Chapter 5
“I don’t like this,” Griffin said. “This was supposed to be a courtesy visit, us being unnecessarily cautious, but it’s afternoon now. Too late for a kid to still be sleeping off the beer. You’re convinced she didn’t run away?”
“Unless everyone rehearsed their answers, they all said the same thing,” Bel said as she turned down the dirt road to the lake.
In the summer, these roads swarmed with townsfolk seeking relief from the heat, but right now the scenic park was barren.
If it weren’t for the discarded and trampled red Solo cups, she would’ve never guessed these lonely woods had hosted dozens of college students only hours before.
“Ariella loved her parents, her friend, and her secret boyfriend. She wouldn’t just walk out of her life without a trace. ”
“So where is she?”
“I don’t know, which is why I’m at the lake.
” Bel had called her boss on the drive over to give him an update on her interviews, and while she’d known based on his silence that Ariella hadn’t returned home, her chest still tightened when he confirmed the teen was still missing.
“Everyone claims she wasn’t drunk, but teens lie about alcohol consumption.
Drugs were also present, and Ondine and Erik swore they didn’t partake, but pills are small.
Ariella could’ve ingested something by accident or accepted it without her friends seeing.
Drunk, high, and running from the police in the dark.
She could’ve gotten lost and passed out somewhere in the trees, or she might have hurt herself and be physically unable to move. ”
“Let’s hope so,” Griffin said. “Because we’re running out of innocent explanations for her disappearance. If we don’t find her soon, we’ll have to start considering the ugly ones.”
“Can you do me a favor and call the station?” Bel asked as she parked her SUV.
“Have the deputies talk to the kids they arrested at the party. See if anyone saw Ariella last night. Her friends insisted she was in love with Erik, but nineteen-year-olds aren’t known for great decision-making.
Maybe she met up with another group of friends or hooked up with a guy.
And if not, hopefully one of the kids we arrested can give us an idea of what happened to her after Erik and Ondine lost sight of her. ”
“Yeah, no problem. Do you want me to send you some backup while I’m at it? The woods surrounding the lake are expansive. You can’t search it all yourself. I’ll see if we can get some dogs to help.”
“No, I’m good.” Bel smiled as a work truck pulled to a stop beside her SUV.
“How do you plan to search that entire… oh.” Griffin chuckled. “Say hello for me and call me if you find anything.”
“Will do.” She hung up and leaned into Eamon’s kiss.
“Thank you for coming.” She cupped his cheek, his cool skin familiar and comforting after the increasingly concerning day she was barreling through.
She understood her boss’ sentiments all too well.
This was supposed to be a waste-of-time checkup.
They were supposed to arrive at the Triton’s to find two parents embarrassed after overreacting, but as much as she tried to force that dread from her gut, Bel feared this day wouldn’t offer a happy ending.
“Of course.” Eamon released her as Reese and Cerberus jumped out of his truck.
“Dad?” Bel hugged her father before greeting her furry best friend. “I thought you were leaving today?”
“When we realized you weren’t coming home anytime soon, your sisters and the Darlings left, but I don’t have a job or school to get back to,” he said. “Eamon says he’s fine with my staying for a few extra days, and it’s not like you’ll notice I’m there.”
“You don’t have to be that invisible when you visit.” Bel rolled her eyes. “But it’ll be nice having you around.”
“It’s nice that Eamon has the space for us,” Reese said.
“Don’t start.” She pointed an accusatory finger at her dad and then aimed it at her boyfriend, who raised his hands in surrender. “Now I’ve got two of you ganging up on me.”
“Three.” Eamon rubbed her dog’s head. “He really likes me too.”
“All right, all right.” Bel patted his chest before pulling Erik’s hoodie out of her SUV. “Let’s shelve the weekly move-in request until after we find this girl.” She handed him the sweater. “There should be two scents on it. Erik’s and Ariella’s.”
“I can tell the difference.” Eamon lifted the fabric to his nose and inhaled. “There’s a lot of her sweat on this, and it’s strong. I’ll have no problem finding her if she’s here.”
“I really hope she is,” Bel said. “I don’t want to open a missing persons’ for a nineteen-year-old girl.”
“I’ll start at the center of the party grounds and circle out,” Eamon said.
“And I’ll help search on foot,” Reese said.
