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“I’ll be right there. Call Mason.” Annie hung up and squealedthe tires as she peeled out of the parking lot. “Bree has called in the SAR teams. That’s how scared she is.”
She drove the few blocks to Bree’s lighthouse faster than allowed, but she didn’t care. Let Doug give her a ticket. Tears kept leaking down her cheeks, and her pulse skipped with every few beats. Kylie wouldn’t worry them like this on purpose. It wasn’t in her nature. She knew Annie’s fears for her, and she was always careful to let her know what she was doing and where she was going.
Annie had taught her never to go with anyone unless they knew the secret wordtremolo. So it had to be that Kylie had wandered off.
Jon scooted over on the bench seat and set his hand lightly on her knee. The comforting touch was enough for her to know he was with her and concerned too.
“We’ll find her,” he said. “She’s a smart kid. Maybe she went for a walk in the woods and got lost. Bree will find her with the dogs.”
Kylie had an almost uncanny sense of direction, much like Annie’s sixth sense when it came to north and south. Annie didn’t think she could get lost, but maybe it was possible. The woods could get you all turned around when you couldn’t see the sun.
She screeched to a halt at the curb in front of the lighthouse and leaped from the car. When she started to pause to help Jon, he shooed her up the steps. “I’m right behind you. Don’t worry about me. I’m fine.”
She nodded and ran up the steps to the porch. Bree was kneeling in front of Samson as she put on his SAR vest. Naomi was there with Charley, her golden retriever, as well. The other SAR members weren’t there yet. Urgency strummed throughAnnie’s veins, and she wasn’t about to wait for anyone else to arrive.
Jon came behind her and took her hand. She spotted the shorts Kylie wore yesterday lying on the floor. “Those haven’t been washed, right?”
Her expression focused and intent, Bree rose and picked up the shorts. “No, they haven’t. And I’m leaving her shirt for the rest of the team to use when they get here.”
“Where’s Milo?”
“He’s inside,” Bree said. “She didn’t take him out with her. He was climbing around on Samson, and I think she wanted him to have some daddy time. I wish she’d taken him. If she’s lost, he would have been a comfort to her at least.”
“Where’s Sarah?” Jon asked. “She loves Kylie, and she’s part of the family. She should help too.”
“I knocked on her door to ask if she’d seen Kylie, but she didn’t answer,” Bree said. “I tried to call her, too, but it went to voice mail.”
Jon pulled out his phone. “I can check again.” He shook his head after a few moments. “Nope, not answering.” He ended the call without leaving a message.
Bree held the shorts under Samson’s nose and then passed them to Naomi, who did the same to Charley. “Search!” she told Samson.
Naomi gave the order to Charley as well, and both dogs bounded off the porch and ran toward the hillside overlooking the water. Both dogs ran back and forth, their muzzles in the air. Their dogs weren’t bloodhounds but air scenters. They worked in a Z pattern, scenting the air until they could catch a hint of the one scent they sought. Samson’s tail stiffened, andhe turned and dashed to the right again, then trotted toward the cottage.
Jon had never watched the teams in action. “What are they smelling? How do they know it’s Kylie they smell?”
Bree was watching the dogs closely. “Every human scent is different. The skin gives off dead skin cells called rafts. We each shed about forty thousand of them per minute. Every tiny raft has its own bacteria and releases its own vapor that makes up that unique scent we all carry. So believe me, they are tracking only Kylie.”
“Looks like maybe she has been at Sarah’s,” Jon said. “I wondered about that.”
“She’s not there,” Bree called back over her shoulder as she chased after her dog. “I already checked inside, but it looks like she was there at some point. I even checked the closets in case she was hiding.”
The dogs nosed around the grass, then headed for the shed. They stopped in front of the door for a moment, and Jon ran past and opened the door. “Isn’t there supposed to be an ATV in here?”
Bree peered inside as the dogs went around the walls and sniffed before going back outside. “It’s missing.”
“Kylie wouldn’t have taken it. She doesn’t know how to operate an ATV,” Annie said.
Samson gave a bark, and his tail came up. He dashed toward the woods, and Bree ran behind him. Why would Kylie go off into the woods by herself? Annie didn’t like the implication that someone might have taken her into the forest. Kylie liked being around people. She wasn’t prone to wander off by herself, and especially not into the forest.
They followed the trail of the skin rafts the dogs tracked over a mile before they came to a road.
The dogs stopped and whined. Samson lay down at the edge of the road beside the abandoned ATV and put his head on his paws.
Bree eyed the dogs’ behavior. “They’ve lost the scent. They were picked up by a car.”
Of course she saidthey. Sarah had taken Kylie. But why?
Thirty-One
