Page 87 of Unforgotten

Lott crouched down and ran a hand over the trampledweeds. “I thought the police thought they left in a car.” Looking up at Jay, he added, “Or was that just a rumor?”

“I don’t know. But since we can’t jump in a car to look, let’s figure the girls were definitely taken away on foot.”

“Okay. So...”

“So, what if the guy forced Candace and Bethanne to go into the woods? If that was the case, they would’ve had to enter this way,” Jay said.

Standing back up, Lott looked down the path. “Jay, everyone looked around in the woods last night. All these bent branches and trampled sections of grass are likely from that. No one was thinking about tracking them down in the light of day.”

“I hear you...” He let his words drift off. He didn’t want to sound ridiculous or make Bethanne’s brother more alarmed than he already was. But he honestly felt as if the Lord was nudging him in this direction. Prodding him to imagine what could have happened if a man was desperate and the two women he was taking were so concerned about each other that they’d do whatever he asked so the other wouldn’t be hurt.

“Go ahead and say it,” Lott bit out.

“All right.” He took a deep breath. And with that, he tossed his pride out the window. It didn’t matter if he was right or wrong. It didn’t matter what Lott thought of his ideas. All that did matter was locating Bethanne and her cousin. “Lott, what if the police are wrong? What if the three of them did go into the woods? If they did go deep ... where would they go?”

Everything in Lott’s posture changed. Now, instead of arguing over what he believed to be true, he was thinking about possibilities. “I couldn’t say, Jay. I’m drawing a blank.”

“Help me think. Come on, we can do it.”

“Jay, it’s not that I don’t want—”

“Come on. Just think about it. We grew up around here. We tracked deer and wild turkeys in these woods with our daeds. We’ve fished in the streams and creeks. We even played hide-and-seek in the summers when we were kids. We know this area pretty good. We sure know it a whole lot more than Officer Mulaney. His heart might be Candace’s, but he’s from up north. The woods here might not make a lot of sense to him.”

“You’re right,” Lott said slowly. “If someone doesn’t know this place, they could get lost real easy in the holler.”

“There’s a lot of places back here that nobody goes to. But there are some places that we’ve probably seen a hundred times but don’t even notice anymore.” Thinking about it, Jay added, “Some of those old cabins even have roads leading up to them that are half covered up with vines and bushes.”

“Right.” Staring into the densest part of the foliage, he lowered his voice. “If this guy took the girls into the woods, he would have to know them well too. It would have to be someone who grew up here just like us. And he wouldn’t take them into the woods just to wander around in the dark. He’d have known where to go. He’d have to know of someplace where he could hide them.”

“Maybe even keep them there for a while,” Jay said. He hated the thought of that, but he couldn’t deny the possibility.

Lott’s expression darkened. No doubt he was doing the same thing Jay was—imagining how scared Bethanne and Candace would be. With obvious effort, he cleared his throat. “Okay. Let’s say that was the guy’s plan. He was going to take the two of them to some hidden place out in the woods.”

“And ...?”

“What I’m wondering is how he got them there.”

“It’s obvious, don’t you think? If the guy knows these woods, he knows where all the paths are.”

Lott shook his head. “No. Think about the logistics. Think about actually making someone go where they don’t want to go. How do you do that?”

“You force them.”

“Or scare them.”

“Right,” Jay said. “I’m sure the girls were scared to death. But I don’t get where you’re going with this.”

“Okay. Pretend I’m the sick guy abducting Bethanne and Candace. And you? You are Candace.”

He folded his arms across his chest. “And?”

“No, come on, Jay. Work with me here.” Lott grabbed his wrist. “So, here we are. I’m bad, you’re Candace, and you’re getting dragged through the woods.” Lott yanked on his wrist. Hard enough to make him stumble forward a couple of inches.

“Stop. I get it.”

“Fine. Now what about Bethanne?”

“What about her?” He was losing patience. “He took both of them.”

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