Flash Point - Savannah Kade Page 0,19

of her rain gear around her made hearing difficult. Sebastian was leaned in close—too close really—but she had to press the phone to her head just so she could hear.

“That makes sense,” Ivy said back, and Jo could picture her in prim, printed flannel pajamas, with a legal pad and pen at the ready for notes. “But how can I help?”

“Do you know the area? Where are the places to hide here? Where do kids go? Like where in the past have they gone?”

Sebastian was nodding along, and Jo was grateful that he wasn’t trying to join the conversation. It was difficult enough as it was.

Unfortunately, Ivy replied, “I've only been in town another year and a half longer than you. So I don't know anything off the top of my head. I mean, I've hiked the trails a few times, but I don't go off trail.”

Of course she didn't, Jo thought, but Ivy wasn’t done.

“I’ll tell you what, let me make a few calls. Because I don’t know, but I’ll bet I can find someone who does.”

“That sounds good!” Jo wanted to gush, to thank Ivy, but it was too noisy for spare words, and she had to clear something up. She was nearly yelling her instructions now. “Call me back when you get the information?”

“Of course.”

“But know that we're going in and out of cell signal range. So If you don't get me, text me a message and I'll see it as soon it pops up.”

“Will do.” Ivy told her almost yelling in response, even though she was almost definitely in her own warm bed.

Jo shrugged at Sebastian. “Ivy didn’t know anything specific, she’s almost as new as me. But she said she knew who to ask.”

When he nodded, she pressed harder. “What about you? Do you know anywhere?”

He shook his head. “I grew up here, but my family wasn’t the camping-hiking kind. I came out with the scouts but that was about it.”

“You’re too much of a rule-follower to go off trail, aren’t you?”

“Even as a kid.” He shrugged as if to say, what were you going to do?

“I know we've got our grids to do, but is it worth asking Leo to check out some specific places? Assuming Ivy finds us any.”

“I'm guessing our assigned grid areas include the places he knows about. But he didn’t mention anything specific.” Sebastian shrugged again, the heavy gear and clear rain jacket only emphasizing his big shoulders.

Jo would wait and see. It was only a good idea if it worked. If it didn’t, she’d woken Ivy for nothing, but it seemed worth the chance.

The two of them aimed their flashlights back toward the ground and started sweeping again. This time, she caught the silvery flashes of rain falling in the beam. The leaves moving as they were battered by the drops. They made it another ten minutes—searching and calling out to no avail—before the comms crackled to life again.

When Leo's voice came over the line, Jo and Sebastian looked to each other, and said in near perfect unison, “You have got to be kidding me.”

Chapter Twelve

It was an hour later that Leo watched as Bob and Doug carried Bethany the last hundred feet to the ambulance. She was strapped to the backboard, rain coming down on her and no way to avoid it.

Leo had carried her most of the way, apologizing for every bump and incline. She had to be in a lot of pain.

It was yet another mess in a night that had gone horribly awry. He would have scrubbed his hand over his face, but his gloves had water droplets beading on them. He couldn’t push the clear hood back for air, and no matter what he did or how he positioned the visor on the rain gear, icy drops touched his face. He fought the urge to hiss out his reaction each time it happened.

What should have been dawn was no brighter than the night had been. In between the accidents and the errors, the search had been pointless. No one had heard a cry or seen a sign. There were no stray gloves—save one that had clearly been in the dirt too long to belong to this search. There were no marks on trees, scuffs on the ground, or fabric scraps caught on stray branches. Nothing.

These boys decided to go camping on their own. The youngest brothers were barely old enough to even agree to anything. It was about the dumbest thing Leo could think