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Ellie followed Cord onto the dark trail with Derrick close behind. The cloud cover washed out the moon and stars, preventing them from using it as a guide and forcing them to move slowly and watch their footing.
Her father had once told her about Dead Man’s Bluff, a steep ridge on Blood Mountain where some claimed they saw the ghostly spirits of Native Americans who’d died in the battles.
“I know that cabin,” Cord said, his tone grim. “If he’s there, he either came an alternate route or parked off road and hiked in. The road from this direction has been blocked by fallen trees for a while.”
From his tone, Ellie sensed this area held traumatic memories for Cord, but she didn’t push. Cord had his secrets, a dark past. And she knew better than to pry.
“Watch your step, the ground is slick from recent rain,” Cord said as he led them through a labyrinth of trees and inclines. Weeds poked through the damp soil, the scent of moss hanging heavy in the air.
They passed clusters of hemlocks and tall pines as they followed the gurgling creek, stepping over loose rocks and slippery stones and around briar patches. Ellie had the sense that she would have been lost in a heartbeat without Cord’s guidance, and Derrick seemed more brooding than usual.
Although missing child cases had to bother him more than any other.
Another mile, and Cord halted and gestured toward a section of forest cloaked in bushes and debris from a storm. A small shack was nestled in the middle of it, weeds climbing the walls.
They cut off their flashlights, and a shiver rippled through Ellie.
Shaking it off, she inched toward the hut, where a low light burned inside as if from a lantern. Derrick motioned that he’d go right and for her to go left, and she gestured for Cord to stay outside and check around the property.
Just as they neared the rotting place, she heard a low keening sound like an injured animal.
Or a crying child.
Ellie’s pulse pounded, and she and Derrick took off running.
Twenty-Nine
Ellie pulled her weapon at the ready and Derrick did the same as they paused at the door. Then he moved toward a tiny window to the right and peeked inside while she pressed her ear to the door.
Her heart thundered. The keening sound grew louder.
“Please don’t have let him have hurt Ava,” she whispered.
A quick glance at Derrick and he mouthed that he didn’t see movement. Keeping her gun braced, she knocked on the door. “Nolan Grueler, police, open up!”
Derrick inched up beside her and she opened the door, peering into the dark space. The light from the lantern glowed across the room, slanting diagonal lines across the primitive wood flooring that had buckled in places from rain and water damage. A musty odor wafted toward her and she heard a rodent skitter into a corner.
She didn’t see Ava. But her breath caught as she spotted Nolan Grueler on his knees, rocking back and forth. He was wailing as he gripped a .38 in his shaking hand.
Dammit, his mother claimed he didn’t own a weapon.
She raised her weapon and slowly crept toward him. Derrick held behind her so as not to spook the man.
“Nolan, put the gun down,” Ellie said softly.
He had his eyes squeezed tightly shut, his body curled forward as he lifted the barrel of the gun to his head.
“Don’t do it, Nolan.” Ellie leaned forward, her voice a whisper. “Put down the gun and we can talk this out.”
He finally seemed to hear her and looked up with glazed eyes. His mother claimed he wasn’t violent, but at the moment the desperation in his eyes said different. “Put down the weapon and talk to me.”
The gun bobbed up and down, his body trembling. “It won’t do any good. You don’t believe me.”
“Tell me the truth and I will,” Ellie said. “That’s all I want.”
“I did, but you still think I took that little girl and so does Mama,” he shouted. “It’ll never stop.”
“We found those toys you kept in the box outside your mother’s house.” Ellie said. “You watched her from your window, didn’t you?”