“Thanks.” Bel grabbed Eamon’s hand, squeezing it tight before she released him into the wild. “And thank you, Dad.”
“I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to that.
” Reese nodded at where Eamon had vanished.
“Smelling a sweater like a tracking dog. Disappearing so quickly yet so silently despite his size. It scares me to realize just how helpless we really are. If he were hunting us in these trees instead of using his skills to find a missing girl, there’d be nothing we could do to escape.
He’d kill us before we ever knew he was there. ”
“Yeah, I know. I experienced it.” Bel wrapped Cerberus’ leash around her hand and started in the opposite direction from her boyfriend.
“He moves in the shadows. He isn’t there, and then suddenly he is, and you’re dead seconds later.
” She unconsciously fingered her scars. “You never want to be that man’s prey. ”
Reese froze in his tracks and stared at his daughter’s throat, and Bel saw the horrors flashing through his gaze as he imagined what it took to inflict such damage on his youngest child.
“But I’m not his prey.” She grabbed her father’s hand and tugged him back into a walk. “I never was. Not really. I was the sacrifice in his hands, but not the sacrifice of his will. He’s the only reason I’m still standing.”
“I still don’t understand how you forgave him so completely,” her dad said. “You explained the situation, but I don’t think I could ever truly forgive him.”
“Yet you’ve ganged up on me to get me to accept his invitation to move in?”
“Yeah… he’s an enigma, that’s for sure.”
“It’s the abs.” Bel smirked.
“No, but seriously, how does one acquire abs like that, and can he teach me?”
“They could convince me to forgive a lot.”
“You sound like your sisters. What did you do with my Isobel?”
“We’re trekking through the mud looking for a missing girl.
Where do you think she is?” She nudged her father, and Reese draped an arm around her shoulder.
“But to address your concern, you’re struggling to forgive him because you haven’t seen what we’ve endured.
It’s different when you feel black magic closing in for the kill.
It’s why we work as a couple. I’ve forgiven him so completely that there’s no resentment.
Only understanding. I know exactly who he is.
I understand exactly who I love… and I put him to work.
He can cover more ground than any police search could, and his sense of smell is far superior to a dog’s.
Sorry, baby beast.” She patted her pitbull’s head, who was trotting beside them, just happy to be included.
“If Ariella is here, he’s the only person I trust to find her. ”
A shadow slipped through the trees, and Bel jumped from her SUV.
She and her father had combed through the party’s ground zero for evidence, but they found nothing helpful.
As the afternoon faded, they’d retreated to their cars to wait for Eamon.
It was no use wandering the woods without his senses, so they’d waited with the unbearable heaviness of knowing that Ariella Triton wasn’t coming home today, if ever.
“Find anything?” she called, but as the shadow became flesh, the black eyes told her all she needed to know.
“I couldn’t locate her scent,” Eamon confirmed when he stepped within earshot.
“There were too many bodies at the party, police included, so the scents are muddled. I couldn’t pick hers out among the crowd’s.
If she were still in these woods, though, alive or dead, I would’ve picked up on it, but she’s gone. ”
Bel cursed, sagging against the hood of her SUV.
“I know you don’t want to entertain the idea, but it’s almost sunset,” Reese said. “She’s been missing for nearly twenty-four hours now. This is no longer a case of a teenager behaving irresponsibly. Something happened to this girl.”
“If she didn’t run away, someone took her,” Eamon said.
“She either left her entire life behind and exited her house without a single belonging to escape her family, or someone last night took advantage of the situation. Now, I hope she ran away of her own free will. It means she’s alive and probably safe, but based on the knowledge that she was here yet I can’t pinpoint her scent tells me she was taken. ”
“What makes you say that?” Reese asked.
“When people get trapped in cars, I lose their trail,” Eamon said.
“It’s why I have other ways of tracking your daughter because she’s gone missing on me too many times.
” He grabbed Bel’s hand as he settled beside her.
“If Ariella had run away on foot, her tracks would’ve eventually separated from the crowd, and I would’ve noticed her scent emerge as the only one.
But I can’t smell her, which means she got into a car.
Of course, there’s a chance it was willingly, but everyone says she had a happy home life.
Happy girls don’t just up and leave without a trace.
I think she got into a car with someone last night. Someone she shouldn’t have.”