“What is?”
“If I didn’t know that you were wearing a gun, I never would have guessed that you had one under your jacket. You can’t even tell.”
“That means I’m doing something right.”
“Are the two of you ready yet?” Julian’s voice echoed down the hall.
“Keep your pants on, Ace! We’ll be right there!” Patrick smiled at Jack. “We better get out there before he comes back here to get us. Don’t tell him I have the gun?”
“I won’t.” Jack put his hand on Patrick’s uninjured shoulder and gently pushed him toward the door. When they got to the front door, Julian was waiting for them with Robot sitting at his feet. “Hey, Jitterbug, ready to go?”
“I was waiting for the two of you.” Julian narrowed his eyes at them. “What were you doing?”
“I was helping Patrick get his jacket on. He was having problems with the sleeves.” Jack was impressed with his answer. It was entirely plausible and, best of all, it was partially true.
“Why aren’t you wearing your sling?”
“It will be in the way on a search, Ace. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.” Patrick patted his cheek and headed out the door. Julian watched him go with a small frown on his face. The frown made Jack smile; he thought that Julian looked cute when he was angry.
“He really should be wearing his sling.”
“Let it go, Jitterbug. He’s stressing over Hallie.”
“We all are, but you and I aren’t jeopardizing our health.”
Jack laughed softly and pulled Julian into his arms. He pressed a gentle kiss to his lover’s neck. “He’ll be fine. We’ll make sure that he puts it on the moment we get home.”
Julian snorted in apparent disbelief and then headed out of the house after Patrick. Smiling to himself, Jack hurried to catch up, Robot following close on his heels. Jack locked up and followed the two of them to the truck. By the time he got there, both Patrick and Julian were leaning against it, waiting for him. Instead of leaning against the metal of the truck, Julian was resting against Patrick, with Patrick’s cheek pressed to the top of his head. Jack shook his head at the pair. Sometimes they reminded him of two little kids.
After getting everyone, including Robot, settled in the truck, Jack drove them to the rec center. He had a hard time finding parking. It seemed as though most of the town had shown up to volunteer for the search. Jack finally found a spot, though, and then they all trooped into the rec center. Officer Keyes met them at the door.
Jack gave her a tight smile. “Roxanne.”
“Jack. The two of them with you?”
“Yep.”
“Okay, go and see Officer Hanson. He’ll assign you a grid.”
“Thanks.” Jack scanned the rather full hall, looking for a familiar shock of honey-blond hair. Finally spotting it, Jack led the way to Officer Hanson.
Officer Nathan Hanson was fairly new to the force, having only lived in the town for the last two years. He was a good example of the saying “built like a brick house.” The tall blond was solid muscle, and Jack had seen his mere presence break up fights at Brenda’s. He looked up, and his hazel eyes brightened slightly as he spotted Jack. Jack had been the first person that the then-twenty-four-year-old had met. Realizing that they had quite a few things in common, they had quickly become friends.
“Hey, Jack, glad you made it.”
Jack shook the hand that was extended to him. “I wish we didn’t have to be here at all.” Jack turned slightly and motioned for Patrick to move closer. “Nathan, I’d like you to meet—”
“Holy shit! Patrick!” The large man pushed Jack out of the way and pulled a rather stunned-looking Patrick into a hug. “What are you doing here?”
“Recuperating, so it would be great if you would let go of me,” Patrick replied dryly.
Nathan blushed and let him go. “Sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Sorry to break up the reunion,” Jack interjected. “But how do the two of you know each other?”
“I wouldn’t mind knowing that, either,” a new voice commented. Jack tried to contain his amusement as Brad walked up and situated himself against Patrick’s side. A smile broke free of his control as Patrick automatically wrapped an arm around Brad and pulled him close.
“Nathan’s father is my captain. Nathan did his rookie training with Justine while I was in the hospital.” Patrick smiled at the other man. “When your father said that you had moved to Alberta, I had just assumed that you ended up in Calgary or Edmonton.”
“Nope, I came here. It’s a nice place.”
