by Sara L Foust
He exaggerated his doubled-over panting, earning a genuine laugh. At least she was laughing. His upside-down-bug-like movements coming up the hill were worth it.
She grabbed his hand and dragged him along. “Look.”
A sagging green-sided tent, two camp chairs, and a makeshift fire ring sat in the middle of a slight depression.
“This is pretty far outside the markers for the campsite.”
“Yep.”
His mind raced. This could be the clue he needed.
“We need to check registered campers. Of course, if these people were willing to camp outside the regulated perimeter, they probably didn’t register their hiking plans either. But it’s worth a shot.”
“Good idea.” He knelt to inspect the fire ring. Cool, rain-soaked ashes. So it hadn’t been used since before the storm. He used a stick to dig through the pile but found nothing noteworthy. No slips of paper or receipts.
“Take a look at this.”
Annalise held the door flap open for him to peer inside. One sleeping mat, one pillow. One pair of boots that smelled horrible. And broken glass scattered everywhere. Odd. Something had happened here. Whether it was accident or foul play, he couldn’t say with certainty yet.
The wind kicked up, fluttering the sides of the tent and causing the sunlight to change. When it settled, a point of light beamed through a finger-sized hole in the back wall. “Hey, Annalise.”
“Yeah?”
“Go around back for a second, please.”
Her footsteps crunched around the edge of the tent.
“See what I see?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah. Bullet hole?”
“Certainly the right size.”
“I’ll see if I can find anything in the trees back here.”
Zach took photos with his phone. The sun inside the tent shifted again, glinting off the glass scattered on the floor. What happened here? He used a pair of gloves to lift several pieces coated with dried red and slipped them into a baggy. He didn’t like to make assumptions, but it seemed a fairly safe bet it was blood.
Under the edge of the sleeping mat, he extracted several pieces of cracked corn. Why on earth would someone hike with cracked corn? Unless he had a poacher on his hands. Maybe the dead man had sneaked back here in order to set up deer baits. Or bear.
But how had that gotten him killed?
And why was there no sleeping bag? Not even a blanket.
Annalise returned and hovered at the opening of the tent. “Nothing.”
He turned and smiled. “Okay, thanks for checking.” The sun framed Annalise’s already golden head, setting her aglow. His breath caught. Wow. His best friend was gorgeous.
“What?”
“Nothin’.”
“Quit being weird, Zach.” Annalise disappeared.
He chuckled. But maybe it wasn’t so funny. She was a married woman, his soon-to-be teammate, and his longest and dearest friend. The strange new thoughts weren’t coming from a place of attraction, but rather concern and platonic love. They had to be. She was like a little sister. An annoying little sister. He nodded, closing the door and dead-bolting it on those thoughts.
On the way out, they stopped at the closest ranger station and requested a printout of all recent backcountry campers. Annalise headed for home, and he headed for the Gatlinburg Police Station. Until the new SMIF—
He chuckled. SMIF, terrible acronym
—headquarters was prepared, he needed a place to run these names.
“Hello, sir,” he greeted his prior captain. “Do you mind if I use a computer?”
“Sure, Leebow. Just close it down when you finish and lock the door when you leave. The night crew is out on patrol.”
“Thank you, sir.”
With a bag of honey-roasted peanuts and a Mountain Dew, he dove into the long list of names. They’d given him every backcountry camper in the park, but he started with the ones specifically listed near the Little Pigeon. He cut the names by approximately thirty percent by simply marking off all the definitely female names.
But two hours later, he’d run all the names, even the ones from parts of the park nowhere near the Little Pigeon, and come up empty. None of the driver’s license photos matched their dead man. And he was back to square one.
Chapter Ten
ANNALISE’S EYELIDS fluttered open to a dark room. She rolled over and squinted. The sky was still black too. What time was it? And why was she awake?
Dave wasn’t in bed. And his side was cold.
Where on earth was he? She held her breath and listened. His deep voice muttered through the walls from the direction of the kitchen.
