Chapter 9 – LISA
LISA
By the time I pull up at the rental cabin near Miller's Creek, the search is already underway.
Vehicles line the gravel drive at odd angles with squad cars, a ranger truck, and civilian pickups whose owners have come to help.
Taylor's mobile command post is set up at the trailhead, his big map spread across the hood, and a flashlight is lying on its side, shining light over it as a few people gather around.
The family huddles under a tarp at the edge of the clearing.
The mother is pale, arms wrapped around herself, while the father does all the talking, hands moving as he describes exactly what happened, over and over.
Nothing that’s likely to help us now but might be useful ensuring it doesn’t happen again.
I introduce myself and listen as they repeat their statements, writing everything down carefully because it gives me something orderly to focus on while I witness their lives falling apart.
Ivy is seven. She was wearing a thin yellow rain jacket, navy leggings and Converse sneakers. She'd been collecting stones all morning. They went inside for a minute and then she was just… gone.
From her phone, the mother shows me a photo of Ivy on her father's shoulders at some park back home, both of them grinning. Front teeth missing. Same yellow jacket on.
"Please find her." It's the only thing the mother has said since I arrived. "Please."
I nod, wishing I could tell her that we will bring her daughter home safely, but all I can promise is that we’ll do our very best.
Eager to get out there and help, I find Taylor at the map and get ready to join the search.
"What do you need?"
He glances up, eyes crinkling at the corners, cap pulled low over his salt and pepper hair. Taylor's been doing this work for thirty years, and there are very few people who know this area like he does. "Grid four with Hendricks. Already cleared one and two."
The first sweep turns up nothing. Hendricks is methodical and quiet while we work the grid in clean parallel lines before meeting back at the rendezvous point empty-handed within ninety minutes.
The K9 unit has been working a possible scent trail from the rental cabin, but they've lost it at the creek crossing near the entrance to the property. Frustrated, the dogs circle, and after numerous attempts to pick up the scent again, further along the bank on the far side, they haven’t had any luck.
As the hours pass, we continue to widen the search, with every officer, ranger and volunteer within reach working tirelessly, combing the woods around Miller's Creek in a grid pattern that's grown wider and more desperate with every passing hour.
We check every abandoned structure, every hollow log, every shallow cave within a three-mile radius, but come up with nothing.
We’re now operating in near darkness, and while it isn’t something we’d normally do, every person here has a daughter or niece they keep picturing out there that keeps them going long past the point we should safely continue the search.
I don't take a break other than to drink some water and stuff a protein bar into my mouth. My thighs are burning, the soles of my feet ache through my well-worn boots, and my skin is tight with dried sweat.
Dirty and exhausted, I'm standing at the trailhead now, strapping on a fresh headlamp and getting ready to lead one final sweep before total darkness when Taylor, the search and rescue coordinator, calls me over.
He's bent over the huge map on the hood of his truck, marking off the grids we've already covered unsuccessfully in red.
There's a lot of red.
Fear lets doubt creep in. She's so small and could be injured. How can we even be certain we didn't miss her in one of those crossed out boxes? Maybe we need to go over them again.
“You need to take a break. Why don’t you go home for a couple of hours?”
Taken aback, I shake my head. “No way.”
He sighs. “You look like shit, Lisa. I mean, we all do, but are you feeling okay?”
Clamping my teeth together, I know better than to admit that my head is pounding, and I’ve had an ache in my chest that’s had me googling symptoms of heart attacks in women more than a few times over the last two weeks.
“I’m fine. Tired, but so is everyone. I’ll catch up on my beauty sleep when we find her.”
Taylor knows I won’t go home. “Then at least humour me and go sit in one of the trucks, have some food and take fifteen minutes off your feet.”
My initial instinct is to fight him, but that would be a waste of precious time we don’t have. He’s in charge for a reason, and he has enough to worry about right now. Making his life harder by challenging him isn’t helpful, so I’ll just take a short break then get back to it.
“Just fifteen minutes,” I agree. “Then what?”
Relieved, he turns back to his map.