“So, what exactly are we supposed to do?” Julian asked. “I’ve never been part of a search before.”
Jack pulled his lover close, feeling the fine tremor that ran through the slender frame. Julian wasn’t exactly known for his ease with handling stress unless there was a scalpel in his hand, and he was fond of Hallie. In all honesty, the entire town was fond of Hallie, which would explain why so many of them had shown up to help.
“Well, here’s a map of the grid section that you will be searching.” Nathan handed Jack a map with a clearly marked area on it. “These three going to be searching with you?”
“Most likely.” Jack pulled Julian against his side and pressed a kiss to his lover’s hair. Jack grinned into the messy hair as he noticed the look that Brad was giving Nathan. He’d never seen the bartender look jealous before. It was an interesting look on him.
“This is going to be a simple search. Here’s your radio.” Nathan handed Jack a radio marked with a piece of masking tape that had the number seventeen on it. He also handed him a bag with evidence flags. “You’re search group number seventeen. Use the radio to call in anything that you find and mark what you find with the evidence flag. When you’ve covered your area, radio in that you’re done, and then head on back here. There will be an officer here, most likely me, making sure that everything stays organized.” He winced, obviously wishing he were a bigger part of the action. “Sucks being the rookie.”
“Got it. Thanks, Nathan.”
“Not a problem.” Nathan shook Jack’s hand. Jack stumbled slightly as he was pulled closer to the larger man. “You find someone with that little girl, let Patrick take the shot. I know you can handle yourself, but he’s a good shot and has more experience with shooting at people than you do.”
“Okay.” Jack gave Patrick a brief look and realized that he had moved Brad so he would be able to pull his gun if he needed to. Brad was still against his side, but he was against the side with the gun instead of the arm that Patrick would need to pull it. Jack gave Nathan one more nod and then turned his full attention to the men with him. “Okay, campers, ready to go?”
They had just made it back to the truck when Julian stopped, slinging his backpack into the bed, and turned around. Jack followed his gaze to see Roz and her friend Marianne stashing their gear in Roz’s Silverado. He waved them over. “You ladies going out alone?”
Roz gave him an unimpressed look. “We’re not going alone. We’re going together. Besides, the smaller the groups, the more area we can cover.” She held up the map. “We’re missing enough ground as it is.”
Jack understood, but Julian looked squirmy. He wasn’t very good at letting people do dangerous things, especially when one of those people was his sister. “What area have you got?” he asked before Julian could open his mouth and put his foot in it. The last thing he needed was to have to break up a fight between the siblings.
“Eleven.” Marianne took the map from Roz and unfolded it. “Pinecrest Cemetery to Road Forty-Two. Not a whole lot there. Trees. Rocks. Trees.”
“There’s a stream too,” Brad put in. Everyone turned to look at him. “What? It’s up by my grandmother’s place. I used to play in those woods for hours when I was a kid. I know them like the back of my hand. Trust me, there’s a stream.”
“I believe you,” Roz said, smiling.
Julian and Patrick bot
h looked at Jack. He squeezed Julian’s hand and nodded at Patrick, thinking that if Patrick didn’t want Julian to know he was carrying a gun, he really wouldn’t want Brad to find out.
Roz’s smile turned slightly evil. Whoops. Without even realizing it, Jack had just thrown Brad to the wolves. “Why don’t you come with us?” she said. “You know the area, and we could probably use an extra set of eyes.”
“Meanwhile, Roz can ask you all kinds of inappropriate personal questions,” Jack said with a touch of devious cheer.
“Me and my big mouth,” Brad over-acted. “All right, that sounds like a plan.” He didn’t exactly look happy about leaving Patrick, Jack noticed. For the first time, that made him wonder. Patrick only had a couple of weeks left in Alberta—how the hell was Brad going to react then?
Patrick, on the other hand, was trying not to look too relieved and mostly succeeding. Jack worried about that too.
Patrick kissed Brad quickly. Jack noticed that he didn’t let the other man close enough to feel the gun underneath his jacket. “I’ll see you tonight?”
