Page 88 of High Intensity

“Is there any way you could come up the creek toward my place?”

“Yeah, there’s a cross-country trailhead about two miles south of you, which should give us access to the creek. We’ve just loaded up the horses and are ready to roll.”

“Perfect. Over and out.”

I’m pretty sure I mentioned the dog run and kennel at the back of my yard when I was trying to get Hayley to respond to me, but even if she misses my house for some reason, I don’t think she’ll go that much farther before she realizes that. There aren’t that many residences with a clear view of the water, and there isn’t much at all along the creek south of my street.

Hunter doesn’t hesitate when we get to the creek, and follows her nose to the left. South. I guessed correctly so far, and the more I think about it, the more convinced I become Hayley is trying to find me.

I’m going to make sure she does.

Wolff

“Two by two, on either side of the creek. It’s possible she crossed the ice.”

I personally don’t think it’s likely, but I’m not going to argue with Jonas, who wanted to come and is leading this search.

“Yeah, we don’t want to scare her off either,” I add. “Four men on horseback will likely just send her deeper into hiding. Let’s not forget, Hayley doesn’t want to be found. Right now, the only person she seems to trust is Jillian.”

I also voted against putting the drone up when Sully offered, basically for the same reason. If she spotted it, I could see her get spooked which would only make her harder to find.

“Right,” Jonas affirms. “You guys get rolling and stay in touch.”

Judge automatically follows Santiago, JD’s ride. We’re often paired up; the horses work well side by side, and JD and I make a decent team. James is riding with us this morning, andhe is teamed up with Jackson, who insisted on joining us on horseback this time. He is still learning, and there isn’t a better teacher when it comes to fundamental tracking than James.

It’s almost ten thirty already by the time we get to Big Cherry Creek. This isn’t a run-of-the-mill type of creek. There are large portions where the creek splits off into meandering streams of water that rejoin farther up into one single flow. The water is frozen, so it wouldn’t have been hard to cross any of these smaller tributaries.

James and Jackson cross to the west side of the creek and all but disappear into the trees on the far side. JD and I stick to cover as much as we can as well. We want to locate Hayley without giving her a chance to see us coming. That might be a tall order, given that we’re a bunch of large men on big horses, but we can move pretty stealthily when we put our minds to it.

The sky is a bit overcast and I wouldn’t be surprised if we were in for some snow later in the day. Not that anything was forecast when I checked the weather before we left, but if there’s one thing you learn quickly in these mountains, it’s the weather can change from one valley to the next.

“Does she know you?” JD asks as we make our way upstream.

“Hayley? When we first found her, I carried her back to camp, but I’m not sure she’d remember much. I haven’t really had contact with her since, that’s all been Jillian.”

“Any idea what made her run? I mean, she’d been in the care of the FBI for a while already, hadn’t she?”

“About a week, yeah. I’ve been thinking about that too. The only thing I can come up with is Jillian told me she’d had some kind of breakthrough with Hayley yesterday. She’d been closed off and mostly silent up until then, and according to Jillian, it was like an emotional dam breaking. Maybe that triggered something,” I suggest.

JD hums once before silence returns, and we focus on the search. Every so often JD will signal for me to stop as he takes a closer look at something that draws his attention, only to dismiss it as not relevant. Search and rescue can be tedious and long at times, and our biggest struggle is to stay sharp and not start missing clues because of complacency. Patience and attention to detail are definite prerequisites for this kind of work, but every small trace we find renews our energy, and when a search comes to a successful end, there is no greater satisfaction.

Sadly, so far there have been no clues to find, and the closer we get to Jillian’s neighborhood, the less confident I feel.

The burst of static on my radio is loud enough to startle even Judge, whose muscles tense at the sudden noise.

“Wolff? Come in,”I hear Jillian’s garbled voice.

“Go ahead.”

“Hunter led me almost straight to my place, where are you?”

“Maybe half a mile out.”

“Okay, good. Because I think I’ve been followed.”

Jillian

“Good girl.”

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