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I was soaked to my skin from the rain. It had taken me over an hour to find Jamie. She’d gone a lot further than she thought. We were halfway to Providence now, and I followed her through the dense trees by the water’s edge.
Jamie said nothing, but looked at me suspiciously. “How did you even find me?” she said.
“Doesn’t matter,” I replied. By tracking Jamie’s phone, I’d been able to narrow her position down to a square mile or so of forest. But now we were stuck here.
“Come on,” I said. “We need to find somewhere to shelter.”
She didn’t say anything and just stood there. Jamie was shaking, and I wondered if it was just from the cold. She seemed shaken up, and her green eyes were wide and wild.
“JAMIE!” I said, and it snapped her out of whatever she was thinking. Then she looked at me fiercely.
“I’m not going with you,” she said.
“Are you crazy?” I replied. “We’re in the middle of the worst storm in thirty years and you’re going to stay here.”
“I’ll shelter in my car until it’s over,” she said. “Tell my dad I’m fine.”
“You’re gonna be sheltering until the morning,” I told her. I’d checked the weather forecasts, and the storm wasn’t going to stop for at least another twelve hours. It was 7:30 p.m. now. That meant it would be dark soon enough. Already the skies were beginning to turn dark blue, the black clouds gathering over us. I wasn’t going to let her stay out in this storm. If it got any worse, the road could be flooded.
I thought of the little kid in the scarf. Cassie. My daughter. I realized I had one priority now. To bring her mom home.
“Come on,” I said.
“Where’s your car?” said Jamie.
I grunted and gestured up the hill. “Stuck in a ditch. The wind practically ran me off the road. But it’s warm and dry in there. And I’ve still got some satellite reception. We can call for help.”
Jamie sighed and took another sad look at her battered car.
“Let me get my bag,” she said.
“There isn’t time!” I snapped, and she turned and looked at me.
“I need my sneakers,” she said. “Look.” I looked down at her feet and suddenly felt guilty. Jamie’s shoes were covered in mud, and here I was, acting like a jackass.
“Fine,” I said. “But be quick. Get your sneakers on and give me your bag.”
“Why do you want my bag?”
“I’ll carry it faster.”
“What is your problem?” Jamie said, as she sat on the trunk of her car and removed her shoes.
“My problem,” I said, my voice low and even, “is that we’re stranded in the middle of a storm. It’s ten miles to the nearest town. Come on. At least we’re by the water. Maybe there’s somewhere we can get dry and plan our next move.”
After she put her shoes on, we went back the way I came, up the ravine. My shoes were soaked and I could feel the cold getting through to my feet, numbing my fingers. I raised my hand to my forehead and slicked my hair, sending a thin jet of water cascading from my forehead.
“How did you know where I was?” said Jamie, stumbling after me as I began to stride up the sharp incline through the muddy ground. Beneath the canopy, we were a little sheltered from the rain, but there was water trickling through the leaves, splashing us both as we made our way toward the high ground.
“It doesn’t matter,” I said.
“No,” said Jamie, and tugged my arm as I kept walking. “It matters. How did you find me, Eric?”
I sighed and turned around. I didn’t have time for this now. I was worried about Jamie, even if I was trying not to show it. And if we were caught out here in the open much longer, then we’d both start to get cold and exhausted. And that would only make this whole situation more dangerous.
“I triangulated your position,” I said. “Using the cell towers and GPS data. It’s not exactly legal. So don’t tell anyone.”
“Oh God,” said Jamie. “I don’t even want to know how you did that.” She knew that the kind of technology I was using wasn’t exactly the kind of thing that you could buy from an app store. It was software I’d been working on for one of my military contractors. The kind of tech used for when the army needed to find someone who didn’t want to be found in extreme weather conditions.
