Just like that, he was furious. How dare his brother come at him like that? As he opened his mouth to start unleashing his fury on William, Kristin reached over and touched his arm. Her touch had an instant calming effect, like a shot of Ativan. His brother wasn’t exactly wrong—he could see where he was coming from in his argument—but he didn’t need to be such a jerk about it. Then again, neither did Casper. He needed to be patient with his brother. His wife had gone missing and there was no doubt he had to be lashing out due to sheer panic and desperation.

  “I’m sorry,” Casper said, attempting to self-correct before things took a turn that they didn’t need to take. His brother already had enough on his plate. “Do you want to tell me what happened with Michelle? I’m here in Billings, going to go out with the SAR team. I want to help.”

  Kristin gave him an approving pat on his arm. He let out a long sigh as he gained control over all the feelings that he was trying to work through.

  There were the sounds of voices, authoritative, strong and sounding of law enforcement, coming from somewhere in the background at William’s location.

  “Where are you right now? Do you want me to come get you? Do you want and to try to get out there and volunteer with the unit?” Casper’s questions came out in a long string, since he wanted to get everything asked as he could hear how busy his brother must have been.

  “Actually, I just got done at work and now I’m talking with my lawyer. I had an appointment I couldn’t get out of. I have to go. Thanks for calling and I appreciate your help.”

  The line went dead.

  Had his brother really just hung up on him...and for a lawyer?

  All his warning bells went off.

  Why would his brother be at a lawyer’s office at this very moment? Was he trying to hide something by way of his lawyers?

  He threw his phone on the dashboard and sat back in his seat as he watched the city of Billings pass by his window. They were on top of one set of the rimrocks, looking down onto the belly of the beast. There was a long stretch of pull-outs, where people could park and watch the city lights from above.

  Ideally, the place would have been perfect for a 1950s-style date night, but unfortunately there were a number of rusted-out and taped-together cars that had been abandoned. On the ground, as they passed, was trash, and even as they cruised by, he could make out an assortment of drug paraphernalia.

  “Do you want to talk about it?” Kristin asked, sounding unsure as to whether or not she should have said anything or just let the subject of the unusual phone call rest.

  “My brother is a jerk. He’s always been a jerk and he will always be a jerk.”

  “I could hear most of it, but did he say anything about his wife—Michelle?”

  He shook his head, looking back and checking on the dog, who was sitting down nicely and staring out the windows as he made himself comfortable with another adventure.

  “When we get to our location, I’m going to need to get Grover set up. He’s not really a trained rescue dog, but given the circumstances, I’m not leaving him in the car and I don’t want to waste time handing him off. Who knows, he may surprise us.”

  She smiled. “I’m sure he will be an asset. I have to tell you, he really is a good boy. I can’t believe how well he did on the flight.”

  He was glad that he wasn’t having to talk about his brother. If he did, he wasn’t sure that he would have anything nice to say—even though his brother did have some almost redeemable qualities when he wasn’t being a total jackass.

  “Grover is my dude.” At the sound of his name, Grover moved toward them, close enough that Casper could reach back and give him a good ear rub. He was lucky to have a buddy like him. He wasn’t sure how he could make it through this life without his companion. It would have been unbearably lonely without him.

  “Do you get along with Michelle?”

  He sighed, hating to accept the fact he was going to have to face the whirlwind that was pressing down upon him and his family. “Yes, she is a nice woman. She was great about taking my dad into their home and getting caregivers for him.”

  “Do they have a big place?”

  He motioned toward the east. “Yeah, they live on one of the bluffs on that side of town. My brother is a car salesman. Used to own a dealership, but it shuttered during the pandemic. Now, he has gone to work for a friend of his...so far as I know. Michelle was selling insurance, but I don’t know much about her work.”

  “Did she hike a lot, do you know?”

  He shrugged. “She was fit. I’m thinking she was active.”

  “That’s a positive. If she is out there and hurt on the trail, if she is prepared for an emergency, then there is a good possibility that we can get to her and get her out pretty quickly.”

  “Has your team pinned her phone’s location?”

  “Its last location pinged at her residence.”

  He frowned. “That doesn’t sound like her. She wouldn’t go anywhere without her phone. She lives on that thing, just like the rest of the planet.”

  Kristin coyly slipped her phone back into the cup holder as she drove. “Maybe she wanted a break from the thing. Let’s not jump to any conclusions.”

  “I’m not jumping to anything. All I’m thinking is that this is all just too close to what happened to my father. I mean, what are the odds that my father and now Michelle must have search-and-rescue called to find them? If she’s hurt, my brother’s going to have to answer to me.”

  “I’m sure Michelle will be fine. She is probably just out on a walk and got lost because she didn’t have her phone. Time got away from her...you know the norm.” Kristin tried to make him feel better. “I won’t deny it’s odd that your brother is on the edge of two SAR calls, but it doesn’t mean that he has done anything wrong. It just means that maybe your family, and your brother specifically, are having a run of bad luck and even worse timing.”