“If we’re lucky.” Brad smiled. “Be safe. Don’t get shot again.”
“No promises,” Patrick said dryly. “Come on, we’d better get moving.”
“We don’t even know what we’re looking for,” Jack pointed out when they’d reached their designated part of the grid. He sounded completely frustrated, and they hadn’t even begun.
Patrick didn’t blame him. He wasn’t exactly an expert on how to track people’s movements through a forest, himself. They didn’t even know for certain if Hallie was in the forest somewhere, or if she was still alive, or if she’d been kidnapped, or had just gotten lost.
There was no starting point. No leads. No scent trail now for the dogs to pick up, not after all that rain.
Statistically, most missing children who were found—alive—were found within the first twenty-four hours. Hallie was edging in on fifteen hours, and there was no sign of her, no suspects, and no clues.
“We are looking for a terrified little girl,” Julian reminded him, squinting into the over-bright morning. He shifted the pack on his back—stocked with food, water, medical supplies, and the GPS Nathan had given them—and headed into the tree line.
They were far from the only people out on this search. Half the town was out, doing everything they could think of from sending out flyers to nearby communities, to patrolling highways, to going door-to-door asking people if anyone had seen Hallie Klein.
At Jack’s knee, Robot whuffed, wagged her tail a little forlornly, and set off after Julian. She seemed to have picked up on her masters’ subdued moods and was sticking close, nudging hands and knees, herding the three of them together.
Patrick shrugged his shoulder, trying to unknot some of the tension. He would never have admitted it aloud, but his holster was kind of chafing at the freshly healing skin. Jack gave him a knowing look as they headed into the vegetation.
It was a sunny day, but you wouldn’t have known that from the temperature or the consistency of the dirt underfoot. The trees blocked out most of the light, meaning the previous night’s rain was still muddying the ground, causing Patrick’s boots to sink in, sticking to the legs of his jeans. Robot kicked up clods of mud as she trotted along beside them, wandering off every ten yards or so to sniff at something interesting.
As far as Patrick could tell, no one had been around here for thousands of years. The rain had given the forest an untouched feel, drops of water still clinging to the undersides of leaves that were starting to change color. Everything smelled wet. If there had been a path or footprints through here at one time, last night’s storm had washed away all traces. “Cheery,” he commented, almost losing his boot in the sucking mud. Creepy was what he meant.
Robot whuffed and licked his fingers.
Jack unfolded the map, took a pen and the GPS out of Julian’s backpack, and marked out a few things, looking thoughtful. Then he shook his head, dark curls bobbing a little, and said, “Let’s go that way.”
Patrick let him and Julian lead, hanging back with the dog and scanning the ground cover for any signs that anyone could have been back this way. He checked low branches for hair or fibers, but there was nothing. Either there had never been anything there in the first place, or the storm had erased any evidence.
He wasn’t even sure which one he was hoping for.
Ahead of him, Jack and Julian were taking turns calling into the forest, never farther than a few feet apart, sweeping back and forth so that they didn’t miss anything. It seemed to confuse Robot, who stuck by his side instead, occasionally nosing at his hand like he needed reassuring.
“Over here!” Julian shouted a minute later, jolting Patrick out of his quiet observations. He and Jack hurried over, staying well clear of the ground where Julian was standing and staring.
At first, Patrick didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Then he looked down, really looked, and saw the handle of a child’s butterfly net sticking out of the mud. “Is that hers?” he asked quietly, an icy knot of dread forming in his stomach. Robot nudged into his leg.
Jack knelt, not touching it, not even near it, just getting a better look. “I don’t know,” he said at length. “She has one like it, I think.”
Fuck. Patrick pulled the radio from where he’d stuck it in his back pocket and radioed Officer Keyes. “I’m flagging this for the evidence team.” He held out his hand and Jack forked over the GPS. “Roxanne, it’s Patrick Hawkins from group seventeen. We might’ve found something.”
He described the scene and gave her the GPS coordinates, and then he grabbed one of the little orange flags from the backpack and planted it a few feet away.
