Chapter 4 Jake #2
The guy turned to Jake with a half-grimace, half-smile. “No, sorry. No naked women. Last time I saw a naked woman was in 1996, so I think I’d notice.”
Shit. Where was she?
“She must still be hiding, since you’re here.” Jake was struggling to keep his voice calm. “She’s probably embarrassed. Did you see our car on the track? A silver Audi with a roof rack?”
“Yeah, I parked next to it. There was nobody there, though.”
Fuck.
“Would you mind sticking around here for a minute while I go look in the forest?”
The hiker nodded, with a kind smile. “No problem. This is a beautiful spot. I’d be happy to chill here a while, anyways.” He looked about him appreciatively. “Strange, I had no idea it was even here.” The guy sat down on the ridge, his dog settling beside him. Both looked up at Jake.
“Thanks, man. Help yourself to strawberries.”
Jake gathered Liv’s clothes so she could dress before facing the stranger, and began scouring the edges of the forest. He called out into the trees. “Liv? It’s me . . . I have your clothes. You can get dressed and come out. The guy with the dog is cool. Where are you? . . . Liv?”
Surely she had to be here somewhere?
But she wasn’t.
And Jake knew this, even as he completed the circuit of woodland surrounding the quarry. Even as he’d spoken to the hiker and his dog. Because if Liv was around, her ring wouldn’t have been down by the water.
“No luck?” the hiker said as Jake returned, concern etched over his sun-battered face.
Jake shook his head, blowing out a breath, trying to control the resurfacing panic.
“No. I have no idea what the fuck’s happened to her.
I even went into the lake. I thought maybe she’d fallen in .
. . It happened before,” he explained at the older man’s expression.
“Then I heard you and figured she’d hidden from you.
But she’d have come out by now.” His expression brightened. “Maybe she’s at the car now?”
The hiker shrugged. “You wanna go check, and I’ll stay here?”
“Thanks, man. I really appreciate this. I know it’s not your problem. If I run, it’ll take me twenty minutes there and back.”
“No sweat. I’m in no hurry.”
Jake grabbed the car keys and pushed his way through the undergrowth, the wire mesh fence and along the wooded trail, increasing his pace to a sprint at the last section that met the track. The car was parked where he’d left it, a blue Toyota now beside it. But no sign of anyone else.
“LIV!!”
Silence, but for birdsong and the rustle of the breeze in the silver birches.
He opened up the car and grabbed a pad and pen from the glove compartment, scrawling a note for the windshield.
HONEY, I LOST YOU! STAY HERE AT THE CAR. GET IN, IT’S UNLOCKED. BLANKET IN THE TRUNK. STAY WARM. I’LL COME BACK. LOOKING FOR YOU AT QUARRY.
It was an invitation for thieves, but the chances of anybody other than the hiker coming along seemed extremely slim.
He ran back, making it to the quarry in less than ten minutes — record time. The dog began barking, the hiker turned and rose from his sitting position.
“Any luck?”
“Nothing,” Jake shrugged. “I left a note in case she goes to the car. But it doesn’t make sense. It’s a twenty-minute walk, plus she’s naked. Shit. I don’t know what the fuck is happening.” The adrenaline coursing through Jake’s body made him shake, his legs suddenly turning to Jell-O. “Fuck.”
He collapsed onto the rocks at the guy’s feet, the Alsatian stopped barking, nuzzling him gently instead.
The hiker crouched down beside Jake, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Dude. I think maybe it’s time we called the police. She might have gone into the water.”
“I found her ring down there. Her engagement ring.” Jake’s body was beginning to shake. The hiker looked even more concerned, the dog began whimpering, looking from his owner to Jake and back again.
It took Jake a moment to realize that his shaking was actually sobbing.
The hiker stayed in his crouch, producing a cellphone from his pocket and dialing, just three digits. Three little beeps. The last two the same tone.
“Police, please . . . Hi. Yeah, we have a missing person, a woman has disappeared, but she may have been swimming and met with an accident . . . That’s right .
. . We’re at a lake in an old quarry . .
. Yeah. It’s through the woodland at the end of Travers Lane, between Rocky Point and Long Creek.
It’s marked as McMahon Quarry on Google Maps — I guess it’s private property as there’s a mesh fence.
I’ve never seen a gate, I think it’s been disused for years. ”
He stopped, listened for a few seconds, his eyes flicking to Jake.
“Yeah, just an overgrown trail at the end of the lane, but I can meet you at my car and guide you here . . . It’s been maybe twenty, thirty minutes.
I know that’s not long for a missing person, but I’m concerned she may be in the water and her boyfriend is very distressed .
. . Name? I’m Kirk Evans. I’m just a bystander, the woman is .
. . uh . . .” He nudged Jake, his eyebrows raised in question.
“Liv,” Jake choked out. “Olivia Grainger.”
“Olivia Grainger . . . yes . . . here with her fiancé. Please hurry, he’s in a bad way and it’s not, uh, looking great . . . Yes, I’ll be by the car in twenty minutes.” He looked at his watch. “Say . . . 2:35. Okay, thanks.” He put his phone away.
“Okay, dude — uh, what’s your name?”
Jake rubbed his face into his elbow. “Jake. Jake Johnson.”
“Okay, Jake. I’m Kirk. So, Jake, I’m gonna go meet the police at the trailhead, okay?
You sit tight here, in case she shows up.
I’ve got a hoodie in my backpack, so I’ll keep calling out for her too, and if I find her, I can put the hoodie over her.
She’ll be safe with me, don’t you worry.
” He looked unsure whether to leave Jake or not.
“Sit tight, Jake. I’ll be back with the cops as soon as I can. ”
Kirk rose and jogged away, his dog trotting behind him.
Jake lay back, finally allowing his body to dissolve into anguish, twisting into a fetal position. How could it have been only half an hour ago when Jake was lying right here, feeling Liv’s fingertips running over his body? How could their celebration turn so quickly into a nightmare?
He lay curled up for goodness knows how long, the late spring sun beating down on him like a whip, brutally unrelenting. The salt water dried on his face, his skin shriveling with dehydration and over-exposure. Sunscreen, Liv would always tell him.
He sat upright, opening the factor 30 lotion he had applied to Liv’s back earlier, inhaling the scent deep into his lungs, coating his insides with it.
Coconut, summer, surfing, Liv’s soft skin.
He squeezed out a large, drizzly mound onto his palm and applied it liberally to his face, arms, and legs, but it didn’t soothe him.
Maybe now this smell would always remind him of the day Liv disappeared.
A rustle in the undergrowth behind him.
“Liv?”
But it was the guy, Kirk, again, and his dog, leading a pair of cops. The hiker was pointing to Jake, saying something, then gesturing to the clifftop, the water below.
Jake fell back against the rocks again. It was their job to find her now. He’d done everything he could. And failed.
When the officers spoke to Jake, trying to get him to sit up, he could barely acknowledge them. He’d lost all capacity to speak. He heard things: words, jumbled sentences, mutterings.
“Not in a good way, officer.”
“—last time you saw Miss Grainger?—”
“Purse is still here, clothing too, so—”
“—would be long dead by now if she’d fallen in the—”
“—Her engagement ring? Ah, okay—”
“—can’t drive like this.”
At some point, somebody shoved their shoulder under his armpit and led him through the forest, back to the track. Not into his and Liv’s car — the one with the note on top. Instead, he was guided into the back of the police car, a hand on top of his head.
Like a criminal.