Doing It Over (A Most Likely to Novel Book 1) (17 page)

“I’d kill for a muffin.”

That had her rolling her eyes and smiling when she greeted Miss Gina in the kitchen.

“Well, well, well . . .”

Melanie kissed Miss Gina’s cheek. “Good morning.”

The older woman simply smiled.

Then Wyatt kissed her cheek. “Good morning, Miss Gina.”

She started to laugh. “Well, you two should get laid more often.”

Melanie’s jaw dropped. “Miss Gina!”

“What?” There wasn’t an ounce of remorse on the woman’s face.

The warmth Wyatt had placed inside her the night before refused to go away, and Melanie wasn’t going to let it go anytime soon.

Melanie found the muffins and put one on a plate before setting it in front of him. She moved to the coffee pot and lifted it in offering. When he nodded, she found two cups and poured them both a portion. “I see Mr. Lewis’s car is still here.”

“Yeah, he said he’d be leaving by noon.”

Melanie found the creamer, poured a generous portion inside her cup before letting the hot caffeine do its job. “Where’s Hope?”

Miss Gina glanced out the kitchen window. “Outside.”

When Melanie looked, she didn’t see any sign of her. With coffee cup in hand, Melanie slid beside Wyatt, took a bite of his muffin, and went in search of her daughter.

The screen door slapped against the back door with a familiar twang. The slightly cool morning felt good on her skin . . . or maybe it was the sex from the night before.

Melanie smiled as she walked off the back porch and around the house. The tire swing Wyatt had managed to place in the maple tree sat abandoned. It swayed slightly, as if her daughter had recently sat on it playing. The dirt pile, otherwise known as a garden, sat empty . . . no sign of Hope. Melanie called out her name with no reply. When she entered the house again, she set her coffee cup aside and climbed the stairs to their room. Hope’s nightgown was tossed to the side, a clothing drawer opened halfway in what looked like a typical haste to get on with her summer day.

Still no Hope.

A tiny bit of concern started to weaken the euphoria Wyatt had given her.

Melanie found Wyatt and Miss Gina in deep conversation when she walked back into the kitchen. “She’s not out there.”

Miss Gina tilted her head. “Hope?”

“Yeah, she’s not in her room either.”

“That’s strange, she was just in here not twenty, thirty minutes before you walked in.”

The three of them stopped what they were doing and all headed out back. “You check the garage,” Melanie instructed Wyatt. “I’ll see if she’s by the climbing tree.”

Even though she’d been given strict instructions to never climb a tree without another person with her, anything could have happened.

Melanie called Hope’s name several times en route to the tree the three of them had climbed only a few days before.

When there wasn’t any evidence of her there, that little tickle of worry started to blossom, and the hair on her neck stood on end.

Melanie ran the path back to the inn, fully expecting to find Hope standing beside Miss Gina and Wyatt.

Melanie’s feet faltered when she caught sight of Wyatt and Miss Gina walking in separate directions calling Hope’s name.

She started to tremble. “Hope!” Her voice lifted above the treetops, her cry anything but sane. “Hope!”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

By the time Jo arrived, Melanie was a babbling mess.

Wyatt stood aside and watched as Jo jumped from her squad car and engulfed her friend.

“I can’t find her, Jo.”

Jo took Melanie’s head in her hands and stared her friend down. “We
will
find her.”

“But she was . . . damn it . . . where is she?” Melanie’s tears kept coming.

“Mel! Stop. Stop! Dry up those damn tears and focus. You’re no good to Hope like this.”

Jo’s words must have sunk in. Melanie visibly shook as she sucked in a quick breath and let it out slowly.

“Okay.”

A second squad car drove up, lights blazing.

Jo moved past Melanie and walked to Miss Gina’s side. “Tell me again, from the beginning. Where did you last see her?”

Wyatt heard the recall of Hope’s last known moments for the third time. The need to move, the need to stop talking and search the woods crawled under his skin. He held Melanie’s hand in a tight squeeze.

“And who are you?” Jo turned her attention to the one guest at the inn.

“Patrick Lewis.”

Jo stared at the man. “When was the last time you saw Hope?”

“She ran through when I was eating breakfast.”

Miss Gina placed a hand on Jo’s arm. “Mr. Lewis heard us yelling for Hope and came down from upstairs.”

Deputy Emery joined Jo on the porch.

