Chapter 7
SEVEN
Lydia awoke with a start. Her breathing was intense, as if she’d been jogging. Except for a night-light that illuminated Frankie sleeping on her bed in the corner, the room was dark and the shades were drawn.
Her heart was still pounding from the dream she’d had.
She’d been running through the forest, calling for Elsie.
As she’d moved through the trees, she could hear the little girl crying out for her, but Lydia could never see her.
Then the dream shifted to the edge of the cliff—only it was Elsie falling down, screaming for Lydia.
Instead of a deep canyon, the cliff turned into a black abyss where Elsie got smaller and smaller until she was eaten up by the darkness.
Frankie rose from her bed and trotted over to Lydia, placing her front paws on the bed.
She touched the dog’s soft fur. “I’m okay. I just had a bad dream.”
After throwing off blankets, she stepped into the bathroom to get a sip of water.
The fear the dream had instigated still had not faded.
She rested her hands on the vanity and stared into the sink.
“It wasn’t real, Lydia.” Even taking a deep breath didn’t help wipe the images from her mind. She closed her eyes.
Elsie is safe. Elsie is alive.
She prayed for God to quiet her racing thoughts. When she returned to the bedroom, she heard River moving around in the kitchen.
After grabbing the robe River had loaned her, she stepped into the open-concept living room and kitchen area.
River was still fully dressed. He stood in the kitchen, a steaming mug sitting on the counter. It looked like he couldn’t sleep, either. “Everything okay?”
She stepped toward him. “I had a bad dream.”
He met her gaze. “I guess I don’t have to ask you what it was about.”
“River, I’m so afraid for her. I can’t stop thinking about it.”
He reached out to her, and she fell into his arms. He repeated her name several times.
She was grateful that he didn’t offer empty assurances.
Elsie’s welfare and whereabouts were unknown.
Lydia relished the warmth and safety of his embrace.
As he held her, she realized giving in to the fear would make it that much harder to focus on what she could do to bring Elsie home safe.
After stepping away from the hug, she swiped at her eyes. “Guess I’ll try to get a few more hours’ sleep.”
“In the morning, we’ll go out and talk to the man who owns the land next to the hiking trail. When I talked to him, he said he wanted to help. He had no problem with us taking the dogs into that clubhouse he has close to his skeet shooting range.”
She turned to face him. “Like you said, we have to work all the angles.” She tried to sound upbeat.
He nodded. “I’m not quitting until we have answers.”
His tenacity gave her strength to keep going. But they both knew that the answer might be that Elsie was no longer alive.
With doubt and hope wrestling in her mind, she retreated to the bedroom with Frankie, the self-appointed bodyguard, at her heels.
After she got under the covers, Frankie jumped up on the bed. The dog nuzzled close to her side. She stroked Frankie’s fur. “You understand, don’t you?”
With Frankie close, she drifted off to sleep, though the images and sounds of Elsie crying out as she’d fallen still echoed through her mind.
She awoke hours later when light streamed through the window. Frankie was still sleeping by her.
She stroked the dog’s head. “Thanks for helping me get through the night.”
Lydia got up, showered and changed into the clothes she’d bought at the store. She’d have to go back to her place to get more clothes at some point. She didn’t have the income to keep buying new outfits.
When she stepped into the kitchen, River had changed.
His blond hair was slicked back from his face.
He tossed her a protein bar, which she caught.
“Eat up. I heard from Gregory Larson’s assistant.
The only time he can meet with us out at that land is early this morning.
Apparently, he’s got a packed schedule dealing with the real estate business. ”
She pocketed the protein bar and headed toward the door. Within minutes, she was sitting in the passenger seat of River’s patrol car as they headed out of town. Frankie sat in her kennel.
Tension knotted the back of Lydia’s neck. She prayed they’d find something that would lead them to Elsie.
* * *
River kept his eyes on the road as he took the turn that would lead to the back side of the property Gregory Larson owned. He slowed down when the paved road turned to dirt.
