Christmas In the Cove

by Carol Ross

  There was a reason why people who had a personal history shouldn’t work together, she thought as she drove the miles toward Nina’s, willing herself to calm down. She tried to think things through rationally. She started by trying to remind herself that Eli was just doing his job. But how could that be? There hadn’t even been enough time to conduct an investigation. No one gets suspended or removed from duty or whatever he was calling it mere hours after a successful deployment. What job was he really doing here exactly? And what did any of it have to do with her?

  She turned onto the picket-fence-lined drive leading to Nina’s house. Even in her altered mental state she couldn’t help but admire the flat-out beauty of the place; dormant fields stretching far on either side and the two-story, pale yellow house with white trim perched on the gentle rise. Two outbuildings had been painted with the same lovely scheme, while a big red barn sat farther back from the house.

  As she closed the distance, she smiled when she saw that Nina had hung icicle lights across the front of the house. She was also glad to see her car parked in front of the garage. They’d made these plans a couple of days ago and Aubrey had texted before she’d left her house, but hadn’t heard back. She’d hoped it was because her sister was working somewhere on the property and not because she’d forgotten and decided to go somewhere else. Although that didn’t really matter at this point, because she was going to be hanging out here for a while, anyway. Unless she heard some very compelling reason from Eli not to.

  The door was unlocked so she went inside. The house was silent. She called her sister’s name. She didn’t hear Marion’s bark or the tapping of paws, so she assumed they must be outside. She headed out the back door.

  Fifteen minutes later she’d checked every outbuilding, including the barn, and found them empty. As she walked back toward the house she scanned the horizon. She could see across the flat expanse of farmland for a long way. If Nina was out roaming the fields, she should be able to see her. Unless... Tamping down the bubble of worry spreading through her, she headed inside. This time she took a moment to study the surroundings. The kitchen still smelled like coffee. An empty oatmeal packet and unwashed dishes in the sink told her that her sister had eaten breakfast that morning.

  Aubrey sent her another text. Hey, I’m here. Where are you?

  The fact that Marion was gone, too, lent her an extra bit of comfort.

  Then she spotted her pills. Nina had one of those dispensers where you measured out your medication for the entire week. Today’s pills were still in the container. Not once in all the months that she’d lived with Aubrey had she missed a dose.

  Concern jolted through her, leaving her scalp tingling.

  She noticed her hands shaking as she picked up her phone again. This time she dialed Alex.

  “’Sup, buttercup,” his deep voice answered on the second ring. Background noise told her he was at the marina. He’d been working on some kind of job down there lately.

  “Hey, have you by any chance talked to Nina today?”

  “Yep, this morning.”

  Yes. Good, she thought. “What time?”

  “Um, let me check.” Aubrey heard talking in the background and what sounded like a boat motor. “Just after nine. She said she was going to hike around her entire property to get a feel for the agricultural empire she now owns.” He barked out a laugh. “Wait, are you there now?”

  “I am, and she’s not here. At least, I can’t find her. Maybe she forgot I was coming...”

  “No, Aubrey, she didn’t.” Alex’s somber tone set her on edge. “She told me you were heading out there today. She was excited and planning to hike with you. Did you check outside?”

  “Yes.” Aubrey had been walking as they talked. “I’ve been all over, even the raspberry patch.” She stepped into the master bedroom and froze in her tracks. The room seemed to tilt as she stared at the lovely ornate antique nightstand by the bed. She reached a hand out to the wall to steady herself.

  It registered only vaguely that Alex was still talking. “Aubrey, are you there?”

  She couldn’t speak, couldn’t take her eyes off the nightstand—more particularly what was lying on top of it.

  “Aubrey?” Alex’s voice shouted out of her phone.