“I’ll send a team right away,” Roxanne promised. “Should I reassign you to a different part of the grid, or are you going to keep going?”
Patrick looked up at Jack and Julian. Julian’s expression was nonchalant, but Jack’s face was set. “We’re going to keep going,” he said. “If we get close to anything, we’ll back off.”
“Be careful. Keep them safe.”
Judging by Julian’s eye-roll, he’d heard that. “Keep them safe. Right. Thanks, Roxanne, I’m never going to live that one down.”
He thumbed off the transmit button and shoved the radio back into his pocket, making sure it was set loud enough that they’d hear it if they were hailed. “Let’s go.”
Robot stuck close to his side for the rest of the morning, deferring to Jack and Julian when they stopped for lunch. By the time they started walking again, the sun was directly overhead, and the forest was starting to warm up. Patrick had stopped sliding in the muck. His shoulder still chafed, though.
Jack led them deeper into the forest, and the ground became rockier as they started on an incline. The trees started to thin out a bit, seeming to shrink as they went on, with many of the larger ones toppling over into the bracken. Patrick guessed their roots couldn’t support them in the rocky ground.
Robot paced him for another half an hour or so, and then she picked up a branch from the ground and tried to put it into his hand. This wasn’t really the time or place for fetch, but the dog was bored, and that wasn’t her fault. Patrick couldn’t quite bring himself to tell her no. She didn’t understand why everyone was quiet and upset and was just trying to make them feel better.
“Do you mind?” he asked Jack, lifting the offending stick.
Jack looked troubled for a minute, but then he looked at Robot, who was peering up at him with her ears perked and tail wagging slowly, tongue hanging out in anticipation. Apparently he was as helpless at saying no to her as Patrick was. “Don’t strain yourself,” he advised with a small smile. “Julian will have our hides.”
“Yes, he will,” Julian warned, pulling a water bottle from the pack and taking a few long swallows.
Patrick hadn’t considered the impact on his shoulder, but he had considered how well he would be able to draw his gun with a stick in his hand. He t
ook it with his left and flung it into the woods, watching Robot take off after it.
They kept walking as they played, Patrick’s eyes never ceasing to scan the surrounding area, Jack and Julian’s voices calling out Hallie’s name every few minutes. Robot was pretty consistent with bringing back the same stick, which Patrick thought was pretty impressive considering the sheer volume of debris left over from the winds of the night before.
When Julian called a break an hour or so later in a clearing that smelled a little unpleasantly of decaying vegetation, Patrick’s left arm was starting to get sore. He figured he should probably stop throwing the damn stick soon, or he was going to be left with two lame arms, and wouldn’t that just be fun. Robot pushed the stick—now slippery with doggie drool—into his hands, though, and he figured one more throw wouldn’t kill him.
“Patrick, don’t throw that.” Julian was staring at him, color draining from his face as he sat in a small patch of sunlight.
“Don’t be stupid, Ace, I’m fine. This is the last one, I promise.”
Jack was looking at him now too, only instead of just pale, he was distinctly green. “Oh, my God.”
“What?” Patrick asked, putting his hands out. He forgot all about the stick in his hands.
Robot whimpered.
“Don’t wig out,” Julian said. “And don’t drop it.” He was doing some freaky breathing thing. Had he developed allergies Patrick didn’t know about? “Jack, call the dog.”
Jack whistled, soft and low, and Robot came to sit beside him, tail between her legs, looking at Patrick’s left hand.
That seemed to be where everyone was looking, so Patrick looked too—and, well. That explained that sickly sweet smell. “Oh, fuck.”
It was an arm,—or at least, it had been, once. Now it was a decaying mess, flesh rotting from the bone, bloated with bacteria and rainwater, and utterly disgusting. Also utterly in Patrick’s bare left hand. He couldn’t even think about the implication of finding a rotting arm in a forest, not when he was still touching it, not when it was a little girl who was missing. What he said was, “Please tell me you’ve got some kind of super strength antiseptic in that backpack.”
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