Stalking Ground

by Margaret Mizushima

  Mattie played with Robo, looking forward to an evening of drinks and camaraderie with her fellow trainees. She threw the ball and her dog bounded after it, bringing it back with a jaunty step and a proud look on his face. He gave it up readily and backed off, waiting for the next throw with eagerness apparent in his toothy grin. He would retrieve the ball as many times as she could throw it.

  Her cell phone vibrated in her pocket. Pausing, she took it out, noticing the call came from the sheriff’s office in Timber Creek. “This is Deputy Cobb.”

  Chief Deputy Brody’s gravelly voice rumbled through the receiver. “We’ve got a situation here, Cobb. We need you to come back tonight.”

  “What is it?”

  He paused for a split second. “Adrienne has gone missing.”

  Adrienne Howard, Brody’s girlfriend. “She’s missing?”

  “Yes. She disappeared yesterday afternoon. I haven’t seen or heard from her since.”

  Mattie tried to think of what to say next. Brody wouldn’t want to hear it, but Adrienne could have left town on her own. Maybe even to get away from Brody; she doubted that any relationship with the chief deputy could be easy.

  “She’s been missing only twenty-four hours?”

  “Sheriff McCoy authorized filing a missing person’s report, even though it’s a day early. There’s no doubt about her status. When can you get back to Timber Creek?”

  Mattie didn’t share his certainty, but there was nothing she could do about it. “I have one more debriefing and then I’ll leave. I should be back in about five hours.”

  “ETA at seven o’clock this evening, then?”

  “Yes.”

  “Come right to the station. The sheriff or I will be here.”

  “Affirmative. See you then.”

  “And Cobb . . . thanks. We need your help on this one.”

  “Sure, Brody.”

  She disconnected the call, reflecting on the strain she’d heard in Brody’s voice. He really was infatuated with the woman. She hoped he wasn’t in for a big letdown. Right now, she’d bet that Adrienne Howard had run away from him. Even though Brody wasn’t on her best-friends list, she’d hate to see him brokenhearted.

  Chapter 2

  Cole Walker, DVM, tied the last knot, picked the scissors out of the stainless steel tray his daughter Angela was holding for him, and snipped the suture. He leaned back on his heels and inspected the neat row of stitches he’d placed on the horse’s leg.

  “Thanks, Angel,” he said, using the nickname he’d given his fifteen-year-old daughter when she was a toddler. “Now could you get that blue wrap from the counter?”

  She turned away to retrieve it.

  “This wound is superficial,” Cole told the owner, Garrett Hartman. “It should heal well, though it’s likely to leave a scar.”

  The craggy rancher pushed his Stetson back on his head. “That’s okay. This fella works cows, not the show circuit.”

  The quarter horse gelding stood steady and quiet in the stocks, a metal stanchion designed to hold horses while they were being worked on. His dark bay coat glistened in the overhead light that Angela had switched on as the sunlight waned. After dinner, she’d come out to the clinic to help Cole with this emergency while his youngest, eight-year-old Sophie, stayed at home with their new housekeeper, Molly Gibbs. Since his attempts at day help had all been tremendous failures, Cole was trying something new: a live-in housekeeper. He was desperate for this new arrangement to work out.

  Angela handed him the wrap, her fingers pale and thin against the blue elastic bandage. She reminded him of his ex-wife, willowy and blonde, while his youngest took after him, sturdy and brunette.

  “Leave this bandage on for two days and then take it off to check the wound. If it looks clean, you can apply an ointment that I’ll give you and rewrap it. If you’re concerned about how it looks, give me a call, but I don’t think you’ll have any problems with it.” Cole rolled the bandage over a gauze pad he’d placed on top of the sutures. “How’s Leslie doing these days?”

  Cole noticed that Angela watched Garrett, awaiting his answer. He and his wife Leslie were the parents of one of her best friends, Grace, a girl who’d been murdered a few months ago.

  Garrett cleared his throat. “She’s doing as well as can be expected, I guess. We’re awful lonely. You could come out and see us sometime, Angie, if you want.”

