Chapter Five #2
“Maybe the kidnapper knew he had to get out of town quickly, but thought they might meet up with too many cops or nosy people if they took the highway to Junction,” Vince said.
A tall, muscular man with dark hair, Vince had a reputation for being quiet, but dependable.
“There’s a lot less traffic up here in the high country.
Not too many tourists this time of year.
Maybe he stopped to restrain the kid better or threaten him or worse, and the boy saw his chance and got away. ”
“I hope he did,” Harper Vernon said. “And I hope he hurt his kidnapper when he did.”
They continued the search, alternately calling Bryce’s name, and identifying themselves as search and rescue.
Carter climbed up a steep jumble of car-sized boulders and stood at the top, surveying the landscape below.
At first he saw only stillness—gray and red rocks, dark green trees, and the occasional flash of paler green or green-yellow from aspens on the verge of changing to the gold of fall.
Something flashed blue in the corner of his eye.
Was that a bird? There wasn’t a breeze, but that tree limb had definitely moved.
He looked over his shoulders and saw Vince and Harper searching below.
He checked to his left again. Whatever was down there was moving away from him. Was it because they were afraid?
The blue flashed again, farther away this time. Definitely not a bird. If that was Bryce, he was fast moving out of sight.
Carter scrambled down and began heading in the direction of his last sighting.
No more methodical searching—he was almost running, stumbling over loose rock and flailing to maintain balance as he slid on the heavy duff of dried pinon needles.
When he caught a glimpse of blue again, he stopped and cupped his hands to his mouth.
“Eagle Mountain Search and Rescue!” he shouted. “We’re looking for Bryce Atkinson.”
Whatever was ahead of him was crashing through the underbrush, making so much noise Carter wondered if they could even hear him. He took a deep breath and charged forward again, batting aside branches and ducking under larger limbs.
He came to a low stand of mountain willow, the thin branches repeatedly snagging at his pants, when he caught the flash of blue out of the corner of his left eye once more.
He froze, and pretended to focus on freeing himself from the willow, but watched the blue.
It wasn’t moving, and as he watched he thought he could make out the shape of a person, crouched in the underbrush, scarcely six feet away.
Carter straightened. He still didn’t look at the boy, but said, in a conversational tone, “My name is Carter Ames. I’m with Eagle Mountain Search and Rescue. Bryce, if you’re ready to go home to your mom and dad, I promise I’ll take you to them.”
He waited, holding his breath. Then twigs snapped and leaves rustled.
A boy, dressed only in a blue T-shirt and white underwear, rose up out of the willows.
He stared at Carter’s blue-and-yellow search and rescue vest, then began to push his way through the willows toward him, a pained look on his face.
Carter tried not to show his alarm at the blood trickling down the boy’s legs.
But Bryce noticed him staring. The boy looked down at his legs, which were lacerated with a thousand shallow scratches from the willow branches.
“He took my pants and shoes,” he said. “He told me it was so I wouldn’t run away. But first chance I got, I did run.”
Carter crouched to get a closer look. The boy wore dirty and tattered white crew socks. “Your feet must be pretty sore, running over all these rocks,” he said.
Bryce made a face. Carter thought he was trying hard not to cry.
One of his eyes was swelling shut. Had the kidnapper done that to him?
A surge of fierce protectiveness brought a lump to Carter’s throat.
He swallowed hard, and fought to keep his voice even.
“You’re a brave kid,” he said. “Are you ready to go home?”
Bryce pressed his lips together tightly and his throat convulsed. He nodded.
Carter took a bottle of water from his pack and offered it to Bryce. “You ran a long way,” he said. “Drink this.”
The kid drained the bottle and handed it back to Carter. “Would you like some more?” Carter asked. “Or something to eat? I’ve got some protein bars.”
“No thanks. Let’s just go.”
Carter stowed the empty water bottle and considered the boy. “Since you’re hurt, I’d better carry you,” he said. “Is that okay?”
Bryce nodded.
Carter shifted his pack around to his chest and crouched. “Can you climb onto my back?”
Bryce did so, his legs locked around Carter’s waist, arms over his shoulders, hands clasping the side of the pack. Carter rose slowly. He staggered back a little, then got used to the extra weight and balanced. “You doing okay back there?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
They set out, moving slowly as much because of the rough terrain as the awkward load Carter carried.
He followed the sounds of other searchers calling for Bryce.
He had a lot of questions he wanted to ask the boy, starting with did he know who did this to him.
But other people, with more authority than Carter, would be asking those questions.
People with more knowledge about how to get the answers they needed without further traumatizing the boy.
“How did people know to look for me up here?” Bryce asked.
“A woman in town saw you waiting outside the coffee shop. Then she heard a yelp, a car screeching away, and you were gone. Your friend came out of the coffee shop and told her you had just been there. Then someone else saw the news online that you were missing and reported seeing a boy who looked like you running from a white car up here.”
“I guess I’m pretty lucky someone saw me,” he said. “I thought I was going to have to spend the night up here, with no pants or shoes.”
