As I drove to the camp I grew even more certain I had to help find Amber. If I didn’t, I knew she would die. I had no idea how I knew. I just did. I had never been surer of anything in my life.
The search-and-rescue base camp was set up at the foot of Little Mountain. The mobile command unit was an old school bus painted white. From that bus, Matt Holden planned the search and told volunteers what to do.
I knocked lightly on the bus door, and Matt opened it. He seemed even taller than usual, staring down at me from the top of those stairs. He wore work boots and his orange search-and-rescue gear. I felt ridiculous coming to this camp in my miniskirt and heels.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Matt demanded.
Hello to you too, I thought as I climbed into the bus. When we’d first met, I had hoped Matt would ask me out. I liked his honest, frank manner, not to mention his rugged good looks. He was fair-haired and muscular. My mother called him “the Viking.”
However, I’d quickly realized he didn’t much like me. More to the point, he didn’t like reporters.
“I saw the chief at a car fire just now,” I said. “He told me Amber Miller is missing.”
“Ambulance chasing again, were you?” Matt asked.
“Actually, I was on my way to dinner,” I said. “I just happened on the accident.”
That wasn’t quite true, of course. I had followed my intuition—my gut feeling—to that burning car. Matt didn’t need to know that. He would think I was as crazy as my mom.
“Out on a date, huh?” he said. He glanced down at my miniskirt. “That explains the getup.” He turned away as he continued talking, as if he was uncomfortable. “You’re seeing that firefighter now, right? Trevor Bragg.”
His question surprised me. Matt rarely asked about my personal life. Then again, before Trevor I didn’t have much of a life outside work. I hadn’t dated anyone in over a year.
I pulled my notepad from my camera bag. “I take it you haven’t found Amber yet?” I asked. “What time did she go missing?”
I was a reporter, just doing my job. I was also trying to figure out why I was here. I knew I had to help save Amber. But how was I supposed to do that?
Matt sighed, impatient with me. “I’ll email you a press release in the morning.”
“I’m here now,” I said. “Can’t you take a few minutes to fill me in?”
Matt scratched behind his ear. “Fine. Amber went jogging on these trails after lunch. She didn’t return. That’s her car over there. She was only wearing a light jacket, and we found that along the trail. Before she left, she told her mother she wouldn’t be out long.”
“Is her mother here?” I asked. “Can I talk to her?”
“I sent Helen home to get some rest.” Matt glanced at me sideways, like he knew what I was thinking. “Don’t call her on your cell. She’s scared out of her wits. The last thing she needs is some newspaper reporter asking a bunch of questions.”
“No, of course not,” I said. Although that was what I’d planned to do. “Do you think Amber is simply lost? Or was she kidnapped?”
“Kidnapped?”
I wrote on my notepad as I talked. “Is there any reason to believe someone took her?”
Matt eyed me. “Do you have any reason to believe that?”
“Well, no.” I stopped writing, wondering why I had asked. The question had just popped out of my mouth.
Matt leaned over a map of the wilderness trails. “Look, can we do this in the morning? As you can imagine, I’m a little busy at the moment.”
“May I at least take a picture of the jacket Amber was wearing? If she isn’t found tonight, we could run the photo in the paper. Maybe someone saw her in it.”
Matt thought a moment. “That may be useful,” he said. He pulled the jacket from a box and laid it on the table. “But I will find her tonight.” He sounded determined, but I also heard the worry in his voice. Amber had been missing for several hours, and the sun had just set.
“You can run her photo too,” he said. He handed me her high-school picture. Amber was a pretty girl, with long blond hair. Her skin was fair and her eyes were blue. She was taller than most girls her age. Her height made her a natural for basketball.
I tucked the photo into my camera bag. Then I turned to Amber’s jacket. The high-school basketball team crest was on the back. “Her team jacket,” I said, reaching for it.
“She plays center,” he said.
As soon as I held the jacket in my hands, I got the oddest sensation. I felt like I was going down a waterslide, inside one of those tubes. I was excited, but scared too. The feeling only lasted a moment.
Then, weirdly, I saw Amber. Her image was in the bus window in front of me, like she was on TV. I had a vision of her.
She was lying on the ground. Her hair was over her face. I saw bruises on her arm. She was several feet from the edge of a cliff.
As suddenly as the vision started, it was gone. Instead of Amber’s image, I saw my own face reflected in the bus window. My curly brown hair, my heart-shaped face, my brown eyes.
Mom had told me about her visions. What had just happened to me was like what she described. I never really believed her though. I thought she imagined things, or worse. I thought she might be losing her mind.
But I knew my vision was real. Amber was out there, lying injured on the cold ground. I had to find her.
For the first time in my adult life, I believed my mother was a remote viewer. She could reach out to distance places with her mind. Evidently, I could too.
The thought terrified me. I felt so woozy that I dropped Amber’s jacket and almost fell down myself.
“Whoa,” said Matt. He grabbed me. “Are you all right? Here, sit down.” He offered me a folding lawn chair.
“I’m fine,” I said. I sat down anyway. “I haven’t eaten since breakfast. I guess I’m hungrier than I thought.” I didn’t want to tell him what had really happened. He would think I was seeing things and going crazy.
“You better go meet Trevor for that dinner date then,” he said.
“Trevor!” I cried. “He’s been waiting in that restaurant all this time. Shit. I forgot all about him.”
Matt grinned and shook his head. “I won’t tell him you said that.”
“No, please don’t.”
“You better phone him,” said Matt. “I’ll grab a coffee and leave you to it.” He turned to get off the bus.
“Matt, wait,” I said. I paused. I knew I was about to embarrass myself in front of Matt and likely the whole town. Word got around quickly in this small community. Everyone would think I was as nutty as my mom.
I was also convinced that if I said nothing about my vision, Amber would be dead by morning.
I stood to face Matt, my hands shaking. He crossed his arms as he waited for me to say something. How could I explain? I didn’t really understand what was happening myself. Even so, I knew I had to try.
I took a deep breath and spit it out. “I think I know where Amber is,” I said.