  The girl nodded. “I’d like that. Maybe tomorrow after school?”

  “Sure, I’ll tell Leslie.”

  “Can Mrs. Gibbs take me and Sophie out together, Dad?”

  “Okay,” Cole said. “Would it be all right for Sophie to visit too, Garrett?”

  Lines crinkled the weathered skin around the corners of Garrett’s light blue eyes. It did Cole’s heart good to see his friend smile, something lacking the last few times they’d visited.

  “Sure,” Garrett said. “Leslie will be glad to see both you girls.”

  Angela ran a hand down the gelding’s back and then used her fingers to rub in a circular motion along each side of his spine. Cole recognized the technique Adrienne Howard had taught her for relaxing the muscles that connected to the vertebrae. The gelding’s eyelids drooped as he visibly melted under her touch.

  Although many owners across the country were using therapeutic massage to help rehabilitate performance horses with strained muscles and injuries, Cole had to wonder if it would ever catch on with the ranchers around Timber Creek. Adrienne seemed dedicated to learning and practicing these specialized techniques, and she’d been willing to work at no charge, so several of Cole’s clients had offered their horses to help enhance her training. Only time would tell if she could turn her volunteer work into a form of income.

  “Dad, what did you find out about Adrienne?” Angela asked as she continued to massage the gelding. “Did you call her work?”

  “Yeah. The lady I talked to said they don’t know where she is.”

  “What’s this about?” Garrett asked.

  “Adrienne Howard. She works and lives out at Valley Vista hot springs. She’s a massage therapist the kids and I met about a month ago. She’s been coming to the clinic to practice massage on horses.”

  “She was supposed to come this afternoon, but she didn’t show,” Angela said.

  “Maybe she forgot,” Garrett said. “I seem to do a lot of that lately.”

  Cole shook his head. “I doubt it. She had several appointments, and it’s not like her to miss them.”

  “There’s no reason for concern, is there?” Garrett said.

  But Cole could read the concern in his friend’s eyes anyway. And why wouldn’t he worry? After what happened to Grace, they all did. “I don’t know what to think. Anya, the therapist I talked to, told me Adrienne worked yesterday morning at the hot springs, business as usual. She was scheduled to have the afternoon off, but she didn’t come home last night. I don’t know . . . maybe she just decided to take off. People do that sometimes.”

  “I’d sure be worried,” Garrett said with a frown.

  “Apparently her coworkers notified the sheriff’s office that she’s missing.”

  “Have you called Mattie to ask her what’s going on?” Angela asked.

  “No, Mattie’s in Denver today at a training exercise. She’ll be back tomorrow. I’ll check in with her then.”

  “We need to do something before tomorrow, Dad.” Angela’s tone sounded reproachful, nothing new to Cole. He’d had a hard time pleasing his eldest lately.

  “I’m sure the sheriff’s office is taking care of things,” Cole said, hoping that would put her mind at ease.

  But Garrett wasn’t ready to rest easy either. “What if she’s the victim of foul play, like our Grace? We need to see how we can help find this lady. I’ll call the sheriff’s office and see if he wants to mobilize the sheriff’s posse to search for her.”

  Cole had joined the sheriff’s posse himself after Grace’s death last summer. The group of mounted volunte
ers helped with crowd control at county events and rodeos, as well as search and rescue in the local wilderness area.

  Angela was giving Cole a look that he found irritating. “It’s a big country we’ve got here,” he said, trying to explain. “I don’t know where we’d start to look. Maybe Adrienne decided to leave town on her own. We don’t know yet if she’s truly missing.”

  “Well, we’ve got to do something to find out. We can’t just sit around and wait,” Angela said.

  “We might not have a choice.” Cole finished wrapping the gelding’s leg and stood. “I tell you what. I’ll call Sheriff McCoy and see if they know anything yet. Why don’t you go ahead and load this guy, Garrett. Maybe by then we’ll have some answers.”

