Page 124 of The Rescuer

Pearl’s nose worked overtime around a raised tree root. She trotted to the car and spent time at one of the windows, then let her nose lead her to Reece. The dog raised her square head and stared into the shadowy wall of woods as if looking for something there but not daring to venture in that direction.

Fuck! If Neve had wandered off into the dark timber, there was no telling if he’d ever find her. Dark timber swallowed everything—and everyone. He rose to his feet and yelled her name, over and over.

A shout came back at him, but it wasn’t Neve’s voice. It was a man’s from above. “Reece Hunnicutt, is that you down there?”

“Shane!” Reece hollered. “Yeah, I found Dr. Bunting’s car … and Dr. Bunting’s body.”

“Any sign of Neve?”

“No, not yet.”

“I’m coming down. A few of the boys are already headed this way, so we’ll be able to fan out and find her.”

It only took a minute before Shane stood beside him and looked down at the corpse. He made the sign of the cross.

Reece pointed at the towering woods beyond the debris field. “Pearl keeps looking toward the dark timber, and I’m worried that Neve went in that direction, maybe hoping to find a road. But if she’s hurt, confused …” He didn’t need to finish the thought for his SAR buddy.

Pearl lowered her head and chuffed.

“What is it?” Shane asked.

Reece held up his hand. “Shh! Hear that?”

Voices! Neve heard menshouting! The sound was muffled, though. Was it another hallucination? She was still among the tall, tangled pines, trying to negotiate the unfamiliar rises and falls and crevices of the treacherous ground as she headed back toward the crash site. She had decided to turn around and go back, but piles of deadfall wider than she was tall blocked her way, forcing her to go far off her path, and she was less sure of her direction now than when she’d first started.

If she really had heard voices, she needed to let them know she was here. She leaned all her weight against a tree, took a sip of water to cool her throat, and filled her lungs with air. Closing her eyes, mustering all her strength, she yelled out a strangled, “I’m here!” but the forest seemed to absorb her cry. She collapsed to her knees. Metal clanked before she hit the ground.

Reece wasn’t sure whathe’d heard—a reedy noise that could have been awounded rabbit screeching for its life—but the dull clank that followed amped up his senses. He patted his thigh. “Come on, Pearl. Let’s find her.” He tugged on the dog’s leash, and she took a few cautious steps before falling in beside him.

“I’m going in,” he announced.

“You got your beacon on, right?” Shane called after him.

Reece turned and shot him a look.

“Right. Of course you do.” One side of Shane’s mouth hitched up. “You might want to take this too.” He tossed him a standard-issue two-way radio used by the sheriff’s department.

Reece easily caught the device and slipped it inside his coat pocket. “Thanks, man. Usual frequency?”

“Yep.”

Reece turned his back on his friend and picked a route through the trees.

The floodlight’s illumination dimmed as he moved into the dark timber, its beam seeming to disperse in the darkness. He picked his way over boulders and tree roots, skirting ankle-twisting holes and other hidden traps beneath slippery detritus. Each time he shouted Neve’s name, the air seemed to gobble up his voice. Still, he yelled out, stopped, and listened for a return call. The going was agonizingly slow, and Pearl had either lost the scent or had run out of energy as she jogged beside him, her tongue lolling out of her mouth.

He paused to give himself and her a drink and heard another soft clink—still muffled, but he was sure it was a little louder this time.

He cupped his hands around his mouth. “Neve!” The plink of metal was faint but unmistakable now. There was a cadence to it, and he followed the noise. Sound traveled in deceiving ways in Colorado’s dark timber, so he stopped and listened each time he yelled her name, letting him adjust the direction he and Pearl traveled. Time seemed to move backward, leaving too many minutes for his imagination to run amok. Visions from past missions surfaced, and he locked them out, refusing to picture what he might find when he reached the source of the noise.

Pearl’s ears pricked up, and soon she was tugging at the leash. “Hang on, girl. I’m not cutting you loose in this stuff so you can disappear.” But as Pearl’s pace picked up, so did Reece’s excitement.

Then the sound stopped. He pushed up a slope, fighting through branches as he went. When he reached the top, he aimed the floodlight in every direction, sweeping slowly. A dull gleam moved, catching him off guard. It rose up in dark shadows as if an apparition wielded it, then came down and struck a hunk of granite.

Clank!Struck again, with a weaker stroke this time.Clink!

“Neve!” The clanking died. “Hang on! I’m coming to you.”

Was Neve on the other end of the silvery object making the metallic noise? Pearl’s whining told him she was, but he dared not let his emotions overrun him. He ate up the distance as quickly as the terrain would allow.

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