‘Great. Good luck, then. Keep in touch.’
‘Will do.’ Kate hurried over to the open back of an SUV, which bore the logo of the mountain rescue team, leaning in to find what she wanted. Then she joined Ethan as he transferred the contents of his medical bag into his rucksack. Mike joined them, leading Maisie, his dog, and Kate bent to greet the Border collie with a pat on the head.
‘Maisie will find them if anyone can. She never gives up.’
Ethan was sure she was right. He knew that no one would stop looking until the elderly couple was found, but it was a matter of time, as well. An elderly couple might not survive a night out in these hills.
They walked away from the circle of car headlights into the gloom, only flashlights to light their way. After the heat of a summer’s day the evening was cool and the spattering of rain on Ethan’s face would have been refreshing if it wasn’t another worry to add to all the others for the missing couple.
‘Oh!’ They’d walked in near silence for half an hour, concentrating on the uneven ground at their feet, and Kate’s quiet exclamation as she stumbled sounded somehow louder.
‘Okay?’ He caught her arm, steadying her.
‘Yes, thanks.’ She stopped, shining the flashlight around her, and Mike bent to Maisie, taking a plastic bag out of his pocket which contained a folded item of clothing.
‘No scent yet?’ Kate’s words were more of an observation than a question. They’d know when Maisie caught a scent of the old couple.
‘Maybe she’ll get one a little further on.’ Mike fondled Maisie’s head briefly and got to his feet.
‘Another three quarters of an hour to the Kettle?’ Ethan knew these hills well, but the darkness was disorientating.
‘Yep. Bit less, maybe.’ Mike pointed the beam of his flashlight in the direction they were going in and started walking.
‘You know this area?’ He heard Kate’s quiet voice next to him.
‘Yes. I spent half my time out here when I was a kid. It’s a bit different at night though.’
At night. A thought struck him suddenly and he called to Mike. ‘The couple we’re looking for. They’re local?’
‘Yes, lived here all their lives.’
‘Then they’ll know the Kettle, right? We’re headed for the east side, but on the west side...’
Mike stopped suddenly, scratching his head. ‘Yeah. You’re right. I’ll call Grant and suggest we take the western approach.’
‘What?’ He could see Kate’s eyes, wide in the darkness, looking up at him.
‘Anyone who’s lived here all their lives will know that the place for couples is the west side of the Kettle. The east side’s a lot prettier, and that’s where the walkers and tourists go. On the west side, there are caves and a bit more privacy.’
‘And you think that they would go there—like a courting couple?’
‘Maybe. Makes sense to me that they might. We used to come up here in the evenings all the time, when we were teenagers.’
Mike ended his call, putting his phone back into his pocket. ‘Okay, Grant agrees. We’ll go this way.’ Mike shone his torch up an incline, and they made their way over the rough, stony ground.
‘Surely they couldn’t have managed this?’ Kate was stumbling in the darkness, and Ethan took her hand to steady her. When she regained her balance she kept hold of him, her fingers warm in his.
‘There’s another way round, much flatter and easier to walk. If they knew where they were headed, then they could have taken that route.’ Ethan remembered that there was a bus stop too, along the road on that side of the hill.
‘You think they knew where they were headed? It must have been a long time since they did any courting.’
‘For someone with dementia, those memories of their youth become more vivid, as the intervening memories fade. They often recreate their early memories, because they seem more real to them.’
‘And you used to come here? Was it where you first kissed a girl?’ It seemed that, despite the rugged terrain, Kate still had enough breath left to tease him.
‘Yes. That was a very long time ago...’
Ethan heard Mike laugh and remembered suddenly that he and Kate weren’t alone, however much it felt that she was the only other person in the world right now.