CHAPTER 1
Hattie
6 years earlier
The woods swallowed sound, and even if I had tears left, I was sure they would have taken those too. We should have been able to hear the other people searching next to us, but it was like we were alone, stumbling along in the dark.
Every step I took cracked through the silence — wet leaves, brittle twigs, and the steady whisper of my own breath fogging in the cold. Flashlights carved trembling tunnels through the darkness, and the air smelled like rain, pine, and my own fear. There was nobody on the planet that meant more to me than my sister, and the idea that she was just gone was never going to be acceptable to me.
“Jane!” My voice echoed, small and desperate, fading into the trees as I stumbled over another root. My shoesweren’t exactly made for this sort of hiking, and it wasn’t the kind of thing I liked to do. My jam was high heels and pencil skirts, not the woods. “Jane, if you can hear me—!” I wanted to beg. I would give anything if my sister would shout back and tell me that this was just some crazy prank she was playing. Maybe that was all it was. It was a mistake.
No answer. Just the wind catching in the branches, moving through the forest like something alive. Pushing forward, I wiped my nose with the back of my hand and sniffled. We’d been out here for hours, and I knew in my gut that the officers were skeptical. The grid they’d started with had already been finished.
The search party had started with over a hundred people, but some began to leave once it got dark. Students from the college she’d taught made excuses and took off. I couldn’t blame them. It was wet and cold, but resentment burned deep when there were twenty fewer people looking for her. Now only a handful of us were still combing the trails—stubborn or stupid enough to keep going past midnight.
The deputy leading the search raised his hand, signaling a stop. His flashlight beam found me, and he peered at me in concern. “You need to stay closer to the group, Miss Harper, or go back to the staging area.”
“It’s Hattie,” I said, trying to keep my voice steady. My throat was raw. “And she’s my sister, I can’t go back.”
His brows pinched forward, and instead of arguing, he took my elbow as I slipped around another log. The man had been out here the entire time, just like I was, but he was clearly a seasoned veteran of these affairs. All his gear was well-worn and weatherproof, and his grizzled beard testified to more than one search for a missing person. I knew that it wasn’t that important if he called me Miss Harper or Hattie, but my subconscious couldn’t seem to grasp anything else right now.
“Come on. Let’s keep looking,” he said. “We’re doing everything we can.”
Swallowing, I turned away, scanning the trees, noticing that he was smart enough not to say that we’d find her or that it was going to be okay. I would have loved to hear that, even if it was a hollow promise. That was how I felt right now, with the dark pressing close around me, with the trees so thick and suffocating. Even knowing that the shadows were other searchers following similar footsteps just ten feet away didn’t make the woods any less creepy.
Jane would never be out here alone. She hated the woods, and she hated the dark. Then there was her text from this morning, tumbling relentlessly in my stomach, making me sick.
Jane
Call you tonight. I have something I want to talk to you about. Hattie Bear, I’m going to need your help.
It was the last thing I heard from her, and it only made me wonder if she’d gotten up the courage to ask me for what I’d wanted to give her all along.
Her husband, Nolan, said she went for a walk after dinner. “She’d said she needed some air,” he’d told the sheriff, eyes red, voice trembling just enough to sound right. The fucker had a weak chin, and even looking at him made me want to punch him. Even I could hear he was lying his ass off. He’d waited an hour before calling for help. An hour.
When the sheriff had asked me if they’d had a happy marriage, there was no way I’d held back any information, even though Jane had been trying to hide it from me. She’d been withdrawn lately, and there had been signs they’d been fighting. Hell, Nolan had come and yelled at her right in the parking lot of her college campus, where she taught. I told him and his deputies everything I could think of.
He peered at me when he’d asked, “So, could she have run off? Sounds like they didn’t get along.”
The man was lucky I’d needed him, or he’d have gotten a swift kick to the balls. Nolan was an absolute prick-tard, and it would have given me endless joy if Jane had left him, but no way would she have done it like this. He’d never been good enough for her, but I could see her wanting to get away from him.
Clenching my hands together, I tried again. “Jane!” My voice splintered against the trees. “I’m here! Where are you?”
We were doing another grid search. That’s what I’d learned people did in these situations. We were supposed to stay in our square and keep our eyes on the ground looking for clues, and I was trying, but my eyes kept scanning the horizon as if I could find her faster. Looking for clues wasn’t my forte. It wasn’t as if I was some kind of detective like you saw in NCIS. For Christ’s sake, I wore high heels and worked in an office.
I kept walking, my shoes slipping in the mud. The ground tugged at my soles as if trying to keep me there. Jane and I weren’t the outdoorsy type. We didn’t usually stop to trudge through the woods. We always wondered about the people on those shows, who carried backpacks, and what they were thinking as they hiked through the heat and dust, instead of hanging out in the air conditioning where it was comfortable. My flashlight beam flickered over ferns and bushes, catching on something pale near a fallen log — maybe fabric.
“Hey!” I stumbled forward, my heart pounding as my gorge rose. It wasn’t her—just a torn grocery bag caught on a branch. Pressing my fist to my mouth, and my breath trembled out of me like a sob.
The deputy caught up. “You can’t keep on like this.” His eyebrows drew together. “I want you to go back to the staging area. I’ll send someone to escort you back.” Justas I started to open my mouth to protest, the deputy’s radio sparked. A burst of static, then: “Unit three, we’ve got something. Possible footprints leading toward the lake.” He looked at me, eyes cautious. “You stay here. Finish this grid. It’s probably nothing.”
“Like hell,” I said, and started running, chasing after the flashlight beams that I could see in the distance, ignoring the fact that I was sliding and stumbling.
Branches whipped my face. My breath tore in and out, white in the air. The world became a sound and motion of flashlights bouncing, and someone was yelling my name. I didn’t stop. If Jane was up there, then she needed me.
The woods opened up suddenly, a slope of slick mud and rock. A floodlight had been set up, throwing the scene into harsh relief. Deputies crouched near the edge, marking prints in the dirt with orange flags.
“Did you find her? Anything?” My voice broke in desperation as I panted, hands on my knees, as I gazed over the people who were gathering.
