Chapter 12 #2
“Mia.” He gestured for her to join them. She shuffled over, her arms crossed loosely over her middle. He introduced them one by one. “These guys are all part of the search and rescue team I’m on.”
Sierra, a striking brunette who seemed to be several months pregnant. Her husband, Rowan, and his brother Mack—also an EMT, though he and Jackson didn’t work in the same part of town. Their friend Luca Saxon, and more people whose names Mia was never going to remember.
He indicated the last man. “This is Swanny. He’s also my partner at work. He recently joined SAR. Technically, he’s still in training. But he’s my best friend too, and always has my back.”
“Pleased to meet you, ma’am.” The man introduced as Swanny ducked his chin at her.
She nodded back. Mia felt like a dwarf standing next to Swanny. The hulking man had to be at least six foot four.
“So what’s the plan?” Swanny widened his stance. The sunlight filtered in through the lush tree branches bursting with leaves, putting half of his face in shadow.
Jackson faced them. Mia saw a brief flicker of pain on his face before he quashed it.
When this was done, she’d insist he get checked out.
“My kid brother and a buddy of his, a boy named Reggie, went camping a week ago and never came home. The police aren’t putting them as a priority, but I believe something bad happened.
Since Mia and I arrived here yesterday, we’ve been shot at and hunted, and we nearly tripped over a dead body. ”
The team exclaimed over that one. “So the kids were definitely here.” Swanny nodded, laying a hand on Jackson’s shoulder. “We’re here to search for him, Doc. You leading it?”
Doc? Mia had never heard Jackson called that before.
“No can do. Mia and I have to wait for the police so we can discuss the body we found.”
“Okey dokey. We’ll get moving. Did you mark the crime scene?”
“Yeah. You’ll see the markers when you get within twenty feet.”
“I wonder if this is related to the other missing girl,” Sierra said, lifting her backpack straps higher on her shoulders.
“What girl?” Mia stumbled, her heart in her throat. Another kid missing.
Sierra held up her phone. “I just got a call. There’s another girl, a seventeen-year-old named Zoe Clayton. Her mother reported her missing this morning. There’s another team searching for her.”
“Something is going on.” Jackson rubbed at his side absentmindedly, his brow furrowed in concentration. “We’ve had three kids from area schools go missing in a very short timeframe.”
Sierra paused in the act of tightening her boot laces. “If there are three, there might be more? That kind of thing?”
Jackson nodded, his face shadowed. “Yeah. I don’t like to think it. Have we heard of any other missing teens recently?”
Mia let the talk wash over her. Her mind was taking Jackson’s words in a whole new direction.
One she didn’t like, one that made chills break out all over her body.
She barely reacted when Jackson’s friends broke into teams. Swanny ordered them to pair up.
They were searching the woods, starting in a straight formation.
He and Sierra went first. The other three teams branched out and melted into the forest.
Mia barely noticed. She struggled to breathe. Visions of a slender cheerleader with straight chestnut hair and dimples swam in her mind. Then she saw Dylan. And Reggie. Who else could be missing? She thought of all the kids who had come to the camp. A camp she’d supported and worked for.
She’d been so desperate for money. But what if her desperation had led her to gloss over something truly nefarious? How would she live with herself if something happened to any of these kids?
“If Dylan is still here, they’ll find him.” Jackson moved to her side. She reached out and took his hand, desperate for an anchor. Somehow, his touch steadied her. She felt his gaze sweep over her. “Mia? Are you okay? Do you need your inhaler?”
“Zoe Clayton.” She sucked in a huge wheezing breath.
Her chest tightened, so she dug in her pocket, took out her inhaler, and took two measured puffs.
Her breathing eased, but her pulse raced.
“I know her. Jackson, she was at the summer camp. Went to a different school in Renegade, but I don’t recall which one.
How do three teens from the same camp just vanish? It’s more than a coincidence.”
“Was she friends with my brother and Reggie?”
She shook her head. “I never saw them hang out or exchange words. They didn’t dislike each other, but she wasn’t a student at our school. They didn’t know each other.”
Jackson’s hand tightened on hers.
Mia frowned up at him. A light breeze wafted over them.
The aroma of grass, moss, and wet earth tingled in her nose.
She blinked at the sunlight shining behind his head, outlining it like a halo.
“What did I miss, Jackson? This camp…I never sensed anything wrong about it. The kids had a great time. But in light of what we’ve learned, how could the kids from the camp starting to disappear be a coincidence? ”