It was such an obvious lie that he snorted. “Let’s try this again. How’ve you been, Artie? The truth, this time.”
Her exasperated huff made him smile. He didn’t like seeing her looking so…defeated. “Honestly? There are good days and bad days. Overall, though, it’s an uphill progression, so I’m sticking with my original answer. What’s wrong?”
Derek blinked at the question before realizing that it was directed at Marnie Belcher, who’d hurried to catch them a few feet away from the group of students. Although her tears from earlier were gone, she looked unsettled.
“I’ve counted over and over, and there are only thirty-five kids,” Marnie said in a low voice.
“There should be thirty-seven.” Squeezing her eyes shut for a second, Artie took an audible breath. “Okay. Who’s missing?”
Marnie grimaced. “I’m trying to figure that out, but, after what happened with Chase, my brain is fried. Maybe I’m just skipping over a couple of the short ones. Could you do a count?”
“Sure.” Artie raised her voice to address the group. “Students! Line up in two rows. Ms. Belcher’s class, line up here next to her.” She nudged Marnie a few feet to the side. “My class, line up in front of me.”
The kids hesitated, sending fearful looks toward the dive van. “That man said we shouldn’t move,” one of the girls said, pointing at Callum. “He’s scary.”
Derek had to turn his head to hide his grin.
“That was just for when we were getting Chase out of the reservoir,” Artie explained. “It’s okay to move now.”
None of the students took even a single step.
Coughing to mask a laugh, Derek turned and bellowed, “Yo! Cal! Tell the kids the game of freeze tag is over.”
Turning away from his discussion with Lou, Callum eyed the group of petrified students. “As long as you stay off the ice”—his crisp voice carried easily—“you may move.”
The kids hurried to get into their appropriate lines. Artie leaned closer to Derek and murmured, “Callum needs to visit my classroom on a regular basis. That was amazing.”
The admiration in her voice caused a pang in his chest, but Derek shook it off. He should be used to jealousy when it came to Artemis. To cover, he forced a laugh. “His magic works on adults, too.”
She smiled as she began counting, walking along each line and touching each child on the shoulder. As she started on Ms. Belcher’s class, her eyebrows drew together. Uh-oh. That didn’t look good. Derek swallowed the swearword—multiple swearwords, actually—trying to bubble up in his throat. This day was going from bad to worse.
At the end of Ms. Belcher’s line, she turned and caught his eyes. He saw a flash of worry before she smoothed her expression and moved in front of the group.
“Students,” she said calmly, although Derek could sense the tension vibrating through her. “Does anyone know where Zoe and Maya Springfield are?”
The response was a mixture of shaking heads and blank looks.
“Are you sure? This is very important. I promise that neither you nor the Springfield girls will get into trouble.”
When none of the kids said anything, Derek saw Artie’s shoulders fall with a silent sigh. “Okay. Everyone on the bus, please.”
He took a step toward Artie as she supervised the boarding. Leaning close to her ear, he said quietly, “Steve’s girls are missing?”
“They’re probably close by,” she said in an equally hushed—but tense—tone. “We’ll look around, but I want to get the rest of the kids on the bus before any more disappear.”
“Good idea.”
When the last child climbed onto the bus, Artie waved over Marnie and the two other women, who were looking a little worse for wear. Derek figured they probably hadn’t been prepared for the field trip from hell when they’d volunteered to chaperone.
“Lorna, could you stay here with the driver and watch the students?” At Lorna’s nod, Artie turned to the other two. “Betsy, would you mind checking over there? It’s closest to where I last saw the girls, right after Chase fell in.”
“Sure.” As Betsy hurried in the direction indicated, Artie looked at Derek.
“Since you’re the diving expert, could you look for the girls closer to the shore?”
“What about me?” Marnie asked.
Holding out her fist, Artie sighed. “One of us has to call Chase’s parents. The other one will search opposite from where Betsy’s looking.”
