Page 85 of Inside Silence

“Okay. We’ll head over and spread out from there.”

Good. We could use all the help we can get.

“I’m coming with you,” Nate announces.

Shit. I would’ve preferred him to stick close to me instead of going off on his own. God only knows what he might run into. I already have two kids and a deputy missing. Luckily, Roy Battaglia is a veteran, a trained security specialist, and has a good head on his shoulders. I’m sure he’ll keep an eye on Nate.

I shoot him a pointed look and he nods his understanding, before clapping a hand on Nate’s shoulder.

“Come on, man, let’s go find your kid.”

“Call my cell if you find anything,” I call after them.

“You too,” Nate returns over his shoulder.

For a brief moment I watch them, their combined long strides eating up the distance to the parking lot, before I turn to where I left the cruiser.

My phone is already to my ear.

Nate

* * *

Nothing.

Myself, Roy, Omar, and Larry have been driving around in circles expanding out from the church for what feels like a long time. Then again, I’m discovering every minute feels like an eternity not knowing where my little girl is.

Flashes of dark thoughts pop in my head, and I shove them down and out of sight as soon as they appear. I don’t want to allow my mind to go there, but as much as I ban the horrible possibilities from my mind, my body still responds to the visceral fear associated with them.

Roy is already getting out of his vehicle in the church parking lot when I drive up. The other two guys roll up right behind me. Another loop finished without a sign of the kids.

“Those kids had two hours to kill before they had to be home after they left here,” Omar points out. “Where would they go?”

I’ve only asked myself that question a hundred times while driving around.

“The fair makes the most sense. You’d think kids would be drawn there,” Larry suggests.

You would, except that these are kids who chose to sit up in a hayloft so they could watch the sun go down behind the mountains instead of joining the crowd at a party just yesterday.

I voice my doubts out loud.

“I’m not so sure,” I drawl, my thoughts spinning as I turn to Roy. “Remember that old logging trail to the Lizard Peak summit?”

He and I would steal whatever alcohol we could get our hands on and drive his grandpa’s old pickup, bouncing up the trail to catch the sunset from the ridge over the quarry. It was a popular hangout for kids but I didn’t think any adults knew it was there, until one night we found that bastard Sanchuk waiting for us at the entrance of the trail by the road.

“I don’t think that trail exists anymore. Last time I was out that way…” He appears to be thinking before he adds, “Fuck, that was probably with you.”

Except that wasn’t my last time up there, that would’ve been with Savvy, about seven years after, when I took her up there on our second date. The trail had been in much worse shape so we ended up ditching my pickup and hiking the rest of the way.

“Are you talking about the one off Quarry Road, leading to the lookout point?” Larry wants to know.

“Yeah. Do kids still go up there?”

“Nah. They blocked access to that trail many years ago. You wouldn’t be able to find it now, it’s all overgrown.”

Okay, so maybe not that spot, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t another pretty spot somewhere that kids these days go to hang out.

My phone is in my hand and I dial Hugo’s number.