“You should know,” Wyatt said over the headphones when they were airborne and over the ocean that separated Destruction Point from Homer, “that I’m still worried about you.”
From the seat beside him, she replied, “What happened to forgetting the other night?”
“Elsie.”
Her voice had been too lighthearted. Wyatt was surprised to realize he could read her emotions in her voice well enough to know that she was bothered, too. “What’s wrong?”
She frowned at him. “Nothing.” Then her shoulders sagged. “I’m not as focused as I’d like to be today. Having someone break into my house bothers me.”
“But there’s something else, isn’t there?” he asked, sensing there was more, while keeping his eyes on the sky ahead and his instruments.
“It’s a long story.”
“I have time.”
“It’s a fifteen-minute flight.”
She sounded like she wanted to confide in him, like she was talking herself out of it.
She sighed. “Let’s just say I’m concerned you might be right.”
“That someone is targeting you?”
“Yes, but like I said...concerned. Not certain.”
“Then you have no business taking this call. You’ll be completely exposed, out in the wilderness.”
“That won’t make me less safe than I would be at home.”
He didn’t have an answer to that one. Was she really just as comfortable in the woods as inside her cabin, though? He’d have to say probably yes, judging by the way she’d behaved in the middle of the night.
“What am I supposed to do with this?” Not long until landing. Wyatt didn’t have time to sort this out, and as soon as they landed he’d pick up the troopers, whom he was fairly certain Elsie wouldn’t want to talk in front of. Did that matter? Or should he force the issue? No, that didn’t sit well.
“I don’t know. I guess... I just wanted someone to know. Pray or something if you want. That’s what your sister would do.”
He pushed past the fact that she spoke about prayer in a strange way, like maybe she only half believed in it. “Have you talked to Lindsay about this?”
“I texted to tell her I was fine after I had texted her during the break-in. She was worried. I meant to talk to her on the phone, but never did.”
“But you didn’t tell her anything about your suspicions or the fact that it might not be random?”
Elsie shook her head.
“Good. Don’t.”
She frowned.
“If someone’s after you, and you keep ignoring it, you’re putting people around you in danger, too. I don’t want my sister involved in something dangerous.”
“I’m not putting anyone at risk on purpose, believe me.”
“It’s not your fault.”
“Sounds like you think it is.”
“Wait just a few minutes.” Wyatt blew out a breath, went through his pre-landing sequence and brought the plane down on the runway in Homer. He taxied and parked before turning to look at Elsie.
“I’m glad you told me.”
“But you said...”
“I just want you to be careful. I think you should keep this close to the vest right now unless you’re going to tell law enforcement. I don’t want to see any more people hurt or targeted.”
He watched as she seemed to internalize his words.
“Do you mind that I told you?”
“Of course not.”
Her gaze held his for a moment, then two.
“Okay. Thank you,” Elsie said, her voice a little out of breath, and Wyatt felt like he’d maybe passed some sort of unspoken test.
“You’re welcome. I have to meet the others. We’ll talk later?”
He didn’t wait for Elsie to agree, just climbed out of the plane and walked over to where the two troopers, both men, stood. He helped them load their gear—minimal, troopers knew better than to overpack for something like this—into the plane and then they were back in the air, on their way to the coordinates he’d been given.
As they drew closer, he noticed Elsie grow quieter. She’d been chatting with the troopers, about Willow and search and rescue and her recent save of a kid. Wyatt had read about that one in the paper.
Now she seemed uneasy. More so than before.
The ocean beneath them was angry, the waves dark and thick enough to see from the air. They were still half an hour out from the coordinates.
Wyatt glanced over at her. She was pressed to the window, looking down. Was her face paler than it had been a few minutes ago? As the pilot, his job was to get them safely to their destination, but he also felt responsible for his passengers’ well-being in general. Or that was what he told himself.
“You all right?”
She turned to him. Nodded. He wasn’t imagining things. She looked clammy.
“Are you sure—”
“Wyatt, please.” Her voice was pleading and he nodded once, then forced himself to focus his attention on the plane. Compartmentalize.
The two law enforcement officers in the rear seats continued to chat with each other, but Wyatt paid little attention. When it was finally time to land, it required all his focus to the point that he could no longer worry about Elsie or anything else. The sea was choppier than he preferred for water landings, but it was nothing outside his skill level. Easing the plane down, he made a fairly smooth landing and then brought the plane as close to the island as possible.
