Page 41 of Wilderness Search
This isn’t a date, Aaron reminded himself as he shaved before meeting Willa Thursday evening. But unmet expectation charged every interaction with her. He was trying to get past that, to accept that the best he could hope for from her was casual friendship. His brain might agree, but his body wasn’t listening.
He pulled on jeans and a button-down shirt. Blue—her favorite color. He had jotted some notes, and he carried those with him, adding to the illusion that he was viewing this as strictly business.
She answered the door promptly, still wearing pale blue scrubs from the clinic. “I was running late and just got home,” she said. “Would you mind waiting while I change?”
“No problem.” He followed her into the house.
“Make yourself comfortable,” she said. “Gary should be home soon. I’m going to jump in the shower. I need to wash off any clinic germs.”
She hurried away and moments later he heard water running. His mind immediately conjured memories of other showers, ones they had taken together. He groaned and closed his eyes.Think about something else.He sat on the sofa and picked up a magazine from the coffee table.Modern Nursing.He flipped through it, but could focus on nothing but the running water and the heat coursing through his body.
The back door opened and he stood and moved toward the kitchen. Gary took a step back when Aaron entered.
“Hey,” Gary said. “What are you doing here?” He looked wary, but not hostile. Despite everything that had happened, Aaron had never sensed any particular animosity from Gary.
“I’m meeting with Willa.” He held up his folder of notes. His prop to prove there was nothing to see here. No conclusions toleap to.
“Is this about the class she’s holding at the camp?” Gary asked. He opened the refrigerator and leaned inside. “Do you want something to drink?”
“No, thanks. Yeah, it’s about the first aid class.”
“My sister, the police spy.” Gary grinned. “Never saw that one coming.” He leaned back against the yellow Formica counter.
The kitchen was small and dated—not that different from Aaron’s own. But he could see the effort Willa had made to dress it up, with a stained glass piece in the window over the sink, and framed pen-and-ink drawings of fruit and flowers on the wall over the table.
“She’s not really working for the sheriff’s department,” Aaron said.
“Right. It’s a big secret.” He popped the top on a Coke and sat at the kitchen table.
“Any changes at the camp since Olivia left?” Aaron asked.
“The counselors have to do bed checks every four hours,” Gary said. “Whether they’re actually doing that, who knows?”
“No more thefts from the storage shed?”
“Nope. It’s locked up tight. I take it no one’s gotten any closer to finding Olivia?”
“No.”
“It’s a long time for a girl to be on her own in the wilderness,” Gary said. “There aren’t many people out there, but there are bears and mountain lions. And what’s she doing for food?”
“She may not be on her own. She might have arranged to meet up with someone, or someone might have taken her from the camp.”
“Have you seen some sign of another person out there?” Gary asked.
“No, but we have to be open to all possibilities,” Aaron said. “That’s why I asked Willa to do this. I’m hoping one of Olivia’sfriends will mention something that will help—if she ever talked about leaving, where she might go, if someone had been bothering her.”
“So maybe she didn’t just run away?”
“We don’t know,” Aaron said. “That bloody shirt pointed to violence, but we haven’t found any other sign of that. And someone crafted that shelter we found. It didn’t look as if it had been there long. It’s possible whoever took Olivia made it, but it’s just as likely she built it herself. We simply don’t know.”
Willa came into the room. She had changed into pink shorts and a T-shirt, and had a blue towel wrapped around her head like a turban. “Hey, Gary. How was your day?”
“Okay.” Gary stood. “I’m going to leave you two to it.”
Willa looked alarmed. “You don’t have to leave.”
“It’s okay. I’m going to check out that new pizza place in town. I heard it’s really good.” He nodded to Aaron, then left. Willa stared after him.