With a groan, Marnie put her fist next to Artie’s.
“Rock, paper, scissors, go!”
Artie picked paper and gave a tiny, pleased yelp when she saw Marnie’s rock.
“Wish me luck,” Marnie muttered, retreating to the bus.
“Good luck!” Artie called after her before lowering her voice so only Derek could hear. “Although it doesn’t seem to be in plentiful supply today.”
“I don’t know about that,” Derek said as he started walking back toward the reservoir. “Chase is alive, isn’t he?”
“True.” She gave him a smile that was only slightly pained. “And we’re going to find the girls in no time and get their wandering little butts on the bus.”
As they split, heading to their designated areas, Derek couldn’t stop himself from turning his head so his gaze could follow her. Despite the knowledge that he wouldn’t ever have her, he couldn’t seem not to watch Artie whenever she was within view. Maybe it was his punishment for almost wrecking her life four years ago.
He shook off his thoughts. There were kids to find; it was not the time for him to dwell on his biggest regret.
Shaking off his distraction, he noticed Sheriff Rob Coughlin heading to intercept her. Derek immediately reversed direction so he could join the pair. A part of him felt a twinge of guilt. It wasn’t Rob’s fault that most of the female—and a few of the male—Simpson residents were tempted to commit crimes just so they could be arrested by the rugged, good-looking sheriff. Rob was a decent cop, too, and Derek normally would rather deal with him than anyone else in the sheriff’s department. It was just that Artie’s smile was awfully big. And was it really necessary that they stand so close together?
As he stopped behind Artie, Derek caught the tail end of Rob’s sentence—something about a report.
“I promise I’ll give you my statement in just a few minutes,” Artie said. “Right now, I have to track down Zoe and Maya Springfield.”
Wrinkles appeared between the sheriff’s eyebrows. “Steve’s girls are missing? Hey, Derek.”
Although all of Rob’s attention was focused on Artie, Derek returned the greeting with a lift of his chin.
“Yes.” Artie scanned the area as she spoke. “Zoe was the first to notice Chase had fallen through the ice. I don’t know if they’re scared and hiding somewhere or what.”
“I’ll help you look. Where do you need me?”
“You can help me…” Her voice trailed away as Derek caught her hand. When she looked up at him questioningly, he shifted his gaze to Rob. He knew that there was no excuse for his possessive behavior, especially when he should be focused on tracking down the missing kids, but Derek couldn’t seem to stop himself from tugging her a step farther away from the sheriff.
“We’ll check the shore if you could look over there?” Derek gestured toward the area where Artie had originally planned to search.
“Sure,” Rob said with a faint smile before striding away. Still holding Artie’s hand, Derek turned toward the reservoir.
As they walked, Derek kept his gaze forward, even though Artie’s scrutiny was making his skin prickle.
“Why don’t you look in the dive van?” she suggested. “There aren’t many places to hide around here. Maybe they crawled into the back?”
Relieved that she wasn’t going to bring up his strangely territorial behavior, he grunted a
n agreement and reluctantly released her hand. As he strode toward the dive van, he blew out an exasperated breath. Following her around, yanking her away from Rob, grunting—since when had he gone full-on Cro-Magnon man?
He’d ended things years ago because she’d deserved better. Afterward, Derek had punched a hole in the wall and stayed drunk for a solid month before he’d started pulling himself out of that pit of self-pitying despair. He’d thought he’d finally gotten over her, but an hour in her company had proven how wrong he was.
Forcing himself to concentrate on finding the girls, he checked the back of the dive van, looking in all the places big enough to hide a little kid or two. When he was satisfied that the van was child free, he hopped out of the back and looked underneath. He circled the van to check the front, and almost ran into Callum and Lou. The dive-team leader broke off in the middle of a sentence.
Derek stopped abruptly and eyed the two, who were standing a little too close together. That was interesting.