  Cole released the end of the stocks and swung the side bar wide, so Garrett could back the gelding out. Its shod hooves scraped the concrete floor as it moved out of the equine treatment room. Angela followed Garrett and the horse outside, leaving Cole alone as he pulled out his cell phone and scrolled to the sheriff’s office phone number. The trouble with drug traffic through town last summer had made him cautious, and he’d placed both Deputy Mattie Cobb and the sheriff’s office on his contact list.

  A woman answered the phone. “Timber Creek County Sheriff.”

  Cole identified himself. “I’m a friend of Adrienne Howard’s, and I’m worried about her. I’m wondering if I could talk to Sheriff McCoy.”

  After only a brief time on hold, Cole recognized the sheriff’s voice immediately. Its deep, rich timbre was unmistakable. “Hello, Cole. I understand you’re calling about Adrienne Howard.”

  Cole explained the relationship he had with Adrienne and how she’d missed her appointment earlier in the day. “The kids and I are worried about her, so I thought I’d call and see if anything had changed.”

  The sheriff hesitated, as if choosing his words carefully. “We’re taking her absence seriously, Cole. I’m concerned enough that I’ve authorized a missing person’s report.”

  “I don’t know Adrienne very well, but it seemed out of character for her not to show up today. Is there anything I can do?”

  “What time were you expecting her?”

  “At three o’clock. She schedules horse clients at my clinic.”

  “That’s good to know. We need to interview people who worked with Adrienne. Can you make a list of clients that she’s seen in the past few weeks? We’ll need names and phone numbers.”

  “We have some confidentiality issues that would prohibit me from doing that, but I’ll do my best. Angie and I can make a list tonight and get permission for you to call. I don’t anticipate any problems with that. We’ll have it for you as soon as possible.”

  Garrett and Angela came back into the treatment room, Garrett’s eyes searching out Cole’s. The grief that lingered in his friend’s face caused an icy tingle to run up Cole’s spine, giving him a bad feeling.

  “I have Garrett Hartman here at the clinic with me, Sheriff. If you get a lead that calls for a search party, let us know and we’ll activate the posse.” Cole hesitated but decided to go ahead and ask. “When do you expect Deputy Cobb to return?”

  “She’s on her way right now. We expect her around seven.”

  It seemed odd, but knowing Mattie would return soon made him feel a little better.

  Cole said good-bye and disconnected the call. He shared the details he’d gleaned from the sheriff with Garrett and Angela. Anxiety pinched his daughter’s face. She’d formed a bond with Adrienne while they worked together here at the clinic. Angie had been through a lot lately. First his divorce, then Grace’s death, and now this. The strain was beginning to show.

  “Come here, Angie,” Cole said, sheltering her under his arm and bringing her close for a one-arm hug. “The sheriff wants us to make a list of Adrienne’s clients. That gives us something we can do to help.”

  “You and your sister are still welcome to come out after school tomorrow,” Garrett told her.

  Angela nodded. “Tell Leslie hello for me.”

  Garrett’s face lightened somewhat. “I surely will. She’ll be happy to hear from you. I’d better get on the road now.”

  Cole and Angela followed him outside and watched him drive away, down the lane that led past the house and then out to the highway. Cole put his arm around Angela’s shoulders while they stood, and she seemed to take comfort from the gesture.

  “Let’s clean up and get started on that list. I need to call everyone before we turn it over to the sheriff, and I’d like to get it to him tonight.”

  “Okay.”

  As Cole followed her into the clinic, he thanked his lucky stars that his own daughters were here with him, safe at home. If he lost one of them, the way the Hartmans had lost their Grace, it would kill him. The girls’ mother had checked out of their lives last spring and seemed to have turned her back on them. He still couldn’t understand what Liv was thinking. He may never. Didn’t she know what she was doing to her kids?

  While he cleaned up the treatment room, he thought of Adrienne. She was dedicated to her profession and was a bundle of energy. Did she have a mother that worried about her? A father? He knew very little about the woman except that she was kind, caring, and had a gift for easing tight muscles in people and horses.

  He hoped that everything would be all right and that someone would hear from her soon.

