Chapter 8
The next morningGage woke with a headache strikingly like the ones he’d had in his party days in college. Miss Edna’s punch had definitely been potent. When he focused past the pain, he realized he had a feeling of contentment he hadn’t experienced since before his accident. And he knew the source of it. Holly Grace. A Christmas miracle indeed
Rising from the bed he went to shower and hopefully shake off the effects of his overindulgence. First order of today was to find a nice florist in town where he could purchase flowers for Holly Grace and get directions to the office of the rescue group where she worked. She’d told him last night that she was working today.
An hour later he pulled his rental into the parking lot for No Street For You. Not fancy, he thought to himself as he exited the car. But Holly Grace had told him they were one hundred percent donation supported. In a small town like this it was probably hard to raise funds.
Anticipation bubbled through him as he pulled open the door. However, the bubbles burst quickly when he scanned the room and saw two women that he remembered meeting briefly last night. But no Holly Grace.
His face must have told the story because the one he thought was called Mollie said, “Holly Grace is out on a rescue. A call came in a little while ago and she took off to handle it.”
Gage set the flowers on an empty desk noticing a picture of a big fuzzy dog and two small puppies. He remembered the fuzzy dog had been with Holly Grace the day she was running. This must be her desk.
“Do you know which direction she went?” He asked the woman he thought was named Mollie. “Maybe I can help her again.”
Mollie and the other woman glanced at each other. He gave them credit for not smiling.
“I believe she’s out on the same road where you helped her last time.” Mollie replied.
“Thank you.” He said and beat a hasty retreat knowing a lot of speculation would be done as soon as he was out of sight. He didn’t care. He only wanted to be with Holly Grace.
He spotted Holly Grace’s Civic parked almost in the same spot as last time they’d been here on a rescue. The problem was, there was no sign of Holly Grace. He parked close to her car, got out and scanned the area.
Nothing moved other than tall weeds in the wind.
“Holly Grace!” He shouted. Nothing.
“Holly Grace!” He shouted again, straining his ears to hear any sound above the wind. Nothing.
The short hairs on the nape of his neck stood up. The way they had when he was a ranger in the army and something not quite right was going on. Hoping, for the first time in his life, his instinct was wrong, he went into ranger mode.
Holly Grace’s keys and purse were in the car. The ground around the car didn’t appear to scuffed up. He scanned in widening circles around the car looking for anything out of the ordinary. Not until he was fifteen feet from the car, in an adjoining field, did he find something that made his blood run cold.
The dry grass was flattened, scuff marks disturbed the dirt patches in between clumps of grass, and, worst of all, drops of blood marred the ground in one small area. He touched them lightly. They were still wet. So recent. His worst fears came to the surface.
Hurrying back to his car, he used his cellphone to alert Ian that Holly Grace was missing and his fears that she had somehow come to harm. Ian informed him that the local search and rescue group would be alerted and to meet them at the train depot. The same place where he and Holly Grace had been so happy just last night.
Since he was practically at the train depot when he called Ian, Gage was the first to arrive. In short order six other men arrived, including the sheriff. Gage briefed everyone on what he knew, then turned everything over to the sheriff. As much as he wanted to run this show, he didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes. He’d give the sheriff a chance to prove how good he was, and, if he didn’t meet Gage’s standards, then he’d go off on his own. There was no way he was going to lose Holly Grace so soon after he’d found her.
Sheriff Carter contacted Mollie and Alice at the rescue office, but they had not information beyond what they’d already told Gage. Trying not to grind his teeth together at what he considered wasted time, Gage glanced at Ian to see how he was handling having the sheriff in charge instead of them. Ian gave a tiny eye roll, but no other indication.
The sheriff sent them all out to the field where Gage had found the evidence of a struggle with instruction for them to fan out in a circle looking for additional evidence that might lead them to answers about Holly Grace.
