Chapter 6
6
T hey’d found the truck! Doug bailed from Maya’s SUV before she even came to a complete stop. His heart thundered in his chest as he ran toward the truck, his booted feet slipping in the snow. It was clearly abandoned, but he needed to make sure they hadn’t left Emily inside.
Don’t be dead , he thought as he wrenched the passenger door open. Please don’t be dead!
He blew out his breath, making a cloud of steam when he saw the interior of the vehicle was empty. He peered over into the back seat to make sure.
Then, still braced for the worst, he turned toward the truck bed. His stomach clenched with dread as he used a gloved hand to push back the sliding cover.
Empty.
His shoulders slumped with a mixture of dejection and relief. The only good news was that he hadn’t found Emily’s dead body.
But the abandoned truck also meant they had nothing to go on. No way of finding his sister or the gunmen. The perps had left the vehicle prior to the local police spotting it and pulling them over.
“Doug?” Maya’s voice broke into his thoughts, reminding him that he had one avenue to pursue.
He turned to face her. “Will you ask Zion to search for Emily?”
“Of course,” Maya said without hesitation. “But come inside the SUV for a moment. We can’t just run off into the woods without a plan. It’s cold, and I need to make sure Zion is protected.”
“Okay.” He tamped down his impatience as he hurried back to the SUV. His passenger door was still open, so he slid into the seat and closed it.
Maya joined him, shutting the door against the chilly wind. The engine was still running, and he was grateful for the heat blasting from the vents. As his face warmed, he realized what she meant. Searching the woods in freezing temperatures was far different from spending a few minutes outside the hospital or the handful of hotels. He was desperate to find Emily, but not at Maya’s or Zion’s expense.
“Do we need to head back to the ranch so you can get more supplies?” He turned in his seat to face her. “I’m clueless as to what sort of gear you need to perform an outside search in temperatures like this.”
“I have what I need for a thirty-minute search,” she said. “I have booties for Zion, not that she likes them, and a face mask for me. The downside is that I don’t see a set of footprints leading away from the truck to the woods. It’s windy, so some of the snow could have blown over to cover them, but I don’t see any indentations.”
He glanced out the windshield, angry with himself that he hadn’t noticed that detail. “You’re right. There aren’t.”
“I don’t want you to get your hopes up,” Maya said softly. “But I believe one of the gunmen drove this truck into the woods, walked back toward the road to be picked up by his cohort in crime.”
It was easy to imagine the scenario she described. “Yeah, and if that’s the case, there’s no reason for you to expose Zion to the cold. You stay here. I’ll just take a look around.” He moved to open his door, but she grasped his arm.
“Hold on. We need to know if Emily was in the truck at some point. Let me work with Zion first.”
This was exactly what Donovan had been worried about. He wasn’t thinking logically, the way he would on a normal case. He needed to control his emotions. With a nod, he managed a smile. “Thanks. That would be great.”
She held his arm for a moment longer, then let go to shut down the engine. He waited until she pushed out of the car to do the same. When she opened the rear hatch, Maya said, “Stay.”
Zion waited for Maya to hurry over. He watched with interest as she put the booties over each of Zion’s paws. “Out,” she said. The husky nimbly jumped into the snow. Maya then offered the dog some water. Zion only took two laps, her blue eyes intent on Maya’s face.
Doug got the impression Zion was anxiously waiting to hear the search command.
“Emily,” Maya said, offering the scent bag to her K9. “Are you ready? Let’s search Emily.”
Zion’s tail wagged as if this was her favorite game in the world, and she lifted her snout to the air, sniffing intently. Maya brought up the hood of her winter coat and drew a face mask over her nose and mouth. Doug could relate, the wind seemed colder for some reason, and he could feel his cheeks reddening from the bite of the wind.
The K9 swept her nose over the ground but didn’t alert. She made a zigzag pattern, sniffing the area interest as she grew closer to the truck. After several long minutes, she stopped at the rear passenger door. Rather than sticking her nose into the snow, Zion lifted her head toward the door handle.
He wanted to run over and open the back door for the dog but waited for Maya. After a full minute, Zion sat in the snow, glancing over at Maya with her intense blue gaze.
“Good girl,” Maya praised. But she didn’t pull the bunny out just yet. “Heel.”
The dog trotted to Maya’s side.
“Stay.” Crossing over to the truck, Maya opened the back passenger door, the front passenger door, then even went around to the other side to open the other two doors. Then she stood back and held her K9’s gaze. “Search for Emily!”
Zion trotted forward, sniffing the same door she’d alerted at just minutes ago. She sniffed along the bottom, then pressed her nose into the foot well. Without hesitation, the dog leaped into the back seat, burying her nose against the cushions.
The K9 spent so much time in the back seat he wondered what had caught the dog’s attention. Then Zion jumped out of the truck, sat as close to the door opening as possible, and stared up at Maya in an unmistakable alert.
