“Everything looks the same everywhere you look,” she whispered.
MaryAnne reached for Mallory’s shoulder from the backseat. “Don’t stress if nothing looks familiar.”
I pulled out my phone and called Randy.
“What’s up?” Randy asked.
“We drove into town and something sparked Mallory’s memory. She remembers seeing a sign for Old Baldy and for Half Moon Canyon.”
Randy was silent for a moment, then said, “That’s damn near straight across from your ranch. Looks like that’s about eight miles or so as the crow flies.”
“She could have made that distance,” I replied.
“Okay, let me get with Jonathon and we can start pulling up Google images of the area, see if we can find a barn out on its own.”
“Can we just start searching that area?” I asked.
“It would take us forever to search it by foot, and we don’t have permission to fly the drone above all that private property.”
I thought for a moment. “I can get Josh to fly the helicopter.”
“Helicopter?” Mallory asked from next to me.
“Josh owns that one, not Liam,” MaryAnne stated.
“That would work. Let me know what he says. If we can get you up in the air and looking, we might be able to narrow it down. Where are you now?”
“Driving down 238 to see if Mallory recognizes anything.”
“I’ll fill Jonathon in, you let me know what happens on the drive and when Josh is able to get up in the helicopter.”
“Will do,” I said, then hit End on the display in my truck.
“We’ll drive a bit farther down the road to see if anything sparks a memory.”
“Did you go over a road like this?” MaryAnne asked.
Mallory frowned. “I don’t think so. I did go over a few country-type roads, a field that had been cut for hay because I saw all the hay bales.”
“Okay, that’s a good landmark,” Billy stated.
We drove another thirty minutes and Mallory shook her head. “It all looks the same to me. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” I said as I turned the truck around. We started back toward town and Mallory gasped.
“Wait! Wait! That’s the field! That’s the field I ran through!”
I put the brakes on. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. Drive down that road and there is a house and some barns. I made sure to stay clear of it. I waited until it got darker and made a run from that tree line to the other.”
I turned down Half Moon Ranch Road. Sure enough, a property came into site.
“That’s it! That’s the area I ran into. Those trees.”
My heart started to pound. “How far do you think you ran before you got here?”
“I’m not sure what time it was when I escaped, but I ran a good four hours before I got to that field.”
