Chapter Twenty-Five
Sweat chafedunder Grady’s collar as he picked his way through the fire-damaged area up near Redstone where Salem had been blown off-course.
The charred ground was still visible under clumps of baby trees and bushes sprouting between the burnt trunks of their parents. Twisted metal of fence posts and storage sheds littered the barren landscape. Blackened boulders jutted from a thin coat of wild grass. With the summer heat hitting high temperatures, the grass dried into straw, creating a firehazard.
Grady checked his GPS and trail map. The drop area was right around the bend in the hill, a relatively flat area with a rocky exposure. It hadn’t been a comfortable place to land, but it was visible from the air. Everyone on his jump squad, except for Salem, had made the landingsuccessfully.
He hiked to the location, now covered with dry grass, and pointed his compass due west at the nest of black tree trunks, looking more like telephone poles thantrees.
How could Salem have missed sobadly?
Using his topographical map and compass, he marked the location where they’d searched for her. The entire team had fanned out, spiraled around the area, but found no trace of her: no bones, no metal clips or rings from her parachute or jumpsuit, no melted helmet,nothing.
No wonder Paul had a hard time accepting her death. Without a body, all they had was a memorial service, where he’d shown the mourners the diamond ring he had for her and declared her his posthumous fiancée. It had been an emotionally wrenching service. Salem’s Kids, Paul’s charity to help street kids, was born from the donations and contributions of those who’d been touched by her story of having once been arunaway.
Grady stopped in front of a metal cross Paul put up at the base of a boulder in Salem’s memory. It was made from twisted and jagged scraps of metal, rusted nails, coils of wire around bits of drybone.
Despite Linx dismissing the cross at the Hart cabin as being similar, Grady couldn’t mistake the fact that they were both crosses. If this one was in Salem’s memory, whose memory was that onefor?
He turned away from the memorial, his stomach boiling over with acid. There was no beauty in the sculpture—only the ugliness ofdeath.
“Thought I saw you up drive up.” The sound of footsteps crunched behind him, and Melvin Montgomery, their chief, lifted a hand toshake.
“Busy season,” Grady stated, knowing how many wildfires burned out of control at the moment. “Sorry aboutSalem.”
“She died doing what she loved.” Melvin said, crossing his arms. He looked across the landscape, not meeting Grady’s eyes. “She was good at it. Real good. Sometimes, I think her spirit’s still hanging around theseparts.”
“There are worse places to hangaround.”
“Yep.” Melvin kicked the dirt. “How’s Pauldoing?”
“Bought himself a bar. Doing okay. How aboutyou?”
“Been busy with never-ending wildfires,” the chief said. “We have over a hundred fires burning out of control covering two million acres all across the continent. Worse fire seasonever.”
“Heard about your house. Sorry about that. What’s going on outhere?”
The chief shrugged. “Lots of vegetation waiting to be burned. We need you back on the fireline.”
“I promised Paul I’d stay out this season. Salem was my jump partner.” Grady hung hishead.
“It’s not your fault.” Melvin clamped an arm over Grady’s shoulders. “You fight fires as long as I have, and you’re going to lose someone. It never gets easier, but it’s the circle of life. She didn’t have family to mourn her, so we’reit.”
“Yes, we’re her family.” Grady’s throat tightened at the thought of how close that remark came. The thought that her baby could have been his was too depressing tostomach.
“Come back to the camp for a visit,” Melvin said. “The boys and girls would love to see you. Catch up with you. Everyone missesyou.”
Likefamily.
Family never left anyonebehind.
“Does it bother you that we never found her remains?” Grady scanned the ground, knowing that every inch had been thoroughly scoured, multipletimes.
“We might have been mistaken on the direction she took,” the chief said. “It might be over that ridge, or on the other side of the drop zone. We’ll neverknow.”
Grady looked at the map, wondering. He’d been the lead jumper, the guy responsible for scouting out the terrain and the direction of the moving fire. He had also jumped ahead of Salem, and was on his way to the dropzone.
“I have to find her.” Grady’s jaw tightened. “Maybe she did go a different direction, although it would have been tricky to maneuver around thewind.”
