“Sure. When do we leave?”
“As soon as possible. I’m just going to check in with April and see how the patient is doing. Then I’ll grab a takeout dinner. We want to catch as much daylight as possible.” I pause, as if just now considering something else. “Wait. Émilie. Will she be okay by herself?”
Petra chuckles. “She flew here by herself. Believe me, she doesn’t need me to feed her. I will pick up something for her, though. She’s been resting.”
“Taking it easy?”
She hesitates long enough for me to know she suspects there’s more to it. Then she shrugs and says, as nonchalantly as possible, “That meeting took a lot out of her. She said it stirred up memories, and she needed some time. That’s why I went into work. I had the day off, but she very clearly wanted to be alone with her thoughts, and my apartment isn’t big enough for that.”
“Huh. Are you sure she’s okay?”
“I’ll check in when I drop off dinner.”
“Should I send April by later?”
“No, no—” Petra stops. A heartbeat of a pause that says so much before she forces lightness into her tone with, “Sure, that can’t hurt, right? Émilie will say she doesn’t need it, but she won’t argue. I’ll tell her April will stop by. No need for your sister to set a specific time. Émilie won’t be going out.”
If April could come by at any moment, Émilie must stay put. Yet Petra was fine leaving Émilie home alone, though, so maybe I’m reading too much into this.
Anders offers to pick up food for the search party, and I let him do that while I go talk to April, and Petra heads home to speak to Émilie.
There’s no change in Jay’s condition. He’s stable and still comatose. As I’m talking to April, I notice a report on the counter. It looks like an autopsy, but the name on it is Sophie’s. I pick it up, and before I can read anything more than a few words, April snatches it from my hand.
“You will receive the report when I complete my examination.”
“Why are you autopsying Sophie? We know how she died.”
“It is not a complete autopsy. Now that she is deceased, I am free to more thoroughly examine her wounds, which may provide greater information on the earlier attack she suffered.”
“Ah. Okay, then. Thanks.”
April relaxes, though her answering nod is abrupt. Did she think I’d give her shit for taking initiative? Rockton is all about initiative. If you have spare time and you want to go beyond the call of duty, by all means, go for it, even if only to satisfy idle curiosity. Staying challenged keeps the cabin fever at bay.
That’s a conversation for later, though. Right now I’m just here to check on Jay and ask April to stop by later for Émilie, and then I’m zooming off to find Dalton and get our asses on the trail.
* * *
Anders has the militia mustered for extra patrols, but we don’t want them going too deep into the woods. Mostly they’re just listening and watching, in case an attack on Edwin and Felicity preludes an attack on Rockton.
The search party is only three people and a dog. That’s for our own safety. Each of those three has a gun. Each is trained to use it. No dead weight allowed on this mission. Dalton and Storm are our searchers. I’m in charge of Storm. Petra is our guard, allowing us to focus on the hunt.
We don’t have time to eat before we head out. It really is grab-and-go, the only exception being Storm, who ate and rested while we bustled about preparing.
We’ve asked Sebastian to walk out with us. We part ways about a half kilometer from where the settlers wait, where he hops on the bike and goes. From there, while we can’t hear the conversation as he meets them, we’ll hear trouble. We don’t.
We set Storm on the trail right out of Rockton. She knows Edwin, and while he’s never paid her much attention, she’s happy to track Felicity.
We asked the settlers to wait down a side trail for Sebastian, and when we’d returned to Rockton post-bear, we’d avoided the main path. That kept the scent as pristine as possible for Storm.
Now we backtrack to that main route and have Storm pick up Edwin and Felicity again. The problem with a scent trail like this is that they walked all the way to Rockton, and then headed back on the same path. Figuring out where they stepped off the path is trickier than if they’d been diverted on the way to Rockton. Fortunately, Storm has been trained for this. She won’t just keep her nose to the path. She’ll be looking for places where a leg of the scent trail branches off.
That happens almost as soon as we rejoin the main path. Storm signals that the scent veers right. Dalton has already seen the same diversion; a freshly cracked bush branch and disturbances in the dirt tell him someone left the path. I let him take the dog as Petra and I wait. A minute later, he’s back, saying, “Piss break,” and we continue on.
Another hour passes. It’s a quiet walk. That isn’t easy for me. Petra is right beside us, and I so badly want to confront her about Émilie. Yet the more noise we make, the more we risk alerting anyone who might be around.
When I notice Dalton’s gaze surveying the wider landscape, I murmur, “Everything okay?”
“Ridgeback Peak,” he says, nodding to the right.