Two of a Kind (Fool's Gold #11)(88)

“We’re going to walk a grid,” Police Chief Barns said through a megaphone. “There are a few outlying areas we want to check, as well. Up the road by Gideon’s house. Justice, you take your team there. Also, the summer camp. Consuelo, can you go there? Make sure a parent with a kid in the camp is on the team.”

Gideon paced, waiting for them to be assigned. He kept having the nagging sense of missing something. That the why of it all was right in front of him, if only he could see it.

“You should go check out the caves by the Castle Ranch,” Mayor Marsha told Felicia. “If I were a boy, that’s where I’d go.”

“Caves?” Felicia’s voice rose in pitch. “That sounds dangerous.”

“These are shallow. Heidi uses them to age her cheese, but only a few. They’re safe enough—we had lots of people in them last year for...” She pressed her lips together. “That’s not important. You two go ahead. I’ll tell Alice.”

“I’ll come, too,” Kent said grimly.

Gideon grabbed Felicia’s hand and pulled her to his truck. “That’s as good a place to start as any.” He needed to be moving, doing. Standing around accomplished nothing.

“I don’t want a random search,” Felicia said. “It’s late and I want to find him.”

While it wasn’t exactly cold in late August, there was still a slight chill in the air. What if Carter was scared? What if something had happened to him? What if he was hurt?

Gideon shook off the questions. He hadn’t been in the field in years, but he knew the drill. Stay focused. Felicia might have the brains in the operation but he had the experience.

“How can anyone survive this?” she asked, sliding into the passenger side and closing the door. “The not knowing. It’s horrible.”

“I’m telling you, a shed is the answer.”

Kent slammed the rear door. “I can tell you Reese isn’t going to see the light of day until he’s thirty-five.”

They drove out to the ranch.

When they got there, several people were waiting for them. Rafe Stryker had already collected flashlights. Heidi, his wife, showed them some rudimentary maps of the caves, done years ago.

“This is where I store my cheese,” she said, pointing. “I was just there this morning.”

“Carter hadn’t run away then,” Gideon told her. “He was at the festival.”

“See how the path splits,” Rafe told them. He traced the line on the map. “Heidi only goes south. There’s a whole maze of trails heading north. If the boys are in the caves, that’s where we’ll find them.”

Shane, Rafe’s brother, joined them. They walked past a barn and what Heidi identified as the goat house, then headed toward the opening to the caves. Everyone turned on their lights. Three minutes later, they reached the divide in the path. Heidi and Rafe went first.

“This way,” Heidi said. “I spent some time in these caves last summer. There were cave paintings.” She paused. “That doesn’t matter. This way.”

Felicia moved next to Gideon. He took her hand. She squeezed his fingers, and they walked forward.

After a few hundred feet, he heard something.

“Quiet,” he instructed.

“I heard it, too,” Felicia murmured.

Their group went silent. In the distance was faint music.

“That way,” he said, pointing to a path that veered to the left.

“Carter!” Felicia called as she started to run.

Gideon kept up with her easily. His right hand kept reaching for a nonexistent weapon. The result of training, he thought grimly. No guns today, and no enemies.

“Carter!” Felicia screamed, running ahead.

Gideon kept pace with her. They rounded a bend and stumbled into a large open cave with high ceilings. Carter and Reese were sitting on sleeping bags, playing a game on a laptop, music blasting from speakers. There were lanterns and a cooler.

The teens scrambled to their feet as the adults rushed in. Felicia pulled Carter hard against her.

“What were you thinking?” she demanded as she touched his face, then his shoulders. “Running away? It was horrible. When I read that note—”

Kent muttered something under his breath as he reached for Reese. Father and son embraced.

The rest of the team gathered around. Felicia kept touching Carter, as if reassuring herself. Then she started to cry.

Carter immediately stepped back and looked horrified. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Don’t cry.”

“I was so scared,” she admitted, her voice shaking.

“I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

“Too bad, because you would have achieved your goal. Oh, Carter.” She hugged him again. “You know you have to be punished, right?”

He nodded.

“Okay, and you have to swear you’ll never do this again.” She cupped his face in her hands. “I love you. You need to get that.”

Tears filled his eyes. “I love you, too, and I’m sorry.”

“Me, too, Dad,” Reese told his father. “It was a stupid trick.”

“More than a trick. You’re grounded, for starters. We’ll take it from there.”

Rafe headed toward the path. “I’ll alert the others that the boys are found.”