Touched by Death (24 page)

"The SUV isn't far from where you're staying.
There is no sign of damage or forced entry to the SUV. It is still full
of equipment. It looks as if the driver just got up and walked away.
It is a popular hiking spot – would he be the type of person to have
gone for a hike on the spur of the moment and not tell anyone?"

Silence.

Stephen spoke first. "He's a hiker, but I can't
imagine him going without letting any of us know what he was doing.
He'd found a couple of hikes that we were going to discuss then pick
one to do this weekend, but that's after we'd planned and prepared for
it."

"Right. Can you please meet us at the vehicle
so we can make sure nothing has been stolen?"

Jade scratched down the location as it came rattling
through the phone.

"We'll be there in fifteen minutes." Bruce
closed his phone and tucked it back into his pants pocket.

"I want to go with you," Jade said quietly.
She really didn't want to go but she wanted to make sure that no one
missed anything. Dr. Mike was a good man. She'd do what she could for
him.

"So do I." Meg stood up.

Susan started to cough. Everyone stopped to look at
her in concern. When she could, she said, "I
want
to go, but..."

Stephen pointed a finger at her. "Bed. That's
the only place you're going. And lock the door behind you, this time."

"I think we all want to go." Stephen raised
an eyebrow at Wilson, who nodded. "Good, that's settled. We're
all going." Everyone stood and headed for the vehicles. As Meg
walked past Bruce, she nudged him in the arm. "We're all in this
together. If Dr. Mike is in trouble, we all want to help. Accept it."

Bruce smiled and fell into step beside her. "It's
good to know that the team has bonded so well in such a short time."

"Isn't it though? Susan hasn't been involved
too much but she seems happy to be with us."

Stephen interrupted them as he came up behind them.
"Any update on the patients?"

Meg filled him in.

Stephen winced. "That's tough for everyone."

When they reached the SUV, all of them clambered in
ahead of Bruce. He shook his head. "Eager or what?"

"Anxious," corrected Jade. "Dr. Mike
is family. We're all family."

Bruce stopped, studied her serious face for a moment,
and then smiled. "Thanks. That's the nicest thing anyone has said
to me in a long time."

He hopped in and started the engine.

"It's the truth," Jade added to the thoughtful
silence in the car. "We may not have been here together for long,
yet bonds have started. It's up to us how we want them to continue."
With those profound words, she sat back, quiet again.

Meg reached out and gave her a hug. "Thanks,
sis."

Jade chuckled.

"Hey, pass the hugs around. No keeping them just
up front," Stephen protested from the back row.

The jovial atmosphere kept the darkness at bay. At
least until they pulled into the location they'd been given, and saw
the SUV parked in a small gravel lot at the base of a large hill. Boulders
piled high at the base of it and there was no sign of Dr. Mike.

The laughter shut off like a faucet, replaced by grim
silence.

"Shit," Stephen's words echoed loudly through
the small space as Bruce stopped the engine.

"I don't get it." Jade opened the sliding
door and hopped out. The others stepped out behind her. They were in
a small parking lot, off the main road. They saw one police car and
two officers standing at the SUV, waiting. She couldn't help the horrible
sinking feeling in her stomach. The SUV doors were closed and the SUV
looked deserted. She walked toward it slowly. The closer she got the
worse she felt.

Bruce walked over to speak with the officers and the
rest of them trooped over to check the SUV. One officer left Bruce and
walked over to talk with the others.

"Was the door open when you found it?" Stephen
asked.

"All doors were unlocked. Lucky everything didn't
get stolen." The officer stood off to one side watching the group.

"Weird," Wilson piped, checking out the
front passenger side.

"Not weird. Bad. Dr. Mike was particularly careful
about his equipment." Meg was adamant.

Jade had to agree.

"He might have gone hiking. He might be out there
injured." She pivoted around, looking for any sign of him.

"He'd have said something, invited one of us
along." Stephen protested. "I don't see him going out hiking
anyway, at least not alone, and not late in the afternoon. And he has
a cell if he needed help." He opened the driver's side and looked
inside.

