Page 9 of In Her Sights

“Jake,” she said, “we need to go talk to Sarah’s parents now. They should hear about this from us first.” It was a duty she dreaded, yet one she would not shirk.

He met her gaze squarely. “I’m with you, Jenna. Bea mentioned they’re on a farm near Gildner, right?”

“That’s right,” Jenna said, handing him the jotted down address. “She also gave us the location. Let’s get going.”

Under the canopy of trees, darkness enveloped them as they approached their squad car at the edge of the lot. As Jenna slid into the driver’s seat, her mind wandered to Piper, her absence now amplified by the recent disappearance of another young woman. For a long moment, she just sat there, the silence thick and heavy, like a dense fog settling over her thoughts.

Jake’s voice from the passenger seat brought her attention back as he asked, “Do you think there’s any chance that Sarah just got lost?” There was a hopeful lilt to his question, something Jenna wished she could cling to.

“I can’t deny the possibility,” she answered, her voice tinged with doubt. “But my instincts tell me otherwise. And they’re not often wrong. We need to inform Colonel Spelling,” she added as she started the engine and headed the car down the dark, winding road through the forest.

“On it,” Jake said.

Jake reached for the radio handset, dialing the frequency for the Missouri State Highway Patrol. “Colonel Spelling, this is Deputy Hawkins with Genesius County Sheriff’s Office.”

“Go ahead, Deputy,” came the crisp reply over the speakerphone.

“We need to initiate an APB and a public announcement regarding a missing person—a young woman named Sarah Thompson.”

“Can you provide a description?” Colonel Spelling’s voice was crisp over the speakerphone, all business.

“Sarah’s in her mid-twenties,” Jenna began, recalling the spirited woman she had met at a school function not too long ago. “About five-foot-six, with shoulder-length blonde hair. She has blue eyes and was last seen wearing hiking gear.”

She paused for a moment, letting the details settle in the air between them. Then she added, “You can pull up a photograph of her from the Trentville Elementary School’s website. She’s a teacher there.”

“Understood, Sheriff Graves. We’ll disseminate the information immediately. Keep me informed of any developments.”

The drive toward Gildner felt longer than Jenna knew it to be. As she drove, her mind grappled with strategies, how to deliver news that would inevitably tear at the seams of the Thompsons’ reality. Would they hold onto hope or succumb to fear? Would they look to her for answers she didn’t have? After all, she knew too well the torment of uncertainty, the hollow space left by a missing loved one.

“We’ll find her, Jenna,” Jake said, breaking into her troubled reverie. “We’re not giving up.”

His words were meant to comfort, but they both knew the truth was more complicated.

“First, we deal with tonight,” she murmured, her resolve solidifying. “Then we figure out the best way to keep looking.”

As the stars blinked to life above, Jenna Graves drove on, the weight of her duty pressing down on her. They were not just deputies enforcing the law; they were bearers of bad news, a role that never got easier with time. The silence in the car was thick, broken only by the sound of the engine and the occasional crackle of the radio.

A deer darted across the road, and Jenna tapped the brakes, causing the creature to freeze in the headlights before bounding off into the forest. Her grip on the steering wheel tightened—a reflex born of countless nights spent chasing phantoms and echoes in her mind.

“Sometimes I envy animals,” Jenna mused aloud. “They don’t get tangled up in things like this.”

“Maybe not,” Jake replied. “But they also don’t solve mysteries or save lives.”

“True,” Jenna conceded, a faint smile tugging at her lips.

As they approached the outskirts of Gildner, Jenna’s thoughts turned inward, focusing on the task ahead. The necessity of bearing bad news to another set of parents was a bitter pill to swallow, but it was one she hoped to fulfill with compassion and strength.

Jenna’s thoughts were turbulent, churning like the storm clouds that so often loomed beyond the distant hills. If Sarah Thompson was still alive, she might be in great danger—a realization that settled heavy in Jenna’s chest, sinking like a stone in still water. Each passing second, each mile they covered, the weight of urgency grew. Time was a relentless adversary, always ticking forward, indifferent to the fates it sealed.

Her jaw clenched as she navigated a bend in the road, the car’s headlights cutting through the dusk. A part of her wondered if this was how it had been for those who searched for her sister—this maddening blend of hope and helplessness. But Jenna was no longer the helpless teenager she had been; she was the sheriff, the hunter, the seeker.

Glancing briefly at Jake, she was grateful to have this silent ally, his resolve mirroring her own.

As they neared the outskirts of Gildner, Jenna’s senses sharpened. The town was small, its heartbeat slow but steady. The farmland stretched out all around it, vast and open, completely unlike the dense woods they had combed through earlier. Here, secrets seemed impossible to keep, and yet Jennaknew better than most how deceptive such appearances could be.

Following Jake’s directions, she turned the car onto a winding gravel road that crunched and popped beneath the wheels, signaling their approach to the Thompsons’ farm. The jagged rocks and loose pebbles created a bumpy ride, jostling the car and causing loose objects to rattle against each other. The slight discomfort seemed somehow appropriate. They were about to shatter the peace of a family’s evening with the kind of news that left scars on souls. She imagined the Thompsons going about their evening routine, unaware of the pain heading their way. It was a scene Jenna knew all too well—the calm before life as one knows it shatters.

Her emerald eyes now reflected a more somber resolve. This was more than a job; it was a personal covenant etched into the core of who she was—a vow to those taken too soon from the world they knew. This was more than a search for a missing hiker; it was a battle against time, against the unknown.

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