The Lost and Found (38 page)

I’d been outside maybe five minutes when I saw headlights and heard the rumble of a motor. A tall, dark truck pulled into The Shack parking lot. It stopped about thirty feet from me in a pool of deep shadow. The passenger door opened and I felt my jaw clench. Charlene slipped out, and glancing around carefully, she walked up to me—sauntered was more like it. Her hips were swaying in her confidence; her green eyes were bright and focused on me.

As I watched her approach, with a little bit of resentment at her sexual appeal, my eyes flashed to her tattoo and I decided right then and there that I was going to finally get my tattoo. Why? Because I wanted one, and I was tired of putting it off. And even though Josiah had told me I was brave and he loved me just as I was, I suddenly wanted to do this. I was excited to tell him about it. Right now Charlene was just an irritating distraction that I wanted squashed. Like a mosquito.

“I have nothing to say to you, so just leave me alone,” I told her as she got closer. Charlene glanced over her shoulder at the driver of the pickup and grinned. I couldn’t see who she was looking at, the shadows were too dark and the windows were tinted.

“Oh honey, don’t be like that,” she said as she stopped right in front of me.

My eyes flitted again over her butterfly tat and I grinned a little in anticipation of my coming plans. She wasn’t leaving.

I decided to ignore her and pulled out my phone, hoping to see an update from Josiah — I wanted to tell him my idea. Tina was keeping a close eye on us and even though I wasn’t worried about Charlene at all, I knew that if I felt threatened I could just go inside.

“Why’d you come back here?” Charlene asked. Her voice dropped low and I detected a slight tremor in it. “You were gone and in the clear. Why’d you come back?”

“Sorry to spoil your plans, Charlene, but Josiah and I are together and there is nothing you can do to stop it. You
tried
. That won’t work again, so just go along with your little boy-toy there and leave us be.”

“You’re not safe here, Crimson. You need to leave. Now. Tonight.”

“
What
? What the heck are you even saying?”

“Listen to me, you stupid girl. You are not
safe
here. Leave.”

“Oh, so you can move in and try for Josiah again? I don’t think so.”

“This isn’t about Josiah or you. It’s about hi—” The driver of the truck suddenly laid on the horn, blaring it loudly. Charlene jumped, and for the briefest moment the look on her face seemed fearful. Then she took a deep breath and said, “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

She turned back around and headed to the truck. She’d barely climbed in before the driver peeled out, kicking up gravel and dust as they left.

I was still sitting there trying to figure out what had just happened, part of my mind thinking about what kind of tattoo I planned to get, and the other part wondering what Charlene’s purpose had been in coming here to talk to me, when Josiah pulled up. I waved at Tina to show her I was leaving then climbed into the GT. Josiah wasn’t happy that I’d been outside waiting for him — I could tell by the look on his face.

“Sorry, but it was such a nice night I thought it would be all right. And Tina was right there watching me the whole time. I was safe.”

Josiah clenched and unclenched his jaw several times, then rotated his neck to relieve the tension I knew he was feeling. “I’d appreciate it if you’d take extra care to be careful, Crimson. Please.”

“I am.”

“Sitting outside, alone, in the dark is not being careful.”

“Tina was right there. I was never out of her sight.”

“Yeah, I know. She called to say Charlene was here harassing you again. Were you going to tell me about it?”

I felt my heart plummet at that news. Of course he had Tina watching over me and keeping him informed as to how I was doing. That was why he’d pulled up so quickly. “Yes.”

“Yes? Yes, what? Yes, she was there, or yes, you were going to tell me?”

“Both. Charlene came by. We spoke. She made her threats, said I should’ve stayed gone, blah, blah, blah. I ignored her and told her to take a hike. I told her you were mine and I was ready to fight for you.”

Josiah groaned and chuckled dryly. “You told her you’d fight her?”

“Well, not in so many words, but I told her you were mine, we were together, and there was nothing she could do about it. It’s essentially the same thing.”

Josiah took my hand in his, lifting it to his lips and said, “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

“Was that all she said?”

“Pretty much.” I sighed, deciding not to mention that I almost felt like Charlene had been warning me. I wanted to be strong and brave, and most likely she was just messing with me, trying to shake me again. I didn’t want to give her that satisfaction. And besides, I planned on getting ink done. That was brave, right? Charlene didn’t matter. I was brave. And right now I was chickening out and not able to say the words to Josiah. So I quickly jumped to a safer subject. “Did you find Daisy?”

“No, not yet.”

“That’s odd. She’s never been gone like this before.”

“I know,” Josiah responded as we pulled into the ranch driveway. “Ethan’s pretty worried. We’re going out at first light to ride around and see if we can’t find her.”

“What do you think could’ve happened to her?”

“It’s hard to say. She could have run into coyotes, a cougar, a snake. She might have fallen into a pit or something, broken a leg, got snagged going across a creek…”

“I’d like to come along.”

“All right. You can be a part of the search. Do you want to drive or ride?”

“It doesn’t matter, I can do either.”

We left the ranch by 6:30 the next morning. Cullen and Mitchell, who were both sixteen and had permits, drove the ranch truck, and Josiah, myself, Ethan, Kelly, and Ryan rode the horses. Billy, Jack, and Dean stayed behind at the ranch to continue to search around the house, and to make sure someone was there in case Daisy wandered in by herself.

For three days we searched, with no sign of her. Josiah and I checked with our closest neighbors. Nothing. Ethan was heartbroken, and I was heartbroken for him. We couldn’t figure out what could have happened to her. Josiah thought it might be possible that a cougar had carried her off — we discussed that possibility in private, away from Ethan, not wanting to traumatize him any more than he already was. I was worried this heartache was too soon after the loss of our parents. Next month would be a year since they’d died. It was crazy that so much time had gone by, crazy to think how much had changed in our lives.

