Hunting Hour

by Margaret Mizushima

  The girl from the Heath case had been only twelve years old, so this explanation didn’t ring true, and at the moment, Heath was examining his feet and refusing to meet her gaze. She decided not to confront him with this now so that Stella could get the first shot at him back at the station.

  “You met in a halfway house and you’re still friends?” she asked Frank, thinking this had to be a violation if any of them were still on parole.

  “We belong to the same support group. We’re trying to put our lives back together.”

  The need to continue to search for Sophie pressed at her, but the thought that one of these men could have killed Candace made her cautious. She couldn’t take Robo into the forest and leave Brody outnumbered four to one. “I still need to search outside the camp perimeter,” she told him.

  He nodded. “All right, gentlemen. Deputy Cobb and I need to put you in cuffs for the time being. Hands behind your back.”

  Despite their protests, Mattie helped cuff the men while Brody patted them down. At last she was free to leave, with the four campers sitting on a log by the fire and Brody standing guard.

  She took Robo into the forest at the edge of camp, gave him a sniff of the scent article, and told him to search for Sophie. He trotted out front while she trained the flashlight on him, struggling to keep up in the dark. Pine needles poked her face and a tree root snagged her shoe. Falling to one knee, her palms scraped against deadfall as she went down. The looming forest triggered her claustrophobia, and she froze, her heart racing.

  Robo came back to her. She clasped his solid body close and took in huge gulps of air. Calm gradually seeped into her, allowing her brain to take over.

  I’m safe. Now get back to work.

  Murmuring praise to Robo, she gave him a squeeze. She clipped a leash onto his harness, wanting to keep him close, but then decided against it. She needed to cast him out away from her, let him search for Sophie freely so he could cover more ground.

  She followed at a slower pace, fighting the rugged terrain while Robo worked in huge sweeps. Finally they came full circle, and still no sign of Sophie.

  Fighting tears, she paused on top of a ridge for a moment to regain self-control before going down into the campsite. Sunlight touched off a fiery glow on the jagged horizon, and birds chirped as the forest awakened.

  She still needed to search the Pathfinder’s interior, but now that it was light, she and Brody would be able to see tracks if it had left the road between here and Timber Creek.

  And Robo would be able to smell Sophie’s scent if . . . if she’d been left someplace on the way up. She swallowed her tears and forced herself to move again, unable to bear thinking beyond that.

  Chapter 24

  Cole sat in his truck at a pullout alongside the highway, Bruno curled up beside him on the passenger seat, sleeping. He’d watched the sunrise with an ache that filled his chest and spilled into his throat, his palm resting on the Doberman’s warm shoulder, occasionally stroking the top of his head. They’d searched everywhere he could think of to no avail.

  Some monster had snatched the very essence of Sophie from him, including her scent, while his back was turned. What else could he do to find her? He’d never felt this powerless before in his life.

  He’d spent the rest of the night searching the town with Sergeant Madsen. Right before dawn, they’d gone to the station to debrief before Madsen left to go back home. “It’s not that we’re giving up,” Madsen said, “but Banjo and I have finished the part of the job that we came here to do. If any new leads come in, it’ll be up to Deputy Cobb and Robo to follow up. They’re more than capable.”

  Cole knew that, and he nodded. “It seems like the more dogs we have, the better off we’ll be.”

  “Yes and no. Yes, if we have a definite area to search. No, if we’ve covered the ground we need to and have found nothing. If you’ve got a fresh track, one good dog is all you need.”

  He knew that Madsen had come to do a specific search, along the highway, and that he’d stayed longer than he’d planned to hunt through Timber Creek. Besides, he had his own job to get back to. Recognizing there was nothing more either of them could do for now, Cole extended his hand in gratitude. “I appreciate you coming to help.”

  Madsen gripped his hand hard. He was a big guy, and he’d covered a lot of territory working behind Banjo during the night. Face drawn and shiny with the oily residue from dried sweat, Madsen looked exhausted; yet he planned to drive the hours required to get back to his home. “No one’s giving up,” he repeated. “Chances are still good your daughter will be found.”