“What is it?” Callum asked sharply. Since that was his usual tone, Derek wasn’t offended, although Lou looked slightly alarmed.
Grimacing, Derek explained, “Steve’s girls decided to go on a walkabout. Artie managed to get the rest of the monkeys on the bus, but they’re still two short.”
Callum’s only outward reaction was a twitching muscle in his cheek. “No more dive-team presentations. Fire can talk to the kids from now on.”
“I’m not going to argue with that.” Derek pulled open the driver’s door and peered into the cab. It was empty.
Lou sucked in a breath. “What if they fell in, too?”
“Zoe, the older girl, sounded the alarm when Chase went under.” Slamming the van door, Derek headed toward the shore. He saw that Artie had gone east, so he headed in the opposite direction. Callum and Lou followed. “After that, there were a lot of eyes focused on the reservoir. Someone would’ve spotted them if they’d gone onto the ice. Besides, it’d take a pretty dumb kid to step onto the reservoir after watching someone else fall through, and the Springfield girls aren’t stupid.”
Callum nodded, although his gaze still raked the frozen surface of the reservoir. “Why do you think they wandered off, then?”
“My guess? They’re the ones who talked Chase into going out on the ice. Now they think they’re in trouble, so they’re hiding.”
Frowning, Lou asked, “You think they convinced him to walk on the ice? That seems a little budding-psycho-like. Why would they do that?”
“Maya was the one who got a load of snow down her back earlier, thanks to Chase. I’ve babysat the Springfield kids. They’re…uh, feisty.”
Derek stopped and looked around. There really wasn’t anywhere for the girls to hide nearby. The rocky shore changed to scrub, which winter had stripped to skeletons. The closest concealment was the evergreens almost a quarter mile away. Wind sent powdery snow swirling across the ground as Derek eyed the dark gray clouds hanging over the forest. The cold, empty landscape sent a trickle of unease down his spine.
“Zoe!” he bellowed. “Maya!” Their names echoed over the reservoir, but there was no response. Turning, he could see Artie and Betsy still searching, and Derek’s stomach twisted. For the first time since Artie had discovered that the girls weren’t at the bus, it occurred to him that they might not be hiding close by. The heavy snow clouds and whipping wind could quickly turn this situation from an annoyance into a tragedy.
He met Callum’s gaze. By the other man’s grim expression, Derek could tell he was having similar thoughts.
“Should we ask the firemen to help look?” Lou asked.
With a nod, Derek turned toward the red truck. It appeared that the firefighters were packing up to leave, so he quickened his steps. “I didn’t see Steve with them. Is he here, do you know?”
“Springfield’s on nights,” Callum said, pulling out his cell. “I’ll call him.”
Derek tapped the screen on his own phone. “I’ll call Rob.”
“Who’s Rob?” Lou’s face was tight with worry.
“He’s an obnoxiously handsome man whose tortured soul and tragic past make all women want to fix him.” When she stared at him, confused, Derek added, “And he’s the sheriff. He’s already here, but he’ll mobilize Search and Rescue.”
Her eyes widened. “Search and Rescue? Do you think the girls are really missing, then?”
“I’m thinking,” Derek answered as the phone rang, “that the sooner we find those kids, the better.”
* * *
As she walked, calling their names every so often, Artie felt her impatience slowly morph into true fear. She knew both girls well. Zoe had been in her class a year earlier, and Maya was currently one of her students. Although Artie could understand their initial impulse to panic and hide, she honestly didn’t think either of the girls would stay hidden if they could hear so many frantic voices calling their names.
“Zoe!” she called, trying to mask the shrill note of worry. It was getting harder and harder to do as the minutes ticked past. “Maya! You’re not in trouble! Please come back to the bus so we can go!”
“Artie.” Derek’s voice behind her made her turn. His normally teasing expression held nothing but concern. “Steve’s on his way. Rob’s calling in Search and Rescue, too.”
