by Mary Hiker
“Keep your radios turned down real low so she doesn’t hear radio traffic echoing across these fields. It might sound like the police to her,” I said.
The three of us grabbed our radios in unison and lowered the volume. I pulled out my larger pack from the bed of my truck and stuffed a small thermos of soup and an extra jacket inside. Don took notice and turned to the other searcher.
“If you find her, put a coat on her to start warming her up and call for help right away,” he said.
The man nodded in agreement.
I let Chevy out of the truck and he romped around greeting Don and the other searcher. He was not a search dog and was not here to function as one. Chevy was this little girl’s friend and our hope was that seeing him would keep her from running away from us if we found her.
I grabbed Chevy’s box of tennis balls and dumped most of them into a bucket to lighten the load. When Chevy saw the box, I had his full attention.
“Hey Chevy, where’s Anna?” I asked. “Want to play ball with Anna?”
My dog looked around just like he did at her house the night before. Snowflakes started to stick to the top of his head and he gave an excited bark.
Don and I walked out into the next pasture, in the same direction that the footprint appeared to be headed. I shook the box as we walked and said, “Chevy, let’s play ball with Anna!”
He ran in a big circle, barking, then jumped up reaching his nose toward the box of balls.
“We have to find Anna to play,” I said, and swung the box away from him while we marched across the pasture, looking for little tennis shoe prints as we went.
The ground was mostly covered with grass, but there were some patches of dirt that could have captured a footprint had she come through. The snow was starting to stick and would cover any chance of seeing prints in the dirt before long.
Don and I kept a distance between us, searching for clues as we headed in the same general direction across the field toward our search area. Chevy romped back and forth between us, and every so often I shook his box of tennis balls and mentioned Anna’s name.
Every one of my senses was on high alert. My eyes scanned the ground looking for clues and cut back and forth across the distance looking for any movement or something out of place.
Normally, I would’ve called out Anna’s name and listened for a response. But with a child afraid of responders, that could’ve just caused her to hide. My ears were alert for any sounds that may come from a little girl’s voice or a rustling of branches from movement in the woods. There was nothing.
I was conscious of the smell of nature and any other scent that might come with the soft breeze. Perhaps smoke from a small fire, the smell of urine or feces, or anything that might give us a clue to help find this girl.
I knelt down and touched a small broken branch lying on the ground. It was possible that a seven-year-old girl could have cracked it by stepping on the dry wood as she walked through here, but it was hard to tell. I felt the cold ground under my knee and was reminded that it was getting way too cold out here for a child, even with a winter jacket. I got up and brushed the dead grass from my knees and kept moving forward.
Don and I crossed paths as we reached the wooded area on the far side of the pasture. His winter hat and the shoulders of his navy blue jacket were dotted with a few flakes of snow. He checked the time on his cell phone and said, “How long do you think she can make it out in this cold?”
“She’s pretty tough,” I said as I adjusted the pack on my back and hoped what I said was true.
“Right, I’ll run the edge of this woods line and see if I can find any tracks. You can start working this area,” Don said as he pulled a topo map from his jacket pocket and drew a circle that corresponded to woodlands in front of us.
As I entered the woods with Chevy behind me, I noticed there was very little underbrush, and Anna could have walked through it in most any direction. Chevy bounded ahead and disappeared for a couple minutes, returning with great exuberance. He ran up and rubbed against my legs, getting the very bottom of my pants soaking wet. True to his retriever roots, he had found some shallow water and walked right through it.
I quickly found a small creek, about three inches deep running through the woods. I scanned the edge of the bank in both directions and my eye caught evidence of fresh shoe prints next to the water. My heart first leapt, then sank.
The tiny tracks went in one side of the creek and came out the other. We were working in the right area, but Anna’s feet were probably wet, making time even more critical with the cold weather. I took a tennis ball out of the box and tossed it to Chevy. “Anna wants to play ball,” I said as I hurried in the direction the footprints, kicking up dead leaves with each step.
I quietly took the radio out of my pocket and gave Don my location in a soft voice. I stood silently for a moment listening for any sound. There was nothing but Chevy rustling the leaves as he trotted through the woods. As I debated whether to call out for Anna, I took a minute to look in all directions around me.
Out in front of me and to the right, I barely saw the tip of Chevy’s golden furry tail sticking out from behind a big log, wagging as hard as it would go. He found something he likes, I thought, and wondered what type of forest animal he was bothering. Or, Could it be?
Then I heard it. A little soft voice said, “Chevy!”
I turned the volume all the way down on my radio and hurried over to Chevy’s wagging tail. As I looked over the downed log and Chevy’s back, I found Anna crouched down on a pile of branches hugging Chevy’s neck and sobbing.
She was tucked in under a cove of small branches that had been lined up against part of the log to create a little bit of shelter. Chevy’s wagging tail had already knocked down a few of the branches.
I was relieved to see that she was wearing Austin’s white winter hat for warmth, but her body shivered under her clothes. An oversized white sweatshirt sporting a familiar black skull covered her little blue jacket. The sweatshirt was so big on her that the sleeves covered her hands and its bottom reached the ground like a long dress. I noticed the edge of the sweatshirt was wet from the creek.
