Manhunt On Mystic Mesa

Heidi shook her head. “Nothing like that. She was maybe a little quiet. When she took a break at about one, I didn’t think anything of it.”

“You thought she’d gone to use the restroom,” Ryan said.

“At first, but then when she didn’t come back, I figured she’d taken a walk. She did that sometimes, when things were slow. She was really interested in wildflowers and plants and stuff, and she liked to photograph the scenery.”

“What was your first thought when you realized she was missing?”

She shrugged. “I wondered if she’d gone too far from camp and gotten lost.” She swept her hand to indicate the surrounding landscape. “It’s pretty empty out here. I know I get disoriented all the time. But we spread out and searched and none of us saw any sign of her. I wouldn’t think she could have gone that far.”

The rest of the students who had worked with Jenny shared Heidi’s puzzlement as to what might have happened to Jenny. Ethan and Ryan finished their questions and headed back to the cruiser. Eric’s Camry was gone and Eddleston had returned to his work, but Ryan was surprised to find Jana Lassiter waiting beside the cruiser.

“Could I speak with you a moment?” she asked as he approached. She glanced toward Ethan. “Privately?”

“I’ll start filling out the reports,” Ethan said, opening the driver’s-side door.

Ryan walked with Jana about fifty yards, to the shade of a pile of boulders. “What’s on your mind?” he asked.

“What do you know about Eric Patterson?” she asked.

“No more than you do,” he said. “I’ve only been in town a week. I transferred to the Rangers from Grand Junction.”

She hugged her arms around her stomach, as if she was in pain. “I didn’t know about him—not just that he and Jenny were engaged, but I didn’t even know he existed. That isn’t like Jenny. Not that I expect her to tell me everything, but she always talks to me about the men in her life.”

“Maybe she didn’t say anything to you about Eric because this relationship was different from those others,” he said. “More serious. Maybe she wanted to be more sure of her feelings before she shared them with you.”

Jana shook her head. “That isn’t her. And he’s not her type at all. The men she dates are always funny and easygoing. Considerate. He’s so cocky and full of himself. He isn’t worried about her—he’s basking in the attention her disappearance is bringing to him.”

Ryan couldn’t disagree with anything about her assessment of Eric Patterson. “People react differently to grief,” he said. “Maybe he came off cocky just now because he was nervous about meeting you and trying to impress you.”

She gave him a sharp look. “Do you always feel the need to play devil’s advocate?”

“It’s a cop thing. Questioning assumptions is sometimes a good way to find out new information.”

She sighed and her shoulders slumped. “I suppose being disagreeable doesn’t mean he had anything to do with Jenny’s disappearance.”

“We don’t have a good enough picture of what happened to have any suspects yet,” Ryan said. “We have more people to interview.”

“Who?”

He didn’t see any harm in telling her. “There’s a group camped not far from here. We want to find out if any of them saw or heard anything.”

“I don’t understand why you don’t have more people out searching for her,” Jana said. “What about using dogs to track her? And what about her phone? Can’t you find someone through their cell phone? Have you issued one of those alerts—an Amber Alert? Isn’t that for missing persons?” With each new suggestion, she grew more agitated.

Ryan laid a gentling hand on her shoulder. “There are search and rescue teams combing the area right now,” he said. “The sheriff’s office has had a tracking dog out here and we’ve got people trying to trace her phone, but they’re not getting any kind of signal. And Amber Alerts are only for children. Your sister hasn’t been missing even twenty-four hours. There’s still a chance she’ll turn up unharmed. Maybe she just needed to get away for a while. She could have hitched a ride into town and be staying with a friend we don’t know about.”

She stared into his eyes, as if trying to read his thoughts and divine his intentions. “She wouldn’t let me worry this way,” she said. “If Jenny was with a friend, or anywhere she could make a call, she would let me know she was all right. I’ve tried calling and texting her dozens of times, but she isn’t answering her phone. I’m really worried about her.”

He took his hand from her shoulder and nodded. “From what you’ve told me, it does seem unusual for your sister to just walk away from everything. Right now, our best guess is that she is lost, so we’ll continue the search efforts, including interviewing everyone who might have seen her.”

She opened her purse and took out a business card. She scribbled something on the back, then handed it to him. “That’s my cell number. I’m staying at the Columbine Inn. If you learn anything new, please call me.”

He glanced at the number, then turned the card over. “You’re a CPA?”