"Take Sheridan and head east." He points to a spot on the map that looks a long way from where we are now.
"There's another search team setting up base and coming in from that side. Hopefully, we’ll find her somewhere in the middle. After that… we’ll have to call it a night.
Go back at it first thing in the morning. "
I slip a full bottle of water and some fruit that volunteers have brought into the pack I’m gripping between my knees.
“Nobody wants to, Lisa,” Taylor sighs. "But what good are any of you to me if you get lost out there, too? Or break a leg in the pitch dark?"
Ignoring him, I focus on the map, and the direction he’s sending us in.
He lifts his cap from his head and scratches the back of his neck. “It's a long shot, kids usually don't climb that high when they're lost, but there is an old hunting trail running along the top, that if she stumbled across, she could be following."
Sheridan appears at my side and gives me a polite nod, thick arms folded over his plaid-covered chest. "That's a long way for little legs to walk. You really think she kept going that far?” he lowers his voice. “Without any help, I mean…"
So far, there's been nothing to suggest foul play or that this might be anything more than just a lost child, but now, his words have planted that seed in my mind, and it's making my determination to continue all the stronger.
"Either way, if there's any chance that’s where she is, then that’s where we’re going.” I inject some enthusiasm into my voice, trying to convince myself, and him, that I’ve got more left in the tank than I do.
“Sure thing, boss,” Sheridan says.
Not knowing whether he’s being sarcastic or he’s just bone-weary, I let his surly tone slide. But when he practically rolls his eyes at me as I sling my backpack onto my shoulder, I step into his personal space.
"If you don't want to go, too tired, or just too fucking lazy to do what you're told, and do it properly, then fine.
Sit here twiddling your thumbs while the rest of us work.
" I twist and grab a back-up flashlight with fresh batteries that Taylor holds out for me.
"Thanks, Taylor. Keep us posted if there's any news. "
With an exaggerated exhale, Sheridan throws his pack onto his shoulder and falls into step beside me, then we head into the trees without a word.
The undergrowth is thicker up here, the terrain steeper, and within twenty minutes, my already tired thighs are screaming, and my lungs are burning in the cold evening air.
We call her name as we go, our voices swallowed by the vastness of the forest.
The radio Sheridan carries has been quiet for too long. In a situation like this, no news is definitely not good news, and the dead air feels heavier with every passing minute as the gloom around us deepens.
“We’re heading in the wrong direction. What kid is going to walk this way? It’d be too hard for her.” The drooped set of his shoulders tells me he's just going through the motions now. "It's too fucking dark out here, Lisa. We can't keep going. Let's go back…"
Irritated by this pessimism, my anger builds, and I’m ready to tell him to get his head out of his ass, when I realise I’m not really angry at him, just the situation.
It is getting dangerous to be out here. And maybe our time would be better spent covering an area that would be easier to traverse as a small child.
Shit. Are we just spinning our wheels out here?
When I stop, hands on hips, and turn to look at him, I’m about to suggest radioing the other team coming from the opposite side to see how far away they are until something moving through the trees ahead of us catches my attention.
As I blink and stare into the murky shadows, the leaves rustle and shake. Whatever it is, it's big and moving fast.
"What do you think? I mean, I’m beat. Surely, she would have walked downhill, back toward town."
My hand goes to my weapon on instinct, and I signal Sheridan to shut up.
Confused, his features scrunch up as I crouch, finger to my lips, and he stoops over, turning to stare into the dense foliage around us.
We freeze, listening as the sound gets closer. Branches cracking under heavy footfalls on soft ground are not the timid steps of a small girl.
Gun raised, I track its movement, ready to fire if needed.
It's probably just a deer. Or a kidnapper, my primitive fear whispers. Someone took the girl, and they’ve come to ensure they don’t get found.
The footsteps are close now, maybe twenty yards out and slowing as whoever it is realises they're not alone.
I tighten my grip on the gun and brace, every muscle locked, as my finger eases onto the trigger when a tall figure stops in the treeline, hidden by the dense shadows.
Watching us. They wait.