He managed to beach the plane on the shore in such a way that his passengers should be able to climb out the door, walk down the float and step directly onto sand instead of wading through water. He’d noticed that like any practical Alaskan, Elsie was wearing Xtratuf boots, brown fishing boots that came high up the calf and were all-purpose wear up here. She’d be fine even if she had to step in a little bit of water.
They all scrabbled out, and he stood by the plane and watched as the troopers briefed her on the situation. Elsie still looked unsettled, but he believed in her ability to find the missing person. It was clear that Elsie’s dog was special. Hopefully they would be able to find whoever it was. Elsie could take care of them, he was sure of it.
But who was going to take care of Elsie?
The question sneaked in uninvited, but he still wondered at the answer.
When the troopers walked higher on the shore and she turned to look at him, he motioned her closer.
“What do you need?” she asked, looking up at him in a way that made him wish he were a better man.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Why?”
“Your face...your expression...”
“Oh.” She looked away. “It’s just this place.”
“Not a fan of remote islands?”
“Not ones around here.”
She met his eyes again, held his gaze and shook her head slowly. As she did, understanding started to dawn, and Wyatt felt his stomach waver uneasily.
“It was an island not far from here where I was left as a kid.”
“As a kid?”
“A three-year-old.” She swallowed hard and Wyatt thought her eyes might be shining with unshed tears.
He couldn’t imagine being alone at three, even inside a house. But here? In the untamed Alaskan wilderness that had claimed more than one adult life?
It was hard not to imagine a three-year-old version of Elsie, alone, scared.
“And there happens to be a missing person here now?” He raised his eyebrows.
“I know.” Elsie shook her head. “When I knew where we were heading, I wondered.”
“What if it’s a trap?”
“What if it’s not? I can’t leave someone here. Lost people need to be found, Wyatt. Someone has to do it.”
Couldn’t someone else, though? As though she heard his thoughts, Elsie shook her head. And he understood—no one else around did K-9 search and rescue, and in rugged terrain like this, having a dog to help search was a huge advantage.
Still, anxiety wouldn’t release its grip on him. “Let me help you. Please.”
She seemed to be considering him. Studying him. What did she see?
“Okay.”
Okay?
“I could use another searcher. Willow is the star of the show here. I read her cues and help her know what areas to search. I could use someone else with me. It’s better to be in pairs and those guys were just telling me that they had planned to stay together. If we split up, we will be more efficient, but I’m not eager to be alone here.”
Honest. Vulnerable.
“Whatever you need. I want to help.”
“Thank you.”
Any man who could listen to her insist she didn’t need his help and then graciously offer it when it became apparent that she did need it couldn’t be too bad.
Elsie reached down and petted Willow, took a deep breath. She was distracted today, too in her own head and her own past to go through the motions like she usually did. She felt out of the cone, and not sure how to get herself mentally back to where she wanted to be.
Desperate, she closed her eyes, took a couple of breaths and tried to let them out slowly.
Nothing to do now but focus on what needed to be done. The thought of someone dying because she had been distracted was unacceptable to her. They were counting on her to find them.
She wondered if the troopers would have asked for her and Willow’s help if they’d known that this was so close to the island where she’d been abandoned as a kid.
Who had abandoned her was still a major question. Foul play had to have been involved somewhere, especially in the absence of a missing-person report that could have shed light on her identity. But it all remained a mystery.
“Ready?” she made herself turn to Willow and ask, desperate to move past this.
Willow looked up at her, ice blue eyes focused.
“That’s my girl,” Elsie said with a smile and a small laugh. There was something reassuring in knowing that Willow was ready to work, even if her handler was struggling today. She had to do her best for the dog. It was amazing to Elsie how when people and dogs worked together, the humans were usually the weak link. The dogs knew what they were doing and did their jobs well.
She gave Willow the command to search and the dog ran ahead of her, though Elsie knew she wouldn’t go far. She and Wyatt would trail, waiting and hoping for Willow to pick up a scent.
“How will she know who to search for?”
“She won’t this time,” Elsie answered as they moved onto higher ground, trading the dark gray rocks of the coastal beach for the larger rocks and grassy area that made up the higher part of the shore. Willow had already headed into the woods, and they followed her. “I gave her instructions to search for any humans at all, since as far as we know, the four of us and whoever’s missing are the only people on this island.”
“Won’t she just find the troopers?”
Elsie shrugged. “She may. But without a strong scent item from the missing person, this is the best option.”
“They didn’t have anything for you?”
Elsie shook her head. “No.” She hadn’t been told much about the person they were searching for, which wasn’t her preference. While the dog was the strongest member of any K-9 search and rescue team, Elsie was also a valuable member. Her human brain could synthesize information that Willow’s couldn’t, and Elsie took pride in the number of trainings she’d attended. She always wanted to learn and work better.
