Page 6 of Wilderness Search (Eagle Mountain: Unsolved Mysteries #2)

As the volunteers assembled to begin the search for thirteen-year-old Olivia Pryor, Willa reminded herself that a missing child didn’t mean she was a victim of foul play.

Children wandered off and got lost all the time.

They sometimes ran away. Most of them were found safe.

Surely that would happen this time, too.

“As a reminder for those of you who are new, we’re going to search in teams.” Captain Danny Irwin addressed the assembled volunteers at Eagle Mountain Search and Rescue headquarters.

Almost two dozen volunteers had responded to the early-morning summons, despite the rain that pounded so loudly on the metal roof of the headquarters building that Danny had to raise his voice in order to be heard.

“Each team of four to five people will search an assigned area, as indicated on this map.” Danny held up a piece of copy paper.

“Anna Trent and her search dog, Jacqui, are already headed for the camp to see if Jacqui can pick up Olivia’s scent.

With a lot of luck, by the time we get there, they’ll have located the girl and we can all go home.

But the rain is going to make things more difficult, so we need to be prepared to conduct a ground search. ”

He consulted the piece of paper in his hand once more.

“Olivia is five feet, one inches tall and weighs approximately one hundred pounds. She has sandy brown hair, olive skin and brown eyes. There’s a photo of her on the map each of you will be given.

She was reported missing this morning when a bunk mate told her counselor that Oliva wasn’t in her bunk.

Another cabin mate said she thought Olivia had sneaked out of the cabin a little after midnight. ”

“She’s probably hiding somewhere, trying to stay out of this rain,” someone in the back of the room said.

“Keep that in mind as you’re searching,” Danny said.

“Also remember that she may believe she’s in trouble for sneaking out of the cabin, so she might not respond to your calls, even if she hears you.

It’s not unusual for children to hide from searchers.

There’s also the possibility she’s hurt and unable to respond, so don’t rely solely on your sense of hearing.

Search for flashes of color or anything out of the ordinary in your surroundings such as piles of brush or dislodged rocks or broken branches. ”

“We might find footprints in the mud,” someone else said.

“Or the rain might wash them away,” someone else countered.

“Do we know what she was wearing when she left?” Bethany Ames, standing a short distance from Willa, asked.

“We don’t,” Danny said. “Though the usual camp uniform is shorts or jeans and T-shirts.”

“Let’s hope she thought to put on a raincoat,” someone said.

“Any more questions?” Danny asked.

No one had any, so they headed out to the parking lot for the drive to the camp.

Willa found herself in an SUV with Bethany, Grace Wilcox, Tony Meisner and Harper Stanick.

There was little conversation on the drive to the camp, the steady thump of windshield wipers and the drum of raindrops providing background noise for their thoughts.

Willa texted Gary with Olivia’s name and information, asking if he knew the girl, but he made no reply.

Mountain Kingdom Kids Camp looked like a typical summer retreat, with clusters of wooden cabins, a main lodge and recreation areas set amid tall pine trees.

This morning the grounds teemed with people in uniform—both camp staff and law enforcement.

A deputy checked them in at the front gate and directed them to a staging area in front of the main lodge, an impressive log-and-glass structure where at least twenty people—all adults, from what Willa could see—milled about in plastic ponchos or more substantial rain gear.

Willa pulled the hood of her rain jacket over her hair as she exited the SUV and looked around.

She didn’t realize she was searching for Aaron until she spotted him standing with two other deputies at one corner of the lodge.

He wore a black raincoat, but the bottoms of his khaki uniform pants were soaked.

She turned away, hoping he wouldn’t see her, but as she shifted her gaze another familiar figure made her gasp.

Gary was there, talking to another young man.

They were both wearing green jackets with an emblem on the chest she assumed was the camp’s logo.

As if he had heard her he looked up, his expression defiant.

“Thank you all for coming.” An older man had mounted the steps leading to the lodge entrance and was addressing the gathered crowd with a hailer.

He, too, wore a green rain jacket and green rain pants.

He had pushed back the hood of the jacket to reveal a gray crew cut.

He had a beefy build but he wasn’t fat. Willa guessed he was in his late forties.

“My name is Scott Sprague and my family has owned and managed Mountain Kingdom Kids Camp for forty years,” he said.