“Why aren’t we looking for her?” Melanie asked Wyatt.

“We will, baby.” He kissed the top of her head.

Gravel kicked up again, this time with a cloud of smoke that indicated cavalry arriving.

Jo turned around. “What the . . .”

“I called in some help,” Wyatt told her.

Luke jumped off his bike; behind him his parents arrived in their truck. Josie arrived with her bartender and a couple of other employees. Sam and Brenda, Principal Mason, and half a dozen teachers.

Beside him, Melanie started to suck in tight breaths. “Keep it together, honey. We’ll find her.”

Mel could only nod and blink her eyes repeatedly to keep the tears from falling.

Wyatt left Melanie’s side when Josie came to take her in her arms. “She’s probably just turned around in the woods.”

“What’s going on?” Luke asked.

“We came home half an hour ago. Miss Gina said she saw Hope out in the backyard less than a half hour before. When we looked, Hope was gone.”

“No chance she’s just playing?”

Wyatt shook his head. “She doesn’t leave sight of the house unless someone is with her.”

Luke looked at the time on his phone. “So it’s been an hour?”

It sounded worse when Luke said it out loud. “Yeah.”

Deputy Emery walked into the inn with Mr. Lewis and Miss Gina as Jo joined them.

Jo tossed her hat on the bed of the truck. “Thank you all for coming.”

“What can we do, Jo?” Sam wasn’t a young man, but he seemed more than eager to move.

Wyatt and Luke flanked Melanie before Jo started giving instructions.

“We need to spread out until we have more people to help. Hope was wearing a pair of jeans, a purple shirt, and a white sweater. She likes to climb trees. She may have simply climbed too high and can’t get down.” Jo passed a glance to Melanie and added, “Or she might have fallen and can’t walk home.”

Melanie grasped Wyatt’s hand but didn’t cry. “I told her that if she was lost in the woods to find a tree and wait for help.”

Jo offered a smile. “That’s good, Mel . . . real good. She’s a smart girl.”

“She’s adventurous,” Jo told the others.

“And fearless,” Wyatt added.

Jo broke down their search party into groups of three and moved to the back of her squad car and popped the trunk. She removed two-way handheld radios and tuned them all in to the same channel before passing them out.

Wyatt took notice of Mr. Lewis shaking the hand of Deputy Emery as he closed the trunk of his car.

“I don’t have to tell you all that finding Hope before sunset is our priority.”

“We’ll find her, Jo,” Luke said.

As the search party broke apart, Wyatt caught Jo’s attention. “She’s never gone this long,” he said close to her ear.

“I know.”

He glanced at the retreating car of Mr. Lewis. “Where’s he going?”

“Has a flight to catch. I have his information, Wyatt.”

“This sucks.”

“Yeah. Keep Mel sane. I’m going to hold back and search the house.”

Wyatt glanced up at the three-story inn. “You think she might be in there?”

Jo’s words were hardly heard. “I hope not.”

“Jesus.” The memory of a high-profile case swam in his head . . . the outcome less than favorable for the missing child.

Melanie jogged up beside them. “Let’s go.”

Wyatt let himself be led away.

“I’m right behind you,” Jo told her.

Every five minutes felt like thirty.

Every ten felt like an hour.

And every hour felt like a lifetime.

While she choked back the tears, her fear was a tsunami inside her head. They were past the three-hour mark. Every ten minutes Melanie called back to the inn and asked the same question. “Anything?”

Deputy Emery stayed at the house with Miss Gina and instructed the new sets of volunteers on where to search. By now, River Bend was all but closed down and the townspeople combed the woods outside the inn in groups of five and ten.

“Hope!”

Her daughter’s name was called out continually.

Still nothing.

“Melanie, you there?”

Jo’s voice had her fumbling for the radio, her heart racing. She pressed the button and stopped walking as she talked. “Did you find her?”

“No. I need you back at the house.”

She tried not to feel the crushing disappointment of the call. “No. I’m staying out here until we find her.”

“Mel, I’ve called in reinforcements. K-9 units are here. I just need you to do a few things here and you can go back out.”

Wyatt saw her standing still and ran to her side. “Did they find her?”

Melanie shook her head, returned to the radio. “I’m on my way.”

She turned toward the inn and started to jog.

Wyatt kept pace beside her. “What’s going on?”

“Jo brought in the dogs.”

Sweat rolled down her back as she hit the inn’s deck completely out of breath.

