Rob woke up lying on warm hay, wearing only his jeans with the fly down. He looked around, confused. The barn of the old sawmill? He tried to sort his blurry memories, but he couldn't recall how he'd gotten there. His last clear recollection was Lila. Her soft lips, her sweet breath.
Lila.
There she was, by his side on the hay, sleeping with a little smile on her lips still painted black. Her smell was all over him. It was like lying on a bed of flowers. Rob's lips curled up as he watched her. And he smiled wider when Lila's eyes fluttered open to meet his.
He leaned in to kiss her. Lila threw her arms around him and pulled him closer. Rob kissed her deeper, rolling on top of her. It didn't matter anymore how they'd gotten to the old sawmill. Nothing mattered, but Lila in his arms, her velvet skin, her lips against his, her little hands grasping his waist, her legs escaping the folds of her dress to entangle his. Rob broke the kiss to catch his breath, overwhelmed by an almost painful need. Lila caressed his face.
"Don't stop, Rob," she whispered. "I need you."
Her voice spoke directly to his body, for his hands to roll up her black dress.
At the hospital, the whole night shift helped to search the hospital, trying not to disturb the few patients. But all they found was Old Boe smoking in the bathroom of his room, and one of the orderlies cheating on his wife with a paramedic. No trace of Rob, though.
Claire didn't tell them the boy was long gone, most likely with a dead girl. Over the years, she'd learned her empathy usually upset people. So she let them to their search and sneaked into the security office, where she sat before the two screens to check the footage recorded over the last two hours. Lucky her, the cameras only recorded when their sensors detected movement.
She checked the hospital entrance camera first. Nobody had come in or out after Lou Thompson had left. However, something had activated the camera only thirty minutes earlier. But the screen showed only static. The image was restored after ten whole seconds of it, showing the empty hall for three more seconds before the lack of movement deactivated the camera. Claire replayed the static frame by frame.
"Gotcha," she murmured.
There she was. On the first frame after the static, the glass doors reflected somebody that had just walked in past the camera. A girl wearing a black gothic dress. Claire searched the footage of the hall outside Rob's room. The same static, but longer. Three whole minutes this time. And when the image was restored, Rob's bed was empty.
Back to the entrance footage, she found another interference. Once more, the first frame after the static held the key. She could only see the feet of two people just out the doors, walking away, but that was enough: a pair of small black boots and a pair of bare feet.
She went back to the lobby and joined the others, too worried and frustrated to notice her absence.
"Nothing!" Ollie snarled. "Can you believe it?"
"And what're you gonna do now?" she asked.
"Keep searching for him, of course." Graham sounded more annoyed than concerned. "It's the only thing we can do."
"We should call Bass and the others," said Ollie. "They're the best trackers in town."
"Good idea. You call them and meet me back at the station."
"Yessir."
The old camping lamp filled the shed with a soft glow. Alex was surprised it worked at all after so many years, but she didn't have to waste prizing Old Bootter's maintenance skills. She grabbed it and crossed the neat workshop toward the huge iron safe in the corner.
She ignored the numbered wheel on the safe door. It was there just to trick fools, because Old Bootter would've never trusted a lock on plain sight unless it was bound by a spell, like the padlock on the door. But he also knew better than using the same ruse twice. So there was no spell on the safe, just hidden locks.
Alex lid her hand between the wall and the back of the safe, and felt it until she found three small bulges. She pressed one and heard a soft click. She did the same at the other side of the safe. One last click and the heavy iron door was unlocked. She opened it and leaned in with the lamp to look inside.
There was no treasure in there, no goldbricks, no jewels, no money. All the safe kept was books. Big and old, with engraved hard covers and titles in many languages.
"Okay, Grandpa. Where should I look up for worms hosted in a brand new corpse?"
Claire's call found her sitting at the sturdy table in the middle of the workshop, surrounded by books. The girl was at the police station, where Bass and his brother Jack had been the first to arrive. Sam and Phil, their hunting buddies, had joined them minutes later. Markus was taking Alice home when they called him, so he'd been the last to show up. Graham and Lou Thompson completed the search party.
As the girl spoke, they gathered around a desk to study a map of Bold Peak and the surrounding lands, and their faces reflected their despair. Eight men at night could only do so much, especially without any clue about where Rob had headed to. On the bright side, Rob was on foot and at least stunned after banging his head on the stairs, so he couldn't be too far.
"They're gonna go out searching right now," Claire whispered on the phone. "Two groups."
Alex nodded, her eyes moving over the book open before her. "North and west. Makes sense."
"They won't find him, Al. Rob and Lila didn't go either way."
"You can still hear her?"
"No, it stopped when Rob disappeared."
"What're you not telling them, kiddo?"
"It's just a hunch, but I think they headed south."
"The old sawmill? We used to go there when we skipped school."
"Yeah, we did too?"
"You skipped school?"
"Really, Al? But you're right, it's a good hideaway."
"Okay, listen to me: if none of them say they're going south, don't tell them about it. Get Ollie to take you there and check the place yourself. If he can't, call me and I'll do it."
"What? Why wouldn't I tell them?"
"How d'you think those tough hunters will take suggestions from a girl?"
Claire sighed. "You're right. What about you? Anything?"
"So far, I have six candidates for that thing inside your girl, each worse than the last. Keep me up."
Claire disconnected as the men headed out. She was surprised to see Ollie stayed there. He turned to her, trying to smile.
"Wanna go home, baby? I'm sorry I dragged you into this mess."
She shook her head, smiling back. "You know I couldn't sleep, with Rob missing and all that's going on. Where are they going?"
"Bass and Lou are going north, to Boulder Creek. The others are heading west, around and past Bald Hill."
"And you?"
Ollie snorted, annoyed. "Graham says they need me here, on the radio."