  “I’m here. Alex, I just found her phone. I’m trying not to panic.” She explained about the medication. “What do I do? I’m not sure what to do. What if she went for a walk that turned into a hike? It’s not really that far to the state forest. What if she went too far and got lost or had a seizure?” The property bordering Nina’s was owned by the government and full of hiking trails leading up into the coast range mountains. Hiking trails—and rivers and cliffs and rocky bluffs to fall into or off of...

  Crushing fear was squeezing her lungs. “I’m... I don’t...” she wheezed.

  “Aubrey, breathe, okay? Hold on. Stay there. I’m on my way.”

  She slumped onto the bed as the line clicked off.

  But she didn’t stay there. She sprang to her feet and started moving because she wouldn’t find her sister by crying on the bed.

  She began by checking the entire house one room at a time. Then she expanded her perimeter, starting with the barn because a few days prior Nina had been talking about getting some horses. Horses. Aubrey could only stare blandly when Nina had told her that one. “Trading in my sling-back heels for some boot heels,” she’d joked.

  Aubrey ignored the ominous creaking sounds coming from the faded gray ladder as she climbed up to the second story hay loft. Smelling vaguely of hay, she could see the space was empty save for two old bales and a few dozen fruit boxes tucked off to one edge where the roof sloped down from the peak. She stepped into the space and took a quick look around anyway. She counted six openings along the edge of the floor where it met the wall so hay could be dropped directly down into the stalls. Aubrey looked into each one. She returned to the ground floor, checked every stall, the old tack room and another space with floor-to-ceiling shelves that appeared to have been used for storage.

  She moved on to the canning shed. The building was approximately twelve by fifteen feet. The stone walls were at least two feet thick, ensuring the inside stayed cool. It smelled like potting soil and was lined with floor-to-ceiling shelving. The Quinleys had left some canned goods. She was on her way out when something on the far side of the room caught her eye. The floor seemed to be uneven...

  She approached the spot, bent down and discovered a rusty metal latch nearly flush with the floorboards, like a hatch. She reached out and pulled, surprised by how easily the door gave way. She swung it all the way and found herself staring down at a stone staircase leading into a pit of blackness.

  “Nina?” she called, even though she knew her sister wouldn’t be down there with the door closed. A shiver ran through her as she closed it.

  She hurried back outside. The sun had wrestled its way through the clouds, mocking her with its cheerful brightness everywhere. She gave her eyes a moment to adjust and spotted a glint speeding up the drive. Alex, she realized along with a rush of relief. She jogged toward the house to meet him.

  Them, she realized as three bodies emerged from the vehicle. Eli. Her heart soared with relief and gratitude, her worry for her sister trumping her anger and frustration with him.

  Eli and Gale were already pulling their packs out of the trunk when Aubrey approached.

  “Tell us what you know,” Gale said as he adjusted the strap around his waist.

  She didn’t waste a second in relaying everything that had occurred.

  After the recap, Gale asked, “Any idea or feeling where she might have headed? Anything she may have said in the last couple days that has stuck with you?”

  “No. The fact that she didn’t take her medication with her and left her phone bothers me the most. The house was unlocked, breakfast dishes still on the counter. Like she left in a hurry or... I don’t know. I want to say it’s not like her, but Nina can be a little impulsive
sometimes... She is this unusual mix of creativity and free spirit combined with get-things-done. But she’s also easily distracted.”

  “But no Marion?”

  “No. No sign of either of them.”

  “Alex told us she likes to hike.”

  “She does. We had planned to go hiking this afternoon. I wasn’t supposed to get here until around noon, so I’m hoping she headed out for a short hike and just got carried away and forgot her phone.” And her medication, and to lock her door, and to do her dishes...

  She smothered a fresh wave of worry. She needed to stay calm in order to think clearly.

  Eli laid out his plan. “Gale, you and I are going to head east. The parking lot to access the Tyee Forest borders Nina’s property. There are several trailheads there leading into the mountains that we’ve all hiked. Alex can walk the property lines and the creek. Aubrey, you can stay here in case she comes back and—”

  “What? No! No way, Eli. I’m not staying here. I’ll go crazy. I’m searching, too.” He might outrank her at work, but she didn’t have to take orders from him here, and especially not where her sister was concerned. “You might be able to stop me from rescuing other people, but not my own sister.”

