Buzz blew out an oath, cursing the fire. “Any chance we can get some more volunteers down here for a grid?”
“Jake Madigan went back out this morning. He checked in a couple of hours ago just south of the campground at Chapman. What’s your twenty?”
“I’m about two miles north of there.”
The man on the other end of the airwaves hesitated. Buzz felt the hairs at his nape prickle.
“Any sign of the kid?” Dispatch asked.
“Saw a wrapper on the north trail, but negative on the sighting.”
“Do you want me to send Madigan up that way?”
“That’s affirm.”
“Buzz, that entire area is being evaced. The leading edge of the fire is about a mile north of you.”
“Send Madigan and anyone else you can find who doesn’t have their ass nailed to the ground. Clear.” Cursing, he shoved the radio into its sheath. Anger and frustration and a pristine new fear churned inside him. He thought of the innocent child out in the woods all alone and felt the fear take on a new intensity, leaping through him, consuming him much like the flames eating up the forest.
“They’ve evacuated the entire area?” she asked.
Buzz turned to her, hoping the emotions gripping his chest didn’t show on his face. “Yeah.”
“Oh, God.” She pressed a hand to her stomach. “We’re all alone out here? We’re the only ones looking?”
“Jake Madigan is looking. He’s on horseback. Kel, he’s good.”
“Just three people? Buzz, that means we don’t have much time. If the fire is coming this way—”
“The firefighters evac early, Kel. You know that. They always do. They’re cautious. They don’t want some diehard holing up in his cabin and deciding he wants to go down with the ship, then changing his mind at the last minute and needing an airlift when they need the chopper on the front line.”
She walked to the edge of the ravine and put her hands to her mouth. “Eddie! Where are you, honey?”
Buzz blew the whistle three times, then they stood there and listened. The smell of smoke hung heavy in the air, even though the wind was gusty. He could see it moving like smoky fingers through the treetops. Beyond, a thick haze the color of wet slate sat on the horizon like a curse from hell. It was enough to unnerve even the most seasoned Search and Rescue professional.
Buzz was about as seasoned as they came. And for the first time in his life, he was afraid his worst fear about having children was going to come true. That a child—his child—would be snatched away from him by something terrible.
The worst part about it was that there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.
Kelly wasn’t sure how long they walked. It could have been an hour. It could have been two. For all she knew it could have been five. After a while, the dust on the trail, the trees and rock formations started to blend together. The smoke blocked out the sun, like storm clouds filled with violence and rain.
She knew it was important to remain alert. But she was so exhausted she could barely walk. Every inch of her body ached. Her legs felt as if they’d been emptied of bone and muscle and refilled with lead. The kind that would shatter with just the right impact.
Kelly would never admit she’d reached the end of her physical endurance. She wouldn’t leave these mountains until she held Eddie in her arms. Or else someone would have to forcibly carry her out.
She prayed to God it didn’t come to that.
It was the second time they’d walked this trail. The same trail where they’d found the candy wrapper the evening before. They headed north, where the smoke lay thick and black above the treetops. To her right, the stream slowly dropped away into a gorge. Kelly wasn’t sure what prompted her to look down into the gorge at that moment, but the flash of blue amongst the green and brown of the forest stopped her dead in her tracks.
Her heart jolted once hard in her chest, then sprinted into a wild staccato. She squinted, and without even realizing she was moving, her legs took her to the edge of the gorge. “Buzz! I see something! Over there!”
She never took her eyes from the small speck of blue fifty feet down the ravine. “It’s blue. Over by that boulder.”
Quickly, Buzz worked the backpack from his shoulders, dropped it to the ground and dug out a tiny pair of field binoculars. He put them to his eyes, focused. “Looks like a piece of cloth.”
“Let me see.”
He passed the glasses to her.
Kelly put them to her eyes, squinted, focused. The sight hit her like a ramrod to the solar plexus. “Oh, my God. Oh, my God!”
“What is it?”
Terror and shock exploded inside her, taking her voice so that she couldn’t answer, couldn’t speak, couldn’t even draw a breath. Her hands began to shake. She lost her focus, struggled with the binoculars to find the speck again.
“Kel.” Gently, he took the binoculars from her. “Talk to me, Kel. What is it? What did you see?”
“Oh, God, Buzz. It’s Eddie’s stuffed animal. His bear. Bunky Bear.” Nausea rose into her throat. “How did it get down there?”