Sarah shook her head as if perplexed. “Just be careful on your way back. You have Jensen’s number if you need anything, right?”
“I do. Thanks for everything.”
“You’re very welcome. Hope to see you for dinner soon.”
Noah saved me by shouting from behind the bakery case. “Bye, Tay Tay!”
Jensen whirled. “Noah Nolan Cole, you better not be stealing treats out of there.”
With that, I made my escape.
7
Walker
Cool air rushed over me as I pulled open the door to the station, the smell of freshly brewed coffee wafting out.
“Good morning, Walker,” a soft voice called from behind the reception desk. Ashlee Elkins was as sweet as apple pie and as shy as a groundhog during a particularly long winter.
“Morning, Ashlee.”
“I have your cup of coffee,” she said, a blush staining her cheeks.
She also had what I was pretty sure was a massive crush on me. I gave her a kind smile. I didn’t want to encourage it, but I also didn’t want to be an asshole. It wasn’t that she wasn’t pretty, she was. In a sundress-wearing, church-every-Sunday kind of way. But she’d forever been like a little sister to me. It was just a no-go. I would never see her that way. Plus, her brother had recently started dating my sister, and that felt incestuous. “I told you, you don’t have to make my coffee.”
Her blush deepened. “I don’t mind.”
I dipped my chin. “Well, thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Also, the chief wanted a word when you got in.”
I nodded, taking the mug from her hand and heading towards Clark’s office. I rapped twice on the door. “Come in.”
I entered the room. “You wanted to see me, Chief?”
“Morning, Walker.” Clark Adams was a great Chief of Police for Sutter Lake, but as he got closer to retirement, he’d begun grooming me to take over the role. “Grab a seat.”
I sank into a chair opposite him and took a sip of my coffee. Just as I liked it. Black, one sugar.
Clark placed a stack of papers on his desk and gave me a careful look that put me on edge. “We’ve got a missing hiker out there.” He gestured at a map, indicating the miles of national forest that surrounded our town. “A girl from Seattle.”
Straightening, I placed my mug on the desk. A lead weight settled in my gut, reminding me of another missing girl all those years ago. I told myself that this was different, just a hiker lost in the woods. We’d find this girl. And she’d be alive. “Search and rescue been called?”
“They’ve been put on alert, but the search area is large. The young woman’s parents don’t know exactly where she was going hiking. Just some trail near Sutter Lake.”
“Hiking alone?”
“Yup.”
I groaned. When would these people learn? You never hiked alone, and youalwaystold someone where you were going and when to expect you back.
Clark rubbed a hand over his jaw. “There’s not a lot we can do at the moment, but I wanted to make you aware of the situation.”
“I appreciate that.”
“Of course.” Clark continued to hold my gaze. Searching. Sending the same silent apology he always did whenever there was a case that hit too close to home.
Almost a decade had passed since the spring I’d lost Julie. Since she wastakenfrom me. I still held out hope that a clue would appear or a witness would come forward. I went through the case file every year on the anniversary of her death, hoping that something would jump out at me that I hadn’t noticed before. It never did.
