Hopefully Xander had found some answers.
Baldwin retrieved a flashlight from his trunk and gave it to Xander. “Lead on.”
They set off around the side of the house, through the backyard, into the woods.
“What’s back here?” Sam asked, trampling across what she hoped was just squishy grass and leaves.
“There’s a small campsite not far off the trail. Might just be from some homeless, or kids, but the site itself looks old. There’s a lean-to shelter and an old blanket, but there’s also fresh scuffs in the dirt and a recently dampened fire and the remains of a rabbit. Someone’s spent some time back here, very recently.”
“Kaylie?”
“Maybe.”
The camp was a ten-minute walk. It was as simple as Xander had described. A small stone seat, a worm-eaten lean-to and the remains of a ratty pink blanket. Pink. While the men circled the area, looking for any more signs of life, Sam kicked at the small blanket—it was shredded, had been the home of many mice and insects over the years. Under it, stashed in the corner of the lean-to, was a small, tattered stuffed lion. Sam put on a fresh pair of gloves, picked it up gingerly. It took her a minute, then she realized it was Simba, from the movie The Lion King.
Her heart broke all over again. This poor little girl, unloved and unwanted by her evil stepmother, had created a small home for herself out in the woods, with a few treasured comforts. She wondered if Kaylie had cried for her lost stuffed lion when she’d been taken.
Sadly, she probably had bigger issues.
Xander came up beside her. “What’s that?”
“Stuffed animal. I think Kaylie must have come out here to get away from that monster of a woman.”
“Makes sense. Someone’s been here recently, but we can’t find anything to indicate where she may have gone. If it’s her, that is.”
“Who else would it be?”
“Good point. Let’s let Baldwin deal with the M.E. and everything. You need rest. You’re swaying, you’re so tired.”
She nodded, stepped closer to him, leaned her head on his shoulder. There was nothing more for her to do here.
*
Sam was quiet on the ride to Georgetown. Everything about this day had been over-the-top, from Ellie Scarron to the FBI to Maureen Rousch and the small remembrances of a lonely child. She just wanted to crash and sleep.
But she could tell there simply wasn’t going to be any decent rest in her foreseeable future, not until this case—no, these cases—was resolved.
The radio blared another warning, the statewide AMBER Alert for Rachel Stevens. Sam listened to the automated voice giving the description of the girl, and was overwhelmed with worry for her. She’d been fighting the visions of Rachel all night. Lost, alone, perhaps being abused, maybe even dead...and what was she doing? Traipsing around after a ghost.
Stop that, Sam. The FBI and D.C. Metro are doing everything they can to find her. That isn’t your role here.
All the adrenaline left her. She was dragging. They’d been going hard for two days, and her mind was starting to shut down. Baldwin had instructed them to sleep, that everything would be waiting for them in the morning. She didn’t know if she could. She was in that mode of being so tired she was wide awake.
She leaned her head against the window. Thor snuffled his nose into her hair from behind, and she reached up to scratch his muzzle.
Xander was quiet, as well. One of the things she liked most about him was his ability to synthesize a situation. To take in all the variables and make a levelheaded decision about it. He’d make an excellent investigator. She wondered if she should mention that to him, but figured she should stay well away from anything that might be construed as criticism. Their earlier fight was still fresh in her mind, and she didn’t want to lay the you’d be so good at this thing on him in case his temper was still flared and he took it as her saying he should get off his ass and get a job.
Xander was a unique being. Tempered in steel from his years in the army, when she’d met him, he’d been nothing more than a hermit, living off the grid on top of a mountain, a runaway from life. He was alone by choice, with only Thor for company, hunting the woods for food, growing what he couldn’t shoot and kill, playing his piano to the squirrels and deer. Money wasn’t important to him. He routed his military pension to his parents in Colorado, only withdrawing cash from the account when it was absolutely necessary.