His gentle tone made tears burn her eyes, but she fought them back. There were two students to find before she could finally have the nervous breakdown that had been building all afternoon.
“That’s probably best.” Starting to walk back toward the parking lot, she ignored the betraying thickness in her throat. “I’m going to send Marnie and the two chaperones back to school with the kids. If they leave now, they’ll get there in time to catch their buses.”
“Good idea.” Although he still used that meltingly kind voice, a reassuringly Derek-like smirk curled the corners of his mouth. It made her realize how terribly she’d missed that grin. “Let someone else keep track of them for a while.”
Her laugh had a hiccup in the middle, and Derek threw an arm around her shoulders. “We’ll find them.”
The urge to melt into his side was incredibly strong, but she stiffened her spine instead. “I know. And after we do, I’m never taking the students on another field trip again.”
It was his turn to chuckle, although his sounded less watery than hers. “Callum said pretty much the exact same thing. Fire is getting all the school visits from now on.”
“The firefighters can come to the school, then. Once the kids are inside, I’m not letting them go anywhere.”
“What about recess?”
“Canceled.”
Giving her shoulders a squeeze, he laughed again and then dropped his arm. Artie instantly missed it. “Did you call Randy?”
Her forehead wrinkled with confusion. “Why would I do that?”
He kept his eyes directed forward. “I just thought you might need some support during all of this. He’d probably want to help search, too.”
Artie opened her mouth and then closed it again. How was she supposed to condense years’ worth of heartache and rage into a couple of sentences? “You must be out of the Simpson gossip loop.”
“What?” That made him look at her, although she couldn’t read his expression.
“Randy’s been living in California for over six months. The divorce was finalized more than a year ago.”
“He left?”
He sounded so stunned that she shot him an incredulous look. “How did you not hear about it? I couldn’t even go to the grocery store without someone trapping me in the condiment aisle, trying to worm the gory details out of me.”
“Whenever someone mentioned you, I’d…well”—he rubbed the back of his neck, not meeting her gaze—“I’d walk away. Or say something rude. Hearing details about you and Randy—” He focused on something over her shoulde
r, his relief obvious. “Hey, Rob.”
The sheriff gave a short nod as he moved to join them. “The team’s on their way. Janelle is bringing her younger dog.” From his frown, this wasn’t good news.
“Why not Tank?” Derek asked.
“He had surgery yesterday to remove a bowel obstruction.”
Derek groaned. “What’d that dumb dog eat this time?”
“Janelle said it was her kid’s bike tire.”
With a shake of his head, Derek asked, “How many of these surgeries has Tank had? Six? Seven?”
“Something like that,” Rob said. “The vet should install a zipper in Tank’s belly to save some time.”
“How’s the new dog coming along?”
Artie followed the two men’s gazes to a woman with graying brown hair who was standing next to a deputy. She held the lead of a medium-size, black-and-white dog that Artie guessed was a border collie mix. As Janelle talked with the deputy, the dog spun in excited circles, occasionally catching his tail in his mouth.
“Puck is…improving?” the sheriff said doubtfully. “He’s still a little, well, unfocused.”
The three watched as the dog pulled hard enough on his tail that he lost his balance and tumbled over sideways.
“Better than not having a tracking dog at all, I guess.” Derek sighed before turning back to Rob. “Are you taking incident command?”
“Already called it in.” Striding away, Rob lifted his hand to his mouth and gave a two-fingered whistle, the kind Derek and Randy had tried to teach Artie when they were kids. She’d never been able to master the skill.
The group that gathered around Rob was already large, and more vehicles were pulling into the parking lot. The sight of the school bus reminded Artie of her plan to send the rest of the kids and chaperones back to Simpson Elementary. She jogged over to the bus. The driver must have seen her coming, since the door was open when Artie reached it.
Marnie and the two other chaperones met her next to the driver, all four looking worried.
“You didn’t find them?” Betsy asked. “There was no sign of them in my area, and I went almost all the way to the woods.”
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