Page 209 of Rangers Unexpected Return

Her breathing became shallow.

“Emily yelled at him,” she continued.

“What did she say?” Judy asked.

“‘She’s just a little girl!’”

Tears rolled down Rylie’s face.

“‘You can’t keep her here forever!’”

The room fell completely silent.

Trigger wrapped one arm around her shoulders.

“You don’t have to keep going.”

“Yes.” Her voice barely rose above a whisper. “I remember Emily crying.”

“Why?”

“Because…” Rylie looked at Judy. “She couldn’t convince him.”

“Who was he?”

“I don’t know. But I remember what Emily did next.”

Everyone waited.

“She came back to our cabin. She was terrified. She kept saying…” Rylie swallowed. “‘If something happens to me, somebody has to get Emma out.’”

Judy slowly closed her notebook.

Emily hadn’t been trying to solve a mystery.

She had been trying to save a child.

Will carefully examined the recorder.

“The device was activated less than twenty-four hours ago.”

“How do you know?” Wolf asked.

“The batteries are new, and the internal log records when playback was programmed.”

He turned it over.

“There are scratches.”

He adjusted his flashlight.

Three letters had been carved into the plastic.

ERC.

“What does that mean?” Carson asked.

Nobody answered.