Page 87 of Still Afraid

He sniffed around again, jumped out of the truck, and went to the back.

The bed was covered, and a sick feeling overcame Josh. She wasn’t in there, was she? He didn’t believe Aaron would hurt her, but what if something went wrong? What if Aaron hadn’t been alone?

Poirot stopped and sat.

Gabe’s hand came to rest on Josh’s back. “Don’t worry, they already checked the bed.” Gabe turned to Poirot. “Where’d she go, boy?”

Poirot barked but remained sitting.

“She got in another vehicle.” Josh’s hope plummeted into the ground. They had no way of knowing where she was now.

Josh went to Poirot and scratched his ear. “Good boy. Anything else? If only you could magically follow a vehicle.” He turned to Gabe. “Where does this leave us?”

“We’ll check to see if there are any cameras that might have picked up what vehicle they left in. We’ll keep following every lead we can.”

Josh nodded.

Poirot stood and wandered around, sniffing the air.

Gabe continued, “Buck and Martinez are looking for any locations Aaron might have been associated with. And another set of detectives, less connected to the family, are going to his last known residence to see what they can find.”

A gust of wind whipped through the park, almost taking Gabe’s police ball cap off his head.

They both looked at the sky. The cloud cover was increasing and appeared more menacing by the moment. Not another storm.

Poirot barked from across the parking lot.

Josh jogged over, Gabe and Lance right behind him. “What is it, buddy?”

The dog barked again, then headed into the kudzu. Hopefully there wasn’t any poison ivy mixed in. He nosed into the underbrush and vines that grew thick at the base of the trees and up the trunks. Josh followed him in. The dog had found something.

Pushing back the kudzu, he saw it … or rather them. Two cell phones. One of which was Chloe’s. Gabe joined him, took pictures of where the phones were found, and, after putting gloves on, picked them up.

Once out of the vines, Josh gave Poirot a handful of well-earned treats.

Gabe inspected the second phone. What he found brought disappointment to his expression.

“What?”

“It’s Aaron’s phone. The one he used to communicate with family anyway. I don’t see anything indicating criminal activity on this one.”

“No doubt that burner we found the other day was his.”

Gabe nodded. “Does this mean whatever vehicle they got in was trouble for both of them?”

“Probably. Otherwise, why toss Aaron’s phone?”

“Unless he figured we’d be on to him and thought we might use it to find Chloe.”

“Also possible. But do you really think Aaron would hurt her intentionally?”

“I hope not.” Gabe looked as twisted up about it as Josh felt.

How were they going to find Chloe now? Josh had hoped she was still in the park. As much as the idea of the water in the quarry posed a terrifying possibility, at least they knew where to search. But she wasn’t here, and they had no leads to follow.

Silence had fallen between Chloe and Aaron. She wished she could know what was going on inside his head and could only hope and pray he was wrestling with the Lord.

She rhythmically rocked back and forth against the rope, trying to get it loose enough that she could at least get to the knife in her pocket. She hadn’t wanted to pull it out sooner because Richard had been too tuned into their movements. But he’d been in the office for a little bit now, so it seemed like the best opportunity.