Page 86 of Inside Silence
“Got something?”
It sounds like he’s driving.
“Not yet. I have a question though; do you remember the ridge on Lizard Peak?”
“That’s going back more than a few years, but yeah. Why?”
“Do kids nowadays have a hangout like that? Somewhere you can see the sunset? Does Carson?”
It’s quiet for a moment before Hugo comes back.
“Not sure about other kids, but when he was young Carson used to ask me to stop on the bridge across Watts Lake. The setting sun would reflect off the water creating a mirror effect, and he used to say you got a two-for-one sunset there. We haven’t done that in years though.”
I’m already climbing behind the wheel of my vehicle when I mumble a thanks and hang up. When I start the truck, Roy jumps into the passenger side.
“Where are we going?” he asks as I tear out of the parking lot.
“Watts Lake,” I inform him.
The blood is going cold in my veins at the thought of my daughter being anywhere near the place where a man was murdered less than a month ago.
I focus on the dark road heading out of town and don’t pay much attention to Roy, who is talking to someone on his phone. It’s less than a ten-minute drive from the church but already my hopes climbed so high, it feels like a punch in the stomach when I reach the bridge and it is empty.
No sign of the vehicle or the kids.
I pull off to the side in the middle of the bridge and get out. Roy exits at the same time, and we walk up to the railing.
It’s dark out here now, only a watery light coming from the lampposts at either end of the bridge, but it doesn’t quite reach the middle. The moon is mostly hidden behind the clouds, so you can’t see more than the occasional silver ripple in the water where it catches the light.
When I lean over, looking straight down, I see a glimmer of something reflective just under the surface of the water. At that moment the moon briefly breaks through the cloud deck, revealing the outline of two rear lights and a bumper in the water.
My heart stops as my feet start running.
Chapter 26
Savvy
* * *
I was already on my way to Watts Lake when Hugo called me.
Tessa had been able to pull a few strings and managed to get us an approximate radius where the kids’ phones pinged for the last time. Unfortunately, the radius is approximately a square mile, but what is interesting was the coverage included part of the lake.
I’d barely hung up with Hugo when Roy’s call came in and had me in an even greater hurry to get there.
So, when a call comes in over dispatch of a vehicle in the water, I already have eyes on Nate’s truck parked on the bridge ahead. But no sign of Nate or Roy.
I pull off as close as I can along the guardrail at the base of the bridge, grab my Mag light, and climb over onto the steep embankment. I try to keep my footing as I make my way down, shining my flashlight until I spot one man standing up to his hips in the water.
“Nate!” I yell, but when he turns and I shine my light on his face, I see it’s Roy.
Ten feet from him a head and shoulders surface, spraying water, and I take a deep breath when I hear Nate’s voice.
“I need that light!”
He comes wading to the side just as I get to the water’s edge.
“Emergency crews are right behind me,” I tell him when he reaches for the light.