“You sound surprised.”

His face felt hot. “It wouldn’t have been my first guess.”

“I get it. CPAs are supposed to be boring and plain. I hear librarians have the same problem.”

“You aren’t boring or plain.” He slipped the card into his pocket. “I promise to keep in touch.”

“I’m trusting you to do that.” She met his gaze and he felt the pull of that look somewhere deep in his gut—a surprising but not wholly unpleasant sensation. “And just so you know, I don’t give my trust very easily,” she added, before turning and walking away.

* * *

JANA’S FIRST INSTINCT was to remain near the dig site, walking the desert and calling for her sister. But she had no idea where Jenny might go, and in the vast, mostly featureless terrain she was liable to end up lost herself. So she returned to Montrose, but not to the motel. Instead, she headed to the apartment Jenny shared with another young woman. April was a medical assistant at the local hospital, and she had told Jana to feel free to come in and look around.

She let herself in with the key Jenny had given her and stood for a moment surveying the living room. She had been here before, of course, on visits since Jenny had relocated here for the summer. But she had never been here without Jenny. Already the place felt alien without her sister’s presence.

Steeling herself, she crossed the living room to Jenny’s bedroom. She didn’t know what she was looking for—what she might find that the police investigators wouldn’t have uncovered. April had told her the police had already been there. They had made copies of Jenny’s computer files and looked through her belongings, but shared no impressions of their findings.

Jana sat on the side of the bed and looked around, trying to see the room as an outsider might. The small space was as bright and sunny as Jenny herself—from the pink patchwork quilt on the bed to the paper flowers tacked to the bulletin board over her desk. Sophisticated cosmetics shared space with a stuffed pink bear. It was the room of a girl who was slowly transforming into a woman.

She swallowed hard against the lump in her throat. She refused to give in to tears, as if grieving would be disloyal. But the knowledge that her sister might not be all right, might in fact be dead, lurked at the edge of her consciousness, a horrible specter she wasn’t yet willing to confront.

It’s only been one day, she reminded herself. Jenny is young and healthy and smart. If she did get lost, she knows to stay put and wait for help. And she’s got a lot of people working to find her. The memory of Officer Spencer’s hand on her shoulder, a reassuring, comforting weight, returned and made her feel more settled. She believed he was doing everything he could to help her and Jenny. In the future, the sisters would look back on this time and laugh about the adventure.

She forced herself to stand and walk to the desk and power up the laptop computer. She knew the password—the same one Jenny had used for years—and soon was perusing her sister’s files and email and Facebook page. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. There was no journal detailing a secret worry or hurt, no anguished emails to friends, only the usual cheery greetings or gossiping about school or movies or weekend plans. She found a few emails from Eric Patterson, but they offered little insight into the relationship—invitations to dinner or confirmation of weekend plans. No words of love or secret scheming.

The sound of the front door opening startled her. “April, is that you?” she called. “I’m back here in Jenny’s room.”

“It’s not April,” came a man’s voice, and a moment later Officer Ryan Spencer filled the doorway of the bedroom.

Heart thudding painfully, Jana stared at him, caught off guard. “What are you doing here?” she demanded.

“The sheriff’s office gave us the information they had, but I wanted to see the place for myself.” He came into the room, and the already-small space seemed to shrink around them. “I thought it would help me get a better feel for your sister.”

Jana sank onto the bed again, fearful her shaking legs might not support her. Having the police here—in Jenny’s private space—made the magnitude of her disappearance that much greater. “This room is just like Jenny,” she said. She didn’t elaborate—let him make of that what he would.

His gaze roamed around the room. She had the sense that he was analyzing everything he saw, putting each item into a bigger picture he was forming of her sister. At last his eyes came back to her. “Have you found anything I should know about?” he asked.

She glanced toward the desk and the open computer. “I don’t know if it’s anything important,” she said. “But it’s something that struck me as odd when I was looking through her social media.”

“There are no pictures online of her with Eric Patterson,” he said.

“Yes!” She stared at him, impressed in spite of herself. “She has pictures of herself with other friends on her Facebook and Instagram pages, and here.” She indicated the bulletin board.

He nodded. “If you were engaged to someone, you would probably have lots of pictures of them.” He walked over to the laptop and hit a few keys. “There’s something else on this you ought to see,” he said. “Something I discovered looking at the copy of her hard drive the sheriff’s office made.”