Page 21 of Save Me

WHEN SEVEN O’CLOCK came and went at Adelitas restaurant and Lainie still wasn’t there, Charis called her. The call went to voice mail. Thirty minutes later, she sent a text that wasn’t answered, and then another one, and by the time the evening was over, and Charis was headed home, she was still worried enough to drive by Lainie’s house. Yet, after she got there, she couldn’t tell if the car was in the garage. But her lights were out, so she drove home, telling herself everything was surely okay, convincing herself that when she saw Lainie tomorrow, she would have a logical explanation.

WHEN LAINIE WOKE up again, it was morning, and a raccoon was staring at her through the brush she’d pulled in around her. As soon as she opened her eyes, it waddled away.

The moment she took a breath, she knew something was wrong. It hurt to breathe, and her skin felt hot. When she felt her head wound, her fingers came away bloody. This meant the cut was still seeping blood through the bandanna, and now she had a fever. It was all she could do to crawl out from beneath the ledge, and the only thing on her mind was finding water. There hadn’t been any behind her, so up she went.

She was still sad from the dream. And it took everything she had to put one foot in front of the other, but she was lost. Not dead. Surely someone would miss her at work. Charis knew where she’d gone. She had to believe someone would find her. She just needed to be found before she was past help.

WHEN LAINIE DIDN’T show up for work, Charis panicked and went straight to Jennifer Wilson, Lainie’s boss.

“Have you talked to Lainie? Has she called in?”

“No, and it’s not like her to miss work without calling,” Jennifer said.

“She went hiking yesterday and was supposed to meet us for dinner last night, but never showed. I drove by her house on my way home, but all the lights were off, and I couldn’t tell if her car was in the garage or not. Please, call the police and ask them to do a welfare check. Something’s wrong! I just know it!”

Jennifer made the call, but the moment she mentioned Lainie Mayes’s name, she got the shock of her life and quickly put the call on speaker so Charis could hear the officer’s reply.

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but that person has already been reported missing by her hiking partner last night. He showed up in an ER with severe wounds. He said he and Miss Mayes were hiking together when they were attacked by a bear. He was injured, but managed to spray it in the face with bear repellant before being knocked unconscious. When he came to, she was missing. He found one of her shoes on the path, and saw some of her other belongings on the slope down into the canyon. He drove himself to ER to report the incident. There is already an ongoing search party, and we’re still questioning him.”

Charis gasped, and then interrupted the officer.

“No, Officer, no! She would never have gone hiking with that man. He’s been stalking and harassing her at work for months. If he showed up in an ER with wounds, it wasn’t from any bear. I promise it was Lainie, fighting for her life.”

There was a moment of silence, and then the officer spoke. “I’m going to need your name and contact information, and we’ll be asking you to come to the station to make a statement.”

“Anything! I’ll do anything for Lainie,” Charis said. “Just don’t turn that man loose.”

The call ended. Charis and Jennifer stared at each other in disbelief.

THE PARK RANGERS were already in search mode. They had Randall’s statement about where the attack happened, and followed the path up to the spot. They found a shoe on the path, as he’d stated, and then another shoe and a shirt on the slope, farther down. They also found a hiking stick, but what they didn’t find were bear tracks.

After that, they took the search down into the canyon below, expecting to find her, or her body, but the only other thing the searchers found was her backpack hanging from a tree. It was too far away from the other stuff to have fallen with her, and there was no body, and no sign of drag marks or footprints walking away anywhere beneath it.

They were already suspicious of Justin Randall’s story, and were now fairly certain of foul play. She’d obviously been attacked on the trail, but not by a bear, and the bigger question was, was she even still on the mountain?

By midafternoon, the local-hiker-gone-missing story was all over the local news, and by evening, the national news had picked it up.

Justin Randall was in his apartment, so sore he could hardly move, and drinking soup from a cup, when there was a knock at the door. He set the cup down and hobbled to the door.

A detective and four policemen were in the hall.

“Mr. Randall, we need you to come with us,” the detective said.

“What the hell? Why?” Justin asked.

“Because your story is full of great big holes, and we need you to come fill those up for us.”

Justin was blustering and arguing all the way out the door, and still cursing as they put him in a squad car and drove away.

HUNTER GRAY HAD flown a group of tourists to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon earlier in the day, and he’d just set down to unload them. They were already on their way to the office, and he was doing a final systems check as he shut down. When he finished, he climbed out of the cockpit and started across the tarmac, as the sun was setting behind his back.

He entered the office, signed himself out, and then sat down to wait to talk to Pete before going home. The television on the wall behind him was on, and he wasn’t paying much attention to it until he heard a name that stopped his heart. He spun, his gaze immediately fixed on the monitor, and the journalist doing an on-the-spot commentary of what was happening.

“...Lainie Mayes, an employee of Denver Health Center has gone missing. She was last reported to have gone hiking with a friend in the mountains west of the city on Beaver Brook Trail. According to the report, they were attacked by a bear, and in the ensuing drama, she was knocked off the trail and down into a canyon, while the friend was still fighting the bear. He wound up in ER and they are combing the area as we speak. A search has turned up articles of her clothing, and a backpack down in the canyon off the trail, but Miss Mayes’s body has yet to be located. Searchers are...”

But it wasn’t until they flashed a photo that reality hit. He grunted like he’d been gut punched, and nearly went to his knees, then headed for Pete’s office.

Pete was on the phone, a little irked and surprised by Hunt’s abrupt entrance, until he saw his face.

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