“Good girl, Zion!” Maya pulled the bunny out and tossed it toward her dog. Zion launched herself up to grab the bunny, then ran playfully, shaking her head as if playing tug-of-war with an imaginary four-legged friend.
“We know Emily was in the rear seat of the truck,” Maya said. “Zion completely ignored the two front seats; she was only interested in the back.”
“I noticed.” He crossed to the vehicle. Peering inside, he tried to imagine his sister being held back there. Maybe with her wrists bound. Or maybe not, if the perps had a gun. He didn’t see any blood, which was a good sign.
There was a bit of a gap between the seats, though. Using his gloved hands, he pulled the stiff cushions apart to look more closely.
Something had been wedged into the crevice. With a frown, he removed his gloves and used his cold fingers to dig into the gap. Feeling something hard, he managed to grip it well enough to pull it free.
Emily’s phone. He gaped in shock, recognizing the pale-pink case and the screen photo of the two of them taken in front of her Christmas tree.
He held it up for Maya to see. “Zion is amazing. She knew this was there and that the device belonged to Emily.”
Maya didn’t look entirely surprised. “Zion is incredible, I won’t argue that. And I’m glad we have more proof that Emily was inside.”
“Zion’s nose is proof enough for me.” Tucking Emily’s phone into his pocket, he pulled his gloves back on and swept his gaze over the interior of truck. Was it worth checking for fingerprints?
Yes. He couldn’t afford not to double-check. Some people don’t wear gloves when driving, even in the winter. And he didn’t know how long the gunmen had been using the vehicle.
He’d get the license plate and VIN number sent through the DMV database too. His earlier disappointment at finding the truck empty had vanished. There were still avenues to explore.
“We need to get the two crime scene techs out here,” he said. “I want this vehicle tested for fingerprints and possible DNA. I don’t see any blood or other bodily fluids, but I trust Bart and Cindy to look in obscure places.”
“I’ll call the Cody PD,” Maya said. “They’ll want to see this for themselves. And cancel the BOLO,” she added.
That was the part that hurt the most. No BOLO meant no one was out there looking for his sister.
He turned and headed to the rear license plate. It wasn’t easy to scrape away the frozen mud covering the numbers and letters. He pulled out his phone to take a picture, then hurried over to the front of the vehicle. He had to scrape the ice and frost away from the glass to see the VIN. Zooming in, he took a picture of that too. Then he quickly emailed both photos to Ian Dunlap, asking for the registration and ownership of the vehicle.
He stepped back, wishing there was more to go on. But as he scanned the area, he was forced to agree with Maya. There were plenty of animal tracks in the snow, but nothing that resembled the stride of a human.
Emily must have been taken to a specific location prior to the gunmen dumping the truck. Zion hadn’t alerted on her scent anywhere but inside the truck.
He turned once more, sweeping his gaze over the scenic and oddly peaceful landscape. There was no sign of civilization. Just snow-covered trees with the majestic Bighorn Mountains standing tall in the distance.
Yet he couldn’t shake the thought that maybe, just maybe, the place where they’d taken Emily was somewhere close by.
* * *
“Come, Zion.” After making the call to the Cody police, Maya turned her attention to her partner. She waited for the husky to trot over, then she held out her hand. The dog regurgitated the bunny from her mouth with her tongue. “Good girl.” She was freezing, but Zion didn’t seem bothered by the cold. At least, not yet.
When she saw Doug heading toward the trees, she frowned. “Hey.” Her voice was muffled by the face covering, so she pulled it aside. “Doug! Where are you going?”
“Just checking,” he shouted back.
Checking what? She tried to ignore the flash of irritation. He was holding up fairly well, despite the Silverado being a dead end. Since Zion seemed fine, she quickened her pace to catch up to him.
“Checking what?” She fell into step alongside him. Zion trotted along, sniffing everything with interest.
“Signs of smoke rising from a chimney,” he said somewhat absently. “I guess I was hoping Emily was being held somewhere nearby.”
“You can’t cover the entire area on foot,” she protested. “This isn’t Wisconsin. There are acres and acres of open countryside out here.”
“I know.” He shot her a quick glance. “You should take Zion back to the SUV. We’re waiting for the Cody police and the crime scene van to get here anyway. I won’t be long.”
She couldn’t bring herself to leave him. Not just because he was a city dweller, but she understood his urgent need to find his sister. Keeping a close eye on Zion, she mentally gauged the time. They’d been outside for a solid fifteen minutes, and she didn’t want to expose Zion for much beyond the thirty minutes she’d given him earlier.
Ten minutes, no more , she decided. Then she’d force him back to the SUV. Without a face covering, he had to be getting cold by now.
At the five-minute mark, he abruptly stopped and lifted his hand toward the east. “Is that smoke?”