“Hey Anna, wanna play ball with Chevy?” I asked as I held out the familiar box of tennis balls.
“Okay,” she said softly, and tried to wipe away her tears.
“I brought you some warm clothes,” I said, and sat down on the log beside her. “Let’s trade my jacket for the sweatshirt, but we’ll keep your jacket on though, okay? We’ll just put my jacket over the top of yours.”
She took off her top layer sweatshirt, and I took off my jacket, warmed by body heat, and wrapped it around her, pulling the over-sized hood over her hat. “That looks good on you!” I said as I put my gloves on her cold hands and Chevy snuggled beside her.
She gave me a smile.
“Do you like chicken noodle soup?” I asked and pulled the thermos out of my pack and unscrewed the cup.
She nodded her head and sat up.
“Good, drink some of this and it will help you warm up,” I said as I poured out a cupful of warm soup and sat down next to her to create some additional body heat. Chevy and I had her cuddled in between us, like a little Anna sandwich.
While she gulped down the soup, I dug through my pack for the jacket I had packed inside, and put it on, feeling the chill of the cold material until it warmed with my body. I stuffed Anna’s wet sweatshirt in its place to carry it out.
“I like your little cave here, where’d you learn how to make it?” I asked.
“Papa taught me,” she said. Her chin quivered as she looked up at her handiwork.
“Anna, I know you trust Chevy. Right?” I asked.
She nodded and hugged him tight.
“Can you trust me too?”
“Okay,” she said.
“Your Papa is worried about you,” I said. “Can I call him and tell him to come pick us up on his four-wheeler?” I asked, my hand resting on the radio in
my pants pocket.
Her little face crinkled up and she started crying uncontrollably. I put my arm around her shoulders and said, “You’re not in any trouble, Anna. We just want you to be warm and safe.”
“But they’ll arrest me like they did Austin,” she sobbed. “My cousin said the computer stick had the power to get him arrested.”
“Did Austin give you the plastic computer stick?” I carefully controlled my tone.
She shook her head no as Chevy licked away the tears streaming down her face.
“I found it on the front steps in his hat,” she said as she touched the mini pocket on the side of the trapper hat.
“Well guess what, the police think you’re a hero and they’re not going to arrest you. In fact, I’m going to tell you a little secret,” I said. I leaned over and whispered in her ear, “They’re planning to give you an award for saving your Papa’s life the other day.”
Her eyes got big and the tears stopped flowing. “They are?” she whispered.
I nodded my head in agreement. “Even your friend, Ace the search dog, is going to be there. You don’t want to miss that, do you?”
A big grin broke out across her face as the over-sized white hat fell down over her eyes.
I gripped my radio, turned up the volume and slowly brought it to my mouth.
“Ground team one to command,” I said.
“Go ahead ground team one.”
“We have a B-200.” I gave the code for ‘subject found and able to move, but needs assistance’.
“Ten-four on a B-200,” they answered with cheers in the background. “We have an ambulance on stand-by and a four-wheeler on the way.”
“Ten-four. Don has our location,” I said.
I helped Anna stand up and said, ”Jump on my back little friend and I’ll carry you to the pasture piggy-back style.”
As I walked through the woods with her on my back, it felt as though the weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders.
Chapter 13
Once I handed Anna off to her grandfather and the paramedics, I had a chance to sit down on a fold-out chair under a canopy near the command post and grab something to eat. As I rummaged through my pack for a snack, I glanced up to see the three men that were partying during the other search sitting in their truck.
“Here’s some nabs,” Don said as he handed me a package of peanut butter crackers from his pack and sat in the chair next to me.
“I see the entire family is here again,” I nodded toward the trio of men and the biggest one waved back at us.
“At least they’re concerned this time around.” Don said. “They’re planning to head over to the hospital to pick up Anna when she’s released.”
I popped the first cracker in my mouth, and one of the guys from the command team brought a big bag of hot dogs out to us. “We’ll debrief after you have a chance to eat,” he said.
I looked through my pack to grab a bottle of water when I saw Anna’s sweatshirt stuffed inside. I pulled it out and held it up so Don could see it.
“So that’s the infamous skull artwork,” he said.
As I bent over and laid it out on the grass in front of us, stretching the sleeves to the side, Don’s words echoed in the back of my mind. Something struck a chord, and I suddenly felt like I might pass out.
“Oh no,” I whispered, and dropped my head into my hands.
“Avery. What is it? You look pale,” Don said.
I just shook my head. “I made a huge mistake.”
“What is it?” he asked again as he put down his bottle of water.
“Look at this artwork,” I said.
“A black skull,” he said.
“Yea, a meticulously STENCILED black skull,” I agreed. “Remember all those stencils and paint in Miss Brenda’s craft room?”
“Okay,” Don said, squishing his eyebrows together.
“The black skull on the sweatshirt the shooter wore at the school was spray painted by free hand.” I said as I touched the design on the sweatshirt.
