“I want you to take small breaths and don’t drop the phone. Do you have an inhaler for your daughter?”
“Yes, Colton gave it to her, but she’s still not moving, not waking up. I don’t know what to do.”
“It’s important you remain as composed as possible, Rebecca. You need to stay calm for your children. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“I need more information. Can you tell me where you were heading?”
“Cadomin. I needed a vacation.”
He could hear self-recrimination in her voice. “I’m sure this isn’t the vacation you planned. Now how close to Cadomin were you before the car accident.”
“I don’t know. It’s all a blur.”
He shook his head. They had one tower to go by. That left a lot of ground to cover.
“Were any other vehicles involved in the accident?”
“It wasn’t an accident,” Rebecca whispered.
Marcus flinched. “What do you mean?”
“We were intentionally run off the road. By someone in a truck.”
A chill swept down his spine. “You sure he didn’t hit you by accident?”
“I’m sure.” There was a long pause. “He was behind us for at least twenty minutes. Right on my bumper. There was lots of room for him to pass, but he didn’t.” Sob. “I don’t understand why he did this to us.”
“Is he gone?”
“I think so. I can’t see anything outside. It’s raining hard, but I can’t see his lights.”
Marcus motioned to Leo. “Hit and run.” To Rebecca he said, “Can you give me a description of the truck?”
“It was a dark color and had lights on the top of the roof. Really bright ones.”
“Hunters’ spotlights? On top of the cab?”
“Yes, I think so.”
“How many lights?”
“I don’t know. It was so bright I couldn’t tell.”
He heard a child call out, “Mom, Ella feels cold.”
“Is she wearing her jacket?” Rebecca asked, the terror in her voice apparent.
“No. It’s on the floor in front of her and I can’t reach it,” came the boy’s reply. “I’ll give her mine.”
“It’s important you keep Ella warm,” Marcus said. The girl could be going into shock. “Turn the heat on and your headlights and emergency lights. And whatever you do, try to get Ella’s temperature up.”
“I understand. Colton, if you can reach your backpack, tuck your jersey around Ella.”
“Good,” Marcus said. “We have police looking for your vehicle. It shouldn’t take them long to search Highway 47 between the towers.”
Another sob. “But we’re not on the highway.”
Marcus’s pulse raced. “I thought you said you were heading to Cadomin.”
“We were. But when the guy in the truck started following too close, I pulled off onto a side road. I thought he’d drive past us. Then we could get back on the highway. But he didn’t. He turned down the same road. Initially I thought it was just sheer bad luck, that he was the property owner. But then he hit us—a bump at first. Then he hit us hard.” She lowered her voice. “That’s when I knew he wanted to hurt us.”
“Was there a sign for the road you turned down?”
“No. Nothing. It’s a dirt road, gravel maybe.”
Marcus flagged down Leo again. “They turned down a side road.”
“Shit,” Leo said. “There are quite a few turnoffs between the tower and Cadomin, and some before that.”
“Rebecca, do you have a GPS system in your vehicle?”
“No.”
“What about your cell phone?”
“It’s old. No apps, no GPS.”
“Okay.” He paused, thinking hard. “How far down the road did you drive?”
“I’m not sure. I was terrified. I couldn’t see where I was going. Then we got into the trees, and I could barely even see the road. I think I drove a few minutes, maybe ten.”
Marcus let out another curse.
“What?” Leo asked.
Marcus muffled the microphone so Rebecca wouldn’t hear. “Police won’t see her from the highway. She’s ten or fifteen minutes in.”
“Good God, without a helicopter, they’ll have to go down every road to find her.”
Marcus nodded. And by the time they did, it could be too late.
“I’m feeling really dizzy,” Rebecca whispered. “I’m not sure how long I can stay alert.”
“Listen to my voice, and keep taking small, even breaths,” he said. “Rebecca, I need you to check your phone and tell me how strong the charge is.”
“Oh God…” Pause. When she came back, her voice was hoarse. “I have one bar left. Why didn’t I charge it before we left? How stupid could I be?”
“Rebecca—”
“I thought I’d do it when we reached the hotel. I don’t even have the charger on me. It’s in my suitcase. And that’s in the trunk. And the car charger is in the glove box, which I can’t reach.”
“What about your kids? Do either of them have a phone?”
“No.” Sob. “I told Wesley they didn’t need cell phones.”
He knew she was blaming herself. “None of this is your fault, Rebecca. Besides, one bar is good. That’s still a lot.” He hoped to God he was right.
“But what if you can’t find us? What if my phone dies?”
“We’ll find you before that happens.”
“Do you promise?”
Marcus swallowed the lump in his throat as he flashed on Jane’s face. “I promise. We’ll find you. We’re also trying to locate your husband. I’m going to patch you through to Detective John Zur from the Edson Police Department now.”
“I don’t want you to hang up.” Soft sobs drifted in from the other end. “You’re all we have right now.”
“I’ll call you again in five minutes. And then every five to ten minutes after that until you’re found.”
“But what if I can’t answer? What if I pass out?”
“Is Colton alert?”
“Yes.”
“If you feel like you’re going to pass out, give him the phone.”
“Okay.”
“I’m patching you through to John. But I’ll call back in five minutes.”
“Wait! I need to know something.”
“What?”
“Your name.”
Marcus bit his lip and looked over his shoulder at Leo, who gave him a questioning look. It wasn’t usual protocol to give out their names. There were rules the 911 operators had to follow, and one of them was anonymity.
“Please,” she whispered.
To hell with the rules.
“Marcus,” he said. “My name’s Marcus.”
Chapter Fourteen
Rebecca gave Detective Zur as much information as she could, then closed the phone and wiped away the tears. “They’re coming to find us, Colton.”
“How’ll they know where we are?”
“They can track my phone call. There’s a cell tower close by, so they know we’re in the area.”
She scrunched her eyes and tried to make out their surroundings. The rain was still coming down, but it had lessened somewhat. Minutes earlier, when she’d tried the engine, it sputtered to life as if it were on its last breath. Only one headlight lit up, and it revealed that they’d crashed into a copse of trees. With the headlights on high and the emergency lights flashing, she kept the interior lights turned on and fiddled with the switches on the dashboard.
Don’t kill the battery.
After the heat inside reached sweat-mode, she turned the engine off and put it back to accessory mode. She’d turn it on again once the air cooled.
She tried to ignore the intense fear that raced through her. She’d never be able to drive out of here. That meant they’d have to sit and wait for someone to find them. What if no one did?