Chapter Ten #2
The ride back to search and rescue headquarters with his fellow volunteers was silent. Everyone looked worn-out and discouraged. “I imagine the search will continue tomorrow,” Danny told them before they dispersed to their own vehicles. “Watch your alerts, if you’re available.”
Dalton had intended to return to his apartment for a hot shower and whatever he could find in the refrigerator for a quick meal.
But instead, he turned the Jeep toward his parents’ home.
Welcoming light glowed golden in the windows along the front of the house, and he heard laughter as he trudged up the front walk.
He let himself in with his key and stood for a moment in the darkened foyer, listening to the sound of conversation from the living room—his father’s deeper voice, followed by his mother’s familiar tenor, then a softer, feminine murmur that made his heart beat a little faster.
He moved to the doorway of the living room. “Hey,” he said.
The three of them were seated side by side on the sofa, Roxanne between his parents, a large photo album open on her knees.
She smiled up at him, cheeks flushed and eyes bright.
But the smile faded as she took him in. She pushed aside the album and stood, but his mother had reacted even quicker.
“What happened to you?” Diane asked. “Have you been in an accident?”
Dalton looked down at himself and realized there was a large rip across the front of his shirt where he had caught it on a thorny vine, and mud streaked the knees of his pants where he had fallen.
He probably had scratches on his face from more vines.
“I was on a SAR call,” he said. “We were looking for a missing girl in some rough country.”
“Did you find her?” Roxanne asked.
“Unfortunately, no.” He moved to an armchair adjacent to the sofa, dropped into it and closed his eyes. He could have fallen asleep then and there, he thought.
When he opened his eyes again, Roxanne had returned to her seat on the sofa and was watching him. He looked around for his mom and dad. “Your mom went to make you something to eat,” she said. “And I think your dad went up to get a room ready for you.”
“I can drive home after I rest a minute,” he said.
“You don’t look like it.”
He sat forward and wiped his face with his hands, trying to wake up. “I guess I’m tireder than I thought.”
“What happened to the little girl?” she asked.
“We’re not sure. She told her mom she was going to walk a hundred yards or so from their campsite and take a picture at the entrance to the campground. A tracking dog followed her scent that far, then she was just . . .gone.”
“Do they think someone picked her up?” Roxanne asked.
He glanced toward the kitchen. He could hear both his parents in there, talking softly, their words reduced to a low murmur. “I was wondering if it was William Ledger,” Dalton said.
Roxanne pressed her lips together and gripped her knees with both hands. “Is that what the sheriff thinks, too?” she asked.
“He says they’re looking for Ledger, but they haven’t seen any sign of him or that truck he was driving when he went after you. They think he’s switched vehicles and is probably traveling under another name and is using cash or a stolen credit card. But no one has seen him.”
“He was very good at hiding in plain sight,” she said. “I didn’t realize how good until years later.”
“I brought you some dinner.” His mother returned, carrying a tray like the one she’d bring his meals on when he was home sick with a cold. She placed the tray over his knees and the aroma of a hot roast beef sandwich hit him hard enough that his stomach clenched and his mouth watered.
“Thanks, Mom,” he said. “I’m starving.”
“I called Bethany and Carter while I was waiting for the bread to toast,” his mom said, as Dalton ate.
“They both made it home safely. Carter said they may need to go out and search again tomorrow, so we’ll have to rearrange the tour schedule.
I figure Dad and Clayton can fill in for you boys for most of the day. ”
“They’re going to search the woods again tomorrow?” Roxanne asked.
Dalton finished chewing and swallowed. “We have to, unless we get other information to confirm the little girl isn’t there,” he said.
“Her poor parents,” his mom said. “They must be worried sick.”
Dalton finished eating, but he watched Roxanne out of the corner of his eyes.
She pretended interest in something his mother was saying about her conversation with Bethany, but he thought she wasn’t really listening.
There was a new stillness to her face, and a pinched look somewhere between worry and fear.
He finished eating and pushed his plate away. “I think I’ll go upstairs and take a shower,” he said.
“Your old room is ready for you,” his mom said. “Go right to bed and rest.”
He supposed his mother was never going to stop talking to him as if he was still six years old, instead of twenty-six. Tonight, it was easy to shrug off her words, probably because he had already planned to turn in as soon as possible.