  “Aubrey—”

  She looked at Alex. “Alex, can you stay here?”

  “Of course.” He gave Eli a look that told her maybe they’d had this conversation already. Which wouldn’t surprise her.

  Alex would know that she could never sit still in this situation. Of course, Eli should know that, too. It dawned on her then that he didn’t know her. Not anymore. And she certainly didn’t know him. Because the Eli she knew never would have suspended her without proof of some wrongdoing or tried to keep her on the sidelines where her family’s well-being was concerned.

  Eli sighed and gave her a curt nod. He clearly wasn’t pleased, but he didn’t waste time arguing, either. No one in this party needed to voice that, when a person went missing, time was of the absolute essence.

  “When was the last time anyone spoke to her?”

  “According to her phone, it was 9:04 this morning when she talked to Alex.”

  Eli punched some buttons on his phone and Aubrey knew what he was doing—noting the time. The police normally waited at least twenty-four hours before following up on a missing person. But she knew there were exceptions. One of them was when the missing individual had medical problems. Aubrey planned to play that card as soon as she could. She prayed she wouldn’t need to.

  “We won’t be waiting twenty-four hours to call this in,” he added, his thoughts obviously paralleling hers. “What about your parents? Have you told them?”

  “No. They are in Seattle for a couple days visiting our aunt. Camile went with them.”

  He nodded. “Let’s wait for now. Until we know...more.”

  “I’m going to get my stuff,” she somehow managed to say.

  She ran toward the house, unable to hold back the tsunami of fear now threatening to swamp her. As she gathered her gear, she allowed the sensation to run through her, willing it to pass quickly. It did, but the force of it left her shaking. She regularly and knowingly jumped from helicopters into frigid water, was lowered onto sinking boats in twenty-foot swells, and recovered stranded hikers from the edges of cliffs while dangling from a cable, but never once, in all her years of being an RS, had she experienced this degree of terror.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  THE THREE MEN stood in the driveway and watched Aubrey disappear into the house. Shifting into his SAR mind-set, Eli assessed the conditions. A bank of menacing gray clouds out over the ocean was creeping toward them. It felt like rain; the air was heavy and thick with moisture. But the wind was Eli’s biggest worry. The weather report said a storm was moving in from the west with high winds predicted, seventy to eighty miles per hour and gusts of 100 plus.

  As if to underscore his concern, a breeze ruffled his hair and sent some wind chimes tinkling madly in agreement from their home on the porch. Winds that most other places excitedly referred to as “hurricane force” were common along the Oregon Coast, and usually referred to by locals as “pretty windy.” But most folks also knew to hunker down when a real windstorm was coming. Because winds like this regularly toppled hundred-foot trees, brought down limbs and knocked out power. It was no time to be out hiking.

  “Do you really think this is a good idea?” Gale’s question interrupted his thoughts.

  He knew Gale wasn’t referring to the weather. He was talking about Aubrey. Eli knew it wasn’t smart to allow the family member of a missing person to search with him.

  “No, but what choice do I have here? She’ll go off by herself if I don’t let her come with me. Then I’ll have two women to worry about.”

  Alex chimed in helpfully, “He’s right. She will. I’ll stay here. I don’t mind.”

  Gale nodded, looking grim. He didn’t know Aubrey well, but he’d probably learned enough by now to believe what they said.

  Eli could see his concern for Nina mixed with his anxiousness to get going. “You take Alex’s route. If we don’t find her in the next three hours, I’m calling Grady and have him bring his dogs.”

  “Who? What kind of dogs?” Alex asked.

  “Grady Royce, he’s a friend of mine. He trains dogs, mostly companion and search-and-rescue dogs. He’s the guy I got Marion from.”