With her throat so tight she could scarcely breathe, she slipped on her robe and crept down the hallway, pausing just outside the kitchen.
“I have to go. I’ll see you soon.” His voice was low, intentionally quiet, as if he tried not to wake her.
Silence spanned for more than a minute, then the sounds of water running and the smell of coffee brewing met her. She sighed and rolled her eyes. Of course he was trying to be quiet, it was early. He wasn’t sneaking, just being respectful.
“Morning, hon,” she said as she stepped through the doorway.
Dave dropped the coffee creamer, spilling its milky contents over a large section of the green and gray tile. “Sheesh, you scared the daylights out of me.”
“No daylights yet.” She grinned.
He looked up with a frown on his face. “Huh?”
“It’s dark. No day lights.”
“Oh.”
Well, that joke could only have fallen flatter if it were actually part of the floor. “What’s up?”
“Huh?”
“Why are you up so early?”
“Oh, um, got to get to a work site that is quite a drive away. Out toward Gatlinburg.”
She sighed. There really was a job. Thank you, Lord! “Maybe you’ll run into Zach.” As soon as the words left her mouth, she wished she could grab them and cram them back in.
Dave sent her a look she wasn’t used to seeing on his face.
So, he was still upset about the other day. But why? “You know he and I are just friends. Right? Like we always have been?”
“Yeah.” He shrugged.
“Want to ride together?”
“No.”
She raised her eyebrow.
“Sorry. It’s just I have to take the work truck so I have my tools and equipment and stuff.”
A heavy, burning sensation stirred to life in her stomach. He’d answered so quickly. “Oh, right. Of course.”
She grabbed a wet rag, then stooped to help him sop up the mess. “We never had that talk, you know.”
He didn’t turn toward her.
She took a deep breath. “I have a job offer.”
His face flushed a darker shade.
“In the Gatlinburg area, actually.” She giggled nervously.
“With Zach?”
She hesitated.
“Of course it is.”
“Dave.” She reached for his arm, but he pulled it from her grasp. “What’s really going on? You’ve never had any issues with Zach before. Why all of a sudden now?”
He scrubbed the already-cleaned floor a bit harder.
“Are we...are we okay?” She wasn’t ready for his answer.
He opened his mouth, closed it again. Then pressed his lips together.
Her phone rang. Oh, perfect timing. “I love you, Dave.” She didn’t wait to see if he answered this time. Instead she swiped at a tear and answered, leaving him alone in the kitchen.
“We need you to come in, Annalise.” Her captain’s grainy voice sounded heavy with fatigue, like he hadn’t had his first pot of coffee yet.
“Yes, sir. What’s wrong?”
“We have a missing teen.”
Her heart sank. One of their town kids was missing? How? “Who?”
He ruffled through papers. “Cody Moss.”
No! She placed a hand
over her heart, willing it to keep working properly. “Runaway?”
“We don’t believe so.” He sighed, and Annalise could picture his stout fingers rubbing the furrowed brow, the frown on his face. The genuine concern for one of his citizens.
“Just come in, Baker. I’ll explain everything.”
Poor Cody! Poor Ms. Moss! Maybe it wasn’t as bad as it seemed. Cody was rebelling, angry that his father had left. Surely he was just out late protesting his punishment from Coach Huntley. Her hands shook as she strapped her utility belt around her waist.
Dave was gone when she entered the kitchen to tell him goodbye. Lord, I don’t know what to do. With any of this.
Had she remembered to pray about the situation with Dave yet? Sorry, Lord. I always do that, don’t I? Rushing ahead and not waiting for instructions. Trying to fix everything before she needed Him to intervene. If she could find the answers, she wouldn’t have to bother Him.
Maybe the whole thing with Cody would be one of those resolved-by-lunch, found-him-smoking-in-the-school-yard kind of problems.