  Chapter 3

  Shortly before seven, Mattie drove past the lane that led to Cole’s clinic. The new Ford Explorer the county had purchased for the K-9 unit had eaten up the miles between Denver and Timber Creek, so she’d made excellent time. She glanced down the lane but could see nothing, shrubs and trees blocking her view of both the house and the vet clinic. The property felt familiar. Since meeting Cole Walker and his daughters last August, they’d become friends.

  She started to call Cole to tell him she was back in town but decided that would be silly. Although they shared dinner once in a while and spent occasional evenings sitting on his front porch with his kids—watching Robo and the Walkers’ dog, Belle, play and talking about everything from dogs to stars and constellations—it wasn’t like they were a couple or anything. Nothing like that. They were friends; that was all.

  Mattie wished she’d been able to at least catch a glimpse of him.

  Within minutes, she pulled up in front of the Timber Creek County Sheriff’s Department, parked her SUV, and unloaded Robo from the back. He’d slept most of the way, and now he trotted beside her at heel, waving his tail, fresh and sassy. She, on the other hand, felt like it had been a very long, hot day. She wished she had time to go home and shower, but it couldn’t be helped. She’d promised Brody seven o’clock, and now she would deliver.

  She was surprised to see Rainbow sitting at the dispatcher’s desk. Her shift should have ended hours ago. Relief crossed the dispatcher’s face when Mattie and Robo came through the front door.

  “Oh, Mattie,” Rainbow said, quick tears welling, her voice almost breathless. She brushed a strand of blonde hair back away from her face. “Thank goodness you’re here. I know you were supposed to have the weekend off, but we need you. Adrienne disappeared, and I think something bad has happened to her. You know how you get that feeling in your gut sometimes, that feeling of dread? Well, I’ve had it all day. You know what I mean, don’t you?” Rainbow paused for a breath, searching Mattie’s face with reddened eyes.

  Rainbow had made friends with the hot springs crowd early last summer, and evidently she’d become close friends with Adrienne Howard.

  “I know what you mean,” Mattie said. “But why do you feel that way? Maybe she’s just decided to leave town for the weekend, to take a break.”

  Rainbow shook her head. “No, Adrienne would never do that. She would never go away without telling someone—she knows we’d worry. Besides, she loves her life. She was unhappy before she came here, but she loves what she’s doing.” Rainbow glanced at Brody’s office, and Mattie followed her gaze. His door wa
s closed. Rainbow continued in a near whisper. “She loves Deputy Brody, too. She would never leave him. He’s about to go crazy with worry, you know.”

  “What do you think happened to her?”

  “We don’t know.” Rainbow’s voice caught. “I think she went on a hike yesterday afternoon and something happened. Maybe she fell or twisted her ankle.”

  Brody’s door opened and he came through it. “Cobb. How long have you been here?”

  Mattie couldn’t believe how bad Brody looked. Shadow darkened his unshaven jaw, and his icy blue eyes appeared bloodshot and tired. She guessed he’d not slept since Adrienne failed to show up last evening. “I just got in.”

  Brody started toward the briefing room. “Come with me. Rainbow, notify the sheriff that I’m starting to brief Deputy Cobb.”

  “I will,” Rainbow said, reaching for the phone. “Do you want him to come back to the station?”

  “That’s his decision. He told me to let him know when Cobb arrived.”

  “Got it.”

  “He went home for dinner,” Brody said to Mattie as she followed him into the briefing room, Robo at heel. Her dog seemed to love that heeling position, the lesson they’d reinforced during the training exercise today, and he chose to stick by her side without being told.

  The dry-erase board had been wheeled to the front of the room, an eight-by-ten blow-up of what looked like Adrienne’s driver’s license photo posted at the top. Mattie recognized her: pretty face, blonde shoulder-length hair, gray eyes, and a happy smile. She also recognized Brody’s handwriting on the board. He’d summarized the investigation to date. Evidently, he didn’t share her suspicion that Adrienne left town of her own free will, and it was obvious that Rainbow didn’t either. And both of them knew the woman much better than she did.