“I’ve asked one of the other task force members to meet us up there.
Lizzie has a K-9 who’s trained to track.
She was here for the initial search, the blond woman with the golden retriever.
Two noses are better than one. I don’t want to take a chance of missing anything if Elsie was anywhere near that clubhouse. ”
Any small morsel of evidence would help at this point.
If Elsie hadn’t been taken away in that car, where else could she have been hidden?
The kidnapper would have had to carry her over a hill.
There had been plenty of brush and trees that would have hidden them from view.
Still, he could not understand why Frankie and the other dogs had completely lost the scent at the creek.
It was as if a helicopter had landed and taken Elsie up in the air.
The road he was on was different than the one that led to the trail or the one where the car had been seen.
He took several more turns and then the clubhouse and the skeet shooting range came into view.
When he checked his rearview mirror, he saw Lizzie’s patrol vehicle behind him.
Just having another task force member help out would lighten his load.
The focus on finding Mia before it was too late and getting justice for the other three women had caused the members to bond quickly.
The road leveled off. River stopped his car and Lizzie parked beside him.
Two men were at the shooting range. One operated the trap and the other aimed his rifle at the sky.
Off in the distance, a man was flying a drone and two others were practicing fly-fishing casts.
The land was used for more than just skeet shooting.
The clubhouse was some distance from the range.
It looked to be a prebuilt modular home that had been hauled in.
River, Lydia and Lizzie all got out of their vehicles.
The man shooting skeet leaned his rifle against a stump and walked toward them.
River recognized him from ads. Gregory Larson was tall and in good shape.
He was probably in his late thirties or early forties.
As he got closer, River’s assessment was that there was a fake quality to him.
Gregory’s tan was a little too even to have happened naturally by being in the sun and his blond hair had dark roots.
Gregory held out his hand. River made quick introductions.
“So sorry to hear about that poor little girl,” said Gregory. He turned to Lydia. “This must be difficult for you.”
Lydia managed a nod.
“I’ll do anything to help.” Gregory shifted his weight focusing his gaze on River.
“Were you on the land the day Elsie was taken?”
He shook his head. “I had a showing in Colorado Springs. Sorry I can’t be of more help.”
River glanced over at the men practicing their fly-fishing casts. “Looks like you use the land for other things. Do you know if anybody else was here?”
“I can ask around. People come and go as they please once they pay a small rental fee for the use of the land. Just trying to make this place pay for itself. The clubhouse is only opened for members of the skeet shooting club.”
“If you don’t mind, we’d like to deploy the dogs to see if there was any trace of the girl having been here,” said River.
“Sure, I’ve left the clubhouse door unlocked. I’ve got to head out for a showing here in twenty minutes. The last person to leave will lock up for me.”
Using Elsie’s jacket, which Lydia had taken with her when she’d left her place, River and Lizzie deployed the dogs.
While River headed toward the clubhouse, Lizzie directed Reena to work her way downhill.
From the map he’d looked at, River knew the creek and the dirt road were two hills over from the clubhouse.
Lydia followed River and Frankie. The inside of the clubhouse was one big room with a large table and several couches and chairs, a bar near the kitchen had several stools by it. The counter had a coffee machine. The center of the room had a large fireplace that looked like it had never been used.
River looked around. “The electrical must be run on some kind of generator.” If the fireplace wasn’t being used, they must have another way to heat the place.
After River commanded her to search, Frankie put her nose to the ground and move around the room.
Lydia checked the two other doors that connected to the big room and then returned to the main room.
“Just a bathroom and a storage closet with cleaning supplies and tools.” She rubbed her arms. “I don’t know why I thought I would find some evidence that she’d been here.
She was wearing barrettes that day and a little beaded bracelet that I helped her make. She had on her floral windbreaker.”
The look of distress on Lydia’s face cut right through him. “All the same, let’s let Frankie do a deep search.”
River led Frankie through the side rooms. The K-9 circled each room but gave no hint that Elsie had been there.
