Left to Kill (Adele Sharp #4) - Blake Pierce Page 0,47
to help. The main goal is the same. If you see anything suspicious, anything out of the ordinary, blow your whistles. Officers will come. Helicopters will be back this afternoon, and we will have lunch for those who plan on staying through until evening.”
A few more instructions buzzed out in the air, echoing from the crackling speakers of the squad car.
For her part, Adele moved toward the nearest group of orange-vest-wearing searchers. She approached one of them, and said, “Excuse me, hello.”
An older man, perhaps in his sixties, turned and gave Adele a long look. He had a straight posture and clean-cut hair. She immediately pegged him as someone who served either in the force or military.
“Excuse me, sir,” she said. “I think I recognize you; were you with my father’s search group last night? Sergeant Sharp.”
The man examined Adele and said, “Joseph?”
Adele blinked. “Joseph Sharp; yes. You know him?”
The man looked at her curiously. “Yes, he pointed you out when you arrived. Good man. Stayed long after the rest of us left.”
Adele nodded. “Yes, he did. Do you have any idea where he is? I haven’t seen him this morning.”
The straight-postured man adjusted his orange vest, and Adele noticed the whistle was now dangling from his neck.
“Called in. He searched all night and only arrived back home an hour ago.”
Adele did a brief calculation. Her father’s house was more than an hour’s drive from here. Which meant if he searched all night, and only arrived an hour ago, he’d stayed up until at least six AM in the woods and the cold. She gave a sort of sympathetic shiver.
“He’s sleeping now,” said the military-looking man. “Best I figure, he will be back here this evening. Joseph isn’t the sort to give up on a hunt.”
Adele pressed her lips together. “No, I suppose not. Well, okay, thank you.”
“My pleasure. Auf Wiedersehen.”
Adele turned, massaging the back of her head. As she scanned the line of volunteers gathered along the trail in front of the forest, she spotted a hand waving. It took a bit for her eyes to flick along the search party, and then she realized it was John, gesturing rapidly at her, his hand rotating in the air.
“What in the world,” she muttered. Adele hurried forward, not quite jogging, but moving with long, rapid steps.
She reached John where he stood beneath the shelter of a prickling fir. Two young searchers, college age, were both looking nervously at him, and when Adele arrived, a flash of relief crossed their expressions.
Adele winced. “What’s up?”
John pointed at one of the searchers, a young man with a wispy goatee.
“Tell her,” John said, in fragmented English. “Tell her what you are talking to him about.”
The second guy was looking every which way except in John’s direction. Clearly, the tall, scarred agent had unnerved him.
To Adele’s surprise, the wispy-goateed fellow spoke in English. An American accent. “Yeah, well, I was just saying to my friend,” he spoke, hesitantly, fidgeting as he did, “yesterday, in the other group I was with, a very angry man tried to shoot us.”
Adele blinked and glanced at John. He had a grin like he had won the lottery, and flashed a thumbs up, wagging his head. “Exactly,” he said. He gave a little shooing motion toward the wispy-goateed fellow. “Tell her more. More.”
The man took a cautionary step away from John, put off by his energy, and said, “Not really much more. He didn’t actually shoot us. Well, I guess he didn’t actually try. He threatened to. He said we were trespassing on his property. There were four of us.”
“Were you with them?” Adele said, nodding toward the second one, who had maintained his silence up to this point.
The quiet one spoke at last with a German accent, but managed English all the same. “Yes. Two others with us were friends from school. After…” He cleared his throat and swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he shot an uneasy look toward the trees. “After that fellow disappeared… Diedrich… We wanted to stick closer together. But we must have not paid attention—because we accidentally wandered onto this man’s property. He threatened us, just like he’s saying.”
Adele returned her attention to the goatee. “So this fellow threatened you for trespassing. He had a gun?”
The young man wagged his head up and down.
“You remember where it was?”
He nodded again. “We were in the east grid, but heading toward Hinterzarten. We could see Lake Titsee,” he said. “We had already reached the edge of