Don looked off in the distance. “Hmm. Travis said the kid that shot at him had a shirt with a skull design that looked like it was hand drawn,” he said.
I grabbed the collar of the sweatshirt and looked at the tag. It was an adult’s size Large.
“Don, the sweatshirt the school shooter wore was way too big on him to be a size large,” I said.
I tried to remember the exact words Anna used when she answered my questions about the USB drive. “Anna said Austin was arrested, and her cousin had told her it could get him arrested…. I had assumed she was talking about the same person. “
“You’re babbling,” Don said.
“Listen, Anna has another cousin.” I glanced up at the artist sitting in the truck with the two older men. “The same young man that sat in front lawn drawing pictures during the search for Mr. Leeder.”
“And?” Don urged.
“I think Anna might have been actually telling me that – Austin was arrested, and she overheard the cousin, the artist, say it could get him, meaning Austin, arrested. That’s why she hid it, to help Austin.”
I looked over at the trio sitting in the truck, and they stared back.
“You think it’s a set up?” Don asked.
“Maybe. She found Austin’s hat on the porch outside, with the USB conveniently tucked inside the pocket for someone to discover. What if they set it up for deputies to find it after a school shooting tragedy? But Anna found it first.” My mind was racing and anger rose up inside of me.
“We can ask Anna when the paramedics release her,” Don said.
“Don, someone shot at me and I’m going to find out if this young artist draws skulls by freehand,” I said. I grabbed the sweatshirt and waved it in the air for the three men to see, then walked determinedly up the long driveway directly toward their truck.
I heard Don call from behind me, “Avery, don’t.”
It was too late. The biggest one revved up the motor and hit the gas, driving straight toward me. I stared them down as they approached, but my presence did not intimidate them in the least.
As the truck roared toward me, I closed my eyes and dove out of the way, hearing gunshots as I rolled on the ground. Don shot two of their tires out at close range and the truck limped down the road before several deputies boxed it in.
I jogged over to the scene as the guys were dragged from the truck and put face down on the pavement. One of the big guys yelled out, ”I had nothing to do with it!”
I threw the sweatshirt down on the road and yelled, “Prove it!”
“They wanted the land,” he cried as a deputy knelt on his back.
“Shut up,” the biggest one growled, then spat at him.
The young one rested the side of his head on the road as the deputies cuffed him, revealing an orange flame design on the side of his black sunglasses.
Don and I looked at each other, stunned.
“You might want to check for evidence regarding the school shooting this morning,” I told the officer arresting the kid, before being asked to back away from the scene for my own safety.
I took his advice and trotted over to the side of the road next to Don. “Did that whole thing really just happen?” I asked.
“Yeah, you almost got killed by those fools twice in the same day. You’ve really got to stop with your wanna-be detective routine,” Don chuckled.
###
I rested under the search and rescue canopy watching the bag of hot dogs get cold until Don returned from the chaos out in the road.
“Geez Avery, you sure have some great intuition,” he said. “One of them is rolling over on the other two. Turns out, the big one put his kid up to the whole thing.”
“Not the father of the year, I take it.”
“Not by a long shot. The artist kid uploaded the drawings and DNA test to the USB drive and spray painted a black skull on his Dad’s white hoodie, creating our local sniper.” Don said. “The big guy
didn’t want Austin to get any land rights since he wasn’t a blood relative, so they set him up figuring he’d get kicked out of Grandpa’s will.”
“How did Austin end up with all that money from the Biltmore’s?” I asked.
“The artist kid told Austin it was from the lottery, and asked him to hide it because he wasn’t supposed to play,” Don said. “And get this, the big guy dropped Austin off near school this morning, but made sure to delay his arrival. That’s why Austin was walking out on the road when we nabbed him.”
“So, does Austin even know he was adopted?” I asked.
“Not yet, but I’m sure he’ll find out now.”
Chapter 14
The best party in town had just come to a close. Cameras clicked away as Anna handed out take-home paper bags filled with candy. Helium filled balloons tethered to the barn stalls floated in the air around us as did the excited chatter of ten happy children as they left her eighth birthday party.
It had been a challenge to set up a kid’s party at the sanctuary, but everything fell into place when we turned part of the barn into a play area. The kids spent the last two hours jumping in piles of hay, throwing the ball for Chevy and watching the new calf nurse from its mama.
“You may have a calling as a children’s party planner, Avery.” Miss Brenda said as she took a big bite of Miss Millie’s famous chocolate cake.
“Only if it involves animals, because entertaining all these kids wore me out,” I chuckled.
Anna’s grandfather came over and gave me a big hug. “All the visitors are gone, are you ready, Avery?”
“I can’t wait,” I said as I rubbed my hands together and got ahold of Chevy.
He waved for Austin to stand next to him, then called out to his granddaughter, “Anna, come tell Avery good-bye.”
The earflaps on her trapper hat flopped up and down as she ran across the dirt floor of the barn. “Thanks Avery, this was the best birthday of my life!” she said, and clasped her hands together.
I knelt down next to Chevy and looked directly into Anna’s eyes. “Chevy has a special favor to ask of you,” I said as we both petted his soft fur.