Chapter 3 #2
“I was coming to talk to you about putting together a team to take shifts monitoring the perimeter, but that can wait for now. Finding the girl is priority. I want to know who she is.” He called Piper and gave her a heads-up to keep an eye on Ollie and to make sure the alarm was armed.
“Got it,” she said. “Keep me updated.”
“Will do. Stay by your phone.”
“What’s wrong?” He heard Ollie’s question just before Piper hung up. His gut tightened. No one was getting to that kid without going through him.
Elena had been with Maya in the main-house kitchen discussing her thoughts about working with Ollie when Sully’s call came through about the possible intruder. Maya had put it on speakerphone for Elena.
“I’ll get the head count,” Elena said when Maya hung up.
“Thanks. I’m going to ask some of the others to help with the search. There are some I can ask and some I can’t for obvious reasons.”
“Of course.” PTSD was a beast.
Maya raked a hand over her head, then tugged on her black ponytail. “Grab the radios and pass them out as you go. I’ll do the same. With Ollie here, we need to know if anyone has seen someone who shouldn’t be here.”
“On it.” Elena chewed her lip. “I’ll start with the dock, then move to the art therapy room.
Rachel’s got a session with a client this morning so she can’t help, but we’ll have to warn her what’s going on.
Then we’ll go cabin to cabin. Whoever we can’t find, we’ll try their cell phone.
If they don’t answer the cell, we’ll have to get creative. ”
“Yep. Take one of the master keys.” Maya went to her desk drawer, unlocked it, and pulled out a key card. She handed it to Elena. “Knock first, of course, but if no one answers, use it.”
“Got it.” Every resident signed a clause stating staff could enter if there was an emergency.
Maya zipped her coat, and Elena grabbed hers from the back of the kitchen chair. “I’m racking my brain trying to think who it could be,” Maya said, “but I’m coming up empty.”
“We have sixteen cabins, some with double occupancy, the barn, the equipment—” She broke off. “Well, I don’t have to tell you. It’s going to take a minute to search all of that.”
“I know. Pass out all the radios, make sure people are partnered up, and let’s get started.”
Elena pulled on her hat and hurried after Maya out the door. “This is a new one,” she said.
Maya sighed and aimed her steps toward the barn. “It was bound to happen at some point if it’s someone having a PTSD moment. The kind that makes you want to run because everyone’s the enemy.”
“So you don’t feel so trapped you fight back.”
“Yeah. And I could be wrong, but we have to know for sure.” She frowned. “That hat Sully found. I can’t think of one resident who has a tactical cap.”
Elena shook her head. “I haven’t seen one since I’ve been here.” But she had seen them before. But . . . no. It couldn’t be. Could it?
They walked into the barn, and Maya punched in the code for the office door. She snagged three radios from the shelf and handed them to Elena. “Channel six. Keep the volume on low. There’s no need to alarm anyone if we don’t have to. Get a golf cart. We have a lot of ground to cover.”
Elena nodded and darted back out the door, then headed to the dock overlooking the lake. Jim Small liked the water. She sighed in relief when she spotted him in his chair, fishing line bobbing in the gentle waves.
“Hey, Jim,” she said, her voice soft.
He gave a slight jerk, then looked over his shoulder at her. “Hey, kiddo, what’s up?”
“We’re having a bit of excitement today. Have you seen a young woman around here who doesn’t look like she belongs?”
He frowned. “No. Why?”
“Someone was on the property and she ran when approached. We just need to know who she is.”
He stood. “You need help looking?”
“That’s not why I’m here. It’s not what you signed on for when you decided to come here. I won’t ask.”
“You don’t have to. I’m offering.”
Jim Small was in his early forties and suffered severe PTSD. But he’d come a long way over the last two months. “Maya will kill me if you have a setback,” she said.
A ghost of a smile curved his lips. “It’s just looking for a woman on the property, right?”
“Yes.”
“I think I can handle it. If I have a setback, I have one. I have ‘tools’”—he air quoted—“in my kit now to deal with triggering situations that I didn’t have before. I’d like to help. No time like the present to see if everything I’ve been learning is helpful in the real world.”
“Then here.” She passed him a radio set to channel six, along with the comms earbud. “Take a stroll around the lake and let us know if you see anyone. Please don’t confront her alone. We have no idea if she’s armed.”
His eyes flashed with something like . . . excitement? He nodded. “Got it.”
He left and the comms in her ear buzzed. “Elena, anything?” The voice was Maya’s.
“I found Jim Small. Gave him a radio and comms. He wants to help.”
Maya went silent for a moment, and Elena grimaced, wondering if the woman would be upset with her.
“Good,” Maya said. “He’ll be an asset.”
“Appreciate the vote of confidence.” Jim’s voice came through loud and clear.
Elena smiled and headed back to the golf cart, where she hopped on and continued her search.
For the next hour, Elena moved through the property, the golf cart humming, zipping from cabin to cabin, building to building.
Each update through her radio confirmed another area clear, another resident accounted for.
Art therapy, gym, dock secured. Jim checked in with the words, “Basketball court—four present.”
A short time later, all residents and staff were accounted for. Elena let out a slow breath. “No strangers, male or female, found,” she reported in.
“Same,” Maya said. “Sully?”
“All clear. Headed back to the cabin to check on Piper and Ollie.”
“All clear here,” Piper said. “Maya brought me a radio and I’ve been following the search. The alarm is armed and Ollie is playing a video game in the den.”
“All right,” Sully said. “Then if the woman I saw wasn’t a resident, who was she?”
Elena bit her lip and wondered the same.
“I don’t know,” Maya said, “but let’s all be on the alert. She could be someone who heard about the ranch and just wanted to get a look at it. Who knows?”
“10-4,” Sully said. “Let me know if anything new comes up.”
“Will do.”
Elena set aside the radio and called Maya on her phone. She didn’t need anyone else listening at this point.
“Hey,” Maya said. “Everything okay?”
“Everything’s fine considering we had a trespasser and didn’t know it. That’s concerning.”
“True. But looks like she’s gone now.”
One could hope. “I have something I need to do now that everything is settled down. I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”
“You going into town?”
“No. But I’m going to take Harley. I’ll have my phone if you need me.
” Harley, an American quarter horse who’d become her favorite mount.
He stood fifteen hands high, and they’d bonded over carrots one rainy afternoon shortly after she’d arrived at the ranch.
Harley often followed her around like a dog when she had the time to let him.
He was also a very good listener and never spread gossip.