  “Oh, um...” He scratched his chin. “Yeah, that would be good.”

  Aubrey emerged from the house carrying her backpack, strapping it on as she hurried toward them.

  A couple hours later he and Aubrey had zigzagged their way across Nina’s property. They’d discovered no sign of her and no fresh indication that a person or dog had been through the area in quite a while.

  They scaled a fence, jumped the ditch and emerged onto a road. They walked to where it ended at a gravel parking area. A large sign read Tyee Forest Trails with a colored map outlining a series of hiking routes you could embark upon from that location.

  He called Grady, who he learned was on an SAR case in South Bend. He agreed to head this way when he’d wrapped it up. He’d just hung up when he received a text from Gale.

  Call me.

  He tapped on the screen. Gale picked up on the first ring. “I’m back at the house. I’ve got nothing. No tracks. No one has been through there recently except for some deer.” It had been raining on and off for nearly a week, so fresh tracks should be easy to spot. “Where should I go from here? I mean, if she was going to walk her property lines, it would make sense that she’d stay along the fence line. Unless...”

  He continued talking while Eli watched Aubrey walk around the parking lot, questioning people and showing Nina’s photo. A young couple descended one of the trails into the parking lot. She approached them. After a moment she handed her phone to the young man. Nodding, he appeared to study it for a few seconds before passing it to his companion. Aubrey retrieved her phone and exchanged handshakes with the couple. She turned and jogged his direction.

  Gale was saying, “When I got back to the house, I started looking for anything that might give us a clue as to where she went. Alex has been doing the same. We’ve been careful.” He didn’t need to say that specifically they’d been careful about tampering with anything that could possibly be evidence. “Now I’m looking at some aerial photos. They are older. They were in that big notebook she’s been packing around. The one Quinley gave her?”

  “Yeah.”

  “The photos show that there’s another building on the property. It’s quite a ways from the house, but Alex says he thinks it’s part of the original Quinley homestead. Probably not much there anymore but a pile of stones. He thinks there’s an old orchard there, too. Ask Aubrey how likely she thinks Nina would be to go check out something like that by herself.”

  “I’ll ask her, but I can tell you right now I think the answer is yes.” Nina and Aubrey were alike in that way—adventurous. Aubrey was fearless when it came to herself,
even as she worried about others.

  She stopped before him and he filled her in.

  “Yes,” she said, her head bobbing before he’d even finished explaining. “We have to cover every base. She knows it’s there. She’s mentioned it to me. I told her I would go with her. She seemed focused on getting the house shaped up first, but you know Nina. She gets a whim and off she goes.”

  Eli agreed and said into the phone, “Go ahead and check it out.”

  He explained about Grady and hung up. Aubrey hurriedly informed him, “That couple I was talking to thinks they might have passed Nina on the trail. She was headed up toward Daisy Vale Lookout. We need to head that way. Nina loves the lookout. We’ve hiked to it dozens of times. And they have this book where you can sign in with the date and time. She loves to do that, and see who else has been up there.”

  “Why do they think it might have been her?” He knew how unreliable eyewitnesses could be. Makeup, a different hairstyle, smile, no smile—even clothing could alter a person’s perception. He knew very well how hopeful people could get with even a hint that their missing loved one had been spotted. Even with her SAR training, Aubrey wasn’t immune to this. She was too close. He reminded himself that he would be the same way if Aubrey were the one missing.

  “I showed them her picture. The guy says he thinks yes, the wife says maybe. He said the woman they passed wasn’t very tall, and his wife agreed. Nina is tall, but...”

  He approached the green, late-model cross-over SUV the couple had climbed into. He quickly confirmed what Aubrey had said, and gathered an additional important detail.

  “You’re sure the black-and-white dog with her was a border collie?” he asked the woman.

  “Positive. I grew up on a sheep farm outside of Roseburg. We had border collies my entire life. At first I thought it was an Australian shepherd,” she said. “Then I noticed the tail—black with a white tip.”