“Whoa, not cool. You guys can’t be here on the property like this. Wait, is Wren with you?”
“No,” Elias said. “When did you last see her?”
“Why? What’s going on?” His eyes darted from Elias to Ben. “Who are you?”
“Just answer the question.”
“I don’t know, maybe half an hour ago?”
“Half a fucking hour she’s been gone maybe. And we’re fucking around here.” Elias could barely keep his anger in check, dealing with this fool.
“Elias, calm.” Elias’ shoulder nearly disappeared underneath Ben’s huge hand.
“What’s wrong? Is she all right? Guys, I’m sorry, I was inside for?—”
Chase jumped when Waylon, Shane, and the Malinois stepped outside from the back door.
“Clear,” Shane told Ben. “She’s not in there. No one is.” He looked at the dog. “Willow, alert.”
“What are you doing?” Chase shouted “You can’t just walk through someone’s house like that. I’m responsible?—”
“Wren’s drone followed an emergency flight path to Gina and Lach’s,” Ben told him. “We came to investigate and she’s gone.”
“And we’re wastingtime.” Elias reset his mental timer to Chase’s last confirmed sighting. “You last saw her half an hour ago and she disappeared sometime after that, and we’re surrounded by forest.”
“Shit,” Chase said. “What can I do to help?”
“Did you hear or see an unfamiliar car drive by or stop in the past half hour?” Ben asked.
Chase shook his head and spoke quickly. “No. I was in the garage with the door down but I still would have heard. The owners are in Virginia and they texted asking me to change the battery on the garage door sensor because it wasn’t responding. I told Wren to come in when she was done with the drone shoot. Took me forever to find the extra batteries, then I was in the garage fixing the damn sensor. I didn’t hear any cars go by while I was in the house or the garage.”
“You positive?” Elias asked.
Chase looked at Elias. “Yeah, there’s no traffic up here so I would have noticed.”
Elias exchanged looks with Ben and Shane. “The forest.”
“Is there a security system with cameras facing the back yard?” Ben asked Chase.
“Yeah, but that camera needs batteries, too.”
Fuck.
There weren’t any other houses close enough to capture anything on camera, either.
Except…
“Cover me.” Elias didn’t wait. He bolted across the lawn to the controller. He did a quick scan of the ground surrounding it. No trampled grass indicating a struggle, only two oblong-shaped spots next to the case and launch pad where the short, springy grass was still bent.
The size of Wren’s feet. That’s where she stood while she worked the drone. It looks like she was standing there a while.
Elias updated the timer in his head. Judging by the impressions in the grass, Wren wasn’t taken near the beginning of the drone flight but toward the end. Maybe as little as fifteen minutes ago.
Nothing else caught his eye. No torn-up spots indicating a fight. No other impressions.
No lines from dragging her body.
Stop. You don’t know what happened.