"No, not hiking, but it makes total sense to
come and check out a hike before suggesting it for everyone this weekend."
Wilson shrugged. "That's what I'd do."

Jade frowned. "The only way he'd leave the doors
unlocked go on his own from here is if he thought someone needed him
– or if someone forced him to."

"There goes that wild imagination of yours."
Stephen's voice didn't hold any humor. If anything, it sounded like
he was searching for another answer – any other answer. He hopped
in the SUV to check the contents in the back. A moment later, he popped
his head out. "I can't see anything missing or different about
the SUV. Anyone else?" He jumped out the back door and stood with
his hands on his hips and studied the SUV's exterior. "Meg, do
you want to take a look?"

Meg obliged. Jade stood at the open door and studied
the stacks of boxes in the back of the SUV. There was a small stain
that looked suspiciously like blood on the corner of one box.

She shook her head. There went her overactive imagination
again. There was no reason to assume something bad just because there
was a tiny brown spot.

"Is this blood?"

Jade asked while Meg moved in for a closer look, "What
if someone found him injured? They'd take him to the hospital, right?
It's not like they'd just leave him here."

Meg poked her head around the stack of boxes. "It
is blood but it's not enough to indicate anything. Still, that's not
a bad idea. We'd spent so much time in the hospital last night; I never
considered maybe he'd been brought in.

Wilson called over, "Hey Bruce, did you call
the hospital?"

Bruce shook his head. "I checked last night.
I haven't yet this morning."

The younger officer beside him pulled out his cell
and moved off a few paces. "I'll do that right now."

Everyone stood quietly, waiting, hoping. The officer
returned within a few minutes. "No one has been admitted in the
last 24 hours fitting that description."

"Okay, if he's not at the hospital and he's not
in the SUV. What are our options for finding him?"

Meg stood, hands on her hips, frowning at the vehicle.
"A search party to start from here?"

Wilson rubbed his hands eagerly. "I volunteer."

"Except that he may have been mugged and the
SUV dumped here. Although that doesn't make any sense as this area is
facing incredible poverty. The SUV would have been stripped," Jade
pointed out.

Wilson walked closer to the path to check it out while
Stephen turned to the officer. "Will the insurance company's tracking
system tell us where the SUV has been? So we can see where Mike may
have driven?"

Bruce frowned. "They'd have told us if they had,
wouldn't they?"

Stephen shrugged. "Depends on the system they're
using. Tracking isn't the same as built-in GPS, I don't think. But then
I don't know."

"It's just another phone call." The cop
added, "I'll have someone at the station make that one. If there
is any information, we'll get it."

Stephen nodded his head. "Can we take the SUV
back? It's full of our gear."

"We've processed it already. Lifted a couple
of fingerprints that we'll run. No blood or anything else suspicious."
He shrugged. "We don't have a crime at the moment. We
might
have a missing person."

Meg frowned.

Jade could understand. No one knew what to do or where
to start.

Wilson spoke up. He stood slightly apart from the
group staring at the woods to the far side. "Let's think about
this. We're at the base of a popular hiking spot. Dr. Mike has several
hikes in mind for this weekend. On top of that, we're not far from the
gravesite, are we?"

Jade gazed in the direction he was pointing. All she
saw was a small mountain with boulders at the bottom and a path twisting
its way up the side to where it disappeared in the brush and small bushes.
"I wouldn't know. I'm horrible with that kind of stuff."

Bruce walked over to study the same patch of hills
and woods. "We can't be that far. I've driven around this area
a little bit." He turned back to the others. "Anyone have
a map?"

"Why does it matter where the gravesite is?"

"Because Dr. Mike could have walked over that
hill to the lab."

"Why? When the SUV is here? Besides, Jade and
Dane checked the grave last night." Meg joined them. The first
officer came back with an open map in his hands. Stephen and Bruce clustered
around him.