  The constant ache in Cole’s chest had started then, at first just a twinge, now full blown. He leaned forward to turn the key in the ignition, and his truck’s engine roared to life. Bruno raised his head before struggling up to sit and look out the window.

  “We might as well go home, fella, and check in there. You’ll have to make yourself scarce. Maybe you can sack out in Angie’s room with her.”

  Dealing with Olivia seemed like a bizarre twist in this nightmare he was living. His breath hitched, and he realized it seemed more and more difficult to expand his lungs. Tension. He rolled his head on his neck while he drove down the deserted highway, keeping one eye on the road.

  Olivia’s presence made it harder on Angie—hell, it made it harder on him. He wondered how Mrs. Gibbs was holding up, having to deal with his ex-wife. And Jessie. Cole felt it was his duty to make sure everyone in his household was comfortable, well fed, and secure.

  Well, I’m a failure at that, aren’t I?

  He parked his truck in the garage and paused at the door that led into the kitchen, smelling the scent of bacon. When he opened the door, he spotted Mrs. Gibbs standing by the stove. Bruno came in behind him, so Cole stopped to fill the dogs’ bowls with kibble.

  Mrs. Gibbs turned from her cooking as he entered the room. He could tell that she’d spent a long sleepless night, her face rather gray, the wrinkles around her eyes and mouth etched a bit deeper, her eyelids heavy and reddened. He answered the question he saw in her eyes with a slight shake of his head. Her eyes filled, and she swiped at them as she turned toward the coffeepot.

  “Can I get you a cup of coffee, Dr. Walker?” she asked, her voice quivering.

  The small kindness created a thickening in his throat that drove the ache deeper into his chest, and he bent over Bruno for a few seconds, stroking the dog’s long body as he cracked a bite of kibble between his sharp teeth and smacked his lips. Cole blinked to clear his vision. “Yes, please.”

  He took the steaming cup she offered him, carried it to the table, and sat. “Where is everybody?”

  Mrs. Gibbs adjusted the heat under the pan on the stove and brought her own cup over to join him at the table. “Your sister is in Angela’s room. They might have fallen asleep up there, or at least I hope so. Jessie came and went for a while, but the last time she went, she stayed. She’s been up there a few hours now.”

  Cole sipped, swallowing the hot black coffee without tasting it. “And Olivia?”

  “After she and I had a long talk, I sent her up to my room to rest.”

  “What did you talk about?”

  Mrs. Gibbs studied her coffee mug. “This and that. My job here. The children. Her treatment with her doctors.”

  Cole was surprised. “That’s more than I’ve been able to discuss with her this past year.”

  “Ach, I suppose I seem like a mother figure to her. She wanted to talk, and there wasn’t much else to do while we waited.”

  Their eyes met, and Cole found himself soothed by the staunch look on her face and the sturdiness of her manner. “You’re a good person, Mrs. Gibbs. A kind lady. I don’t know what we’d do without you.”

  The gray pallor from her fatigue took on a pink hue. “Oh! Come now. You make more of it than it is.”

  “What did she have to say about her treatment with the doctors?”

  When she raised her eyes to meet his,
there was a certain set to her jaw that told him she considered what she’d been told confidential. “She didn’t tell me much more than I already knew from you and the girls. She’s been very depressed, but she’s feeling better now. She did say she’s trying her best. And that she hopes to reestablish a relationship with her children.”

  A flicker of anger at the delay in Olivia coming to that conclusion made him not want to hear anything more. He paused to measure his words before responding. “I’d like that. I hope she’s able to.”

  He meant what he said. He hoped both of her children would be here soon for her to reconnect with, and he hoped she was capable of establishing that connection. Right now, those two hopes seemed to be pinned on nothing but thin air. He felt deflated, drained of emotion and energy.

  Mrs. Gibbs stood and went back to her stove. “I’m going to make you a hot breakfast, and then you should go stretch out on your bed for a wee bit. I’ll make sure you know if the phone rings or if we hear from the sheriff.”