The sun pierced the sky in a shaft of brilliant red as she pulled into the station. Every light shone. Every officer’s squad car waited in the open bay or drive. A canine officer whipped in behind her. Oh, no. That wasn’t a promising sign.
She entered the station and found her fellow officers huddled in the bay, Captain Brooks on the phone nearby, and a table with fresh coffee and bagels. They must have been planning for a long morning. Not a good sign either.
“Baker, good. I see you were the one who ran the call for vandalism involving the missing boy. Can you tell us anything about him?”
Annalise cleared her throat as the room grew quiet. “He seemed like a sweet kid, but he was troubled. His dad left sometime last year, and it seemed to have hit Cody hard.”
“Do you think he could have run away?”
She bit her cheek and released it. “It’s a possibility, yes.”
“All right. Hopefully the dogs will give us a good lead, then.”
She stepped to the back of the group and waited for instructions. Cody was missing. Missing. The boy she’d gotten frustrated with over being a kid. How could she have called him snotty? Granted, it was in her head. But still.
They were going to find him. He had simply snuck out again and not come back before his mom noticed. Simple. He was probably out throwing toilet paper over more trees and lost track of time.
“Captain?”
“Yes, Officer Baker?”
“We may need to check houses that have any evidence of toilet papering in the yard. That seems to be Cody’s and his friend’s MO.”
Some of the men chuckled.
“Good idea. Brown and Stinson. Patrol the town and look for TPd trees. Annalise, you go to Cody’s house and speak with his mother. Start processing the scene.”
Scene? Was there something he wasn’t telling her?
“It could still be a runaway, and we need to cover all bases, but...well, you’ll see for yourself when you get there.”
Annalise nodded. That couldn’t be good either.
“The canine team will be there momentarily.”
Lord, please don’t let us need them. Have Cody show up by the time I get there.
CODY WANTED TO SCREAM, but fear trapped his voice. If it wasn’t so dark, he wouldn’t be so scared. If he could just see that no one was standing in front of him with a gun or knife, ready to plunge it into his throat, he could breathe again. If he could just sit up and stretch out, make sure he wasn’t buried alive, he could stop the pounding of his heart. He squirmed. It was pointless. His shoulder sockets screamed for him, his nerve endings and brain the only recipients of their pain. Where was he? Why was it so hard to move?
His mother would know by now that he wasn’t in his room. Wouldn’t she? It had been hours since his abduction. Hadn’t it?
His mother. She’d be worried sick. He had to get home and tell her he was okay. A tear wetted his face, sliding down his cheek and plopping somewhere into the darkness.
How long could a person go in total black before they went blind? He remembered hearing about it when they went to The Lost Sea. He was, what, seven years old? His dad had bought him that sack of dirt and let him find all the gemstones in the fake mine washing station thingy. And then ice cream at the Mayfield farm. His mom and dad had laughed and smiled and treated him like he was the best thing in the world. His dad...
Would they call him too?
What if they thought he’d run away? It could take them days to even begin a search, and by then, who knew what would be left of Cody Moss, the dork afraid of the dark and shadows.
Chapter Eleven
CELINE MOSS HUGGED her knees and rocked on the front steps of her house when Annalise approached. The officer that had been waiting with her scooched to the curb and nodded at her. The look on his face said he was happy to put some distance between himself and the panicked mother.
“Ms. Moss?”
She turned reddened, tear-filled eyes toward Annalise. “Officer Baker. Oh, I’m so glad to see you.” Celine rushed her and wrapped her arms around Annalise’s waist. “You have to find my boy. You have to...”
Annalise gently backed away with her heart in her throat. “We are going to do our best.” The words were almost too large for her to squeak out. “I need you to tell me everything you know.”
“I...I don’t know anything. That’s the problem.” Celine melted into a sobbing puddle on the top step again.
“When did you first notice Cody was missing?”
“I went to tell him I was leaving for work, around four a.m., like I always do when I work mornings. And his bed was empty.” She hiccupped. “At first I thought he had snuck out again. But I called everyone. I mean everyone. And no one has seen him.”