Without more information on the victim, she couldn’t make a very good profile to help her search more intelligently. She’d have to talk to the troopers later and get more information. For now, she just knew the missing person was a female in her midtwenties. She and a friend had come to the island to hike and became separated. Only the friend had made it back to town and had reported the other woman missing. There would be a record of her name and presence on the island, at least, even if the friend hadn’t made it back. Because of its remote location and the fact that it was owned by the forest service, they kept a log of all visitors.
It was an isolated place to hike, but Elsie knew that Midnight Ridge, the mountain that made up the high point of the island, was a destination for some hikers who wanted an incredible view.
They and the missing woman should be the only ones here. At least legally. They continued through the woods, Elsie watching the ground under her feet, the thick trees around her, for any sign that someone else had been here recently.
“So what made you want to work with search dogs?” Wyatt asked, apparently trying to start a conversation.
“I’m a little busy right now. No time for that.” Elsie blew out a breath of frustration. Didn’t he realize she was working?
“So what do you do right now? I thought you just followed Willow.”
He got points for remembering her dog’s name, she would give him that.
“I’m observing, trying to see evidence someone may have left behind. Watching Willow’s behavior... She has an alert bark when she’s found what she’s looking for, and I like to pay attention to her overall attitude and see what I can read from that.”
“Like what?”
It was harder for her to explain than she would have thought, and for a moment Elsie almost wished she were alone. Then she remembered that she had been alone on an island like this once, and that someone might be after her now.
Willow was following some kind of scent trail, made by either a hiker or game, rather than just blazing through the woods. That implied to Elsie that their missing hiker may have come this way.
She needed to ask the troopers for more information about the missing woman if the search lasted longer than today, which her gut was telling her would be the case.
Willow’s ears perked suddenly, and Elsie’s vision tunneled in on the dog. Willow looked to the left, ran off at a sprint.
“She’s got something!” Elsie tossed the explanation behind her and took off at a run behind her dog, not looking back to see if Wyatt followed. The job took first priority, and she couldn’t afford to ask Willow to slow down. Any number of things, even a shift in the wind, could make the dog lose the trail.
They hadn’t been hiking for long. The chances of the missing person being this close to the edge of the woods didn’t seem likely to Elsie, but she could be wrong. Willow had probably caught a heavy patch of scent, and it would still take some determination and patience to reach where the missing person actually was.
Willow stopped. Elsie stopped, too, then crept slowly toward the dog.
A low growl echoed from Willow’s throat.
Elsie’s heartbeat caught in her chest. This shouldn’t be happening. Willow was trained to find people, and search dogs typically displayed enthusiasm and joy when they’d succeeded. Chills chased down Elsie’s spine.
She looked back.
No Wyatt. She slowed her breathing to try to fight back the panic. Surely he couldn’t be far behind her.
Willow was one of the only constants in her life. A source of reassurance. But as much as Willow usually made Elsie feel better, the dog’s reaction was scaring her now.
She and Willow were not alone here. Someone was close.
And not, Elsie thought, the person they’d been searching for.
“Willow, no,” Elsie whispered to the dog, who paused her growling but continued to stare into the woods, looking like she was ready to defend them both.
Elsie ran through the list of things that could make her act this way. Animal? Possibly a moose or bear. But Willow had insisted they come this way, which implied that she’d caught the scent of...
Anyone. She’d asked her to search for people.
The searchers and the missing woman were not the only people on this island, Elsie was confident of it.
“I told you to stop hiding. You can’t run from the past forever.”
The voice from the other night. Her past... A gunshot split the air.
Elsie’s head jerked to the right. “Willow, come!”
The dog sprang toward her, and together they took off at a sprint, back the way they’d come.
She should have told Wyatt about the voice.
It was a strange thing to think about as she sprinted through the woods, mindful of the roots that tangled in the soil underfoot, trying to make sure she stayed upright. But she should have trusted him more.
She shouldn’t have gotten herself into this situation. How many times had she been frustrated by the willful ignorance of some people? People skied in avalanche conditions, likely telling themselves they were safe, and had to be rescued or, worse, recovered by search teams.
And now she’d done the same thing. Whoever had been in her cabin a few nights ago was after her. She’d been foolish to ignore the obvious threat.
Wyatt had been right.
Imagine, Wyatt being more responsible than Elsie was. How the world had changed.
She owed him an apology, if she made it back safely.
That and the whole truth.