Page 40 of Obsession

“It’s not that simple. I don’t think he’d ever trust me not to hurt him again, and while I no longer blame him for Ryan taking off ...” She sighed. “It’s like I said, awkward.”

“Your brother wasn’t Sam’s responsibility.”

“I know that.” He was Emma’s.

“Or yours,” Brooke added. “You’ve got to let go of this guilt you’re carrying around.”

“I don’t feel—”

“Yes, you do. It shows up as anger, because that’s easier to deal with. Have you ever thought about seeing a therapist?”

“I don’t need a therapist,” Emma said. “Are you getting your hair trimmed?”

“Go stick your head in the sand if you want to,” Brooke said. “And yes, I’m getting my hair cut.”

She valued her friend’s advice, but this time she was wrong. All Emma needed to do was find her brother and everything else would fall into place.

17

Sam tried Clayton one last time before he hit the Trace. It wasn’t like his second-in-command not to answer his cell phone. Eighteen minutes later, he turned off at the Mount Locust exit and drove to the tractor shed. A light shone where they’d been digging earlier, but Sam didn’t see the tent. Or either man, even though Clayton’s and Trey’s SUVs were there.

Frowning, he parked beside Clayton’s vehicle and grabbed his flashlight, powering it up before he stepped out of his SUV. Sam cocked his ear. Quiet. Too quiet, with not even the singing of tree frogs he’d heard last night.

Sam unsnapped his holster and pulled his Sig 320 as he hurried to the site. Halfway there, his gut twisted when the light beam flashed on a body, propped against a tree. Clayton. With his heart knocking out of his chest, Sam knelt and felt the park ranger’s wrist. Relief was immediate. The ranger’s pulse was steady and strong, a good sign, but puzzling. It was like he’d sat down and gone to sleep.

He stood and scanned the area. Where was Trey? When he didn’t see him, Sam walked toward the dig, calling the deputy’s name. Silence answered him. A few minutes later, the sight of the backhoe once again at the dig site stopped him. Who had moved it back to the pit? When he and Emma had left earlier, the backhoe was a good twenty yards from the dig.

Sam noted the upright position of the bucket and then turned as headlights flashed from the Trace. Seconds later he recognized Nate’s Tahoe as he parked beside the other vehicles. Sam took out his cell phone and punched in 911 as he walked to meet the sheriff. When the dispatcher answered, he gave his location and asked for two ambulances. He didn’t have a good feeling about Trey.

“What’s going on?” Nate asked when they met up.

“Not sure. The backhoe is at the dig site again, and I found Clayton passed out. He seems to be breathing okay, just not conscious,” he said. “Can’t find Trey anywhere, so I called for ambulances as a precaution. I was on my way to look for him when you pulled in.”

“Let’s see if we can find him.” They trekked through the woods to the excavation site. The tent lay toppled, and the backhoe lights were aimed at the pit. But no sign of the deputy. Sam peered into the shadowy pit and flashed his light around the bottom. A trowel lay in one corner, and he was pretty sure Emma hadn’t left it there. The hole looked deeper than earlier too. He found the measuring stick. The pit had been three feet deep when they left, and now the depth measured a little over four feet. “Whatever was buried here is probably gone,” he said.

Nate nodded. “Let’s find Trey. I’ll take from here to the visitor center, and you can cover north of the site.”

Sam had walked almost to Chamberlain Road when he heard Nate yell.

“Over here!”

He jogged to where the sheriff was helping his deputy to sit up. Trey groaned and held his hand to the back of his head.

“What happened?” Nate was asking him.

“I don’t know. I fell asleep, and when I woke up, I heard someone at the site.”

“What do you mean, you fell asleep?”

Trey ran a hand over his face. “I know it sounds crazy, but that’s what happened.”

“Go over everything you did from the time you arrived,” Nate said.

“It’s all still kind of fuzzy.” Trey took a shaky breath. “I stopped off to visit my dad and then came straight here. First thing Clayton and I did was to secure the area. Everything looked normal so we returned to the SUVs to eat the hamburgers I’d gotten at Jug Head’s.” Trey rolled his shoulders and grimaced, then he continued. “He’d brought donuts, and about ten we ate them and drank coffee. It was after that when we decided to walk the perimeter—Clayton took one side and I took the other. And that’s the last thing I remember until I woke up and heard the backhoe running.”

“Did you get a look at the person running the backhoe?” Sam asked.

Trey shook his head and winced. “I was disoriented and everything was blurry. The lights from the backhoe made it hard to see anyone. They went out, and I heard someone running away, so I followed. Then there was this pain in my head, and everything went black.”

---