Page 97 of Fallen Creed

Now they waited for Maggie while the Jeep filled with warm air and the dogs settled into their spaces. Kitten crawled up to take a look out of the window. But Jason still fidgeted with the heating controls, the windshield wipers, the GPS. Brodie glanced around. No signs of Maggie yet. She decided she needed to ask him what was wrong.

“Something’s bothering you,” she said and left it for him to fill in the blanks or shrug it off.

He hesitated. She hoped it had nothing to do with her.

“I’m worried Scout won’t be able to track in the snow,” Jason finally said.

She gave him her full attention, turning her body to face him. From his backseat crate, Scout raised his head and listened after hearing his name.

“Why do you think that?” Brodie asked.

“Ryder and Grace disappeared while it was still snowing. All of their scent will be buried underneath.”

“But the scent is still there?”

“Oh sure. Cold is good at preserving.”

“Dogs can track scents that are underground. Isn’t dirt heavier than snow?”

“It’s not about heavier. When it’s wet and below freezing, the ice encapsulates the scent molecules.”

“But when it starts to melt, it’ll release the scent, right?”

“I suppose so,” he admitted.

She pointed out the windshield.

Along the hotel’s entrance, a carport protected guests from the elements while they unpacked their vehicles. A steady drip streamed from the roofline.

“It’s warming up,” she told him.

His eyes darted to the dashboard to check the digital display for the outside temperature.

“Thirty-nine degrees,” he said. He pulled out his cell phone, slid his finger over the screen, and tapped. “The high today for Grand Island, Nebraska, is going to be forty-five. I never even considered it might get warm enough to melt with all this snow on the ground.”

“Nebraska weather,” Brodie shrugged. The temperature going up and down was one thing she, unfortunately, remembered well.

“Thanks,” Jason said, then he surprised her when he added, “I’m really glad you’re here.”

—76—

Maggie texted Jason to let him know she’d be just a few more minutes. She needed to make her phone calls from the hotel lobby. Once they were on the back roads plowing through the snow, cellular service would be unpredictable.

Alonzo had already given her the bad news. So far, none of the facial recognition programs had found serious matches for their suspects. Alonzo supposed none of them had been arrested, which made his task more difficult. And to make matters worse, without consistent cellular service to connect to and gather location information, they had no way of accessing Grace’s GPS tracker.

She leaned against a wall in the far corner of the lobby. She was physically spent from a night of pacing interspersed with an hour or two of tossing and turning. She ran fingers through her damp hair from a shower that relieved none of the tension in her shoulders. She was exhausted, and the day was only beginning.

Pakula had no good news either. The tip line brought in sightings of the hardware store trio, but as he warned her, the reliability of those tips was questionable. One or all three were allegedly spotted in a Lincoln restaurant, a truck stop outside of St. Louis, a Denver bookstore and even a Gap store at Mall of America.

Pakula said it would take more manpower than he had available to even sift through for promising clues. He also told her Spencer and his deputies were out dealing with storm related issues, including domestic disputes and traffic accidents. But he added they would be available to her at a moment’s notice. And so would he.

Maggie appreciated their offers, but the fact was, they weren’t any closer to knowing what had happened to Ryder and Grace.

“The good news,” Pakula told her when she went quiet, “the snow has stopped. The plows are out in full force, and it’s warming up.”

When she still didn’t respond, he added, “We’ve been passing along Ryder’s photo to law enforcement across the state. We’ll find him, Maggie. I promise.”

“Thanks,” she managed.