of Willa’s GPS. The spot was just inside the rim of the main canyon of the complex of gullies and valleys. His geologist’s eye envisioned the ancient earthquake that had torn this series of giant cracks in the generally flat landscape. Probably a secondary fault related to the massive New Madrid fault that had created the Mississippi River basin.
Willa had been heading west the last time her signal pinged off a cell tower. He thought about what lay west of him. The network of narrow, winding roads that would be treacherous after dark. Willa had been in her little car, which meant she wouldn’t have ventured onto the more isolated tracks that crisscrossed these valleys. Most of them led to deer hunting stands and took a high-clearance, four-wheel drive truck to traverse. She had to have stuck to the main roads...of which there weren’t many out here.
About a mile ahead, this particular road forked. The right branch went due west up over the next ridge, and the left one turned south and wound up to the top of a high bluff overlooking the entire canyon complex. It was a hangout for teens to drink and make out.
Abrupt memory jogged his brain. Willa had commented once that she was the only person who went up to Lover’s Point for the view. Was it possible? Had she gone up there to be alone and think? He vaguely recalled it being a beautiful spot; although, unlike Willa, his reasons for going up there as a teen had never included the view.
He guided his SUV over the ridge and toward the fork in the road. He veered left and started up the winding asphalt strip. He slowed cautiously as the curves became sharper, the road became steeper and the drop-offs grew steeper and closer to the edge of the road.
A cloud bank drifted over the new moon and darkness pressed in on him and his SUV. All that existed was a short strip of asphalt in his headlights. He turned on the Cadillac’s snazzy halogen high beams to better illuminate the road ahead. And that was probably why he spotted the faint skid marks, black slashed on the dark gray pavement.
A little voice in the back of his head shouted, no no no no no! He stopped the SUV and jumped out, his heart in his throat. He approached the precipice cautiously, and nothing but air stretched away from him. But when he reached the edge and peered down, he saw that the broken limestone cliff wasn’t completely vertical. Not far below the road, a stand of scrubby saplings clung to the steep slope. And wedged among them was a small car, resting on its side.
He almost leaped down the slope before his brain kicked in. Rope. He needed rope. Racing back to the Escalade, he set its emergency brake and fished in the back of the SUV for the tow rope he had stowed somewhere. He spotted the bright yellow nylon as thick around as his thumb and snatched it out. Quickly, he lashed one end of it to the hitch in the rear bumper and looped the other end around his body.
Using the rope to slow his descent, he slipped and slid down the nasty incline. Please be alive. Please, please be alive, he begged Willa silently.
He groaned as he made out a white face through the spiderweb of cracked glass that was the windshield. “Willa!” he shouted.
The figure inside the car didn’t move. Horrendous dread clutched at him. She couldn’t be dead. He’d just found her, dammit! He couldn’t lose her!
He slipped and slid to the car, which actually was resting mostly on all four tires. It was tilted onto its side by the severity of the slope. Tree branches poked through the passenger window and roof, skewering the tiny car like a shish kebab. A deflated air bag hung from the steering wheel, and another smaller one from over the driver’s side door, partially obscuring Willa. He yanked at the door, but it didn’t open. Given how badly the entire frame of the car was bent, he doubted it would budge.
In through the windshield, then. He eased left toward the hood of the car. Bracing himself on a tree trunk, he kicked at the windshield. As badly damaged as the tempered glass was, it bent inward but didn’t give way. He jammed his heel into the thing again, and this time it shattered into millions of little pieces. Using his