He returned to the main room where Lydia sat on a couch, waiting for him. Her expression, the wide eyes and raised brows, held a question.
He shook his head.
Her shoulders slumped. When they stepped outside, Lizzie was headed up the hill with Reena. Gregory’s car was gone, as was one of the men practicing his fly casting.
They walked toward Lizzie. “So sorry, Lydia, but Reena couldn’t pick up on any sort of scent. I went as far as the top of the hill where I could look down and see the creek.”
As they loaded up and headed down the mountain, River felt like he was in quicksand. They were running out of angles to work. What had happened to that precious little girl?
Lydia’s silence suggested she was in the same mental space as he was. What thread could he pull to make the case hot again? He refused to give up hope. He took his phone from his pocket and sat it on the console. “Press in Eva’s number. Maybe she has come up with something.”
Lydia picked up the phone and scrolled, pressing a number.
Eva’s voice came through on speaker. “River, what’s up?”
“Just wanted to check with you. Did all the background checks on the people at the school come back?” He swallowed and glanced in Lydia direction. “Wonder if you came up with anything.”
“Give me a second. I just had my first sip of coffee, so I’m moving a little slow.
” River could hear keys tapping. “We’re still waiting on a couple of background checks.
So far, everyone but Prentiss Grafton is pretty clean.
When I called him, he said he was out of town the day of Elsie’s kidnapping.
I still have to confirm his alibi. Give me a second, let me check the police reports I requested.
” There was a pause, as if Eva was reading, and then the keys tapped some more.
“It seems that D. J. Ketterling’s ex-wife called in a domestic the night before Elsie disappeared.
D.J. showed up drunk, wanting to see his four-year-old son.
The ex called the cops, and he fled the scene. The house is just outside of Ridge.”
Elsie had been taken in the early afternoon of the next day. Plenty of time to get up to the trail or even to follow them from the school.
“No sign of D.J. since then?”
“No, the guy fell off the radar after that. He’d been evicted from the apartment he previously rented before he went into Second Chances.
I’m trying to track down his known associates.
” Eva let out an audible breath. “River, I want to find this little girl as badly as you do, but the net we’re casting is pretty wide.
We’ve got to find a way to narrow things down. ”
“I know. Maybe I can question Sloane. It’s a long drive to get to where he’s at.
Maybe there is something there. Even if he’s not supposed to talk to anyone at this stage of his rehab, there are legal ways we can compel him to talk to us.
” He clenched his jaw. Time Eva spent helping with Elsie’s case was time away from the baby snatching ring.
“Give me a little more time. A strong lead has to come up somewhere.”
“Hang in there.” Eva’s voice was fused with compassion. “I’ll let you know if anything comes up on this end.”
“Thanks, Eva.” Her words, as kindly as she had spoken them, hung heavily in his mind.
Lydia pressed the disconnect button, a grim expression on her face.
“I think we need to look at your ex-husband again. Maybe he sent D.J. as his proxy. It sounds like Ketterling didn’t have any visitation rights with his kid, either.
Maybe they bonded over that. I just can’t let go of the idea that your ex is involved.
Did his drinking lead to illegal activity or associating with people on the wrong side of the law?
Maybe someone wanted to get back at Sloane by hurting you and Elsie. ”
She shook her head. “It was just the DUIs that did him in and my telling the police he’d driven with Elsie in the car. There’s no one who would come after Elsie and I for that reason.”
River’s throat went tight. His voice was soft. “I just don’t know where else to look.”
“How long before Elsie’s case is considered a cold one?”
They had turned onto the paved road. Before he could answer, Lizzie, who had been driving ahead of them, radioed. “I’m headed back into Ridge. I’ll be around for a few hours if you need anything.”
“Got you,” said River.
He watched as she turned onto the road that led back into town.
Lydia glanced in the side mirror and then over her shoulder. “Oh no, we’ve got a problem.” Fear permeated her voice as she gripped the armrest.
River glimpsed the rearview mirror in time to see the tan SUV behind them, zooming toward his patrol car.