Page 151 of Whispers and Wildfire
My brothers and I—along with Anton, Nathan, and the Baileys—had spent most of the night searching. We’d checked the area around the high school, my place, hers, my parents’, her parents’, my shop, the streets downtown. Nothing. No sign of her except that syringe cap.
We’d talked to as many people at the game as possible, but no one remembered seeing anything suspicious. No one hanging around the restrooms or driving out of the parking lot too fast. Certainly no one carrying an unconscious woman and putting her in the trunk of a car.
He’d taken the other victims without a trace, too. The guy was a fucking ghost.
Garrett was at the sheriff’s office, doing his job. Which was exactly where I wanted him. He had access to resources I didn’t. And I knew my brother. If there was something I needed to know—whether or not he was supposed to tell me—he’d call.
But I also knew law enforcement might not be able to move fast enough.
Sometime in the middle of the night, most people had gone home to catch a few hours of sleep. Feeling angry and helpless, I’d gone to Melanie’s parents’ place and crashed on their couch. We had no new leads, and there wasn’t much we could do in the dark.
Anton, Krista, and I had been up before the sun and come to Home Slice to start organizing the search. People had started showing up soon after, including my brothers and a growing group of SPS members.
I stood next to the table where Anton had a map of the area spread out with broken crayons to mark the search teams. He looked like an old-school general preparing for war. He’d sent my dad and Josiah to search the area around the high school again. Zachary and a few other guys, including some of the Baileys, were heading toward Echo Creek, while another search party had already been sent east of town.
“Once we have a few more people, we’ll get a group searching the north end,” Anton said, placing a blue crayon on his map.
I nodded my assent, but it was hard to stand still. He kept insisting we had strength in numbers—that if we covered a large enough area, we’d find her. I wanted to share his confidence, but every minute that ticked by increased my dread.
She’d already been gone for hours.
But I didn’t have a better plan.
“What about here?” Krista pointed at the map. She’d been strangely calm since Melanie had gone missing. All business.
“There’s nothing out there,” Anton answered. “Not even any roads.”
“No cabins or anything?” she asked.
“The terrain is too rough.” He pointed at another area,closer to Echo Creek. “Here, though. We probably need a second group here.”
“What about in town?” she asked. “Why assume he’s been taking his victims somewhere isolated?”
“That’s the problem,” I said. “We don’t know. The other victims remember being chained to a wall, but all that tells us is that he has a place to take them. Even if every SPS member shows up to help, we can’t check every house in town. Not to mention Echo Creek and Pinecrest.”
“Isolated makes the most sense,” Anton said. “Otherwise, neighbors would hear.”
I was glad he didn’t finish his thought out loud—what the neighbors would hear. We knew what he meant.
A few more SPS members showed up. I wandered away from the table while they conferred with Anton. She was my woman, but she was also his daughter. For now, I was letting him take the lead—at least when it came to organizing volunteers.
I paced around the restaurant and checked my phone. I kept hoping Garrett would call with a new lead, a clue, a rumor—anything that would give us some direction. I understood Anton’s need to do something, and sending out search teams was certainly better than nothing. But we weren’t going to find her that way. Even if the whole town turned out to help look for her, they weren’t going to find her if The Whisper had her chained to a wall in some basement.
Theo came in, so I went over to talk to him.
“Any word from Garrett?” he asked.
“Nothing yet.”
“Fire department got called out to help with the wildfire. So we lost some guys.”
“Fuck,” I muttered.
“They weren’t happy about it, but I guess the wind picked up or something. It’s not threatening Tilikum, but it’s getting close to Echo Creek. They might have to evacuate.”
“It doesn’t even matter.” I kept my voice low so the others wouldn’t hear me. “I appreciate what everyone’s trying to do, and we can’t sit around doing nothing. But how did this guy not leave a single clue? How did no one see anything? Hundreds of people were at the game last night.”
“It’s dark on that side of the parking lot.”
