Jay
Jay grabbed his boots and put them on before hoisting his pack onto a shoulder. At least Nick remembered to grab his gear before heading down to the festival. How could this have happened? In all the years he’d been alive, Jay had never heard of a person getting lost during the festival.
A deep, weighted sigh escaped his lips as he shoved his hands into a pair of gloves. Penelope appeared determined, but he caught the tension in her shoulders, how she went quiet after asking a question a more experienced person would have known the answer to. As much as he’d like to argue she wasn’t ready, what handler ever was.
That’s why he was going out with her. The last thing he wanted was for Penelope to get hurt out there. She didn’t know the woods like he did. Especially not at night.
Speaking of. “Scottie, grab your rifle. You’re coming with Penelope and me.”
“Sure thing.”
Jay headed into the tent and grabbed a radio and map of the section they were going to cover. When he exited, Penelope was standing there waiting. She held out her hand. “Mind if I take a look at the map?”
Jay sidled up next to her. “We have this area right here.”
Penelope angled her head, finger running along the contour lines on the paper. “This area is very steep.”
“Wouldn’t let Havoc get too close. Especially if the ground is muddy. But I think we’d better run along this direction, check the drainage. If Matthew slipped into there, he’s small enough it might be difficult for him to get out.”
Penelope lifted her head and turned around in a slow three sixty before looking at the map once more. “Wind here seems to be coming from the northeast. What if we head in off this road here.”
“Wind might be changing a bit. Let’s get closer to the area first. Plus, I think if he might have headed toward the stables, better to enter off of Hallows Road.”
Just then Scottie walked over. “Ready.”
Penelope’s brows furrowed. “Oh, didn’t know you were joining us.”
Jay cleared his throat. Some dangers she wasn’t aware of, not being from the area, and another reason he was skeptical about activating her. “We have moose and bear in the area. Both are a danger. Havoc better have a spot-on recall. A bear might flee, but a moose will fight back.”
“His GPS collar also has an electrical and sound component, so if I need to get his attention, I’m equipped.”
Jay tucked the map into his pocket, and they all headed toward Penelope’s SUV. They climbed in just as it started to drizzle. Jay clenched his fingers into a tight fist. No, no, no. The situation was getting worse. Cold was one thing, but being wet and cold was quite another. They needed to find Matthew.
“Lots of volunteers to help search. The party supply store donated whistles and another handed out water bottles. Got some for the hike,” Scottie said.
“Oh, crap.” Penelope tapped her steering wheel. “I should’ve made sure you had gear and supplies before we left.”
Jay smirked. He’d forgotten to do the same thing on his very first search. Told the two officers with him they were on their own, his water was for Zip and himself. Luckily, the search was over pretty quick. Another team had located the missing hunter. “Think he was going to have most of them do a grid search of the close-by areas. Maybe have Eric and Brent lead a team on the east end in the wooded areas along the hayride trail.”
He pulled out his phone and typed a quick message to Nick. A few seconds later, a response came through. “No update on point last seen. Matthew didn’t appear on anyone’s doorbell camera.”
A stressful silence filled the SUV until they pulled up along the shoulder near the intersection of the road leading to the stables. It was the perfect area to enter the woods at—two defined borders and the brush wasn’t too extensive. Penelope exited the Audi and walked ahead a few feet before pulling out the bottle of powder and spraying it into the air. Sure enough, the wind had shifted. Not that there was much of a breeze anyway. Havoc would have his work cut out for him.
Jay and Scottie stepped out into the cascading rain. Shit. The hills, while ominous at night, could become close to deadly with the wet ground. One slip and, depending how a person fell, could end up with someone’s head hitting a rock or tree trunk.
Jay grabbed his pack, pulled out his headlamp, and placed it on his head. Scottie did the same. Even with an insulated coat that was both wind and waterproof, Jay began to shiver. The air was already several degrees cooler from when they left. “Penelope, is Havoc ready? We need to move and fast.”
She opened the rear door and let Havoc out, the dog already outfitted with his GPS collar and search vest. Penelope took a moment to attach two blue chemical light sticks to the D-rings on either side of the vest. Then she put on her own headlamp, grabbed her pack, then closed and locked the vehicle. “Ready.”
Jay nodded and the three of them walked up to the corner of the intersection and stepped into the forest. Being in the woods at night was disorienting for an adult, much less a child. Jay couldn’t imagine where Matthew might actually be. They could end up in a completely wrong area, especially since the boy wasn’t familiar with the area.
He groaned, the sound covered by the heavy rain hitting the canopy of leaves above them. While the sense of sight was pretty much useless except for the areas illuminated by their headlamps, hearing also became less effective because of the rain. This was one of the worst scenarios for Penelope to be out on for the first time.
For him to be out on the first time.
