Page 24 of Wilderness Search (Eagle Mountain: Unsolved Mysteries #2)

Stella looked at Willa a long moment, then turned and raced away.

Willa stood and walked to the fork of the tree.

Half a dozen potato puffs, a corn dog and one broken cookie were wrapped in a napkin.

Willa started to wrap the food again and return it to its hiding place when she saw the note in the corner of the napkin.

Written in tiny letters, in pencil, was Stella’s message to her friend: “Olivia, please come home.”

I have to talk to you, but not at the sheriff’s department, and not at my house.

Aaron stared at the message from Willa, heart racing, then replied, Did you learn something at the camp?

I’ll tell you when we meet. Mount Wilson trailhead?

Why there? But he would find out when he saw her. He texted, I could be there at 3:30.

See you then.

He changed out of his uniform after his shift ended at three, and drove to the trailhead. Willa’s Toyota was there, and she climbed out of the driver’s seat when he pulled up beside her. She wore jeans and a lacy top, and carried a small pack.

“We don’t have time to do the whole trail,” she said. “But let’s walk up to the first overlook.”

“All right.” He grabbed his own pack and followed her up. She was a strong hiker, with a confident stride. By the time the trail leveled out after the first half mile they were both breathing hard from the exertion. “What did you want to tell me?” he asked, unable to pretend patience any longer.

“Olivia’s best friend at camp, Stella, was in my first class of the morning,” Willa said. “She said some things that piqued my interest, but I didn’t get a chance to ask many questions. Then I saw her right before I left and she had a lot of interesting things to say.”

“Does she know where Olivia is now?” he asked. “Does she know why she ran away?”

“She doesn’t know either of those things, but she said the night before she disappeared, Olivia told Stella she had ‘seen something she shouldn’t have,’ and that she was afraid.

Olivia wouldn’t elaborate, and said she couldn’t tell Stella anything else because she was afraid Stella might be hurt, too . ”

“Had someone hurt Olivia?”

“Stella said Olivia didn’t look hurt. But maybe it was something Stella couldn’t see.”

“Or maybe what Olivia saw was someone hurting someone else.”

Willa started walking again. The trail was wider here, and Aaron fell into step beside her, matching his stride to hers. “Stella said she didn’t know Olivia was planning to run away,” she said. “When she found out Olivia was gone the next morning, she was really afraid.”

“Why didn’t she say anything to us when we questioned her?” Aaron asked. “Or to one of the counselors?”

“Because she was afraid,” Willa said. “She didn’t know what Olivia had seen or who was involved so she kept her mouth shut. A pretty smart decision, considering.”

Maybe it was smart, from a frightened child’s point of view. “And she really doesn’t have any idea where Olivia is now?”

“She says she doesn’t and I believe her. She’s really worried about her friend. She’s been saving back part of her lunch every day and leaving it in a tree in the woods for Olivia.”

“Does Olivia come to get it? Maybe we could hide and wait for her.”

Willa shook her head. “Stella said sometimes when she comes back the food is gone, but she doesn’t know if Olivia is taking it, or animals.

I think it’s probably animals. The tree where she’s leaving the food is still in the camp.

If Olivia is as frightened as Stella made her sound, I’m not sure she would risk coming that close. ”

“Does anyone else know about this?” Aaron asked.

“Stella said Scott caught her carrying part of her lunch outside the mess hall one day. He told her she needed to stay close to camp or the person who had hurt Olivia would hurt her. He told her about the bloody shirt they had found.” She glared at Aaron.

“What kind of person frightens a child that way?”

“One who wants her to stay close, no matter what,” Aaron said. “What did he do then?”

“He made her stay in her cabin and miss afternoon swimming as a punishment for wasting food.”

“He obviously didn’t frighten her enough to make her stop leaving food for Olivia,” Aaron said. “I still think it would be worth staking out that tree to see if Olivia shows up.”

“If you do that, you can’t tell anyone about Stella,” Willa said.

“I promised. And if someone at camp is the person who frightened Olivia away, I don’t want to risk them going after Stella.

” They reached a small sign for the overlook and turned onto a short side trail.

Thirty yards later the trail opened up to a view of the landscape below.

“I wanted to come up here and see this,” Willa said.

Aaron moved in close beside her. Not touching, but close enough to smell her floral shampoo, and see the gentle rise and fall of her chest as she breathed. “I think Olivia is down there somewhere,” she said.

“If she would come out of hiding, we could keep her safe,” Aaron said.

“She must not believe that. Not yet.”

“What could she have seen that has her so frightened?”

“Whatever it was, it was at the camp,” Willa said. “You’re going to have to dig deeper there.”

He put a hand on her shoulder. She didn’t pull away. “You need to tell all of this to the sheriff,” he said.

“I promised Stella.”

“Travis Walker is a good man. He’s not going to endanger a child. But he needs to know about this. He’s the only one who can authorize any kind of investigation at the camp.”

She bowed her head. Her hair fell forward, revealing the nape of her neck, pale and vulnerable. As fragile as a child hiding food—and secrets—for her friend. Or another child, hiding in the wilderness. Or any human heart, so easily broken and difficult to mend.

“I’ll talk to him,” she said. “But only if you come with me.”

“Of course.” He put his arm around her and she leaned back against him.

The position was so familiar, but he had never thought he would feel this closeness again.

He didn’t dare hope it would lead to anything else, but it meant a lot that she trusted him enough in this moment to lean on him, however briefly.

Neither of them said anything for a long while, then she turned and walked back down the mountain, him following behind.