When he emerged from the shower twenty minutes later Roxanne was standing in the doorway of her room, across the hall, as if she had been waiting for him. She glanced down the hallway, as if to make sure they were alone, then motioned for him to come into her room.
Suppressing a grin, he did so. He didn’t really think Roxanne was inviting him inside for anything risqué, but he couldn’t help but feel like a teenager sneaking around behind his parents’ backs.
She closed the door behind them, then moved past him into the room.
The furniture had been Bethany’s before she moved out, though tranquil oil paintings had replaced the posters she had tacked to the wall in her teen years, and the space was more orderly than he remembered his sister keeping it.
“I’ve been thinking about this missing little girl,” she said.
“Her name is Sarah,” he said.
“Sarah.” She nodded. “It sounds like if someone took her, it happened very quickly, is that right?”
“I think so. One camper thought he might have heard one short scream, but no one else heard anything. She wasn’t gone that long before her parents went looking for her.”
She hugged her arms across her stomach. “When Ledger took me, it wasn’t like that,” she said.
“It wasn’t?”
“No. He didn’t go after me directly. He used Alice to get close to me.”
He didn’t say anything, waiting for her to explain.
She blew out a breath, stirring the tendrils of hair framing her face.
“I met Alice at a playground near my home. Ledger must have been nearby, but I have no memory of him. All I remember is this very pretty girl who went out of her way to be nice to me. I told you I was living in a group home at the time, right?”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t have friends,” she said. “None of the other kids in the home were close to my age. They were all much younger. There were six of us and I always felt left out.”
He pictured her—a little girl playing by herself at a playground.
“Alice and I played together, then we split an ice cream she bought from a stand there. I never had money for ice cream, so that was a special treat. She promised to come back the next day. I went early and waited and sure enough, she came and we played again. I was so happy. So starved for attention.”
She sat on the side of the bed, still hugging herself, not looking at him, but at some point in the past. “After a few days of this, she invited me to come to her house to play. She said her dad had said she could invite me for dinner. I wasn’t supposed to do anything like that without permission, but I was afraid the group mom would say no.
So I decided I would go anyway and worry about the consequences later.
Getting to play with Alice would be worth any punishment.
” She choked on the last word and Dalton came and sat beside her.
But he didn’t touch her. She looked so fragile, he feared she might shatter.
“I didn’t pay much attention to the man driving the car.
Alice and I sat in the back seat and talked the whole way to her house.
I don’t even know how far we drove. When we got to the house, she took me to her room.
It had twin beds with pretty quilts on them, and some toys.
We played and talked and I was so happy.
But it began to get late. I started to worry I would be in big trouble.
I said I needed to go home and Alice told me I couldn’t.
I had to stay with her now. Something about the way she said it frightened me.
I ran to the door, but I couldn’t open it.
‘You can’t get out,’ she told me. ‘The door is locked.’ I started screaming that I had to go home.
Alice grabbed me and begged me to be quiet, but I wouldn’t be.
Then Ledger burst in. He grabbed me and shoved me into a closet.
I cried and beat on the door and when I finally wore myself out, I couldn’t hear anyone.
It was dark and hot in there. Alice told me later I was in there for three days before he let me out. ”
She leaned against him and he held her tightly.
Anger over what had been done to her overwhelmed him.
He held on as much to comfort her as to keep himself here in this room, instead of giving into the impulse to go out and search for William Ledger and hurt the man.
He tried to focus on Roxanne instead. He thought she was crying, but she was so silent he couldn’t tell.
He stroked her hair and whispered, “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.” Over and over.
After a long time she pulled away and wiped at her eyes. She looked at him, more calmly now. “I’m not saying he wouldn’t grab a girl off the street,” she said. “I don’t know that at all. I just . . . I wanted you to know what happened to me.”
The moment felt precious and fragile. He didn’t want to spoil it by talking too much. “Thank you for trusting me with that,” he said and laced his fingers with hers.
They sat like this for a long minute, then she gently withdrew her hand. “You need to rest now,” she said.
“Are you going to be okay?”
She met his gaze. He saw sadness there, but also strength. “I’m good,” she said. “My memories may make me sad, but that’s in the past. I’m in a much better place here.”
What kind of place was he in? Worried over a little girl he didn’t even know. Confused about where he stood with this woman he was growing to care for a great deal. Did she see him as merely a friend, or potentially more?
Because he wanted more. Maybe even more than she could give.