He steeled himself before the train of thought progressed any further.
Penelope stopped and looked over her shoulder at Jay. “Hopefully, this won’t turn into a full-out downpour, otherwise Havoc won’t be able to work.”
Scottie looked between the two of them. “Why? Dog have an injury or something?”
Jay chuckled when he caught Penelope roll her eyes. “No, when the rain is too heavy, they can’t pick up a scent.”
Penelope leaned over, grabbed her dog’s harness, and unhooked his lead. She swatted his flank and released as she commanded, “Go find.”
The dog took off like a bullet, moments later circling back. After five minutes or so, he seemed to fall into a steady pace. Jay would’ve slowed the dog down at the beginning, made sure Havoc didn’t miss catching scent.
Fifteen minutes passed with no signs or clues the boy had been in the area. Their pace was slow due to the hazards the weather created. Jay clicked on the radio to check in and turned just as Scottie tripped. He reached out to help the deputy regain his footing. The narrow deer path they were on was riddled with knotted roots and large stones. He glanced up toward Penelope, who was carefully picking her way through thicker brush up ahead. “Watch your footing.”
She nodded in acknowledgement. Penelope walked on the skinny path while he and Scottie flanked twenty-five meters to the right and left of her. The thumping of his heart grew louder in his ears the more he noticed about Penelope’s behavior while actually on a search. He’d never seen her so focused, nor so willing to take directives from him. Even keeping control when he knew she was nervous.
He cleared his throat. “You’re doing great. Just keep making sure to check for clues at all angles.”
She turned over her shoulder, offering a forced smile. “Okay.”
“First time is nerve-racking. Between the adrenaline and being in a real situation where it counts makes it easy for self-doubt to creep in. But Scottie and I have your back.”
Penelope stopped and turned to him, then to Scottie. “Oh, thank God. I’m a ball of anxiety right now.”
Scottie snorted. “You’re not the only one. Think I like being out here?”
Jay shook his head. Scottie was never one for going camping or hiking. He preferred staying close to civilization. He turned his attention back to Penelope. “Just take a deep breath and let your dog do his job. He’s smart. You both are.”
Jay noticed how Penelope stood taller as she spun around and started walking once again. If only he could chase his own fears away. At least he was able to keep them at bay.
For the next half hour, the only noise heard came from the rain and the radio as different teams checked in with base. No one had found Matthew yet.
Havoc weaved from side to side, coming and going out of sight as they called out the boy’s name. When he checked with Penelope, Havoc was ranging about two hundred and fifty meters from them.
Jay was impressed.
Zip ranged farther but ran in a circular pattern rather than weaving to look for a scent cone. He knew better than to compare the two dogs. Just because they worked differently didn’t mean one way was more or less effective. Hell, he even knew some dogs that didn’t range very far until they came into scent.
But he still worried, for Havoc. And for Penelope. The dog wasn’t familiar with the area and Jay wasn’t sure how much experience the dog had with running in steep terrain at night while it was raining. Havoc could easily get injured to the point he’d need to retire. Or worse. His stomach flipped, bile crawling up the back of his throat. No. He didn’t want to go there. Not now. Not ever. He never wanted Penelope to experience the pain of loss the way he had when Zip died.
He stopped in his tracks, his breath coming in shallow spurts, the bile crawling farther up his throat as his chest tightened to the point he bent over and placed his hands on his knees. Fuck his idea that Penelope wasn’t ready. Maybe he wasn’t.
“Jay, you all right?” Scottie’s voice made its way through the pounding in his ears.
When he stood back up, everyone was looking at him. He forced in a deep exhale and let it out slowly. “Yeah, let’s go.”
“Actually, I have to break Havoc.” Penelope held a whistle to her lips and blew. Moments later the shepherd came bounding over.
Under the canopy of a nearby tree, the group took a break. The dog lay down and drank some water while Jay checked in with base to let them know everything was okay. He pulled out the map and compared it to the GPS.
Penelope leaned in. “We could cut across more instead of being on the trail or to each side. What’s the brush like?”
“Pretty thick in some areas. But Havoc seems to be covering the area pretty well. Maybe we can spread out more, increase to one hundred meters from each other.”
Both Penelope and Scottie nodded.
He took the few remaining minutes to get his emotions in check. It wouldn’t help anyone if he fell apart. But the longer the search went on, the larger the knot in his stomach grew.
When their ten-minute break was up, Penelope cast Havoc off and they continued on their search. They continued in the same pattern for the next two hours, and as the time passed, Jay began to feel more comfortable being out in the woods, realizing how much he missed being on a search.
Only one issue.
The temperature had dipped below forty degrees and Matthew was still lost.
Time and Mother Nature were working against them. If the boy wasn’t found soon, the probability of him being discovered alive was shrinking.