“This is the first time we’ve had to deal with something like this, and I want to thank you all for coming to help.

Olivia is a bright, smart child, and I’m confident she’ll be found safely.

But she could be hurt, or scared, or just confused.

So I want to ask you to be gentle with her when you find her.

Don’t worry about finding out what happened.

We don’t care about that. We just want her safely returned to us.

” He lowered the hailer and looked out at them, the picture of a man in distress.

Willa was paired with Grace, Tony and Bethany to search an area near the camp’s kitchen and mess hall.

A group of camp employees were combing through the interior of the buildings.

Willa’s group was supposed to cover the exterior between the buildings and the lake, to a group of campers’ cabins on the east and a dirt road on the west. They kept close together, looking behind and up in trees, behind boulders and along the foundations of the buildings.

They investigated two pit toilets, a massive rock barbecue grill, and turned over half a dozen canoes beached along the lakeshore, in case Olivia had taken shelter there.

All the while the rain beat down. Within ten minutes Willa was shivering and clammy, despite her rain gear.

Her phone buzzed and she answered the call. It was Danny. “Willa, can you return to the headquarters building? We’ve got one of the campers who slipped and hurt her leg. She might need some medical attention. I’m tied up in another part of the camp.”

“Of course. I’ll be right there.” She ended the call, then told the others what had happened and left them.

She spotted other SAR volunteers, law enforcement officers and camp employees searching for Olivia as she hurried toward the lodge.

The sound of the girl’s name rang out from all directions.

Though the rain had slackened a little, water still dripped from trees and the sun remained behind heavy cloud cover, lending the whole scene a twilight feeling.

The girl in question—two thin brown braids framing a round face, with a streak of mud on one cheek—sat on a sofa in the lobby, one foot on a pile of cushions.

She looked as if she had been crying. “I was just trying to find my friend,” she said before Willa could even ask her name.

“I know I wasn’t supposed to be out of the cabin, but I couldn’t sit in there and do nothing. Am I going to be in trouble?”

A young woman with swimmer’s shoulders and short blond hair sat next to the injured girl on the sofa. “I’m Tatum,” she said. “And this is Stella. She was climbing on some rocks behind her cabin and slipped and fell.”

“Stella, I’m Willa. I’m a nurse. What hurts?”

“My ankle.” Stella leaned forward and gingerly touched her left ankle. “It hurts a lot.” Tears welled, and clung to her thick lashes.

“I got her shoe off right away,” Tatum said. “But I left the sock so maybe her foot wouldn’t be so cold.”

The foot was ice-cold, to be expected with this damp. “Maybe you could find a couple of blankets,” Willa said as she gently examined the swollen foot.

Stella cried out when Willa tried to move the foot, and Willa took her hands away. “No more of that,” she said. “But I think you’ve sprained it. To be sure, you’ll need to have an X-ray.”

“My parents are going to be so mad,” she wailed.

“They’ll be relieved you’re okay,” Willa said.

“You don’t know my parents.”

“No. But think about it. One girl is missing. They’ll hear about that. Then they’ll learn that you’re hurt, but safe. In comparison, an injured ankle isn’t going to seem like a big deal.”

“I can’t believe all these people are looking and they haven’t found Olivia,” Stella said.

“I hope they’ll find her soon.” Willa opened her pack and took out a roll of elastic bandage. “I’m going to wrap your ankle,” she said. “That’s going to make it feel a lot better. We’ll also get an ice pack for you.”

Stella sniffed and watched as Willa began to wind the tape around her foot and ankle. “Are you in the same cabin as Olivia?” Willa asked.

“Yeah. She and I are good friends.”

“When was the last time you saw her?”

“About ten o’clock. That’s lights out. We said good-night.”

“I heard she sneaked out of the cabin later.”

Stella sighed. “I guess so. She’s done it before. I didn’t see her this time, but Marissa did, and she wouldn’t have any reason to lie.”

“Why did Olivia sneak out?” Willa said.

Stella didn’t say anything. Willa focused on wrapping the ankle, letting the silence tease an answer from the girl. “I think she was meeting someone,” Stella said at last.

“Another girl?” Willa asked. “Or a boy?”

“Probably a boy.” She looked up as Tatum returned.