Page 83 of Deadly Evidence
By one o’clock, they’d all been searching for over four hours without the welcome signal of a rifle shot.
In front of the barn, Anna dismounted and checked her watch as Dante and Mia rode in, followed by Brady, whose face was a grim mask.
His expression worried her far more than any words he could have said.
Vicente scurried out of the house to meet them all. “I came back to care for Jonah,” he announced. “I just made a quick lunch—sandwiches to pack if you are going straight out again. There’s a man here—he is waiting on the porch and says he needs to talk to Brady.”
“Thanks, Vicente.” Anna dismounted and tossed a stirrup over her saddle to loosen Duster’s girth. “You’re right—we’ll be leaving as soon as we saddle fresh horses.”
She looked over the gelding’s withers at Mia. “Did you see anything at that special place Lacey showed you?”
Mia shook her head. “I thought that’s where she would go—she said she often goes there to be by herself. We found a sweatshirt she must have dropped when she took me there, but nothing else.”
Anna’s gaze sharpened. “What color was it?”
Dante turned in his saddle and bent down to reach into his saddlebag. “This is it—her Texas A&M.”
“It was on her bed this morning.” Anna stared at it, her stomach twisting into a cold knot. “She wasthere. So where is she now?”
Brady tied his horse to the rail and drew close enough that only she could hear him. “I’m going to the house to talk this overwith Tom. If we have to, we’ll bring in a helicopter with a heat imaging system to help find her. She can’t have gone too far.”
Saying a silent prayer, Anna unsaddled Duster and turned him out into the corral, then roped a fresh horse and had him saddled by the time Brady returned.
“Come with me for a minute,” he said. “You need to meet Tom before we all go out again.”
Glancing over her shoulder at Dante and Mia, who were busy unsaddling their horses, she followed him up to the porch, where a muscular, middle-aged man in black jeans and a dark-green polo shirt stood ready to shake her hand.
“I understand you have a general idea about what’s happening out here,” he said, giving her hand a firm shake. “I just thought I should fill you in.”
He glanced at Brady, who nodded. “We’ve got bad weather coming—the National Weather Service is predicting high winds, rain, and the possibility of substantial hail that will hit here at around nine or ten o’clock.”
And Lacey is out there someplace, all alone. Anna wrapped her arms around her middle. “We’vegotto find my daughter.”
“We’ll do our best, ma’am. We’ve also got other fish to fry—we’ve received reports that the shipment we’ve been tracking should be coming through late tonight. We don’t know if the traffickers are aware of the weather and are trying to beat it or if they’re oblivious, but we’re going to have a number of agents hidden along the river, here, and out along the highway.”
Images of gun battles and crazed killers flashed through Anna’s thoughts, and suddenly she broke into a cold sweat and felt her knees go weak.
Brady moved closer and took her arm. “We don’t expect any violence here, Anna. The arrests will be handled only after the traffickers reach the highway and have sent the shipment offin trucks. There should be just around a half-dozen suspects to arrest, and that will occur beyond your property.”
“But Lacey...” Anna caught the exchange of glances between Brady and Tom, and her anxiety escalated. Weather wouldn’t be the only risk her daughter could face this night. “We’vegotto find her.”
“We’re calling for a tracker dog, Ms. Remington,” Tom said quietly. “He can be here in an hour or so. Just hang on tight. We’ll find your daughter and bring her home.”
But the grim look in his eyes told her that he was thinking the same thing she was—the weather was changing, and soon heavy rains could wash away every trace of scent.
And with it, the chance to find her daughter.
Numb, Anna moved to a window and leaned her forehead against the glass.
And prayed.
After leaving Lacey’s sweatshirt and one of Loco’s extra saddle blankets for the search dog handler, Anna, Dante, and Brady rode out again, leaving Mia behind with Vicente.
Pushing the horses hard, they made it out to where they’d been before and fanned out, checking arroyos and canyons, searching for any sign that Lacey had passed by.
Three o’clock.
Four o’clock.
