They ate in silence, Cody all but shoveling the food into his mouth. He needed to get out there.
When he was done, he rinsed his plate, put it into the dishwasher and sat back down to finish the list. “I’ll call Noah and get him to open the surplus store early for me. I’ll pick up plenty of protein bars for the searchers. Flashlights, too. Don’t know how late we’ll be.”
At Salem’s expression, Cody rushed on, “I’m sure we’ll find her soon. This is just in case. We need to prepare for every eventuality. What else will we want?”
“First-aid kits,” Nick said.
“First aid?” Salem paled.
“Just in case,” Cody said quietly.
“How about a couple of thermal blankets?” Nick took everyone else’s plates. “Laura, we’ll clean up later. We need to get out there.”
“What will we need blankets for?” Salem stood. “As soon as we find her, I’m taking her home.”
“She’ll be chilled, Salem,” Nick said. “We’ll need them to warm her quickly. It rained last night. She’ll be wet.”
“Will she have hypothermia?” Salem’s voice rose.
“No,” Cody answered. “It wasn’t that cold. Only cool.” Salem knew all of this, but as the man had said, he was too distraught to think straight.
“Where’s Annie?” Laura asked.
“Annie?” Cody glanced at everyone. “Who’s Annie?”
As one, they stared at him. By the way Salem stiffened beside him, Cody could tell he’d just remembered Cody’s loss.
“She’s—” Salem swallowed.
“She’s Aiyana’s daughter,” Pearl said, cutting through the tension.
“Daughter?” he said faintly. “Aiyana has a daughter?”
Beside him, Salem nodded. “Yes. She was married for five years. They had a little girl. Named her after her natural mother. Ai is divorced now.”
Cody had been so mired in his own troubles for so long, he hadn’t kept up with old friends.
He jumped to his feet, sending his chair skidding across the floor. “I’ll shower and dress.” Aiyana had a child. A living child. “I’ll take my own car into town and meet everyone at the park.” He rushed from the kitchen. On his way up the stairs, he heard Salem’s quiet voice.
“Mika is at home with Annie while we search. Annie loves her aunt Mika.”
Annie. Aiyana had a child named Annie. A living child.
The blackness in Cody’s heart twisted until he couldn’t breathe.
He couldn’t go out searching for her like this, not as an emotional wreck. He jumped into the shower and let the water run as hot as he could bear until he gave in to his secret shame. He cried in the shower every day. How else could he go on?
When done, he cleaned himself and got dressed.
With a Herculean effort, he set aside his troubles and grabbed his cell from the bedside table, calling Noah Cameron, his mom’s brother, at home. A sleepy voice answered.
Forcing his own voice to sound normal, Cody explained the problem.
“I can be at the store in twenty minutes.” Good old Noah.
“See you there.”
Cody pulled up in front of the Army Surplus on Main Street in Accord at the same time as his uncle. The other shops were still closed and the town was quiet. Noah got out of his ancient Toyota, ponytail damp from his shower. Gray hair threaded through the red, and his rugged face showed a few more wrinkles than the last time Cody had seen him, but he still looked strong and lean.
“Hey, Unc, thanks for coming out so early.”
Noah waved away his thanks and unlocked the front door. Cody followed him inside.
“What do you need?”
Cody handed him a list. Noah scanned it and started filling a basket.
“How many first-aid kits?”
“Eight, I guess. I imagine we’ll go out in pairs.”
“It says here bottled water. Man, I don’t do plastic. I sell reusable bottles—glass or stainless steel.”
“Okay, give me a dozen of whichever is cheaper. Some people will likely bring their own water. Can I fill the bottles here?”
“Sure. It’ll take me a while to filter it, though. I have only one Brita in the back.”
“No time. I’ll use tap water.”
Noah grimaced, but didn’t complain.
Because Cody had arrived home in the middle of the night and was buying for so many volunteers, he didn’t have cash on him. He used his credit card, hoping against hope it wouldn’t bring him over the limit.
When the transaction went through, a breath burst out of him.
“Thanks for opening, Noah. I appreciate it. Everyone else will, too, once I start handing this stuff out.”
“No problem, Cody. You know that. Hope you find her quickly. If you need anything else, I’m a phone call away. The store’s closed today, but I can put together more supplies and be up there in no time.”
Cody was about to step out of the shop when Noah stopped him with one more question. “Do you have a Swiss Army knife? Those things are handy in the woods.”
“I have a Leatherman. Dad bought it for my twelfth birthday.”
“That’s right! I sold it to him. You have it on you?”
“You bet.”
Cody arrived at the park while the air was still early-morning chilly and the shadows long.
A gorgeous piece of protected land, the park was a pristine, untouched gem. Except for trails cut out of the woods for hiking, the rest had been left in its natural glory.
Everywhere Cody looked, pines towered over the parking lot, some with their dark green spires hidden in swirling fog.
He stepped out of his SUV right into a huge puddle.
Thank God he’d picked up thermal blankets.
He zipped up his jacket against a cool breeze and noted the unmistakable scent of rain on the wind. The air smelled piney and fresh. Not a whiff of smog polluted the atmosphere.
Aiyana must be chilled through to the bone. They had to find her soon.
He remembered her as a sweet girl, timid but starting to grow into her character. Why hadn’t she come home last night?
Cody used to be an optimist at heart. Not so anymore. He stared at the dark woods and worried about what nature and the elements could do to someone like Aiyana.
CODY STUDIED THE map lying open on the hood of a forest ranger’s vehicle. He tried to think like Aiyana, but it had been too long since he’d known her—since she’d shared her young ambitions, thoughts and dreams.
They’d spent one summer together, an innocent couple of months. Aiyana had only just turned sixteen and he’d been nineteen and heading to college in September. That was more than a dozen years ago. He’d seen her only sporadically since, but he remembered her well.
That summer, she’d been a gentle, thoughtful girl. He’d found her quiet intelligence attractive.
Who