“What would you have done if that had happened?” Carter was genuinely curious.
“I was going to try to find a cave and see if I could make a fire, the way we learned in Scouts.”
“You can do that? Make a fire without matches? I’m impressed.”
“Don’t be,” Bryce said. “The book showed us how to do it by rubbing sticks together or striking a spark on a rock, but none of us were able to actually do it. Still, I was going to try. It was either that, or be cold.”
Carter boosted the boy up higher on his back. “I have some sweats in my pack, if you want to put them on,” he said. “They’re miles too big for you, but you’d be warmer.”
“Maybe that would be good,” Bryce said. “I don’t really want to meet a lot of people like this.”
They stopped and the boy got down. Carter opened his pack and found the sweatshirt and pants.
He had to fold thick cuffs on the pant legs and pull the drawstring tight in order to keep them from falling off of the boy, but the kid cheered up.
“That feels better,” he said. “Thanks. I’d like to walk now. ”
“Sure.”
They set out walking, slowly, and Carter wished he had shoes for the boy.
Bryce picked his way among the stones and gravel, wincing every now and then, but never complaining.
In another few hundred yards, they met up with Ryan and Danny.
Bryce hung back, but Carter put a hand on his shoulder.
“Those are more search and rescue people,” he said. “Come on. I’ll introduce you.”
The two men stopped and waited for Carter and Bryce to approach. “Bryce, this is Captain Danny Irwin, with Eagle Mountain Search and Rescue, and another volunteer, Ryan Welch.”
“We’re really glad to see you, Bryce,” Ryan said.
“We sure are.” Danny crouched and looked the boy in the eye. “How are you feeling?”
“My legs and feet are all cut and bruised,” Bryce said. “The guy who grabbed me took my pants and shoes.”
“Did you get a good look at him?” Ryan asked.
Danny scowled at Ryan and shook his head.
But Bryce seemed unperturbed by the question. “He was wearing a ski mask and gloves,” the boy said. “I couldn’t tell much about him, except I’m pretty sure it was a man. Not too tall, but strong. And he whispered, like he was trying to disguise his voice.”
Danny patted Bryce’s shoulder. “The sheriff will want to hear all about it.”
The boy took a step back. “The sheriff?”
“You’re not in trouble,” Danny said. “Come on. Your parents are waiting for you.”
The quartet made their way down the trail toward the parking area. Other volunteers fell in behind them, forming a parade down the mountain. By the time they arrived at the trail head a number of locals as well as officers from area law enforcement agencies and the press had gathered.
“Bryce!” The woman’s voice rang out over the conversations of the crowd.
Bryce looked up and seconds later a woman rushed forward and scooped him to her. A worried-looking man followed. “Son, are you okay?” he asked, his voice breaking.
Carter left the family reunion and joined the other volunteers who were packing gear, ready to head back to SAR headquarters. Ryan caught up with him. “How did you find him?” he asked.
“I saw movement and a flash of blue in the distance,” Carter said.
“I headed toward him, then stopped when I got close and pretended I was looking somewhere else. But I said, kind of loud, that I was with search and rescue and looking for Bryce Atkinson. I told him I was there to take him to his parents. He came crawling out of a willow thicket, his legs all bruised and bleeding. The guy that grabbed him took his pants and shoes to keep him from running away.”
“Brave kid, to run anyway,” Ryan said.
“That’s what I told him.”
Ryan slapped his back. “Good job. We don’t get happy endings on searches like this often enough.”
Carter accepted congratulations from others as they heard the news, but he downplayed his role. Anyone else would have done the same, if they had been the one to spot the boy first.
By the time they reached SAR headquarters, the news had spread.
People from all over town had gathered, anxious to hear details about what had happened.
Carter tried to slip away before anyone could spot him and start firing questions.
He was glad Bryce was safe, but he didn’t want to be singled out for being the one to find the boy.
Everyone there was giving of their free time to look for a missing kid. They all deserved credit.
“Carter!”
He looked around at the sound of his name and saw Mira jogging across the parking lot toward him. “I heard what happened,” she said. “Are you okay?”
“Sure. I’m fine.”
“Somebody said you were the one who found him. Bryce.”
“We were all searching in the same area. Someone would have found him soon. I was just in the right place.” Did that sound too humble-brag? “I’m glad he’s okay,” he added.
He braced himself for the next questions. She would want to know details. What had happened to the kid? But none of that was really his story to tell.
She put a hand on his shoulder. Last night, at Spanish class, she had treated him like any other student. But this felt different. His heart beat hard at the contact. When she looked up at him, he found himself focusing on her lips. So soft. Beguiling. Not a word he could remember using before.
“Do you have to be somewhere else right now?” she asked.
“No.” His parents were probably looking for him, not to mention Bethany and Dalton, but he wasn’t a lost kid they had to keep track of. “I’m free.”
“Could you come back to my place?”
His heart beat even faster at this. He didn’t want to jump to conclusions, but was she, well, propositioning him? Surely not, but…
“I want to talk to you,” she said. “I want to tell you about David.”