She frowned and followed his gloved fingers. “Maybe. But it’s hard to tell how far away that residence is. Come on, we need to get back to the SUV. You don’t want to get frostbite on your nose.”
He covered his face with his gloved hand. “You’re right, I don’t. But after the cops get here, can we head east for a bit? See if we can figure out where the cabin is located?”
Suppressing a sigh, she nodded. “Fine. But not until we have a chance to warm up.”
He stared off at the thin curl of smoke in the distance for a poignant moment, then reluctantly turned around. “Okay. You’re right about the cold. I can hardly feel my fingers and toes.”
She quickened her pace. “Come, Zion!” Her husky bounded toward them, her curled tail wagging playfully. While Zion didn’t appear bothered by the snow and cold, she didn’t want to wait until the dog lifted her paws in a way that indicated they hurt.
Using the key fob, she started the SUV so the interior would be warm by the time they were able to get inside.
It took another few minutes for her to remove Zion’s booties and towel dry her K9’s paws. When that task was finished, she stepped back, closed the hatch, and hurried to the driver’s seat.
“Do you know the treatment for frostbite?” Doug asked, leaning forward and moving the vents so they blew directly into his face. “I’m kinda attached to my nose.”
She couldn’t help but chuckle. “I think you’re fine, but you need a face mask. And not a hospital one, but a real covering made of thick wool. I probably have a spare buried in the compartment under Zion.”
He nodded and proceeded to continue warming his face. “What’s the temperature out there now?”
“A balmy eighteen degrees.” She tapped the tiny reading in the upper left-hand corner of the display. “But the wind chill is probably minus five.”
“No wonder I’m cold,” he muttered. Then he sighed heavily. “But I don’t want to miss the opportunity to find Emily. Every hour that passes without us finding her...”
“I know.” She was keenly aware of the statistics surrounding a missing persons case. “We can drive farther east once the officers arrive. What about Emily’s phone? Do you think there’s anything to find there?”
He leaned back into his seat. “I doubt it. I find it hard to believe Emily knew her kidnappers. I think it’s more likely they pretended to need medical help, drawing her close, then grabbing her. The way she slid her phone deep into the crack between the seats was her way of letting me know she was there.”
“You’re probably right.” The seat warmers were doing an admirable job of bringing her core temperature up. She stripped off her gloves and stuck her fingers under her thighs. “Is your tech buddy going to run the vehicle?”
“Yep.” He stared out the windshield. “I never realized how difficult it would be to find Emily in this weather. As if fighting against the bad guys isn’t hard enough.”
“We’ll find her,” she said, hoping and praying it was true. “I’m surprised we found the truck. I feel like God is guiding us on the right path.”
He turned as if to argue just as a Cody police cruiser pulled up behind her.
“Hold that thought,” she said. Keeping the engine running, she drew her gloves back on, covered her face, and opened her door. “Thanks for coming.”
Doug quickly joined them. He held up Emily’s phone. “Zion found this between the seat cushions. We know Emily was inside, but the kidnappers obviously abandoned this truck for another ride.”
“May I?” Officer Jones asked, taking the phone from Doug. He stared down at the photo of Doug and Emily posed together under the tree. “Who took the picture?” he asked, handing it back.
“We put the camera on a timer.” Doug dropped the phone into his pocket. “I was hoping your crime scene techs would check for fingerprints and DNA.”
“Yeah, sure,” Jones agreed. “They finished at Wild Bill’s an hour ago. They’ll be here shortly.”
“Thanks,” Maya said. “We appreciate your efforts on this.”
“We didn’t find the truck, you did.” Jones shrugged, then waved a hand. “This is technically outside our jurisdiction, but that’s okay. We want to find Emily too. We’ve canceled the BOLO for the truck but have distributed her driver’s license photo to all officers. We’ll keep an eye out for her.”
“Thanks.” Maya knew the kidnappers wouldn’t keep Emily in town where they may be spotted. Not if they’d gone to the trouble of wiping down the motel room, stealing bedsheets, and ditching the truck.
She hated to admit this was looking more and more like a professional job. Had members from the drug cartel really taken Emily to get revenge on Doug?
Or was there something more going on here?
Once Bart and Cindy arrived, she and Doug sought refuge inside the welcome warmth of her SUV. It suddenly occurred to her that Emily’s phone being found inside the Silverado meant the shooters hadn’t targeted her as she’d previously feared.
This was all about Emily. And Doug.
Her creepy guy was still out there, somewhere, but that was a problem for another day. They needed to stay focused on Emily.
“How much gas do you have?” Doug asked, breaking the silence. “I insist on filling your tank at the next closest fuel station.”
“I’m good for a while.” She shifted the gearshift into reverse. “There are no gas stations out here, only in town. We’ll drive east for a while before I take you back to the hotel.”
