Page 53 of Forensics of a Fable

“What I don’t understand is how he predicted we’d be here?” Griffin asked as he took the lead. “We didn’t decide to search until this morning, and how could he predict she would hang behind?”

“I don’t think he planned to take her today,” Eamon said, driving the sheriff faster. “My guess is he saw an opportunity and took it, hence his failure to fully sedate the dog.”

“So, he was someone on her team?” Griffin stopped with a horrified look. “I sent her into the woods with a killer?”

“Perhaps,” Eamon said simply as guilt spread over the sheriff’s face. “Or he was stalking her and seized the opening.”

Griffin cursed and rubbed the heels of his hands over his eyes. “There.” He pointed in the darkness, his flashlight doing little to light the area. “Someone could drive a smaller car up here.”

Eamon stepped forward, searching for signs of Bel or a vehicle, but there was nothing. “Are there other pull-offs he could have used?”

“Possibly,” Griffin answered. “We need a team up here. If we can find tire tracks, perhaps we could determine which direction he took her.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Eamon said. “I would like you to release Ewan Orso.” As much as he hated to admit it, if he was going to rescue his detective, he required more than human deputies. He disliked the idea of another predator in his town, but Bel was more important. He needed the bear.

“No,” Griffin said firmly.

“I need him.”

“I don’t care what you need,” Griffin spat. “Just because you own half of Bajka doesn’t mean you control my jurisdiction. You cannot take the law into your own hands. I shouldn’t even have let you search this trail with me since you’re still a person ofinterest, but Emerson comes first. We need to find her, but you won’t make demands of my station.”

Eamon loomed over the sheriff, but the man didn’t retreat. For a moment they stood in a silent battle, but just as Eamon opened his mouth to argue, Griffin’s phone rang.

“Hello?” he answered, and after a few seconds, his already concerned face froze with alarm. “Where? How long? No, I’m on my way.” He hung up and started racing down the mountain.

“Did they find her?” Eamon jogged after him, hoping his detective had escaped the clutches of a madman.

“No,” the sheriff answered. “A driver just called the station. He found the body of a blonde woman on Old Oaks Road.”

Eamon surgedthrough the trees in time to watch Griffin’s squad car skid to a halt, sirens hard on his heels. The man was out of his vehicle before it fully stopped, racing for the ditch with manic movements. The sheriff had insisted Eamon go home, but the second the police left the trails, he called upon his inner beast and raced through the darkness. He beat the vehicles despite covering the distance on foot, and he scented the truth of the scene seconds before Griffin shouted.

“She’s alive!” he screamed, a multitude of police cars sliding to abrupt halts. “Get me an ambulance. Gold is alive.”

The doctor walkedinto the waiting room, and Griffin launched to his feet. Eamon remained against the far wall, but his heightened senses caught every word of their conversation. After expecting to recover Gold’s dead body on Old Oaks Road, only to find her unconscious but breathing, they’d rushed her to the hospital. Griffin didn’t understand why he hovered on the room’s edge, but Eamon needed to know what happened to her. He needed to know if she had any answers for him because every minute Bel was missing was a minute closer to her death, and consequences be damned, but he would find her before that madman force-fed her poison.

“She’s awake and responsive,” the doctor said, and Eamon watched the sheriff sag in relief. “She was sedated and severely dehydrated, but other than that, she’s fine. No injuries besides the bruises she sustained when her kidnapper tossed her onto the side of the road.”

“When can I talk to her?” Griffin asked.

“She was just asking for you,” the doctor answered. “I’ll take you to see her now.”

“Thank you.” Griffin followed the doctor, and Eamon peeled his back off the wall, silently following the pair. No one noticed the giant man in black slip through the halls, but as if he felt his dark presence, the sheriff spun on his heels and slammed a palm against his chest.

“You need to stay outside.” He tried to shove Eamon away from Gold’s room, but the hulking man didn’t budge. “You’re not police.”

Darkness flooded Eamon’s eyes, and for a moment, the men waged a silent battle of wills. But then Eamon leaned forward,showing Griffin how much pressure he could exert on the man’s wrist with the simplest of movements.

“Stay in the doorway and keep your mouth shut,” Griffin relented, lowering his arm to shake out his hand. “I’ll ask the questions.”

Eamon remained quiet, but his features softened in agreement, and he leaned against the doorframe. The second Gold caught sight of her boss, she burst into tears and reached for him. Griffin lunged for her, capturing her small fingers in his comforting grip, and he settled beside her on the mattress.

“It’s okay,” he soothed. “You’re safe now. I’m going to station deputies outside your room to make sure nothing happens.”

“Thank you, but I don’t think he’ll come for me.” Olivia wiped the tears from her cheeks, her eyes flicking warily to Eamon. He watched her study him with apprehension, and then she turned back to Griffin with a question in her eyes. Eamon couldn’t see the sheriff’s face, but he must have offered her reassurance since she continued talking.

“He let me go. I don’t understand why, but he let me go,” she said.

“We think you weren’t his target. We believe he took you by mistake,” Griffin answered, and Gold’s eyebrows pinched with confusion.

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