  “Thank you,” he murmured, staring out the kitchen window into the middle distance, unable to focus on anything. He supposed she was right. He should take a break. His cell phone battery needed to be recharged.

  And he did too.

  *

  With a hollow emptiness in her chest, Mattie sat at her desk trying to finish her report, though she was so tired, her brain could barely function. She’d fed Robo and he’d fallen asleep on his bed.

  Robo had found no trace of Sophie’s scent inside the Pathfinder. After they transported the Heath foursome to the station in the cage at the back of Mattie’s vehicle—Brody driving and Robo and Mattie wedged together in the passenger seat—Stella grilled the men separately for a couple hours. To no avail. Even Ted Robbins, the one with no record and deemed most likely to break, continued to profess the group’s innocence.

  After sorting through what they each had to say and considering the hard evidence Robo found, Stella decided to call in a US Forest Service law enforcement officer to ticket Jace Gardner for possession of marijuana on federal land. Afterward, Merton Heath demanded they be taken back to their campsite, and Stella could find no reason to hold them. Using the sheriff’s Jeep, Brody had left to drive the group back into the high country.

  Once done with the interviews, Stella had left for the social services office, hoping to consult a caseworker about Gus Tilley. Mattie was worried it meant that Stella was writing him off as a suspect. Though she rarely found herself at odds with Stella’s opinions, she didn’t agree with this one. Sophie’s scent in Tilley’s truck still haunted her.

  Mattie pounded out the last of her report, put the printed copy in the paperwork out tray, and then went to clock out. Sheriff McCoy had ordered the team to take at least a few hours off to sleep as soon as they wrapped up their duties.

  After clocking out, she noticed the massage therapist, Anya Yamamoto, sitting next to Rainbow at the dispatcher’s desk.

  Rainbow waved her over. “Anya’s helping coordinate volunteers. Now that we’ve found the Heath party, we’ve changed the search focus to out beyond the perimeter of Timber Creek, on the county roads leading up into the foothills.”

  A wave of gratitude almost bowled her over. She reached her hand out to the therapist. “Thank you for your help. Our volunteers make all the difference in this type of case.”

  Anya held her hand with a delicate grasp, her fingers gentle. “I hope so. I’m praying we find Dr. Walker’s little girl alive and well.” She held Mattie’s gaze. “You’re exhausted. Could I give you a neck and shoulder massage for a few minutes?”

  “No, thanks.” Mattie pulled her fingers free. “I appreciate the offer, but I’ve got to finish up and go home.”

  “Let me know if you change your mind.”

  Mattie nodded and headed toward the staff office. Her therapist’s assignment to find a local massage therapist—could that discussion have been only a few days ago?—came back to her as she walked through the lobby.

  Maybe Anya after all.

  But such plans seemed inappropriate now, so she dismissed the thought. Beside her desk, Robo had curled up in the middle of his cushion, his tail draped over his feet like a feathery throw. She couldn’t bear to disturb him to go back out again.

  Growing sleepier by the minute, she eased herself down on his bed and wrapped herself around him. He opened one eye for a second and then sighed before going back to sleep. Her mind drifted, entering places she usually kept off limits. Dark places. A small bedroom in the tumbledown shack she’d lived in as a child. Trapped there by a father she feared, the walls closing in on her. She blinked open her eyes and looked around the office.

  You’re safe. Get some rest.

  She dozed, the murmur of voices and activity from the outer office like white noise lulling her to sleep. This place was probably the most comfortable spot for her on earth, one where she felt completely safe. She needed to rest for only a few minutes and then she would drive up to search around the Tilley place on her own time.

  Her cell phone woke her. She didn’t know how long it had been ringing; she’d been sleeping hard, and it took an additional moment to orient to her surroundings. Rising up on one elbow, she scrambled to fish her phone out of her pocket. Robo lifted his head and leaned back against her to stare at her upside down.

  Caller ID told her it was Cole’s office number, and she answered the call. “This is Mattie.”

