by Elle Gray
Back in the car, Brock sighed and started up the engine.
“What now?” Olivia asked. He sucked in a deep breath.
“I guess we wait for the kidnapper to strike again.”
Twelve
Several days passed and the frustration inside Olivia only continued to grow. She and Brock combed the town over and over for any sort of clues, becoming angrier with the lack of evidence. She called the Barnes family several times, but they had nothing new to offer her, and now that their daughter was home, they didn’t seem interested in pursuing it much further. Olivia even tried contacting Paxton’s friend Blake Wilder over in the Seattle field office, but she’d been unable to provide any assistance or insight into the case. Olivia also called Alice Edwards once, but she decided against doing it again after nearly getting her head chewed off by the distraught mother. It was becoming rapidly clear that nobody was going to be of any use to her.
At least Brock seemed as frustrated as her. He was restless, unwilling to go back to his B&B when there was still work to be done. He stayed at her house, drinking endless cups of instant coffee and occasionally napping on her sofa. At night, Olivia tried to sleep if she could, but she felt more awake than ever, her insomnia taking on a whole new level.
She woke after a short sleep one night and headed downstairs to find Brock with his head in his hands. She placed a comforting hand on his back. She was starting to like Brock a lot more than when she’d met him, now that she knew he had a human heart and wasn’t just purely a jokester. He sighed underneath her touch.
“I’m almost wishing the kidnapper would do something now,” he murmured. “I know that’s sick. But if there’s a third victim, we can at least try to establish patterns.”
Olivia nodded, sitting down beside him. She understood his thought process exactly. Maybe if there was a little more panic, the people of the town would be more useful too. Everyone seemed to be going about their business as usual, assuming that Sophia Edwards had just run away from home. Perhaps if another girl went missing, they’d at least be more forthcoming with anything they knew. Olivia had put out a plea to the town for information, even providing her cellphone number as a hotline, but it had been complete silence.
Olivia understood why. Belle Grove was a small town. She was the black sheep in a field of white ones. She was sure it wasn’t personal, but she realized that being an FBI agent living in a secluded cabin in the woods was like putting a big sign on her head saying ‘back off’. It was her own fault in a way that the people of the town didn’t trust her. The only person she’d made a connection with since moving there was Maggie Stone, and though she was a perfectly capable police officer in a small town, she seemed out of her depth with the case of Sophia’s disappearance.
That meant the only person Olivia could rely on was Brock, and he was just as much in the dark as she was. She had to admit that people warmed to him much more, and were always willing to answer his questions, but it hadn’t shed any light on what they wanted to know. If anyone knew anything, surely they would’ve come forward and said something by now?
“I didn’t think this case would take me so long,” Brock muttered, nursing his coffee. “I thought it would be straightforward. How wrong I was.”
“We’re just going to have to stick it out,” Olivia sighed. “Maybe we need to let our minds relax a little. Stop thinking so hard about it. Answers sometimes come when you’re least expecting them.”
Brock offered her a small smile. “The high-maintenance queen is suggesting we take a break?”
“Yes. I think in the morning we should take a walk, clear out the cobwebs a little. We can go through the forest, cover the ground we’ve already covered. Maybe something will jump out at us.”
Brock shrugged. “I guess it can’t hurt to walk through the forest again... but there’s no chance I’m going to relax.”
The corners of Olivia’s mouth twitched. “Me neither. I’m not sure why I suggested it, to be honest.”
Brock chuckled and shook his head. When he looked back at her, there was a softness in his eyes that made Olivia’s heart beat a little faster. Over the past few days, she’d seen that look in his eyes a lot more. They were starting to understand one another better, even if Olivia didn’t quite understand yet how she felt about him. Sometimes, he drove her up the wall, but more and more often, she found herself smiling in his presence, even through the hardships of the case. She found herself laughing at his jokes, even when he didn’t feel like making them as much.
All in all, their relationship was evolving. Could they call it friendship? She wasn’t sure yet. But they were definitely getting there, and with those feelings came something deeper. Something closer to a crush.
“You alright?” Brock asked Olivia. “You just went red all of a sudden.”
Olivia suddenly realized that her face was scalding hot with a blush. She couldn’t believe he’d noticed when she’d been in her own little world. She nodded fervently.
“Fine. I’m fine. I was just thinking I’d make some coffee. I don’t think I’ll get back to sleep for a while.”
“You don’t sleep much at all, do you?” Brock called after her as she headed into the kitchen, her cheeks still hot. She sighed.
“Not so much.”
“Have you tried counting sheep?” Brock teased. “Or dousing yourself in lavender oil? I’ve heard that’s good for sleep.”
“I’d need a whole field of lavender just to get me sleepy,” Olivia replied, stirring her instant coffee in the mug.
“Well, what’s the deal? Does something keep you up at night?”
Olivia laughed quietly to herself. “I guess. I have plenty of things to think over in the middle of the night. Past mistakes. Future mistakes. Present mistakes…”
“I don’t see you making any mistakes right now. I think you’re doing fine.”
“My most recent mistake was starting this conversation.”
