Page 17 of Left Behind

“Hello.”

“Cameron, this is Annie. There’s a wrecked car off in the trees a couple of hundred yards up from your driveway, but no driver in sight. Do you know anything about this?”

“No! It rained so hard last night the only thing I could hear was Ghost whining. He hates storms. So obviously no one has reported this, or the police and a wrecker would already be on the scene. You call it in. I’ll take Ghost and see if he can track whoever was in it.”

“Yes, okay, but I can’t imagine how there’d be a scent left after all that rain,” Annie said.

“It won’t wash it away. It just disperses it a little. Ghost is good. Maybe we’ll get lucky. Thanks for letting me know, Auntie.” Cameron said.

“Of course,” Annie said, and after they disconnected, she called the Jubilee police.

“Jubilee PD, Sergeant Winter speaking.”

“Walter, this is Annie Cauley. I just found a wrecked car off in the trees just up the road from Cameron’s driveway. The car is empty; the door is wide open. I saw belongings in the car but no sign of the driver. It looks like a bad accident. Has anyone been picked up from here in the night?”

“Let me check the log,” Walter said, and then came back. “No, ma’am. There was not. I’ll get dispatch on this. Thanks for calling it in,” he said.

“Sure thing, and Cameron’s taking Ghost to the crash site to see if they can find the missing driver,” Annie added.

“I’ll make a note,” Walter said.

Satisfied she’d done all she could, Annie continued her trip into town, as Cameron headed for the bedroom to change his clothes. Ghost sensed an outing and followed him.

Cameron’s wife, Rusty, was getting their little boy, Mikey, dressed, when she heard Cameron coming toward the bedrooms.

“We’re in here,” she said.

He paused in the doorway to Mikey’s room, and couldn’t help smiling. Their son was growing so fast. He’d be in first grade this year and, like every other Pope, was tall for his age. But he was arguing with his mother about going out to play.

“Michael! What did Mama say?” Cameron asked.

Mikey ducked his head. “Too wet to go outside.”

“Then why are you arguing with her? You’re not in charge around here, boy. You do what Mama says, understand?”

Mikey frowned, but the tone in his daddy’s voice was the one that meant business. He nodded.

“And what do you say to Mama?” Cameron prompted.

Mikey looked up and smiled at Rusty. “Mama’s pretty.”

Cameron grinned.

Rusty snorted. “Lord. Like father, like son.”

“Well, you are pretty, so there’s no arguing that,” Cameron said, and gave her a quick hug. “On another note, Aunt Annie just called. Somebody wrecked their car just up the road from our driveway, but nobody’s in it. She’s already called the police and a wrecker, but I’m going to take Ghost and see if we can figure out where the driver went.”

Rusty frowned. “Oh no! I hope it’s just a case of someone picking them up and already taking them into Jubilee.”

“Me too, but I need to check. If the driver was injured, there’s no telling how disoriented they could have been, or how far they might have wandered into the woods.”

“Yes, I understand, but be careful,” Rusty said.

Cameron slid his arms around her and nuzzled the back of her neck. “Always. I’m taking my sat phone, and I have Ghost. We’ll be fine.”

A few minutes later he went out the front door with Ghost on a leash and headed up their driveway. Once they got to the road, they turned left and started walking up the mountain. It didn’t take but a few minutes to reach the wreck, and then he jumped the ditch with Ghost and headed for the car.

Like Annie, the first thing he saw was the purse lying on the floorboard. But he wasn’t as cautious as Annie. He wanted to know who he was looking for, opened it, found a wallet, and the driver’s license for a young blonde woman named Carey Eggers. He put everything back in the purse, then let Ghost get the scent.

---