Two of a Kind (33 page)

“You know Ford Hendrix, right?”

“What?” She opened her eyes. “Sure. For a long time. He’s friends with Justice. A SEAL, but we don’t hold that against him.”

“You ever date him?”

“No. Ford falls into the brother category. Not as much as Justice, but close. His mother’s trying to find him a wife. I don’t think he’s excited about the prospect.”

“So if he wanted to go out with you, you wouldn’t be interested?”

Surprise added to alertness. “No. What a strange question. Ford and I are friends.” The only man she could imagine herself being with was Gideon. The thought of trying to be intimate with someone else made her uncomfortable.

Pair bonding, she thought. She’d bonded. She wasn’t sure that was the same as love, but it was a step on the road. Another sign of normal, she thought happily. If only she could figure out his feelings for her.

“Do you think we should get Carter a dog? A couple of people mentioned it today.”

“There are many reasons to have a dog in the family. They teach responsibility and demonstrate loyalty. Does Carter want a dog?”

“He said he did.”

“Do you?”

“I’m not sure.”

They arrived at the house. He parked in front. She climbed out of her side and started toward the house.

The night was dark and still. In the distance, she heard the soft hoot of an owl.

“There aren’t any lights on in the house,” she said as Gideon unlocked the door. “What time was Kent dropping off Carter?”

“Around nine. That’s what Carter said. Maybe he went to bed already.”

“He never has before. He always waits up.”

But he wasn’t in the living room. Felicia found herself coming completely awake as irrational panic swept through her.

“Carter?” she called as she hurried to his bedroom.

“He’s not in the media room,” Gideon yelled from downstairs.

He wasn’t in his bedroom, either, but he’d left a note on his desk.

Gideon and Felicia—I’ve run away. I’m out alone in the world. It’s a dangerous place. Who knows what could happen to a kid my age. You should probably come find me.
CHAPTER NINETEEN

IT TOOK THE Fool’s Gold police department less than an hour to set up a command station. While Gideon waited for Ford, Angel and Justice to arrive, Felicia moved her computer into the dining room. The police might technically be in charge, but she was going to be running the show.

She had trouble with her computer. Something was wrong with the keys. They weren’t responding. It took her a second to realize she was shaking so hard, she wasn’t pressing them right. Then she sank down in a chair and covered her face with her hands.

She couldn’t do this, she thought as panic and helplessness wrestled for control. Couldn’t not know, couldn’t feel these feelings. All around her police officers spoke on cell phones and called out instructions, and all she could think was that Carter had run away.

Had she done something wrong? The question repeated itself over and over in her brain. She waited for some logical response or a pithy phrase in Latin. Instead there was only fear and the knowledge that if it would bring him home, she would gladly cut out her own heart and offer it to whomever was interested.

Someone pulled her hands away from her face.

“They’re ten minutes out,” Gideon said, his expression tense and determined as he crouched in front of her.

“Justice and the guys?”

“Yeah. They’re who I’d want on my team.”

He was trying to make her feel better. She wished it could work. “We need to find him.”

He straightened. “We will. I’m going to call in a heat-seeking helicopter.”

Not the technical term for the cameras that were sensitive enough to differentiate various temperatures from hundreds of feet in the air, but she got the point.

“Maybe later. First, we should start by searching the old-fashioned way.” Mayor Marsha walked over to them. She took Felicia’s hand and squeezed her fingers. “I know this is hard for both of you.”

“He ran away,” Felicia said, still trying to believe the words. “He ran away because I did something wrong.”

“While it would be easy for you to blame yourself, I doubt either of you are at fault,” the mayor told her. “Let’s think about this from Carter’s point of view. He’s a thirteen-year-old boy who’s had his life turned upside down. A year ago he lost his mother. Three months ago, his living situation dissolved and he knew he was going to be thrust into the foster care system. He had to find his father, make his way to Fool’s Gold, all on his own, and start over. A lot for anyone, but for a young man of his age?”

Felicia nodded. “You’re right. But he did it. All of it.” She looked at Gideon. “He’s so strong. I think he gets that from you.”

Gideon raised his hands and took a step back. “Do we have to talk about that now?”

“No. You’re right. We have to find Carter.”

“Did he take his bike?” Mayor Marsha asked.

Gideon shook his head. “It’s still in the garage with the other two.”

“Well, then, he’s traveling on foot.” The older woman smiled and released Felicia’s hand. “He can’t have gotten far.”

“Unless he got in a car with someone.” Felicia pressed her hand to her mouth. “What if he’s been abducted?”

“He left a note saying he ran away,” Gideon reminded her. “He wasn’t abducted.”

“I agree.” The older woman drew in a breath. “Boys do love to explore. There are so many trails in the mountains. Caves and old shacks. We have a lot of ground to cover. I’ve already put a call in to Max Thurman. Two of his older service dogs used to work for the DEA. They’re trained to find items based on scent. I wonder if they could help locate Carter.” She sighed. “We really need an organized Search and Rescue operation in this town. I’ll have to put that on the budget agenda for next year. But first things first. Let’s find your boy.”

The front door opened and Justice, Angel and Ford walked in. They were dressed in black and carrying backpacks. Felicia raced to Justice, who pulled her close.

“We’ll find him,” he said. “I promise.”

“I want to believe you,” she admitted. “I’ve never looked for a child. I’m not sure where to start first.”

Patience stepped into the house and hurried to Felicia. “We start by calling his friends and talking to their parents.”

“I’ve done that,” Felicia said, relieved she hadn’t wasted time with a useless task. “I spoke to all of them except for Kent. He didn’t answer his cell. I left a message for him, and none of the other parents have seen Carter.” She bit her lower lip. “Why would he do this?”

