Brody looked beaten down. “The steering wheel was clean. There were no prints at all.”
“Wiped clean,” McCoy said.
“I assume so,” Brody said. “The prints on the door handles belong to me and Johnson.”
They should’ve never touched that car with bare hands. At least their prints could easily be eliminated. Well, she guessed she might as well say it again—somebody had to. “I think someone ditched the car, and Adrienne wasn’t in it at the time.”
McCoy nodded.
“We don’t know that for a fact,” Brody was quick to say.
“No, we don’t,” Mattie said, “but let’s take a look at the evidence. Prints on the car were wiped. That indicates someone other than Adrienne drove that car up there. And Robo never once indicated picking up her scent outside the car.”
Brody stared at Mattie with tortured eyes, and this time when he spoke, his voice had lost its belligerence. “It had probably been forty-eight hours since the car was left. Forty-eight hours in that kind of wind could blow away your scent trail.”
“I’ll concede that if Adrienne walked only on the harder surface of the road, the scent trail could have deteriorated in that amount of time. But we searched the foliage up and down that road thoroughly. I think epithelials would have blown and caught in nearby plants. If she was there, Robo would have found some trace of her scent.”
Brody shook his head, avoiding her eyes. He remained unconvinced.
But McCoy seemed to share at least a little bit of her faith in her partner. “Let’s accept your theory and go with it for a minute. What does this mean?” He looked at Mattie.
“If someone else ditched that car, then it either means Adrienne used an accomplice to help her disappear or she’s been a victim of foul play. I’d bet my paycheck on the second theory.”
“And?” McCoy prompted her.
Mattie couldn’t bring herself to say “treat this like a homicide” in front of Brody, so she said, “We need to get that warrant from Judge Taylor and search Adrienne’s living quarters. We should do a thorough investigation of her life to determine who might have kidnapped or harmed her.”
The door to the briefing room opened, and Rainbow stepped in, her face blanched and anxious. “You guys? I’m sorry to interrupt, but I just took a phone tip that you need to know about right now.”
Dismayed by the look on her friend’s face, Mattie pushed her chair back from the table causing it to screech as she stood. “What is it?”
“This man on the phone said Adrienne’s up near Tucker Peak, just below the lake,” Rainbow said, walking across the room to join them.
“Who said it?” McCoy asked.
“That’s just it, he wouldn’t leave his name. I tried to get him to tell me, but he hung up on me. When he first called, he told me to listen and take notes. He gave directions to where we could find her. I wrote it down.” Rainbow reached to give her notes to the sheriff, a tremor in her fingers causing the paper to flutter.
Brody looked as if he’d found new energy. “Did he tell you her condition?”
“No.” Rainbow shook her head, eyes wide. “He wouldn’t say anything more. He acted like, well, like everything was such a secret or something.”
“We need to get up there,” Brody said. “Now.”
“Wait a minute,” McCoy said. “Are you sure this call was legit, Rainbow?”
“I think so.”
“Did anything else stand out about it?”
Rainbow paused, thinking. “He had sort of a Spanish accent.”
“Did you trace the call?” Mattie asked.
“Not yet. I came right in here.”
“Trace that call, Rainbow. See if it’s local,” McCoy said, as she hurried to follow through. “I’d like to know if this is another attempt to mislead us. It might be, but I don’t think we can discount it. What do you think?” McCoy’s eyes moved from Brody to Mattie. It was obvious what Brody thought—he looked ready to bolt out the door.
“I think someone tried to mislead us with the car. This could be a wild-goose chase, but we can’t ignore it,” Mattie said.
“Then you two get ready for a hike up that mountain to see what you can find. Make sure you pack gear to protect yourselves from the storm. It’s early, so if this is a false lead, you can get back down before nightfall. In the meantime, I’ll put the search and rescue volunteers on standby.”
“Let’s go,” Brody said, heading for the door.
Mattie stayed. “We need to get that warrant to search Adrienne’s place.”
“Yes, I’ll work on that,” McCoy said.
She gave the sheriff a short salute and turned to leave.
“Look after Brody,” he said. “And be careful up there.”
Chapter 8
A merciless headwind battled Mattie’s every step as she followed Robo up the mountain. Its icy chill bit at her cheeks. Typically, this type of climb wouldn’t have taken much out of her, but today she was worn out. She struggled up the last few steps toward her goal, the leeward side of a massive boulder, treading carefully on the barely visible path. Rocks, exposed tree roots, and tufts of grass all threatened to turn her ankle. Finally, she reached the boulder, leaned against it, and whispered a thank-you for its shelter.
Robo had forged ahead, so she called to him to come back. “It’s time to rest,” she told him, taking out the GPS tracking unit she’d placed in her utility belt. While she waited for Brody to catch up, she read the data to see how far they’d come. Just under two miles . . . it seemed like twenty.
She spotted Brody, winding his way up the trail not too far below. She guessed he was just about done, the lack of sleep and likely poor nutrition over the past few days taking their toll.
Her watch told her it was half past noon. She shucked off her backpack, took out Robo’s collapsible bowl, and drained some water from her supply into it. He slurped it greedily.
When Brody reached her position, their eyes met for a split second before he looked away. He slipped out of his backpack and sank down into the boulder’s shelter, looking spent. She could tell he felt bad about her kicking his butt on the climb . . . or maybe he just felt bad. She searched and found a couple energy bars, gave one to him, and peeled open the other one for herself.
“I’m not sure I can eat,” he said, taking the bar but not opening it.
“You have to. That’s why you’re struggling. That and the fact that this is the damnedest trail I’ve ever had to climb. And that wind. Shit!”
He threw her a look that was almost grateful, one that she’d never seen from Brody. He must have realized she was trying to encourage him.
“Do you think Adrienne would’ve hiked up here?” she asked.
He shook his head, peeling back the paper on the bar. “Not this time of year. And not alone.”
“This trail might be used by a few hunters, but that’s about all.”
“Yeah.” Brody took a bite, staring out across the tops of pine as he chewed.
Mattie might have enjoyed the spectacular view under other conditions. From their boulder, they could look down on miles of pristine forest wilderness, layers rolling away toward the horizon. The wind blew a dust devil from the patchy trail, and she watched it rise upward like a ghost. She shivered.
“The directions say to leave the trail and head due west about a half mile down from the lake. How the hell can we tell when we’re a half mile down?” Brody said.
“Yeah. That’s a problem. But I’ve been able to plug the total distance into the GPS from state forest department maps. I set it for a half mile down, so I’ll be able to tell when we get there.”