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“I’ll let you know, one way or the other,” Cameron said, and picked up the envelope. “I’ll let myself out. Safe travels home.”
Minutes later, he was heading to Granny Annie’s Bakery. Rusty loved sweets, and he loved Rusty.
Chapter 19
Annie Cauley was at the front counter of the bakery when Cameron walked in. As soon as she rang up her waiting customer, she came around the counter to hug him.
“You’re the second good-looking Pope to come in this morning. Good to see you, honey.”
“Good to see you, too,” Cameron said. “Who else was here?”
“Aaron. It seems Dani loves my cinnamon rolls.”
“And Aaron loves Dani,” Cameron said, then laughed. “I’m here for Rusty. It appears we’re suckers for the women we love.”
Annie’s smile faded. “Like Brendan loved Meg. I went to see Aunt Ella last night. I had her read a necklace for me that my granny always claimed belonged to Meg.”
Cameron was well aware of the family’s faith in Aunt Ella’s “second sight” and had no reason to dispute it. “Really? What did she say?” he asked.
“Let’s sit a minute,” Annie said, then called back into the kitchen. “Laurel, will you please come take over for me for a bit?”
Cameron held out a chair for her, then sat down beside her. Annie was already worrying the hem on her apron, twisting it into a wad and then smoothing it out again, a sign she was upset.
“I won’t go into details, but Aunt Ella said Meg was shot in the upper chest area, like Charlie. She also said Meg was still alive when they put her somewhere dark and that she died calling Brendan’s name. I can’t get that image out of my head. It breaks my heart, Cameron. It purely breaks my heart. I hope to God you find our Meg. Ella said she’s the crying woman some hear on the mountain. She wants to be found.”
Cameron was stunned and, like Annie, horrified by the image of that happening to Meg.
“We’re going to begin searching tomorrow. I now have the maps and info I was waiting for. What will be, will be, but we’re going to give it our best shot.”
Annie wiped her eyes. “I know you will. Now what are we getting for Rusty today?”
“Some kind of pie, I think.”
Annie frowned, thinking of what they had on hand. “This weather calls for something cool and refreshing. How about a lemon cream pie?”
“Sounds like a winner. Box it up,” Cameron said.
Cameron spent the rest of the afternoon making calls until he had fourteen men on the list, counting himself.They were to meet at Ray and Betty Raines’s home tomorrow morning at 8:00, with their own backpacks of food and water, ropes if they had them, hatchets for clearing brush as they searched, and shovels for digging. He went to bed that night satisfied by the progress.
Aaron had gotten the call while he was on patrol. For him, the timing was perfect, because he was off for the next two days.
B.J. was at work when he got the call, and after talking to Annie, she’d gladly given B.J. the day off to help search.
Wiley was pulling a double shift at work and couldn’t go, and Sean had two prior conference calls scheduled and couldn’t change them without losing clients.
Cameron’s brother-in-law, Louis Glass, was one of the searchers, as was his father, Marcus, and the next morning at 8:00 a.m., the members of the search team began arriving at Ray and Betty’s house. Charlie was sitting on the back porch wishing he was old enough and strong enough to participate. Instead, he sat watching as they arrived and began loading up three pickups with men, gear, and backpacks.
Then once again, Ray led the way through his property all the way to the tree line. From there, the men piled out of the pickup trucks, gathered up their gear, and headed for Big Falls.
Cameron, Louis, and Marcus, were riding with Ray. Aaron and B.J. were riding in the bed of a pickup truck belonging to one of Annie’s grandsons, along with a half dozen other men, and a third pickup truck with the rest of the men was bringing up the rear.
Once they arrived at Big Falls, Cameron planned to break the men up into two teams. One team would take the area around the falls to see if there was actually a cave behind the falling water, while the other moved to the wooded area to see if they could find any sites that might indicate previous dwellings.
After seeing the Lidar imagining, he knew this wouldn’t be a long, drawn-out search because there was only a limited area to consider. The soldiers would not have dragged a heavy trunk of gold all over the forest. They would have had a destination in mind from the start.
“Here we are, boys. Let’s do this,” Ray said as he drove across the cattle guard, then parked. The other two pickups pulled up beside him, and then everyone piled out, recovered the equipment they’d brought with them, and headed toward the falls with Cameron leading the way.
Aaron knew how invested B.J. was in being a part of this, and he’d already promised his mother to look after him, something B.J. knew nothing about.