“That’s for later,” Patience said firmly, leading her back to the dining room. “First we have to find him.”

Felicia nodded, even as she fought tears.

More police officers arrived, along with a few state troopers. They started to divide everyone up into teams. Police Chief Barns pointed at Felicia. “You’ll be staying here.”

“No way,” Gideon said, before Felicia could say anything. “She’s coming with me. She’s as capable as anyone here, and she knows Carter the best.”

“Thank you,” she told him.

He put his arm around her shoulders. “I know you’re scared. I’m scared, too. When we find him, I’m locking him in a shed until he’s eighteen.”

She managed a slight smile. “I wish we could.”

Gideon’s jaw clenched. “Damn kid. Fine. I’ll admit the shed is a little extreme, but he’s going to be grounded or something. This is irresponsible.”

“I know. That’s what confuses me. He’s mature most of the time. I wish I understood what was going on.”

The front door flew open, and Kent Hendrix stormed in. “Where is he? Where’s my son?”

Felicia’s stomach churned harder and faster. “He’s not at home?”

“He left me a note that he was staying here tonight. Reese’s been over here a couple of times, so I didn’t think anything of it. Until I got your message.”

Ford crossed to his brother. “Reese is missing, too?”

Police Chief Barns groaned. “All right, people,” she said to her team. “We’re looking for two boys and they could be anywhere.”

* * *

“THEY’RE ON THE move,” Carter said, watching the screen on his laptop. It had taken him some doing, but he’d managed to tap into the GPS on Felicia’s cell phone a few days before and could now track her.

They were stretched out in sleeping bags in the caves on the Castle Ranch. They had lanterns, a cooler, an extra battery for the laptop and a portable Wi-Fi hot spot. The challenge was staying close enough to the front of the caves to get a signal, but far enough back so they weren’t detected.

Fortunately, the only person who came into the caves was Heidi Stryker. She used the caves to age her goat cheese. But according to Reese, she only checked every couple of days, and the space she used was on the other side of the opening. To avoid her, they’d gone north instead of south at the fork.

Reese rolled onto his back and grabbed a fruit snack. He opened the package and tore off a strip. “How much trouble are we going to be in, you think?”

“Tons,” Carter said, watching the small red dot moving on the screen. “You heard the police scanner. Half the town has turned out to look for us.”

“Wicked!”

“You didn’t have to do this,” Carter reminded his friend. “You could have stayed home.”

“And let you have all the fun? No way. Plus, once you get Gideon and Felicia married, I’ll know you’re staying around permanently. High school in two years, my friend. Then we get all the girls.”

They bumped fists, then wiggled their fingers.

* * *

THE SEARCH PARTIES all started from Pyrite Park. A member of CDS was part of every team. Consuelo had joined them, giving them one more professional to help the townspeople. Gideon didn’t know what to think about the sheer number of people who had turned out to aid in the search. Even Eddie and Gladys had come along to find the boys.

People he didn’t know kept coming up to him and patting him on the back as they promised they would find the missing kids. He felt numb—almost disconnected. The attention was uncomfortable but necessary, he reminded himself. They had to get Carter back.

He couldn’t figure out why the kid had done it. Sure, there’d been some adjustments, but he would have sworn things had been going okay. Carter knew Gideon was his father and that he wasn’t going anywhere. Felicia made everything feel like a family event. What more did Carter want?

“We’re going to walk a grid,” Police Chief Barns said through a megaphone. “There are a few outlying areas we want to check, as well. Up the road by Gideon’s house. Justice, you take your team there. Also, the summer camp. Consuelo, can you go there? Make sure a parent with a kid in the camp is on the team.”

Gideon paced, waiting for them to be assigned. He kept having the nagging sense of missing something. That the
why
of it all was right in front of him, if only he could see it.

“You should go check out the caves by the Castle Ranch,” Mayor Marsha told Felicia. “If I were a boy, that’s where I’d go.”

“Caves?” Felicia’s voice rose in pitch. “That sounds dangerous.”

“These are shallow. Heidi uses them to age her cheese, but only a few. They’re safe enough—we had lots of people in them last year for...” She pressed her lips together. “That’s not important. You two go ahead. I’ll tell Alice.”

“I’ll come, too,” Kent said grimly.

Gideon grabbed Felicia’s hand and pulled her to his truck. “That’s as good a place to start as any.” He needed to be moving, doing. Standing around accomplished nothing.

“I don’t want a random search,” Felicia said. “It’s late and I want to find him.”

While it wasn’t exactly cold in late August, there was still a slight chill in the air. What if Carter was scared? What if something had happened to him? What if he was hurt?

Gideon shook off the questions. He hadn’t been in the field in years, but he knew the drill. Stay focused. Felicia might have the brains in the operation but he had the experience.

“How can anyone survive this?” she asked, sliding into the passenger side and closing the door. “The not knowing. It’s horrible.”

“I’m telling you, a shed is the answer.”

Kent slammed the rear door. “I can tell you Reese isn’t going to see the light of day until he’s thirty-five.”

They drove out to the ranch.

When they got there, several people were waiting for them. Rafe Stryker had already collected flashlights. Heidi, his wife, showed them some rudimentary maps of the caves, done years ago.

“This is where I store my cheese,” she said, pointing. “I was just there this morning.”

“Carter hadn’t run away then,” Gideon told her. “He was at the festival.”

“See how the path splits,” Rafe told them. He traced the line on the map. “Heidi only goes south. There’s a whole maze of trails heading north. If the boys are in the caves, that’s where we’ll find them.”

Shane, Rafe’s brother, joined them. They walked past a barn and what Heidi identified as the goat house, then headed toward the opening to the caves. Everyone turned on their lights. Three minutes later, they reached the divide in the path. Heidi and Rafe went first.