He frowned but didn’t argue. She understood his dilemma. Returning to the hotel was akin to giving up the search. She wanted to point out that the smoke in the distance probably belonged to a local resident but knew he wouldn’t believe her until he was confronted with the truth.
She drove slowly along the winding narrow highway, searching for the origin of the smoke. Eyeing her fuel gauge, she decided to go fifteen miles before turning around to head back to Cody.
“It’s killing me,” Doug said softly. “Knowing she’s out there somewhere, helpless and unable to escape is killing me.”
“I know.” She lightly touched his arm. “Try to keep your faith in God. He will get you through this.”
His mouth tightened. “Easier said than done.”
“Yes, just as it was for Jesus and his disciples,” she agreed. “Jesus preached, performed miracles, and still there were many skeptics and doubts to His claim of being the Son of God. It was only after He was crucified and rose again that they believed.”
He turned to look at her. “I never thought of it like that.”
She tried to smile. “It’s easy to get caught up in the moment, focusing on our specific needs rather than looking for strength from above.”
He covered her hand with his. “Thanks. That helps a lot. I feel better. Although I won’t be satisfied until I find her.”
“Of course you won’t.” She was touched by his humble faith. “I won’t either. But we can’t drive around forever.”
He grimaced and nodded. “I know this is probably a wild-goose chase. Just give me a few more minutes.” He dropped his head and turned to stare back out the windshield. “I just want to follow up on that plume of smoke.”
She couldn’t blame him for hanging onto the thread of hope. If one of her siblings was missing, she would scour the entire state to find them.
Driving slowly, she tried to remember if she met anyone living in the area. Hadn’t she and Zion been out here roughly two years ago? It had been early fall, and the current layer of snow made it harder to identify specific landmarks.
In truth, she’d been in so many different wooded areas it wasn’t always easy to keep track. Even when using the individual mountain peaks as a focal point.
Doug’s phone rang, startling them both. Zion opened one eye, then closed it again.
“Hey, Ian, what do you have?” Doug asked. His hopeful gaze turned grim as he listened. “I was afraid of that. I’m sure that’s why they covered the license plate with mud. Thanks for trying. I’ll call if I can come up with anything new.”
“The truck was stolen?” she guessed.
“Yeah, here in Cody. Seems as if it was reported stolen late last night.” He sighed and scrubbed his hands over his face in a defeated gesture. “I’m fine with heading back to the hotel. I’ll work on pulling property information for land between Cody and Greybull. Maybe I can narrow down a few viable search areas. We should also consider looking at rental properties. Not that the bad guys would go through normal channels to obtain the space, but more likely they’d break in knowing no one was home. Those companies try to keep addresses secret, but there are ways around that.”
“Good idea.” She glanced at him. “I can help by identifying long-term residents. Not that I know them all, mind you, but ruling out a few of the properties will help narrow the list.”
“Thank you.” His smile was weary. “I honestly don’t know what I’d do without you.”
His comment shouldn’t have made her blush. She kept her gaze focused on the road, hoping he wouldn’t notice. “It’s nothing, just our warm western hospitality.”
“I’m serious, Maya.” The force of his stare made her glance over at him. “You and Zion have been invaluable. I wouldn’t have found the evidence of Emily being at the Wild Bill Motel or here in the truck without you.”
“Zion is the star of the show,” she said, trying to lighten the mood. When Doug frowned, she added, “You’re welcome. But remember, search and rescue is what we do. I could never walk away from a missing woman.” She hesitated, then said, “I’d ask my siblings for help, but at this point, there’s nothing to go on. But if we can pinpoint a location, I’ll bring them in to assist.”
“Thanks, and I’ll gladly take you up on that.” He glanced out at the landscape. “I’m not sure why, but I get the sense she’s close. Maybe not near the abandoned truck, but I don’t think they’ve taken her far. If the goal is to entice me to come after them, or to give myself up in exchange for her release, then I wish they’d hurry up and contact me.”
Her stomach clenched. “You can’t offer yourself up in exchange for Emily.”
“Oh yeah I can,” he said without hesitation.
“Doug, they’ll likely kill you both.” She tried to hide the flash of panic. “Don’t overreact. I’m sure we’ll find a way to rescue Emily.”
There was a moment of silence before he responded. “I’m not overreacting. And I don’t have a death wish. However, if I get a ransom demand of some sort, all bets are off. I’ll gladly exchange my life to save hers.” He grimaced, then added, “But since I haven’t heard from these guys, I’ll keep searching for possible locations.”
She nodded and pressed her foot down on the accelerator to increase her speed. His comment about sacrificing himself bothered her, more than it should have. She barely knew the guy, but the thought of him giving up his life was unacceptable.
The sooner they could narrow down a search field, the better. She had faith in God and in Zion’s nose. They would find Emily.
She couldn’t bear to consider the consequences if they didn’t.