“Martin, go stand by the road,” Louis orders. “Stand there and flag down the ambulance so it knows that we are here. I’ll talk to Calli. She’ll let us know exactly where to go.” His voice softens as he adds, “It will save us time this way. I promise. Now go, wait for the ambulance and the other officers.”
I do as he says, however petulantly, and he returns to where Calli and Antonia stand, holding on to each other. The injustice of it stings me. I should be hugging Petra, reassuring her, not still wondering where she is, alive or dead. I tromp over to the road, where gravel meets the pavement and wait, scanning the distance, searching for the ambulance. Not yet. I lean against the police car, its metal still exuding the day’s monstrous heat, and I leap away.
Antonia calls back to me, hesitation in her voice. I must have frightened her. “Martin, can you grab a water bottle for Calli? They’re in the backseat.”
I hear Louis yell, “No, wait!” and he comes running toward me.
I open the back door, behind the passenger’s seat and pull out three water bottles, two for Calli and one that I will bring up with me when we go to find Petra. I, frankly, do not care about Ben at this point. Had he done this? As I begin to pull myself out the car I see them. Stained in dirt, but I recognize them, I had folded them myself just yesterday when I pulled them from the dryer. White with little yellow flowers. I snatch the plastic bag that held them and inspect them closely, by now Louis is at my side.
“Martin,” he says helplessly. I shove the package into his chest, not able to look at it anymore.
“I am going after my daughter,” I tell him simply, calmly, despite the terror clutching at my chest. And I run, all fifty-some years of me, up that trail, with Deputy Louis calling after me.
“Martin, wait! Wait! We need to wait for backup.”
I ignore his pleas and run.
DEPUTY SHERIFF LOUIS
“Damn,” I mutter to myself as Martin dashes past me and heads up the trail. God knows what he will find up there. “Toni,” I bark. “Wait here for the other officers and the ambulance. I’m going with Martin.” I scan her worried face. “It will be okay. I’ll go up there and bring Ben down, safe and sound. Don’t worry. We’ll take Hobo Hollow. Tell them the trail on the left, where it forks.”
She nods and squeezes my hand.
“Thank you, Louis.” Her voice trembles. I squeeze back and follow Martin into the woods.
It doesn’t take me long to catch up with him. He is stopped near the edge of a trail and is examining something lying off to the side. He is breathing heavily and does not turn as I step close to him at his elbow.
“It’s dead,” he says matter-of-factly.
I reach down to touch the dog’s flank. “He’s still warm,” I observe. “He hasn’t been here long.”
“What do you think happened to it?” Martin asks fearfully.
“I don’t know.” I keep my voice level and calm. “Martin, you need to go back down now. You’re going to get both of us in a lot of trouble if you go up there.”
“I’m going up,” Martin says firmly.
I sigh in resignation. “Let’s take it somewhat slower, though, all right? It will do Petra no good if one of us gets hurt before we reach her. Okay?”
“Yes, fine,” he says, gazing down at the dead dog. “We need to hurry, though, please. Let’s hurry.”
We continue upward. Dusk is only an hour or so away, but close enough for me to begin to worry that we won’t get Petra, Ben and whoever else was at the top of the bluff down. A rescue mission down the bluff would be difficult enough during daylight, but in the dark of night, it would be complex. I requested that several all-terrain vehicles be brought to the trail to expedite matters. I had also told the dispatcher to have a helicopter from Iowa City on standby in case of serious injuries.
“Petra isn’t dead, Martin.”
He looks at me. “Did Calli tell you that?”
“Not in words, but I questioned her. She indicated that Petra was at the top of Hobo Hollow and she was hurt, but she couldn’t say how badly.”
“Did she tell you who did this?” Martin says through gritted teeth, wheezing with the exertion of the climb.
“No, I didn’t get that from her. That was when you found…Do you need to sit and rest for a moment, Martin?”
“No, I’m fine.” We continue forward in silence.
“I could kill whoever did this, Louis. I really and truly could.”
“That wouldn’t solve anything, Martin. It would make things worse, so much worse.”
“You have a child, a son.” It wasn’t a question.
“Yes. His name is Tanner, he’s four.”
“And you would do anything for him?” Martin asks, concentrating on the ground in front of him.
“Yes, I think I would.”
“Then you could kill someone who hurt your child, in that way,” he says resolutely.
I take a sidelong glance at Martin. His face is waxy. A sweaty sheen covers his forehead and he mops at it with a handkerchief that he pulls from his pocket. “I would probably feel like killing someone who would hurt Tanner, but I don’t actually think I would. Especially if the police were already there to help.”
“She said, ‘Ben,’ and she was holding Petra’s necklace and her underpants in her hands. What do you suppose is going through my mind?” He stops for a fraction of a second, shakes his head and then hurries onward. “We need to get to the top, and then we will go from there.”
I take a moment to use my walkie-talkie to convey where I am and to get an update on what was happening at the base of the trail. The ambulances have just arrived. One to transport Calli and Toni to the hospital, another standing by, waiting for further direction. Two officers on four-wheelers and several on foot and horseback would be joining us shortly. I remind everyone that we had no suspect and no description of a suspect. Just that everyone needed to be on the lookout for Petra and Ben. Most of the officers knew them by sight, but pictures were circulating.
We are nearing the fork in the trail and I use my arm to specify the direction we would take. “Whatever we find up there, Martin, you must let me step forward first. Your first thought will be to go to Petra, but don’t.” I step in front of him in order to make him stop. “Do you understand me, Martin? You can’t just barrel up there. Someone dangerous may be at the top. Hell, someone dangerous could be watching us right now. You need to let me determine what we do next. We shouldn’t even be up here right now without other officers.”
“You couldn’t have stopped me,” Martin says.
“No, that’s why I’m up here with you. I don’t want you getting hurt, or you hurting someone else, for that matter. When we get up there, you wait. You wait until I tell you what to do next. You stay behind me at all times. Got it?”
Martin purses his lips and looks prepared to argue, but he doesn’t. “I understand,” he says and keeps walking. I am surprised by his stamina. He is still going strong, and even my legs are beginning to ache with the effort of trekking up the bluff. I am sure that adrenaline has a lot to do with Martin’s endurance. He will be a very sore man tomorrow morning.
CALLI
Her mother had taken one look at her torn and bleeding feet and picked her up, holding her as she would a toddler, chest to chest, Calli’s chin resting on her shoulder. Petra’s father had scared her. The look on his face, the terrible sound in his voice. Much different from her father’s, but even more insistent. They had left so quickly, but
