“Okay.”
A second squad car drove up, lights blazing.
Jo moved past Melanie and walked to Miss Gina’s side. “Tell me again, from the beginning. Where did you last see her?”
Wyatt heard the recall of Hope’s last known moments for the third time. The need to move, the need to stop talking and search the woods crawled under his skin. He held Melanie’s hand in a tight squeeze.
“And who are you?” Jo turned her attention to the one guest at the inn.
“Patrick Lewis.”
Jo stared at the man. “When was the last time you saw Hope?”
“She ran through when I was eating breakfast.”
Miss Gina placed a hand on Jo’s arm. “Mr. Lewis heard us yelling for Hope and came down from upstairs.”
Deputy Emery joined Jo on the porch.
“Why aren’t we looking for her?” Melanie asked Wyatt.
“We will, baby.” He kissed the top of her head.
Gravel kicked up again, this time with a cloud of smoke that indicated cavalry arriving.
Jo turned around. “What the . . .”
“I called in some help,” Wyatt told her.
Luke jumped off his bike; behind him his parents arrived in their truck. Josie arrived with her bartender and a couple of other employees. Sam and Brenda, Principal Mason, and half a dozen teachers.
Beside him, Melanie started to suck in tight breaths. “Keep it together, honey. We’ll find her.”
Mel could only nod and blink her eyes repeatedly to keep the tears from falling.
Wyatt left Melanie’s side when Josie came to take her in her arms. “She’s probably just turned around in the woods.”
“What’s going on?” Luke asked.
“We came home half an hour ago. Miss Gina said she saw Hope out in the backyard less than a half hour before. When we looked, Hope was gone.”
“No chance she’s just playing?”
Wyatt shook his head. “She doesn’t leave sight of the house unless someone is with her.”
Luke looked at the time on his phone. “So it’s been an hour?”
It sounded worse when Luke said it out loud. “Yeah.”
Deputy Emery walked into the inn with Mr. Lewis and Miss Gina as Jo joined them.
Jo tossed her hat on the bed of the truck. “Thank you all for coming.”
“What can we do, Jo?” Sam wasn’t a young man, but he seemed more than eager to move.
Wyatt and Luke flanked Melanie before Jo started giving instructions.
“We need to spread out until we have more people to help. Hope was wearing a pair of jeans, a purple shirt, and a white sweater. She likes to climb trees. She may have simply climbed too high and can’t get down.” Jo passed a glance to Melanie and added, “Or she might have fallen and can’t walk home.”
Melanie grasped Wyatt’s hand but didn’t cry. “I told her that if she was lost in the woods to find a tree and wait for help.”
Jo offered a smile. “That’s good, Mel . . . real good. She’s a smart girl.”
“She’s adventurous,” Jo told the others.
“And fearless,” Wyatt added.
Jo broke down their search party into groups of three and moved to the back of her squad car and popped the trunk. She removed two-way handheld radios and tuned them all in to the same channel before passing them out.
Wyatt took notice of Mr. Lewis shaking the hand of Deputy Emery as he closed the trunk of his car.
“I don’t have to tell you all that finding Hope before sunset is our priority.”
“We’ll find her, Jo,” Luke said.
As the search party broke apart, Wyatt caught Jo’s attention. “She’s never gone this long,” he said close to her ear.
“I know.”
He glanced at the retreating car of Mr. Lewis. “Where’s he going?”
“Has a flight to catch. I have his information, Wyatt.”
“This sucks.”
“Yeah. Keep Mel sane. I’m going to hold back and search the house.”
Wyatt glanced up at the three-story inn. “You think she might be in there?”
Jo’s words were hardly heard. “I hope not.”
“Jesus.” The memory of a high-profile case swam in his head . . . the outcome less than favorable for the missing child.
Melanie jogged up beside them. “Let’s go.”
Wyatt let himself be led away.
“I’m right behind you,” Jo told her.
Every five minutes felt like thirty.
Every ten felt like an hour.
And every hour felt like a lifetime.
While she choked back the tears, her fear was a tsunami inside her head. They were past the three-hour mark. Every ten minutes Melanie called back to the inn and asked the same question. “Anything?”
Deputy Emery stayed at the house with Miss Gina and instructed the new sets of volunteers on where to search. By now, River Bend was all but closed down and the townspeople combed the woods outside the inn in groups of five and ten.
“Hope!”
Her daughter’s name was called out continually.
Still nothing.
“Melanie, you there?”
Jo’s voice had her fumbling for the radio, her heart racing. She pressed the button and stopped walking as she talked. “Did you find her?”
“No. I need you back at the house.”
She tried not to feel the crushing disappointment of the call. “No. I’m staying out here until we find her.”
“Mel, I’ve called in reinforcements. K-9 units are here. I just need you to do a few things here and you can go back out.”