Roger felt the policeman’s eyes burning into his back as he walked over to Ian. “He didn’t say it, he didn’t have to, but he clearly thinks I’ve done some harm to Electra and Emily.”
“Can you blame him?” Ian asked.
Roger could only shake his head at the logical suspicion. Anyone hearing the story would think the worst. Two women in his company simply disappear and he had no information to offer as to why, or how it happened, or where they went.
Terry Crippen left his crying wife, Janet, and came over. A dignified country gentleman with close-cut gray hair and piercing blue eyes, he stood almost nose-to-nose with Roger.
“Janet and I have accepted you into our family like a son. But should it come to light that you are responsible for any injury to my daughters, I will do to you what was done to them. My dear wife hasn’t a strong heart. If her condition suffers because of something you’ve done, trust that it will not go unaddressed.”
“I swear to you on my very soul, I did nothing to bring their disappearance about and am as mystified as you over this.” Roger pulled the engagement ring from his pocket. “Terry, I love Electra. I thought that was apparent.” He opened the box. “I planned on proposing to her today.”
“I would find more consolation in that, if men and women didn’t kill the ones they love with some frequency.”
Roger put the box back in his pocket. “I told you I lost my young son many years ago. I told you I somehow lived through it. But I thought you understood that I will never get over it, ever. You never get over the loss of a child. Believe me, I wouldn’t wish that agony on my worst enemy. Surely you know that.”
Terry stood silent for a moment. Roger thought he was weighing the anguish Roger had shared with him against the fear Electra and Emily might’ve met the same dark fate. One Roger might’ve perpetrated. “I want to believe you.”
“Is there anything more I can say to reassure you and Janet?”
Terry looked over at his wife, wiping her eyes with a shaky hand. “No.”
Two police canine units and four additional officers had arrived and joined the two who responded to Roger’s distressed call. The lead officer, the one who had interviewed Roger, deployed them so they could conduct a grid search, on foot. The canine details would man each flank. Janet had provided scarves from each woman for the dogs to scent key on.
Terry and Janet told the officer they wished to be part of the search. The officer agreed and they joined the men working the grid.
Roger turned to Ian. “You believe me, don’t you? Improbable as it sounds, they truly vanished. I can’t offer a reason. There’s a term people of this time use–otherworldly. It’s like something otherworldly has happened to them.”
“I do believe you, but unlike most here, I’ve been party to some highly unusual occurrences in my life...or rather, lifetimes,” he corrected himself.
Roger watched Terry Crippen consoling his sobbing wife. Her shoulders continued to violently shake. Pain and anguish deafens one to soft words, as he well knew. “I need to join the search. I can cover a lot of ground on Conquerant. You say Owen and his son are coming from the stable to take the other two horses?”
“He should be here shortly,” Ian said. “You might not want to go too far. Alex is en route and he told me he needed to speak with you, urgently.”
“I think the search is far more important than anything he has to talk about now.”
Ian’s brows lifted a notch. “If he is going to tell you what I suspect he plans to, you need to hear him out.”
“What will the police and Terry think if I don’t go with them right away?”
“Frankly, they can’t think much worse of you at the moment. A few minutes delay in going with them won’t make things much worse.”
Roger grunted his agreement. But he couldn’t stand by any longer waiting for Alex, listening to the search party beat the shrubbery. The canine officers and their dogs were already out of sight. The rest of the officers would be in a couple of minutes.
“Tell Alex I’ll speak to him later. I have to go,” he said and started toward Conquerant.
“Roger—” Esme, Electra’s younger sister, called out.
She and her husband Stephen and his seeing-eye dog, Sammy, stepped around the messy remains of what was supposed to be a picnic. He and Stephen were once mortal enemies. Now Stephen was his employer and closest friend.
“Hi, thank you for coming but you needn’t have. We have a large contingent here, including canine units.” Stephen was a proud man and strove to be independent. Roger didn’t want to deny him the opportunity to lend a hand, but how much help could a blind man lend?
“Don’t be silly. They’re my sisters. Of course, we’re going to help. We’ve no intention of sitting home at a time like this. Sammy is smart as a whip, he’s familiar with Electra’s and Emily’s scent, and he’s as strong a nose as the coppers dogs,” Stephen said.
“I don’t doubt it.” Roger took Esme by the elbow and led her away a few feet, out of earshot of Stephen. “I know he means well and I really appreciate the offer, but we must be realistic. We need eyes to look for clues.”
“Not to worry. In addition to Sammy, you know we ride in these woods all the time. I’ll be his eyes as we hunt on foot.”
Stephen came to where they stood whispering. “I have four of five senses, which is more than enough to aid in searching..including keen hearing.”
“I wasn’t trying to insult you,” Roger said. “I’d love your help.”
“Where do you want us to start?” Ian asked, joining them. Roger hadn’t seen him arrive and was surprised to see him. He’d met Ian only a few times. He was an old friend of Stephen’s from his days as a knight. Ian and Alex had also come forward in time but under different circumstances than Roger and Stephen.
The woods between the picnic area and the ruin had the thinnest forest growth and would be best for Stephen to walk. “Toward the ruin,” Roger told her.