He radioed the team that they were moving before lifting Dorothy. The trek was slow and Clyde visibly struggled. Joel offered to stop and wait for the team, but the older man refused, wanting to get his wife help as quickly as possible.
He couldn’t blame him. Were their situations reversed, he’d do the same.
It didn’t take long for Ryan and Zac to reach them. They went to either side of Clyde and shouldered a lot of his weight. By the time they reached the couple’s parked car at the trailhead, color had returned to Dorothy’s cheeks.
“Thank you,” she sighed, as he deposited her in the back.
“I’ll drive.” Zac slid behind the wheel while the older man climbed into the passenger seat.
The car was just pulling away when Ethan radioed the team. “We have a situation here at base. We need you guys back here.”
Ryan lifted his radio. “Five minutes out.”
When they got back to the old firehouse, Connor and Ethan were facing a guy Joel had never seen before. He looked to be inhis early-to-mid-twenties and was pacing the common room, a deep frown between his brows.
“What’s going on?” Joel asked.
“She’s gone,” the guy cried. “Teagan’s gone!”
“Who’s Teagan?” Ryan asked, as he approached.
“My girlfriend! She never came home last night. I only realized this morning when I woke up and the bed was empty. I tracked her phone, but when I got there, I found it and her car, but it was empty.”
“Whoa.” Joel stepped closer, hands up. “Calm down. Where’s her car?”
He opened his phone and pressed a few things before flipping it around. “Here.”
“The southeastern edge of the forest,” Joel said, studying the map. He opened his own map, found the spot, and pinned it before sharing the location with the guys.
“Have you notified Ward?” Ryan asked.
“Yes.” There was a bite to the word. “He told me not enough time has passed to do anything. I have to wait another twelve hours before he gets his ass out of his seat to search for her. But she wouldn’t just disappear on me. And even if she did come home, then leave early to go for a walk or something—which isnotthe case—she wouldn’t have left her phone in her car. And with the missing women recently…”
Yeah. It wasn’t fucking good.
“And she’s been sick. Going through chemotherapy, something not many people know. I…I don’t like the idea of her being out there by herself.”
Shit.
“Do you have a photo of her?” Ethan asked.
The guy searched his phone before showing them a photo. “This is her. Teagan Kimm.”
Recognition hit Joel in the gut. He’d seen her before. Where had he?—
Oh shit. “She goes to the local Catholic church.”
“How did you know?” her boyfriend asked.
Because she was the woman who’d hugged Jonah on the steps last week.
He met the guy’s eyes. “We’re going to do everything we can to find her.”
Over the next ten minutes, Ryan gave them each a search grid. They took one truck to a central location, then split up.
Was this Jonah? It felt like a big fucking coincidence that the day he got out of jail, a new person went missing.
At the same time, was hestupidenough to take another woman the very day he got out?