The barking of dogs kept her jogging until she rounded the front of the inn.

Cars were everywhere. Two more squad cars, both from neighboring towns, were tossed into the mix. The sheer mass of them brought home the magnitude of her missing daughter.

Miss Gina saw them first and called into the house for Jo.

“How you holding up?” Miss Gina asked.

Melanie didn’t trust herself to speak.

Miss Gina lowered her head. “I should have kept a better eye on her.”

Melanie shot a hand in the air. “No. This is not your fault.”

“If I had—”

She jumped right up into her friend’s face. “This is
not
your fault!”

Melanie pushed past Miss Gina, saw Wyatt from the corner of her eye.

It’s my fault.

“Mel?”

Jo stood with two other uniformed officers, people Mel didn’t recognize.

“That was quick.” Jo wasted little time introducing the dog handlers.

“What we need is something of Hope’s that has her scent on it.”

“Like a sweater?”

“Only if it’s seldom washed. Stuffed animals, favorite blanket . . . that kind of thing is better.”

She ran upstairs and dived for the bed, found a favored stuffed toy, then searched a drawer for a ratty baby blanket that Hope often slept with, but always put away in the morning. Someone had teased her about it the year before when they lived in Bakersfield, and now Hope hid the thing and didn’t talk about it.

Melanie buried her face in it and sucked in a deep breath. It smelled like her daughter.

She shook her head and jogged to Jo’s side before shoving the items into her friend’s hands.

Jo turned and gave them to the men at her side.

“Perfect.”

Both officers had to be in their forties, one a little thicker than the other. They both had kind smiles and faces that didn’t tell her a thing. “We’ll find her, Mrs. Bartlett.”

“It’s Miss.”

The officer on her right—she’d already forgotten his name—nodded and walked from the room.

Wyatt walked in, a bottle of water in his hand. “Here.”

She started to shake her head.

“Melanie.” He thrust it into her hand.

“Fine.” She took it from him and swallowed half the bottle in one gulp before putting the lid back on.

“I should go with them,” Melanie told Jo.

“You should rest for a minute, catch your breath.”

Melanie ignored her friend and turned to leave. She wasn’t going to rest until Hope was back in her arms.

“Mel!” Jo attempted to stop her.

Melanie lifted her hand, middle finger in the air, and continued out the door.

Wyatt fell into step beside her.

“Are you going to tell me to rest?” she asked.

“Nope.”

She offered him a passing glance. “Good.”

“Officer Maaco?” Wyatt called out to the man pushing Hope’s blanket into the nose of a German shepherd.

Maaco passed a look between the two of them with understanding.

“Bella is one of the best, Miss Bartlett. Since your daughter lives here, she might explore the grounds for a little bit, but she’ll catch Hope’s recent scent.”

“Okay.”
Not okay . . . none of this is okay.
The desperation of the day started to weigh in as Bella sniffed around the places Hope usually played. It seemed the dog chased her tail and spun in circles.

Melanie clenched her hands into tight fists and tried to wait.

Bella, and her counterpart, Fisher, both headed off in the same direction at nearly the same time.

The direction they headed was entirely opposite of what Melanie expected.

The dogs went north, leaving behind the south woods they had been searching.

“Where are they going?”

“Following a scent, ma’am.”

It was time for Melanie to turn a full circle. “We never walk this way.”

Bella ran and Maaco followed. “She did today, Miss Bartlett.”

Melanie and Wyatt jogged to keep up.

Maaco called into his radio, “The dogs found a scent, northwest.”

Jo’s voice screeched over the line. “Damn, all right . . . moving reinforcements your direction.”

“Copy.”

Wyatt kept pace beside her. His eyes scanned the landscape in silence, his jaw tight.

They had to be a half a mile from the inn when the dogs split in two directions.

“What the—?”

“They might double back.”

Melanie stared into Wyatt’s understanding eyes. “I’ll go with him,” he said, nodding toward the second K-9.

She bit her lip, nodded, and followed Bella.

Fifteen minutes later, a call came in to the radio.

“We have something.”

Maaco stopped midstride and Melanie held her handset tight. “What?”

“Her sweater. We found Hope’s sweater.”

“Is she in it?” There was a pause. Pain gripped her heart. “Is she in it?”

Wyatt’s voice replied. “No, baby . . . she’s not. We’re still looking.”