the GPS coordinates?”
“Mr. Dodge, I would suggest you just—”
“No. I’m a private investigator. I specialize in finding people who’ve gone missing. She knows I’ll come looking for her. It’s what I do. So give me the GPS coordinates, or I’m going in cold.”
The ranger nodded. “Understood. This is what we were given.”
Charlie entered the coordinates into his GPS, then followed the ranger into a tent and to a large map of the forest they’d spread out on the table.
“This is the general location of the last coordinates, and this is where we are. Take the trail up past this tent and head north by northeast. You might catch up with some of the searchers. Do you have a two-way with you?”
“Yes.”
“Then tune in to this channel and frequency and you’ll hear feedback from the other searchers as you go.”
“Thank you,” Charlie said, as he set the frequencies, then shifted his backpack and started running, carrying the two-way as he went.
He ran full out along the trail in an effort to catch up with a search party, splashing through creeks and sending small animals scurrying into the underbrush.
He’d been on the trail for almost fifteen minutes when he began hearing voices and stopped, his heart pounding as he tried to locate the sounds. He checked his GPS to see how far he still had to go and then left the trail, heading into the forest until he walked up on a group of searchers. Once he introduced himself, he began peppering them with questions.
“Has anyone found debris?” Charlie asked.
The team leader, a man who went by the name of Tulsa, shook his head.
“Not yet,” he said, and then eyed Charlie closer. “I know who you are. You’re the guy who finds missing kids.”
Charlie nodded. “Missing people in general, but yes. And the woman you’re all looking for works for me. She’s my partner and office manager.”
“Damn. Really sorry,” Tulsa said.
“Don’t be sorry. Let’s just find her. If anyone can live through a chopper going down, it will be her.”
They took off with renewed energy. The search had become personal and time mattered.
It was going on twenty minutes later when one of them shouted and then radioed.
Found a piece of the tail section.
Charlie’s heart skipped a beat. They had to be closing in on the location now if they were finding debris. He began moving at a faster pace again, moving forward, keeping an eye out for more debris, looking up in the trees as well as on the ground.
And then someone else radioed.
Found a piece of one of the rotors.
Then another one radioed.
Found a cockpit door.
And every piece they found was giving Charlie a clearer picture of the last seconds of Wyrick’s fall. It took everything he had to stay focused and keep moving.
He smelled the smoke first, then the scent from a crash site that a soldier never forgets, and started running, unaware others were running with him.
They found the cockpit lying on its side, and still smoldering. But it was the bullet holes that stopped his heart.
“Son of a bitch! They shot her down!”
He grabbed an upended strut and began climbing to the open door. He was afraid to look inside. Then when he did, his heart skipped.
“It’s empty! She’s not here!” he cried. Then from where he was standing, he spotted boot prints off to the side and jumped down. “I’ve got footprints. She got out!” he said, and started looking for a trail.
But when he found it and realized she was crawling, he knew she couldn’t be far. He started following the drag marks, shouting out her name.
“Jade! Jade Wyrick!”
* * *
Jade was spinning, going around and around on the merry-go-round, and every time she passed her mother, she waved.
Her mother kept snapping pictures and waving back. Then the music started playing louder, and the merry-go-round was spinning faster and faster, and there was pain—so much pain.
Jade was crying now, and calling “Mama, Mama,” and holding on to her horse with all her strength.
“Hold on, Jade. Hold on, baby, hold on. Mama loves you. Hold on! I won’t leave you alone.”
Jade was crying... Help. Help. Somebody help me.
* * *
And then the voices in her head became reality as consciousness returned.
Someone was shouting her name, but it wasn’t her mama. She could hear a man’s voice shouting, “Jade! Jade! Where are you?”
Tears rolled out from beneath her eyelids.
Charlie. I’m here, Charlie. Help me.
But the thought was never voiced, and she couldn’t stay conscious long enough to tell