“I’m glad it happened this way, walking through the woods together. Not to mention it’ll be a lot faster than me carrying you. You’re heavier than you look. I had to stick to the trails as much as possible before. Took way longer than it should have.” He let out a boyish laugh.
“I’m all muscle,” Ama said through chattering teeth.
“It’s time to use those muscles, my lady. Let’s pick up the pace,” he said, becoming serious. “We need to get underground before anyone misses you.” He yanked her arm and she stumbled forward.
Underground. Fresh terror slithered through her. Would the tracker work underground? Durante had said it would carry up to five miles. But could it do all of that from under the earth?
MARTIN Chapter 75 | 6:55 PM, December 9, 2006 | Tarson, Georgia
A TWENTY-MINUTE SEARCH OF THE woods behind the courthouse lawn yielded no sign of Ama, and her location had yet to come up on the map. Martin stood in the middle of a grove of trees and laced his fingers together before pressing his hands down on top of his head. The pressure did nothing to slow his spinning mind. He’d lost Ama, and in losing her, he’d lost Hazel, too. He closed his eyes, wondering how he would ever be able to look Eddie in the face again, how he would be able to look at himself.
There were more people in this section of woods than Martin could count, but as the voices rang out, Martin realized he hadn’t once heard Eddie call out for Ama. He opened his eyes and turned in a circle, but Eddie wasn’t just quiet, he was gone.
“Eddie!” Martin cupped his hands, projecting his name into the night. He walked deeper into the woods. “Eddie!”
“I’m here,” Eddie answered, and his form solidified in the shadows as he appeared on a skinny trail. He was out of breath, walking faster than Martin knew he was capable of moving.
“Has her location come up yet?” Martin asked, Eddie’s urgency spurring on his own.
“No. But she’s out there somewhere,” he said, and opened his big hand, which he’d been holding in a fist. The little silver necklace Ama had been wearing at the fundraiser pooled in his palm.
“Where did you find that?” Martin demanded.
“The stone hutch.”
“Why didn’t you tell me where you were going? We could have gone together, been on their trail this whole time. Now they’re half an hour ahead of us at minimum, Eddie!”
“The hutch is half a mile from the courthouse. I didn’t tell you because if I was wrong, we’d both have wasted all that time. And Jonathon doesn’t stick to trails, Martin. He could have gone anywhere after dropping off that necklace. He could’ve even double-backed here and hopped in a car while the rest of us were walking into the woods.”
Desperation shook Martin from within. “Jesus Christ. How the hell are we going to find her? Are you sure there’s no sign of her on your phone?”
“Nothing,” Eddie said, and showed him the phone. Martin glared at the screen, tempted to snatch the phone and hurl it into the dark. A sense of utter failure struck him dead center, and it was all he could do to keep breathing, to keep pretending like he was someone who knew what to do next. But he had no idea what to do.
The impending collapse he and Eddie had talked about in Martin’s living room floor loomed high over them now, and Martin inhaled long and deep as if preparing for the moment it all came crashing down. He’d been caught up in this wave of defeat before. Maybe he’d never really left it.
“What if Ama’s location never comes up?” Eddie’s voice brought him out of the dark of his mind and back into the woods. “We can’t just stand here and wait.”
Martin cast his eyes down, unable to admit this truth while looking at Eddie. “I don’t know,” he said.
“Don’t give me that. I know these woods, but I don’t know how to hunt for a criminal. According to you, I walked all over these hills with that monster right by my side. You tell me where we should go, tell me how to find him, and I’ll get you there.”
Martin blinked, his mind falling quiet. Eddie knew how Michael would behave out here better than anyone. He also knew every inch of the woods.
“Was there an area Jonathon kept you from in the woods? Anywhere he always volunteered to look or told you not to bother with?”
“No,” Eddie answered, but now he sounded unsure.
“There had to be,” Martin said, his thoughts gaining traction. “We know he’s in these woods. He has been all along. He either tried to keep you from a certain location, or he made damn sure he was with you when you were going to search close to his safe place. Where is it?”
“No, no, it’s the opposite,” Eddie said, his entire body taut. “He didn’t like going near the old factory. He never said anything, but whenever I said I was searching that area, he never came to help.”
“Then we start there,” Martin said. Immediately, he called the captain and told him to send all available units and anyone willing to search to the Evansbrite plant, then began striding deeper into Tarson woods, committing his entire self to this choice.
“Hold on, Martin. I know how wrong it feels to leave right now, but driving is going to be a whole lot faster,” Eddie called at his back. By the time Martin turned around, Eddie was already hurrying in the direction of the courthouse lawn.
Martin caught up to him before they reached the edge of the grass, and they matched strides all the way to the parking lot.
When they reached the car, Martin tossed Eddie his keys. “You drive. You know where we’re going. I know who to call for help.”
They climbed into their seats and slammed the doors shut. Eddie cranked the engine and floored the gas, the tires spitting out gravel and kicking up dust. Martin braced a hand on the ceiling and began scrolling through his phone until he found the number for Mrs. Walton.
She answered on the third ring.
“Mrs. Walton, this is Detective Martin. I need your help.” He spoke as calmly as he could as he relayed his suspicions, and then he hung up and turned to Eddie. “I know it sounds insane, and I trust your instincts about the factory, but we need to pick up a woman named Janie Walton first.” He gave her address.
Eddie glanced at him, reluctance plain on his face, his fingers clamped around the steering wheel. Eddie didn’t have to say anything for Martin to know he didn’t want to go anywhere but the factory. “Tell me how to get there,” Eddie said at last.
Martin knew it was a gamble, and what the delay of even a minute might cost them all, but he was absolutely sure of one thing: if they found Michael with Ama or Hazel held hostage, his mother was the only person on earth who stood a chance of stopping him.
AMA Chapter 76 | 7:00 PM, December 9, 2006 | Tarson, Georgia
AMA ARRIVED AT MICHAEL’S BUNKER panting and sweaty. She was almost grateful to step inside, if only for the break in movement. But seeing Hazel in the flesh didn’t bring near the flood of relief Ama had anticipated.
Hazel sat in the far corner, barely eight feet away, both hands chained to the brackets on the metal shelving unit bolted to the bunker wall. Her shirt hung on her like it was pinned to a clothesline, and the slope of her face dove off her cheekbones. Her hair was knotted. She was missing several fingernails, and Ama spotted burn scars up both arms. Hazel’s eyes were open but barely tracking Ama’s presence.