Searching
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“Tobin!” Christine Sinclair shouts out in the darkness, her voice muffled by her mask, “Tobin, can you hear me?” she shines her flashlight around in the woods.
Their group is fanned out, each one remaining about fifteen feet apart as they work their section. It’s the third section they’ve walked on the embarkment and they’re growing disheartened.
“Okay you guys,” Lindsey calls out, out of breath, “head up to the road. A.D.’s got water for us, we’ll take a little break.”
The group makes their way up the tangled brush to the side of the road to where A.D., who is still on crutches from her knee injury and therefore only driving, is passing out water bottles to them through her car window.
Sinc, Lindsey, Nadine and Kat are standing next to the car, wondering if they’ll ever find Tobin when they see the Thorns van pull past them and make a U-turn and park a few yards in front of A.D.’s car. Bailey exits the passenger door and approaches them.
“Hey guys,” she says with a subdued tone, “you all hanging in there?”
Sinc nods gravely and looks down the road, curious to marks on the gravel, illuminated by the headlights of the van. Wordlessly she walks towards it, flicking on her flashlight to get a better look. It looks like something slid across from the blacktop into the gravel.
“What’s wrong?” Lindsey’s voice comes from behind her, making Sinc jump.
“Look,” she shines her light on the area, “doesn’t that look weird?” she questions, training her light to follow the slide. They both see how the foliage is tamped down as it disappears down the embankment.
“What are you guys looking at?” Bailey asks, making the two jump.
“Check this out,” Sinc says as she trains her flashlight on the slide and how it goes into the underbrush.
“Pierre!” Bailey calls out immediately, “Come look!”
Pierre exits the van to join them. “Let’s take a look,” he suggests as Sinc steps towards the greenery.
“Hey, look!” Kat yells, making the stop and turn.
Kat is facing standing on the roadway, her flashlight trained on the pavement. “Skidmarks!” she exclaims. The little group joins her, standing on the desolate road, except for their vehicles parked on side of the road with hazard lights flashing, looking out to where she’s trained her flashlight. Lindsey walks to where the black tire residue is the thickest.
“It’s like someone slammed on the brakes,” she comments, looking up at them, “do you think this could be related?”
They all nod, “We have to check this out,” Nadine states, crouching down to run a finger on the skidmark. “It’s fresh,” she announces with surprise, holding her index finger up that’s darkened with the burnt rubber.
“I’ll call John and have him come down,” Pierre says, pulling his phone from his pocket, “you guys go look,”
Lindsey is by the car, explaining to A.D. what they found.
“Guys,” Bailey’s serious tone halts them from heading down the embankment, “look,” she says quietly, stepping towards them, “we don’t know what we might find,” she cautions gravely, “Tobin could be badly injured,” she says and swallows, “or worse. So, if she’s lying there, don’t touch her or move her until me or Pierre can get there, okay?”
It sobers the four soccer players and they nod silently.
They five head down the embankment, flashlights shining on the beaten down plants and the area around. They call out for Tobin as they carefully pick their way down and out of sight from the road.
“It really looks like someone was lying here,” Bailey states as they stand on the sloped side, looking at the area of tamped down foliage.
“But where did she go?” Kat asks, shining her light around the area.
“This way?” Lindsey suggests, sweeping her flashlight to the west while fingering the broken off stem of a weed.
“That looks like a path,” Sinc says as they view the trampled down line in front of them. She considers for a moment, “How about you guys follow this,” she says, “and I’ll go up on the road and jog that way and call for her up there,”
Bailey nods, “She would have had a head start on us,” she reasons, “sounds good.”
Sinc quickly climbs up the embankment and tells Pierre and A.D. what they found and what they’re doing. Then she’s off at a quick pace, yelling out for Tobin.
XXXX
“A.D. just texted me,” Kling announces as she looks up from her phone, “they found skidmarks in the road and it looks like someone went down the embankment.”
Christen gasps and clutches Tyler’s forearm at the news.
Another chirp goes off and Kling reads it aloud. “They’re following a trail, they think maybe someone was walking through the woods along the road.”
“Maybe Tobin got out of the car,” Kling vocalizes what they are all thinking.
“If she got out, why wouldn’t she be on the side of the road?” Tyler wonders aloud.
“Maybe she’s afraid to be on the road,” Becky proposes, “maybe she doesn’t feel safe out in the open.”
“She wouldn’t know the woman wrecked her car,” Kling reasons, “maybe the crazy bitch said she’d find her.”
The three speaking turn to look at Christen.
“Chris?” Tyler questions cautiously. “This is good news,”
Christen shakes her head, “I can’t get my hopes up,” she confesses, “if they don’t find her, I don’t know what I’ll do,” she says, her chin is quivering with emotion. She stands up abruptly, “I need to be alone,” she announces, “will you please tell me if they find her? I just can’t sit here any longer,”
They nod understandingly, feeling awful for her.
Christen makes sure to gently shut the bedroom door after herself and then she turns to survey the room. Tobin had made the bed today, like she usually does since she rises a little later than her, but today she made sure to put all of the pretty pillows Christen can’t help herself in purchasing all up along their sleep pillows. It looks nice. She never told her she had noticed it today, she frowns and her chin quivers and eyes water once more.
She sighs deeply, aimlessly moving around the room, stopping at the closet. She takes a step in and pulls the blue Re sweatshirt off the interior doorknob. Tobin had worn it today until she actually dressed for her meeting tonight. She slips it over head, pulling the collar to her nose to breathe deeply of Tobin’s scent. She looks around and finds the hoodie Tobin wore yesterday and tossed in her clean clothes pile. Tobin is big believer in that jeans and hoodies and sweatshirts and flannels all can be worn multiple times before needing to be thrown in the wash. Unless she spills food of it.
Christen grabs the hoodie, hugging it close and carelessly flops on the bed, on Tobin’s side with her head on Tobin’s pillow and Tobin’s scent surrounding her as she cries.
XXXX