Artie followed the two men’s gazes to a woman with graying brown hair who was standing next to a deputy. She held the lead of a medium-size, black-and-white dog that Artie guessed was a border collie mix. As Janelle talked with the deputy, the dog spun in excited circles, occasionally catching his tail in his mouth.
“Puck is…improving?” the sheriff said doubtfully. “He’s still a little, well, unfocused.”
The three watched as the dog pulled hard enough on his tail that he lost his balance and tumbled over sideways.
“Better than not having a tracking dog at all, I guess.” Derek sighed before turning back to Rob. “Are you taking incident command?”
“Already called it in.” Striding away, Rob lifted his hand to his mouth and gave a two-fingered whistle, the kind Derek and Randy had tried to teach Artie when they were kids. She’d never been able to master the skill.
The group that gathered around Rob was already large, and more vehicles were pulling into the parking lot. The sight of the school bus reminded Artie of her plan to send the rest of the kids and chaperones back to Simpson Elementary. She jogged over to the bus. The driver must have seen her coming, since the door was open when Artie reached it.
Marnie and the two other chaperones met her next to the driver, all four looking worried.
“You didn’t find them?” Betsy asked. “There was no sign of them in my area, and I went almost all the way to the woods.”
“Not yet.” Artie kept her voice low so as not to freak out the students. “We’re going to keep looking. Can you take everyone else back so they’ll be on time to catch their buses home? There’s a storm coming, too. If the bus doesn’t leave soon, they’ll all be stuck here for who knows how long.” Unlike Maya and Zoe, the kids on the bus would at least be warm and safe. Artie squeezed her eyes shut for a second, banishing the image of the girls huddled in the midst of a blizzard. Panic was too close, and she couldn’t let it consume her.
“I can stay and help search,” Marnie offered, glancing through the back window that framed an approaching bank of black clouds, but Artie shook her head.
“Someone needs to go back, and I have on warmer clothes.” When Marnie opened her mouth as if to argue, Artie said even more quietly, “If they haven’t been found by then, you can come back to help after all the kids get home.”
After a moment, Marnie gave a reluctant nod. “Go find those little girls then.”
“Thanks, Marn.” Artie moved down the steps as she spoke, pushed by the urgent need to find Maya and Zoe before they were lost in the oncoming storm. “And we will.”
The confidence in her voice surprised her. If only her heart was as sure.
* * *
The sheriff had barely managed to get two words out before a battered pickup came flying into the parking lot, almost sideswiping a fire truck as it fishtailed to a crooked halt. Before the pickup had completely stopped, the driver had the door open and was charging toward the group of rescue workers.
“Frantic father incoming,” Derek warned, and everyone turned toward Steve Springfield.
“Where are my girls?” Steve was demanding when he reached them. “How long have they been missing? Where’ve you looked so far? Did you check the ice? Could they have gone under? How could they have wandered off? Why wasn’t someone watching?”
Derek blinked at the torrent of words coming from the mouth of a normally quiet Steve. Ian Walsh, another fireman, put a hand on Springfield’s back.
“We’ll find them,” Ian soothed, but Steve stepped out of the other man’s reach.
“Why’s everyone standing around? Why isn’t anyone looking for my baby girls?” He threw an arm toward the western sky, where the clouds looked even darker and more ominous than just a few minutes earlier. “It’s about to snow, and they’ll be out there, alone and cold and scared—” The final word ended abruptly, as if it had choked him.
“Steve.” Rob’s clipped voice swung the agitated firefighter’s attention around to him. “We were waiting for you to start the search. Did you bring something that smells like the girls?”
Either the commanding tone or the question seemed to settle Steve a little. “Yes. I…yes.” He dug in his coat pocket and pulled out two freezer bags, each with what looked like a shirt inside. The smallness of the items made Derek’s chest hurt, and he couldn’t help a glance at the western sky. If those tiny girls were caught in a blizzard… He gritted his teeth, forcing back the mental image. Panic would just make him useless.
Janelle took the bags from Steve with a gentle smile. “Where were the girls last seen?”
“I’ll show you,” Artie said, hurrying the last few strides to join their group. The school bus rumbled to life behind her. Artie, Janelle, and the dog headed for the area where the girls had been standing when Chase had fallen into the reservoir. Steve started to follow, but Rob grabbed his arm.
“Stay here,” he ordered. When Steve turned furiously toward him, Rob let go and raised his hands to chest level, palms out. “We’re working on our plan of action. I figured you’d want to be part of the search.”
With a final glance at the women and dog, Steve gave a grudging nod.
“Okay,” Rob said. “We have about two and a half hours of daylight left, but that storm’s coming in faster than expected. Let’s see how far the dog gets. Best case, he’ll lead us right to them. Worst case, well, George here is almost as good at picking up a trail.” He gave the huge bearded man to his right a slap on the shoulder. If George hadn’t been George, Derek would’ve thought he rolled his eyes. Derek couldn’t blame him. After all, Rob had just compared him—unfavorably—to a dog.
A shout from Janelle caught their attention, and Derek looked over to see Puck plunging toward the east, the twenty-foot lead fully extended between the dog’s harness and Janelle, who was working to keep up. Artie was a few feet behind the handler. Derek knew Artie, with her long legs and love of running, could easily outpace Janelle, so he assumed she was staying back to keep out of the way.
The whole group rushed after them, their excitement almost a physical presence. Ian kept Steve from passing Janelle and distracting the dog. It only took a couple of body checks before Steve fell in behind Janelle, still simmering but resigned to the controlled pace.
