Page 50 of The Missing Couple

3:00 p.m.

So it took her two hours.

Since there were no indications anyone had come in from the direction she and Billie did, she had no choice but to sweep from one direction to the other before moving forward in a sort of zigzag. If there had been a trail before, it was long overgrown now. This way of moving forward was slow going but it was also the best effort to ensure they didn’t miss anything. Particularly since Billie had asked her to help him look for indications someone had accessed the cabin from this direction.

The downside was that they had found nothing so far.

She stalled, surveyed the spot to her right again. She smiled.

Maybe she had just gotten lucky. A couple of thin little broken limbs on a scraggly bush suggested someone or something—maybe a deer—had brushed too close. She looked for signs of deer droppings, found none. Drawing in her zigzag pattern more tightly, she quickly found another indication of foot travel. Trampled-down greenery, the lower wild grasses and a fern.

She crouched down for a closer inspection. The partial impression of a footprint was just barely visible. She waved Billie over and pointed to her find. When Billie crouched to join her, she indicated the immediate area around them. She explained, keeping her voice down to a near whisper, “I’m not seeing more so I’m thinking this is where someone who had tripped caught themselves, forcing more pressure onto this one foot. It didn’t happen recently…maybe yesterday. The plants are starting to spring up again.”

He studied the area a moment then nodded. “You’re right. They picked their way carefully through here, then for some reason stumbled.” He spoke quietly as well. “They were moving toward the road.”

Charly studied the impression more closely. “I think whoever it was, he or she was barefoot.” She pointed to a small, slightly deeper impression. “That looks like a big toe.”

“You’re right. Someone was maybe trying to get away from something or someone.”

His words sent a shiver down her spine.

With this find, they had to assume someone had been here recently and that someone could still be nearby. Unless they had made it to the road.

Charly stood, placed her own hiking boot alongside the impression. Billie watched. When his gaze met hers, she said, “Too small for a man.”

He pushed to his feet, stood beside her and surveyed the dense woods. “Had to be a woman or a kid.”

Though her heart kicked into a faster rhythm, Charly knew better than to get too excited with nothing more than a single partial footprint. “Let’s keep going forward. I’ll focus on this tighter area.”

“I’ll take the outer perimeter.”

Watching her every step, Charly moved back into that zigzag pattern. She studied the bushes…the saplings…the ground. It was slow going but that was the only way to avoid missing anything. She might still overlook a broken twig or trampled weed, but she would do her best not to miss a thing.

The cell phone in her back pocket vibrated. She groaned softly and tugged it out. Could be Shelly with a registration problem.

She frowned. Billie. She answered the call, surveying the area around her until she spotted him. He was a few yards ahead, to the right of her position.

“Yeah?” Again, she spoke softly.

“Obvious signs of movement here.”

A spike of anticipation hit her veins. “You want me to come there or keep moving this way?”

“I’ll follow this trail. You keep looking where you are.”

She nodded and ended the call, tucked the phone back into her pocket. Moving as quickly as she dared without compromising her search, she worked her pattern. On her far left, north of the previous find, she discovered a new path. Compressed weeds and grasses, broken limbs…this was more than someone moving through the area. This was a struggle. At least one more distinct impression along with the previous one. This one larger, definitely a shoe or boot but not full impressions. The ground just wasn’t soft enough. Plus, the grasses and decaying leaves prevented full contact with the soil in any given area.

She started to call Billie but then she spotted it…the cabin.

More of that adrenaline flowed inside her. She snapped a pic and sent it to him, then followed the tracks. One person, she decided. There were two at the place where the struggle happened, but only one from there headed to the cabin. Did that mean the person with the larger feet had overtaken the smaller person and then carried them to the cabin or maybe back to the cabin? Her phone vibrated and she checked the screen. A pic from Billie was a selfie showing him standing at the cabin door. Charly laughed to herself.

She made it the rest of the way to the cabin. She felt breathless with anticipation, hope. The cabin was old, not maintained. Moss had pretty much covered the roof. Vines had grown over the siding, obscuring the only window on the side she approached. She rounded a corner. No Billie, just more viney overgrowth and a single window. She stopped at the window and peered inside, but it was blocked by something. She couldn’t say if it was some sort of curtain or what, but it obscured all beyond it.

Billie stood at the door. Yeah. She remembered that door. Though she hadn’t gone into the cabin that one time she was here. Groups of kids had been all around the clearing—not much of a clearing now. The place was all grown up. Back then, when she was fourteen, there had been campfires going and kids drinking and dancing. Music playing. The remembered sounds whispered through her.

“Did you look inside?” she asked as she approached Billie.

He surveyed the area, his tension palpable. “I was waiting for you.”