Page 53 of Cold Case Discovery

But for right now, they had to find her brother.

He explained the entire situation to everyone who’d come, and Carlyle and Anna flanked Chloe like two sentries ready and willing to fight for her.

Because she wasn’t alone, and she wasn’t going to be. None of them would let her be. He hoped she was beginning to understand she didn’t have to take it all on her shoulders herself too.

Grant had had the presence of mind to bring a paper map they could spread out and all look at to determine how they’d approach the search.

“Chloe and I will take the campground,” Jack said, pointing to it on the map. He met Chloe’s gaze because she’d opened her mouth to argue, but one sharp look from him and she closed it. He wasn’t going to repeat himself about being by her side. It was a done deal.

“We’ll approach from the south end. Zeke and Carlyle, I’d like you guys to come at it from the north.” Because Zeke and Carlyle hadn’t come into the Hudson orbit until long after their parents were gone, so they shouldn’t have any emotional connection to the campsite. He’d send his siblings off into other corners and hope that it wasn’t a mistake.

“Can I beat him up if I find him first?” Carlyle asked darkly, holding a grudge against Ry for sneaking away on her watch.

“With my permission,” Chloe returned vehemently.

Jack could see she was trying to hold on to a kind of tough outer demeanor, and maybe it would have been better for Chloe if he’d paired her up with Carlyle. Maybe it was selfish to want to keep her in his sight, by his side.

Well, so be it.

As for his siblings, he paired them up and gave them their assignments. Anna argued with him about a few minor details, because of course she did, but when Chloe took his side, Anna backed off.

“Most of us won’t have cell service as we move deeper into the preserve, but everybody has a flare, right?” Everyone nodded. Palmer had brought packs that would keep them going for a while, provided everyone with water and a weapon as well as a flare. They could feasibly spend the rest of daylight hours out here searching.

Jack hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

“No matter what, everyone meets back here at four. No exceptions.”

Everyone murmured their assent, then began to pair off into vehicles that would lead them to their different corners. They’d go to their assigned areas, canvass on foot for a few hours, then meet back here in the middle of the preserve.

Hopefully, with a safe-and-sound Ry Brink in tow.

Jack climbed into the driver’s seat of his truck, waited for Chloe to get into the passenger side. They said nothing. Jack just drove through the twists and turns of paved roads, then gravel ones, until they approached the campground.

Tension seeped into him. If those skeletal remains on the Brink Ranch were his parents, there was nothing about this place that should make him tense, that should make dread and grief settle deep in his gut. Because if they’d been buried elsewhere, there was likely no remnants of what had happened to themhere.

And yet no matter what hethought, what he knew, the feelings were twisting around inside him as they got out of the truck at the entrance to the campground. He shouldered the pack Palmer had brought for him and tried to shake away his unease as he scanned the area.

On this side of the preserve, spruce trees towered and reached for a bright blue sky. It dappled the campground in dark shadows in direct contrast to the sunny day. At the front of the truck, Chloe reached out and took his hand.

None of his inner scolding had settled the anxiety he felt, but her hand in his did. It didn’t take it all away, but it soothed some of those jagged feelings. They were in this together, whatever the answers might be.

They moved forward in unison, not quite sure what they were looking for. Signs of life. Signs of Ry.Signs.

The campground had some tents and some campers. Definitely not as deserted as other areas of the park. So he and Chloe walked down the little campground road, eyeing each campsite for anything that might stand out.

There was an older couple huddled around a campfire, putting together some kind of lunch. Jack didn’t realize he’d stopped walking until Chloe gently tugged at his hand. He looked away from the couple and toward the road. He couldn’t bear to look at Chloe and see sympathy on her face.

It didn’t do him any good to think that his parents might be doing just that if they’d lived. They hadn’t, and he had to focus on the living. But Chloe let go of his hand, tucked her arm around his waist so they were walking hip to hip.

He managed a slow, big breath that loosened the tightness in his chest. Focus on the living, on the future. On the task at hand. Which all centered on her.

They reached the end of the campsite road. Carlyle and Zeke would be catching up to them soon unless something had happened. Both Jack and Chloe looked around. Then Chloe pointed at a little outhouse. “There’s a trail there. Are there more campsites that way?”

“Usually not when the campgrounds have empty sites closer to the facilities, but let’s go check.”

They moved past the outhouse, onto a trail that led to overflow campsites. Jack didn’t see any tents set up along the trail, but as he and Chloe began to move, he heard someone. Just the whisper of a word, like a curse under someone’s breath. And then the heavy, pounding footsteps of someone running.

Away.

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