Page 53 of The Lovely and the Lost

According to what Gabriel had told us, he’d acquired the police scanner for the same reason Jude, Free, and I had wanted to get our hands on the missing persons reports. He wanted to know when someone in Hunter’s Point went missing.

He was looking for a pattern.

“Anything else you feel like sharing?” Free asked him, her tone casual, but her eyes intensely focused on his face. In her free time at school, Free played poker. That never turned out well for her opponents. She was an expert at finding tells.

“The police found something in Alden.” Gabriel addressed the answer to me, not Free. “Town about an hour from here. Witness thinks she saw the missing girl. Sounds like the FBI is canvassing the streets.” He gave us exactly two seconds to process that. “I’m going.”

This wasn’t just about Bella, not for him. The maps on his walls, every piece of research he’d done—none of that was forBella.

Not knowing. There should have been a word to describe the emotion that went along with that. It wasn’t a longing or a need or a fear, not exactly.

“I can drop you off back at the house, or you can walk.” Gabriel didn’t wait for a response before he climbed into the truck and jammed the key into the ignition.

I knew, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that Cady wouldn’t want me sticking my nose into this, but when she’d kicked me off the search, I’d let her. I’d sat back, and I’d done nothing, and look where that had gotten us.

Nowhere.

I turned toward Jude and Free. The moment our eyes met, a silent, split-second conversation followed. Jude held out his hand, palm down. Free and I mimicked the motion, and then, in unison, we voted.

My fingers curled into a fist.Yes.

Jude—yes.

Free was the last one to vote, but we all knew that her fingers were going to fist, too.One for all, and all for trouble.

“You’re not dropping us off anywhere.” Free climbed into the truck next to Gabriel. “We’re coming with.”

* * *

By the time we arrived in Alden, I wasn’t sure who was more ready for our road trip to be over: Saskia, Gabriel, or me. All three of us were out of the truck before Free had even unbuckled her seat belt.

Alden wasn’t much bigger than Hunter’s Point, just a dot on the map that people passed through without giving the town or its inhabitants a second thought.

“We’re dealing with a kidnapper who knows how to survive in the wilderness. Someone who knows Sierra Glades National Park.” Gabriel shut his car door, harder than necessary. “The person who took Bella knows how to cover their tracks.”

I thought of the number of times the trail had gone cold and Bella—and the person who took her—had seemingly just vanished. “This person doesn’t just know how to cover their tracks,” I said. “They know how to disappear.”

A muscle in Gabriel’s jaw ticced. I wasn’t sure what to make of that. Free gave him a once-over, then threw out a question. “So why would a wilderness expert give up that advantage and bring Bella back to civilization?”

Jude was the first one to come up with a response. “If they’re local, they might have been afraid that if they stayed gone too long, someone would notice their absence.”

“Or maybe the kidnapper wants to take Bella somewhere.” Free squatted next to Duchess, scratching behind her ear. “Or the witness was mistaken. Or this sicko is just playing with us.”

“This isn’t a game.” Gabriel’s voice was so low that I had to strain to hear it. I tracked his gaze to a man and a woman in dark-colored suits across the street. “Feds,” Gabriel continued, muted. “Kidnapping is a federal offense.”

As if she’d heard Gabriel, the female in the pair glanced our way. I wondered what she saw. Four teens and four dogs? Could she tell that we weren’t supposed to be here?

“Should we mosey?” Jude asked brightly. “I suggest we mosey.”

Wemoseyedaway from the street and down to a creek to regroup. The trees were thicker here than in Hunter’s Point, the divide between civilization and the Glades less sharp. I wondered how many people in Alden had land that backed right up to the national park.

If Bella’s kidnapper had that kind of access…I couldn’t keep my mind from sorting through the possibilities. Beside me, Saskia lowered her head to the creek, her front paws braced against the rocks. She drank for a moment, then went stiff and still, her blue eyes focused on something in the distance.

“We should go back,” Gabriel was saying. “Ask the people in town some questions. If the feds realize we’re asking around about Bella, so be it.”

I barely heard him. My muscles had gone as taut as Saskia’s. She sensed something—heard it, smelled it,feltit, I wasn’t sure—but I knew in my bones that my K9 knew something in hers.

“Kira?” Jude got out my name an instant before Saskia bolted across the creek and into the densest part of the woods. The other dogs took off after her, like this was a game, just another round of Extreme Hide-and-Seek.