One week later, I woke up to the sound of someone pounding on my bedroom door. I sat up, confused by the sudden noise, and tried to blink the sleep from my eyes.

“Sage!” I recognized Kelly’s voice and jumped from bed, absently noting that the sun was just beginning to rise. I wrenched the door open and saw tears in Kelly’s eyes.

“What happened?” I asked, my heart lodging painfully in my throat.

“It’s Daisy. She’s back, but she’s hurt bad. Real bad.”

I grabbed a light sweatshirt from my bed and followed him down to the kitchen. Ethan was seated on the floor, holding Daisy in his arms. The poor dog was trembling with fatigue and pain. She was covered in blood. I couldn’t tell if it was all hers or not.

“Kelly, go wake Josiah up for me, please. Tell him I need him.”

Kelly nodded and ran out the back door, letting it slam behind him. I stared at Daisy for a moment, not sure what to do. Ethan held her and tried to calm her and reassure her she’d be okay.
Water
, I thought suddenly.
She’ll need water
.

I’d just put the bowl down by her head when Josiah arrived, out of breath. He stared at the dog for a moment then caught my eye. I could see the questions there. The same questions I was sure were showing on my face.

“Ethan, we’re gonna need to get her to the vet. This is more than I can deal with. She’s in a lot of pain and Doc Bean can help with that. I’ll call there now.”

Doc Bean had been the area vet for the last twenty years in Salmon. I’d met him a couple times when he came out to the ranch for one reason or another. Josiah got him on the phone and Doc Bean said he’d open up his clinic and to bring Daisy right over. Kelly woke Billy up while Josiah was on the phone; I told Billy I’d keep him informed as to what the vet found out. We carefully got Daisy loaded into the bed of the truck; Ethan sat in the back and held her.

Doc Bean was waiting for us when we got there. He had the equivalent of a dog-gurney ready for us. Ethan wanted to go back with her to the exam room. Doc let him then after he got her sedated, he had Ethan wait with us while he performed the exam and got her cleaned up. An hour later Doc Bean came back out and wiped sweat from his brow.

Ethan jumped to his feet, fear on his face. “How is she?”

“She’s weak. She’s been starved and she’s dehydrated. She’s been beaten. A couple ribs are broken, and her back right leg is as well. Do you know what happened to her?”

Ethan was crying, his grey eyes swimming in tears. I pulled him closer. Josiah shook his head in silent anger. “Daisy went missing about ten days ago. We’d searched the entire ranch, riding out on horseback even to try and find her.”

“How’d you end up finding her? Where was she at?” Doc asked.

Josiah and I looked at Ethan. He lifted his head from my shoulder and said, “I couldn’t sleep this morning. I got up, like I’ve been doing every morning since she was gone, and went to the back porch to look for her. This morning she was there, crawling toward the steps, trying to get to me.”

Doc Bean nodded his head and chewed his lip a little before saying, “I’d like to keep her overnight, just for observation. Her dehydration is extreme. I’ll keep her under the sedative for a few more hours so that I can keep the IV connected.”

“Can I stay here with her for a while?” Ethan asked me.

I turned to Josiah and Doc Bean. Doc nodded his head and said that would be fine.

Josiah said, “We’ll go get breakfast from Tom’s. What would you like?”

“Can I have a coffee?” Ethan asked hopefully. I sighed and then nodded in agreement.

“What else?” I asked. “You need more than coffee.”

“Cinnamon roll pancakes?” he asked hopefully.

“Okay. Doc? Anything for you?”

“That sounds good actually,” he said as he reached for his wallet.

“Nah, Doc, we got this. It’s on us. How do you want your coffee?”

“Thank you. Black is great.”

Josiah and I were gone for maybe an hour and a half by the time we’d ordered our breakfast, eaten, and then ordered the to-go meals for Ethan and Doc. Josiah and I discussed all the possibilities of what might have happened to Daisy over our meal. He thought it was obvious that someone had taken her, but it didn’t make sense to me why someone might have done that. What would their purpose have been? And did she escape, or was she let go?

We asked Doc if there was anything he could tell us from what he’d found on her that might give us some clues. He said there wasn’t much — some gravel in the wounds, things like that, but nothing concrete. I called Billy to let him know what Doc had found so far with Daisy. He said that Red wanted to talk with us when we got back.

It didn’t take Ethan long to eat; the kid had been starving, I’m sure. His appetite had dropped off after Daisy went missing. Now that she was back, so was his appetite. It also didn’t take him long to ask if he could stay the night with her here at the clinic. Doc Bean explained that wouldn’t be a good idea, but that so long as she was still improving tomorrow, we could pick her up then.

We made Ethan say goodbye, and then we all drove home. Doc promised to give us a call in the afternoon with an update. Ethan gave him his cell phone number so they could communicate steadily throughout the day. Doc cautioned him that he might not be able to respond right away, especially if other cases came in.

When we got home I told Ethan to go shower and then take a nap — the kid was beat. He sleepily nodded his head and then slowly climbed the stairs. We found Billy in his office doing some paperwork. The house had been pretty quiet; he said Bentley had taken the other boys out fishing up on one of the ranch creeks.

After we filled Billy in on what had happened at Doc’s he told us that he’d followed the bloody trail that Daisy had left as she dragged herself home. The trail ended at the road about fifty yards from the mouth of the driveway and Red’s house.

It was obvious that someone had taken her. Taken her and abused her. Then brought her back to let us know that they’d done it. The question was who. I asked them if it could have been Rob. Billy didn’t seem to think it was — he hadn’t been seen or heard from since he ran away. And what could have been his reasons? He’d never seemed to hold any sort of animosity toward Daisy when he was here. Josiah thought it was easily something that Rob might have done, but again, why?