our brief celebratory moment, I leaned in closer to see where he was and heard Sam gasp over my shoulder.
"Back there, that's Harrisburg in Pennsylvania. This means he's past it already. That can't be right can it?"
I had no answer for her question. Instead, I listened to Chase’s voicemail again. Paused, then rewound the part where she mentioned the name of the women's shelter.
Without my even asking her, Sam opened another window on the computer, searching for a woman’s shelter in Pinewood, which was just over an hour’s drive from here, but Google returned an error. There was no such place in Pinewood.
The shelter didn't exist, which meant Chase was being lied to.
Sam and I looked at each other horrified.
62
Chase
The facts were undeniable.
I had blacked out only to wake up in the middle of a forest with no dog and no phone. None of that was good news or an accident, and we already knew what I thought of coincidences… While I had no idea how I came to be here like this, I did know one thing — I had to get out of here, I had to find Bandit. My Muttface was likely in danger.
With an aim in place, I scanned the area around me. There really was nothing but trees and leaves and dirt. A hysterical laugh threatened to make its way out before I choked it back down.
No, you will not panic. Get a grip.
Then I saw a dark shape on the ground around ten feet away from me. It was too small to be Bandit — thank God — still, I approached cautiously. I was alone and defenseless so I felt vulnerable; even the least threatening forest creature had the potential to be dangerous if disturbed. When I drew close, I realized it was a bag, the kind you wear over both shoulders. It was navy in color, with a bright orange label that I would have noticed right away if there was a bit more light around it, and there was something else about it that was odd… it looked brand new. I reached for the bag, noticing that it was made of a cheap polyester fabric. It actually reminded me of th
e ones Sully had gotten excited over in the Dollar Store. This thing wasn’t exactly built to last. I pulled open the drawstring holding it closed, then tipped the contents of the bag onto the ground.
A bottle of water fell out, followed by three bargain basement energy bars and a torch. I inspected the side pockets hoping for more, but that was all there was… basic supplies that would only last me a day, possibly two. Looking at items, I came to two immediate conclusions. One, whoever had dumped me out here — and it was clear now that I had been put here on purpose — they didn’t want me to die. And two, let me revise what I had thought just moments ago… Muttface was definitely in danger.
I shoved the items back into the bag and stood up, determined to get out of here so I could find my buddy.
Think Chase, what do you know about navigation?
I turned around slowly until my eyes settled onto a light in the distance. The sun! I could use that to work out my location. It hung low in the sky, which I knew meant I didn’t have long before night fell. I had to get out of this dense forest before it got dark or I would be screwed.
Positioning the sun so that it was directly in front of me, I started walking.
Please, please let me get out of here before it gets dark.
63
Sully
By now it had become clear to us, Chase’s mom had kidnapped them both. I had no doubt in my mind. Though I desperately hoped it was just a case of her wanting Chase back, her disappearance added with the discovery of the spy cam made me suspect that it had something to do with Bandit.