“Is there a chance Cody ran away?”
Celine shook her head. “Well, yes. He has been such a mess since his dad left. I have too, really. But no, not this time.”
“Why not, ma’am?”
“Come on. I’ll show you.”
Her feet felt heavy as she followed Cody’s mom inside and up the stairs. Celine pushed open the bedroom door and motioned for Annalise to step through.
“Your captain said he’d have the forensics—” Celine clamped a hand to her mouth.
Annalise put a gentle hand on Celine’s shoulder. She urged her voice to be soothing. “I’m sorry, I can’t imagine how difficult this must be for you. I need to take a look around. Okay?”
Celine nodded.
“Why don’t you go downstairs and make a cup of tea?” Annalise patted Celine’s trembling shoulder.
“Okay.”
Annalise took in the scope of the damage to the room. There had no doubt been a struggle. By the looks of it, Cody had at least put up a good fight. A pre-algebra textbook lay open on the floor. A shade-less lamp toppled over the edge of the desk. And a pane in the window had been busted, with the glass shards splayed toward the inside. Cody hadn’t broken out. Someone had broken in.
She knelt over the pieces, noticing a few droplets of blood. If they were lucky, the kidnapper had cut himself and they’d be able to get DNA. If they were really, really lucky, the DNA would match someone already in the system. After she finished taking Ms. Moss’s statement, she would get the evidence kit from her car and get busy.
She returned to the kitchen and took the hot mug Celine offered. “Thank you. I hate to ask, but I have a few more questions. If you can, it would be very helpful. As I’m sure you know, at times like this, time is of the essence.”
Celine sank onto a barstool, staring at the cup in her hand.
“Is Cody’s dad a custodial parent?”
“Humph. Supposed to be.”
“Have you notified him of the situation?”
“Not yet. I mean, I tried, but he didn’t answer. He, um, he doesn’t usually answer when I call. Probably afraid the new wife will be suspicious of who is on the phon
e.” She let out a hoarse chuckle. “You know he hasn’t checked on Cody in over a month?”
“I’m sorry to hear that, ma’am. If you would like for us to continue to try to reach him, we will need his contact information.” It was worded as a request, but if Celine didn’t willingly provide the number, Annalise would have to find it and contact him, no matter what. “Can you think of any reason someone would do this?”
“No. Neither Brian nor I have anything much of value. No big bank accounts or anything.”
“It sounds horrible, but hopefully we will get a ransom call. Then there will be motivation and a way to make contact with the kidnapper. You need to stay next to the phone. We will have an officer here and set up equipment to record any calls you may receive.” Annalise made some notes on her pad. “But do not step foot in Cody’s room until I finish collecting evidence. Please.”
Tears pooled in the corners of Celine’s eyes, but she managed to nod.
“The struggle must’ve been pretty loud. Why didn’t you hear it?”
“I have trouble sleeping. My schedule is so strange, you know. So I have a noise machine. And I usually take a Benadryl.” She swallowed hard. “This is my fault. If I had been awake, if I had heard—”
“Ms. Moss, that is not what I was implying at all. I need you to stay as calm as possible.”
“You don’t understand what this feels like. My child—my baby—is out there somewhere, and there isn’t a thing I can do about it.”
“I’m sorry. You’re right. I can’t relate to how you feel. But I can do my job. And the next step is to get the information in for the Amber Alert. What do you think Cody was wearing? I will need a photo of him as well.” She glanced at her watch. “If we hustle, we can make the six o’clock news.”
ZACH CHOKED ON THE last swig of coffee, almost spitting it onto the television screen where Annalise stood in front of a charming home, camera lights boldly illuminating her concern-etched face.
“If you see this boy,” she held up a photo and the camera zoomed in on it, “please call 9-1-1. Please do not approach him directly.” She cleared her throat. “He was last seen at his home in Norris last night wearing a pair of flannel pajama bottoms and a blue t-shirt.”
