They hiked through the woods for a solid fifteen minutes, before Evie called Bruno back. “Okay, boy, that’s enough. Stop, Bruno. It’s time to go.”
The dog lifted his head, glanced at Evie, his dark eyes intense, but then he turned and trotted back toward them. Evie bent to run her fingers over the shepherd’s fur, pulling a few prickers off as she did so.
“I’m glad you’re up to date on your flea and tick meds,” she told him. “Good boy, Bruno. You’re a good boy.”
Cam was encouraged by the dog’s actions. First that he hadn’t alerted to anything in Duncan Woods, and second that he seemed to understand his mission was to find the killer.
Maybe this would work. He didn’t normally pray the way Evie and several of his teammates did, but that didn’t stop him from looking up at the sky and whispering a plea for God to help guide them to the truth.
Retracing their steps led them back to the rental house. He stood for a moment, pondering the trail. It was obviously used recently by hikers, but where did it go? Did it join with another trail? Maybe one that led to a bigger hiking path? Duncan Woods was full of hiking trails. Not that he’d explored them at length himself.
Glancing at his watch, he decided that wasn’t as important as searching the river for Skye’s car or searching for Dan Johnson. In his opinion, Dan should be more of a suspect than he was.
“Are you ready?” Evie asked. She’d gone into the clearing, while he’d remained on the path.
“Yeah.” It still bugged him that the trail led straight to the rental house. Should they search for a different place to stay? Or was he overreacting?
Probably the latter.
With a sigh, he said, “I’m ready.” He quickly closed the gap between them. “Although let’s grab the laptop, along with our other things. We may need it.”
“Fine with me.” She waited as he grabbed the necessary items from the rental house, bringing them to the car. “What do you think, should we swing by the high school first? Or just drive straight to the river?”
His gut instinct was to avoid the downtown area so they wouldn’t run across the police. Then he realized that going to town would help hide where they were staying. “Yeah, let’s go to the high school first.”
“Okay.” She searched his gaze for a moment. “Maybe we’ll recognize one of the teachers.”
He nodded absently, although his mind was still on the hiking trail. “I hope so. Especially if the teacher can tell us if Dan Johnson is still around.”
“Are you okay?” Evie asked. “You seem preoccupied.”
“Fine.” He needed to stay focused. “Do you mind if I drive again?”
“Go for it.” Evie put the backpack in the back seat near his snorkel gear and computer “You should grab a few towels from the rental house.”
He went back inside to get them. When he returned, he thought about what she’d said. “If Dan Johnson is still in the area, he might have kids that attend the grade school.”
“Could be.” She frowned. “If that’s true, I feel bad for the woman he married.”
He started the car, cranked the air conditioning, then turned around to head back to the road. They rode in silence for several minutes as he took another circular route back.
There were no signs of the local police patrolling the streets this time. Considering his recent paranoia about the hiking trail, he had to admit he may have overreacted to the cop sitting in the parking lot of the super store.
Being treated as a suspect was causing his imagination to run wild. The entire town wasn’t out to get him. It was only Detective Rueger being a jerk. And as Evie pointed out, the guy had been wrong about Skye’s disappearance fourteen years ago.
Frankly, Cam couldn’t wait to prove Rueger wrong again.
“We might want to pick up sub sandwiches to go,” Evie said, breaking into his thoughts. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m starving.”
“Sure. We can stop at the sub shop near the high school.” He flashed a wry grin. “It will be like old times. Remember how we used to head there prior to going down to the lakefront to work?”
“I do. Skye would always complain that she wanted a salad, but you and I were all about the sandwiches.” Evie’s smile faded. “I hate thinking about what she must have suffered that night. We really need to find the person who killed her.”
“We will.” He forced himself to sound confident. “We have a good plan.”
“Yeah.” Evie pulled out her phone. “I hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to search for missing women.”
“On what, social media?” He frowned. “Not sure that’s a reliable source.”