Brock laughed heartily from the other room and she smiled, picking up her mug and joining him on the sofa. She didn’t look at him, but she could feel him studying her.
“Having caffeine after midnight probably doesn’t help either,” he pointed out.
“Says you. You’ve been drinking a bucket of coffee every night since you started crashing here.”
“And it still tastes terrible. When’s your birthday? Maybe I’ll get you a real coffee machine.”
“You just missed it,” Olivia said cryptically. She hadn’t told a soul, but her birthday was only yesterday. Her father texted her, but that was about the extent of the occasion. She got texts from her old FBI friends too, but she declined their offer to visit her in Belle Grove. While she didn’t mind the idea of visiting the town’s only bar and having a few drinks with her old friends, she couldn’t allow herself to go out and have fun when there was still a case to be solved. She rubbed at her temple, feeling the buzz of caffeine feeding her almost constant stress headache. It was starting to become a struggle to remember what normal life used to be like.
“You know what always helps me sleep?” Brock piped up after a moment, picking up the remote for Olivia’s ancient TV. “Old black and white movies. They’re so boring that you can’t help zonking out after just a few minutes. Plus, all the static is good for white noise…”
“Old movies are the only good ones!” Olivia protested. “They were actually original, for one thing. I’m so tired of seeing all the same recycled ideas making it on the screen over and over again. I barely ever use the TV, though. I prefer to read.”
“Well, reading is another thing that could easily send me to sleep,” Brock grinned, “but old movies are definitely better. Maybe we should try it.”
“Well, it’s one thing I haven’t tried. I guess we could give it a shot.”
Brock flicked through the channels until he found a late-night showing of Psycho. Olivia raised her eyebrow.
“Nice choice of a bedtime story…”
“Okay,
I’ll admit, this is a pretty good movie. But maybe a little spooky for this time of night.”
“Leave it on,” she said, resting her head on the arm of the sofa. “I want to think about something else for a while.”
They fell silent, the quiet buzz of the TV the only sound in the room. Olivia found herself curled up, her feet close to Brock on the sofa. She felt a sort of electricity emanating from his body. She blushed. It was the closest thing she’d had to a date in a very long time, staying up late to watch a movie with a man. And for the first time in a long time, she felt a flicker of something like happiness.
Olivia woke with a stiff neck and a dry mouth, feeling a sense of deja vu from her night in the hospital. She heard the rumble of snoring and looked over to see that Brock was fast asleep beside her on the sofa, his head leaned back against the back of the couch. She smiled to herself, noting that she wouldn’t be the only one struggling through the morning with a stiff neck.
It was still early, but late enough to give up on sleep and start the day. She took a shower and prepared to go walking through the forest again. Any peace she’d felt the night before in front of the TV with Brock had gone, but she felt a little better knowing she was spending the day with him, even if the circumstances under which they were doing so were pretty dire.
When she headed back downstairs, she found Brock in the kitchen once again, making himself some coffee. It was strange to watch him looking so at home in her house. For a long time, she’d forgotten to have time to think about romance, to think about a future with a man, to imagine a life outside of her work. But with a strange pang in her chest, she observed Brock and thought about how nice it would be to keep him around.
“Take a picture, it lasts longer,” Brock teased. Olivia blinked. She hadn’t realized he’d turned to look at her. She couldn’t believe she’d been caught staring.
“Sorry. Zoned out there,” she admitted, another blush spreading over her cheeks. He raised an eyebrow at her, looking smug.
“Whatever you say.”
Olivia scowled, her strange fantasy once again replaced with irritation. “Alright, go get ready. I’m ready to go. You can use the shower if you want.”
“Alright, won’t be long,” he said, sipping from his mug with a glint in his eye as he left the room. Only then did Olivia let her guard down a little, letting out a deep sigh. Whatever her growing feelings were for Brock, she had to let them fizzle out and die. She didn’t want anything getting in the way of her work. Besides, she knew deep down that they could never be together. He’d be itching to leave town as soon as their case was done with, and she guessed he wouldn’t be interested in returning to Belle Grove after that. After all, what would he have to come back for?
By the time Brock had returned from his shower, Olivia had downed two more cups of coffee and was feeling more in control. She tried to force herself to come to her senses, though seeing Brock with damp hair plastered to his forehead and a crooked smile only undid all the hard work she’d put into pretending she didn’t care about him.
“Ready?” he asked, shrugging on a jacket. She bit her lip. Suddenly, it was like everything he did was attractive, even when he wasn’t doing much at all. She forced herself to look away from him.
“Let’s go.”
He stayed on her mind as they trekked through the woods once again. The familiarity of the walk faded away with the onslaught of new emotions and made it all feel brand new. Sometimes, Olivia would glance over at Brock and her heart would do a hop, skip, and jump. How long had it been since she’d felt that way about someone? Long enough at least that she’d forgotten how futile it felt. The impossibility of it made Olivia wish she’d never felt the first stab of desire in the first place. She took a deep breath and scanned the woods, looking for any distraction from what was going on inside her head and her heart.
