And then Tim came with the tow truck, and they stood there talking for just a minute or two, she was sure it was no longer than that, because thunder was rumbling and they both knew they had to hurry to beat the storm.
So then Sarah took pictures of the car with the doors open, so Tim could go ahead and close them and get the Jeep hitched to his tow truck while she took photographs of the footprints on the bank and down on the flat.
And Tim helped her up the bank, both of them cursing the mud on their shoes, and—
“That’s not the way it happened, Sarah. Concentrate. When Jonah left, you were down on the flat, placing a ruler beside the footprints. What happened then?”
Annoying voice now. Annoying command.
No, I was by my cruiser, fiddling with—
“Sarah. You’re down on the flat. You’re bending over to place a ruler beside the footprints. Jonah saw that. He’s driving away now. What are you doing?”
For a moment, it seemed that all Sarah’s memories flipped and rolled in her head, a confusion of what was real and what had been . . . given to her. Stuck in her head, in her mind, by an alien voice she . . . almost . . . recognized.
Almost.
I . . . pick up the ruler and stick it in my back pocket. And then . . . I look at the pictures I’ve taken, and I delete them.
“Why, Sarah?”
Because . . . he told me to.
“Who told you, Sarah?”
I . . . I’m not sure. I think I know his voice, but . . . it’s strange in my ears. In my head.
“Listen more closely, Sarah. Do you know who he is?”
I . . . No. He doesn’t want me to know. He’s nearby, over in the bushes, but every time I try to see him . . . it gets dark. So dark I can’t see anything at all. I don’t like the dark.
So I do what he wants. I go back up the bank, and wait for Tim. And when Tim comes, we . . . I thought we talked, but I think . . . I think we just stood there. For the longest time, we just stood there.
And then, when he told us to, we could move again. I took pictures of the Jeep so Tim could close the doors and hook it up to the tow truck. But I took the pictures after Tim closed the doors. And then I took pictures of the bank and the flat.
“Did you see the footprints, Sarah?”
Yes. No. No, they were gone. But he told me to take the pictures. He told me the footprints would be there. I didn’t want to believe him, but I had to.
“Why did you have to, Sarah? Why did you have to believe what he told you was the truth?”
I had to . . . because . . . he said if I didn’t . . . if I didn’t believe with my whole heart and mind that the footprints were there . . . he’d know. And he’d leave me to drown in the darkness.
“Sarah—”
He’d leave me to die. Alone. In the darkness. Where no one would ever be able to find me again.
TWELVE
Sarah was pacing the floor, fuming. Robbie eyed her with more than a little sympathy.
“I’m sorry. It’s not much fun to realize you can’t even trust your own memory. Believe me, I know.”
“That son of a bitch. That sorry son of a bitch.” Sarah swung around abruptly to face the others. “Okay, how do we go about finding this bastard?”
Robbie nodded toward the files piled all over the conference table in the center of the room. “For now, old-fashioned police work. We have to go over these files, one by one. In fact, we should double up, make sure at least two of us study each file. Jonah, you and Sarah know this town better than anyone, so one of you should look at every file. Dante and I are strangers to the town, which means we may spot something important that anyone belonging here would take for granted.”
Jonah nodded toward a file box he’d set on a chair near the door. “What about Annie’s files? And her notes. As a matter of fact, I got just about everything I could from her desk.”
Robbie thought about it briefly, then said to the chief, “Whichever of you—you and Sarah—knew her best should go over those files separately. And whether or not you find anything, Sam should go over them when she gets here. She’s the one who caught at least a glimpse of Annie’s memories. She may see something all the rest of us miss.”
“Sarah knew her best,” Jonah said.
Sarah was nodding. “She was on my shift, usually. Jonah and I switched it up so we each got a couple nights off every week, and Annie was pretty much on the same schedule. I’m talking first and second shift; we kept a skeleton staff on the third shift because it was so quiet here. Until the disappearances started. Since then it’s been all hands on board and you rest when you can. We even have a few cots scattered around the station, in the break room and a couple of unoccupied offices and storage rooms. At least half the cots tend to be occupied whenever you walk through. Lotta overtime.”
Dante said, “I doubt the town council complains.”
Jonah grunted. “They’re nervous as hell and want me to hire on more officers. But not locally. I’m not putting inexperienced people on the payroll, not at a time like this. I’ve put a call out to a few police chiefs and sheriffs I trust, asking if they can spare an officer or two for what I hope is no more than a few weeks at most, at double pay.”
Sarah frowned at him. “Am I getting double pay?”
“Yes. And we should have another dozen officers here by tomorrow—I mean Friday. The town will foot the bill to put them up at the hotel for the duration. At least then we’ll have enough manpower to fill all three shifts with experienced personnel, and everybody will get some decent rest.”
Jonah looked at his second’s continued frown and sighed. “Yes, I know I need to rest. If you swear to me you got some sleep—”
“I swear. I slept at least three hours, and you know for me that’s as good as eight.”
“Okay. Then I’ll leave you all to start going over all the files. I’ll go home and get a few hours’ sleep, and be back late morning.”
“Make it noon,” Sarah suggested. “I’ll be fine until then. Plus, Lucas and Samantha will probably be back here by then.” She looked at the two feds, adding, “And the three of us will probably be more than ready to crash for a few hours.”
“Works for me,” Robbie said. “Good night, Jonah.”
He smiled faintly, but took the hint. “Do me a favor, and all of you stay here, together, at least until it gets light. Call me immediately if anything changes, or you find something we need to act on without delay. Got it?”
“Got it,” Dante said. “Good night, Jonah.”
Jonah managed another smile, then lifted a hand and left their makeshift command center.
“There goes one tired man,” Dante said.
“Yeah,” Sarah said. “But he’s got better sense than to waste any off time not actually resting. He’ll sleep. Now—how are we going to go through all these damned files in some kind of logical, reasonable way? We need a system.”
In the end, they came up with an easy system. Each file folder had a sticky note attached, and whether it was one of the cops or one of the agents, once it was studied, that person made a note of having done so, along with time and date, on the note. They also each kept legal pads, jotting down any notes they felt might be important or need to be further investigated.