"So I stop here, park and then hike over that
small mountain to the gravesite when it's going to be dark soon –
for fun? Does that make any sense to you?" Jade stared at the men
in astonishment.

Meg shook her head violently. "Walk away from
a working SUV to a spot you
think
is on the other side…a decent climb from the gravesite?
With no wheels and without letting anyone know? No way. Not in this
lifetime."

"I'd so do that," Wilson stated, a grim
smile on his face. "Honestly, I
have
done things like that. Except I'd either come back to
the SUV or I'd call for a ride once I made it to the other side –
if not before – to let someone know where to bring the cold beer."

The grin on Stephen's face said he agreed with Wilson.

Jade shook her head. "So…then we're going to
have to hike over there, if only to make sure he didn't do just that
and get stuck somewhere along the way."

Stephen laughed.

The two women stared at each other. "Men."

"I hear you." Jade couldn't think of one
woman in her life that would do what Wilson described. Not in a million
years.

Bruce walked over with the one officer to speak with
the other one. He returned a few minutes later. "It appears to
be about a two- maybe three-hour hike over the top."

The five team members turned to stare at the sparsely
treed hillside. Shaking his head, Bruce said, "So, I suggest Wilson
and I do the hike. Stephen, why don't you meet us on the other side
in a couple of hours? We've got water and phones."

Jade jutted her chin out. "Two of you aren't
enough. Wilson can go with you too, and Meg and I can meet you at the
gravesite after." She turned to the two officers. "What about
organizing a search party?"

Both men simply shook their heads, and stepped back.

"They don't have the manpower and even if they
did, they don't have enough evidence to prove that Dr. Mike is even
missing," Bruce explained.

"Fine. Jade and Meg can each drive an SUV back
to the hotel. They can leave Dr. Mike's parked there then meet us at
the gravesite."

Leaving the rest of the words unspoken, Wilson walked
back over to the first SUV and pulled out his backpack. He hefted it
over one shoulder and turned toward the hillside. "Come on, let's
go. We've only got an estimate of how long this will take. It could
take us twice that."

"Good thing it's a nice day for a hike."
A grinning Stephen walked past with his camera in hand.

Jade and Meg watched until the men disappeared from
sight. Meg had the foresight to speak to the police before they took
off; she got their contact information in case the three men didn't
show up as planned. After they were left alone, Jade hopped into Dr.
Mike's SUV. Meg fired up the other SUV and led the way back.

Maybe this day would turn out to have a happy ending
after all.

Dane watched his brother pace from the living room
into the kitchen and back again. He let him do it a couple more times
before deciding that maybe he'd worked off enough energy to be able
to talk.

"What's going through your head?"

John spun around and looked at him, his face flushed
with temper.

Good, he'd get this out, one way or another, and if
they had to resort to fists like old times, well then that's what they
would do. Dane stood and shifted his weight to the balls of his feet.

"What's going through my head? What's not going
through my head? My child is dead for starters. My wife is out of her
mind; my brother-in-law is in a coma and my crazy father-in-law is missing.
Other than that, not much." His sarcastic voice added, "What
the fuck do you think?"

"That's about what I figured."

John gave him a look of absolute disgust before storming
out the kitchen door. Dane stayed behind but kept an eye on him. John's
life had flushed down the toilet and there wasn't much either one of
them could do about it. Still, he didn't want John to do anything stupid.

Dane decided he'd check on Peppe's cabin again. Maybe
he could get John to walk that way too.

"Let's see if Peppe came back."

John threw up his hands. "Fine let's go check
on the crazy one. Then I want to go back to the hospital. See how Tasha
is."

Dane nodded. He didn't think there'd be any change
but didn't want to mention that. Temper was better than depression.
Some seriously hard questions would need to be addressed soon, though.

Together they strode over to Peppe's cabin. The door
was closed. Like they'd left it.

John pushed open the door. Dane stayed well back until
the interior had freshened slightly with the open door.

"Peppe? Are you in here?"

There was no answer.