“I wonder how far this forest goes on for,” she mused, looking into the distance.
“Oh, for miles and miles and miles, for sure. When I drove here, I drove past it all and it seemed to never end. If our kidnapper is hiding out in the woods, we’ll be hard-pressed to figure out where. You can easily get lost in these kinds of woods too.”
Olivia nodded. She felt pretty lost herself, but that was more of an emotional thing at that moment. She shook it out of her head, willing herself to continue on.
“I already checked to see if there are any residential homes in the forest, but nothing came up in my search. That would make it even harder to find someone if they decided to camp out there, but maybe we need to do an aerial search.”
“Good luck getting the resources for that,” Brock grumbled. “I think we’re on our own here. But I guess it can’t hurt to ask. And we can maybe venture further out, though the undergrowth is pretty thick. I think we’d have a rough time getting through it on foot.”
Olivia was about to reply when she spotted someone in the trees. Her first thought was to feel threatened, but she calmed down when she saw that the woman walking through the forest was a hiker. She had two walking sticks and was walking confidently through the tricky terrain. Olivia got an idea.
“Do you think we should ask that woman what’s out there? If she’s hiked here before then she’ll probably have more clue than we do. If she’s local, that is,” Olivia wondered. Brock shrugged.
“Can’t hurt to ask.”
Olivia started to jog as best she could toward the woman, who was heading deeper into the forest.
“Excuse me!” Olivia called out to the woman, trying to get her attention. She didn’t appear to hear her. “Excuse me!”
This time, the woman turned around, looking a little perplexed. She stopped to allow Olivia to catch up and smiled at her.
“I’m sorry. I thought I was imagining you calling out to me. I don’t see many people out here,” the woman said. Olivia studied her. She had a slim figure, maybe even a little too thin. Her blonde hair was starting to gray a little, the silvery strands catching in the slither of sunlight peeking through the trees. Olivia first thought she might be younger than she looked, but the wrinkles on her face tell the story of a woman weathered by her life.
“Thanks for stopping,” Olivia said with a warm smile. “I was just wondering if you could tell me anything about the forest. My friend and I were wondering how far out the forest goes... and whether there are any buildings in the wooded area.”
The woman’s eyebrow quirked up and she smiled. “You’re that FBI agent, aren’t you? Living in the ranger’s cabin?”
Olivia nodded. She’d been hoping for an informal conversation, but she’d been found out. “Yes. We’re looking into the disappearance of a young girl, and all we have to go on is that she was last seen in the forest. We were hoping we might be able to narrow down our search if we knew more about the landscape we’re dealing with. Our searches on foot have been unsuccessful. Is there anything you can tell us about the forest? You seem like you know it pretty well, as a hiker, and all.”
The woman stared out into the trees. “Well, I’ve been living here a while now and I go hiking a lot in these woods. I’ve never seen any buildings out there. I think your place, the ranger’s cabin, is the only one. Sorry if that’s not useful to you.”
Olivia’s shoulders sagged a little. Another disappointment. “No, that was great. Thank you for your help. If you do think of anything else, please don’t hesitate to get in touch,” she said, pulling out her card and handing it to the woman. She gave Olivia a warm smile.
“I hope you find what you’re looking for.”
The woman tucked the card into the pocket of her running leggings and continued to walk off. Olivia turned to Brock with a shrug.
“It was worth a shot.”
Brock sighed. “Yeah. I guess we just keep looking.”
They continued their search. Olivia could feel the heaviness and pressure of time on her shoulders. If they didn’t find something useful soon, she felt like she might come undone. But one thing became
clear to her then.
She didn’t have time to fawn over Brock Tanner.
Thirteen
Brock and Olivia went their separate ways that evening after another day of unsuccessful searching. After their walk in the woods, they spent another few hours desperately bouncing ideas off of one another, but when they came up with nothing, Brock headed back to his B&B, leaving Olivia alone with her thoughts.
She tried anything she could to distract herself. She ran herself a bath and tried to start a new book, but she found that her eyes just kept scanning the pages without actually reading the words. She tried to cook a new dish that she’d been wanting to try for a while, but she got so distracted that she burned the food and filled her kitchen with gray smoke. She let out a frustrated groan and had to go through the house to open all the windows and thin out the smoke.
By the time she collapsed into bed later that evening, her anxiety was practically overflowing, her thudding heart making it feel impossible to lie still and accept sleep. And when she did eventually drift off, she dreamed of awful things. Of finding the young girls dead. Of Veronica and what happened to her. Of her mother disappearing from her view and being unable to find her again. She woke up covered in sweat and decided that she didn’t want to go back to sleep, no matter how tired she was.
Padding downstairs in her pajamas, she went out to sit on her patio and listened to the utter silence of the forest around her. She still couldn’t wrap her head around the size of it. It was like trying to comprehend the extent of space or the ocean. How was she supposed to search every inch of it for clues when she only had Brock to help her? Besides, it had been a week now since Amelia was returned to her parents. Any evidence they might have been able to find early on was likely already disappeared into the wilderness.