  “Mattie. This is Tess with Dr. Walker’s office.”

  “How are things there, Tess?”

  “Weird. I just took another call from Gus Tilley, this one even stranger than some of the others. I don’t feel like I can bother Cole with it, but I can’t ignore it either.”

  The cobwebs swept from her brain. “What is it?”

  “He called and said terrorists are in the woods, and the deer are screaming.” Tess paused while the cryptic words made the fine hair at the back of Mattie’s neck tingle. “He said the deer need the doctor’s help, and he wants him to come out right away. This is different from his usual call. Typically, he’s calling about his own animals, and he has a specific concern.”

  “You did the right thing to call me, Tess. I’ll follow up.”

  “Mattie, do you think Gus Tilley could have Sophie, and this is his way of turning her back over to us? Or am I just reaching for a bone here? Maybe my imagination’s getting the best of me.”

  “I don’t know. But it’s worth checking out.” Mattie stood, feeling a tremendous urge to get out there as soon as possible. Robo looked up at her and opened his mouth in a wide, toothy yawn, a squeak coming from the back of his throat. In a hurry to get started, Mattie patted her thigh. He scrambled to his feet and came close where she could hug him against her leg. “I’ll get back to you, Tess. And thanks for calling.”

  With Robo at heel, she strode through the lobby to the sheriff’s office and tapped on the door.

  “Come in.”

  When Mattie opened the door, she saw Stella sitting in one of the two chairs in front of McCoy’s desk while he was finishing up a phone call. Stella pushed the other chair, slanting it a few inches as if inviting her to sit.

  McCoy waved her in as he hung up the phone. “Have a seat, Deputy. I’ve just arranged media coverage with all of the major networks. We’ll be able to broadcast a story about Sophie that should get the general public in the entire region looking for her.”

  Mattie stood at the door, not wanting to waste time. She told them about Tess’s phone call. “I need to go out there. Tilley continues to call into Dr. Walker’s office several times a day trying to contact him. It seems suspicious.”

  Stella frowned. “Sit for a minute. Let me brief you on Tilley’s status.”

  Mattie perched on the edge of a chair with Robo at her side.

  “Gus Tilley was diagnosed with schizophrenia decades ago and has been more or less stable enough on medication to take care of himself,” Stella said. “A relative that used to check in o
n him died a few years back, but she set up a trust that sends him a monthly check. Evidently there was a problem in the system, and those checks stopped for a time. Our county social worker has the information now, and she’ll look into it. But as you already know, his medications have stopped coming too, and that’s the most pressing problem she needs to straighten out first—she’s probably working on it as we speak.”

  “So his condition isn’t stable at this time,” Mattie said.

  “That’s right, but I’ve researched his history and background. There’s no record of previous violence, charges, or arrests. His primary symptom is paranoia, and he has delusions that someone is out to get him. When that happens, he withdraws and isolates himself. Evidently, the recent news reports on television about terrorism have fed into that problem.”

  “Is he safe living at home by himself?” McCoy asked.

  “He’s taking care of his home and his animals, and there’s no reason to suspect he’s a danger to himself or others. Taking him out of his environment for no reason would only make things worse for him.”

  Mattie couldn’t believe he wasn’t a danger to others. “He might have hurt his horse. He might have killed Candace Banks. He might have kidnapped Sophie Walker.”

  Stella studied Mattie for a long moment. “He might have done all that, but there’s no evidence to support it. The evidence tells us he’s a harmless man who’s having a rough time because he’s been without his medicine.” She paused, staring at Mattie, as if to emphasize her point before turning back to McCoy. “That said, under the circumstances, we can’t dismiss this call for help. Did he hear screams inside his own head, or did he really hear a scream in the forest? We have to go check it out.”

  If I have sit here any longer, I’ll scream!

  “Then let’s go.” Mattie stood, shifting her gaze between Stella and the sheriff. It had been twenty minutes since Tess called, and it would take a half hour to drive out to the Tilley place.