  “You know I want to believe you. I want to think you are right. I just know my brother and I know he tends to do things that I wouldn’t.”

  “Does that mean you think your brother would kill your father? Or somehow be involved in his wife’s going missing?”

  When she put it in those words, so simply and yet so incredibly stark, he couldn’t say that he thought his brother was capable of being evil.

  “You’re right. Sometimes, and maybe this is all my years dealing with the worst of the worst, I make assumptions. Right or wrong, they have gotten me out of some tough situations.” He picked up his phone again. “It’s just that action is better than inaction. I guess I just want to blame what happened to my father on someone. I should have been there to take care of him more.”

  “You know that I can understand that. It always hurts to lose someone you love and it hurts a thousand times more when you feel like you were somehow responsible.”

  Her words made him think of his brother’s refusal to come in and volunteer in helping to search for Michelle—though, in all reality, he wasn’t really supposed to be on scene in the event she was found deceased. Normally, family members were kept at bay.

  When they arrived on scene it was much like his own unit. The Billings team was setting up the command trailer at the base of the trail and there was a flurry of activity. For a while, he and Grover followed behind Kristin, tagging along as she made introductions within the small group of people. It was fun watching the activity from the perspective of an outsider, if nothing else than to see where he and his team could learn by their examples of what to do. Most people he met were friendly and nice, welcoming him in and shaking his hand. Of course, everyone loved Grover, and it made it easier to ingratiate himself to this other team.

  A black Suburban pulled up to the area, and as it did, there was a slight shift in the mood. Smiles disappeared and a seriousness took over as a middle-aged man stepped out. His face had the deep wrinkles and dark eyes of a guy who had seen more death and pain than any single person should have to endure—Casper knew that look all too well. Sometimes he worried he would become like this man—marred by the trauma of his life.

  “Hey, guys,” the man said, his voice as rough as the man it belonged to. He made his way toward them and the nine other people in the group moved together into a circle around him.

  Kristin leaned over to him and whispered, “That’s our director, Roger Bell.”

  Even if she hadn’t told him that he was the one in control of the scene, he wouldn’t have questioned it. Maybe one day, if he carried on for a search-and-rescue team, he could behave like this man—in command and carrying an air of authority. It was something to see a person who was so well-respected that without even saying a word, he could be in power.

  In his days in the army, he had seen people with more stars than this man, and they hadn’t garnered such a response.

  “First of all, let me start off by saying that I’m glad you could all make it today,” Roger said, standing at the center of the group. “I know you have a lot going on in your personal lives and jobs, but we appreciate you being out here. It’s my goal that we find Michelle swiftly and with as little fanfare as possible. I have been informed that media outlets are monitoring the situation, and as such, I want to remind everyone not to post or share anything on social media or with family and friends.”

  Already, he liked the man.

  Roger looked over at him and gave him an acknowledging dip of the head. “I’m sure most of you have met our guest here today, but in case you haven’t I want to introduce Casper to the group. He’s a pilot out of Big Sky, near Yellowstone Park. As I’m sure most of you have heard by now, he was in an incident involving our bird.”

  Casper’s stomach dropped. He hadn’t expected the man would know who he was, let alone out him as the pilot who’d cost them their helo.

  “I want to extend my thanks to you, Casper. Without your superior flying skills and knowledge, one of the greatest members of our team would have likely lost her life.”

  “As much as I appreciate the acknowledgement, sir,” Casper said, “I feel as if I need to clear the record. All I did was my job.”

  The man nodded in appreciation. “And he’s humble.” He offered his hand and Casper took it, giving it a shake.

  The group around him muttered their thanks and as he stepped back, the man closest to him slapped him on the shoulder. The woman next to Kristin leaned in and whispered something he couldn’t make out, but a smile erupted on Kristin’s features.

  “Cute dog, by the way,” Roger said, putting out his hand. Grover walked over and sniffed the man before coming back to Casper. “Kristin let me know that this case is involving your sister-in-law, and as such, I’m concerned for your welfare in this search.”

  Before the man could continue, Casper put up his hand and waved him to stop. “Sir, while I appreciate your concern for my well-being, I can assure you that and I am practiced in search-and-rescue and all that it may imply. Though Michelle is my sister-in-law, my relationship with her will not impact my ability to do my job.”

  As soon as he finished speaking, Casper questioned himself. While he had done a great deal of recoveries and lifesaving operations, it was an entirely new thing to promise that he could keep his cool if Michelle was injured.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Their boots crunched on the gravel as they took to the trail looking for Michelle. Casper walked in front of her, talking to Roger. As he walked, his pants pulled tight against his ass. Watching him move was making it hard to remember what task was at hand, when all she wanted to do was reach out and squeeze.

  If things went well, they would have Michelle safely returned to the city before the sun disappeared from the sky. Unfortunately, ever since she had met Casper, not much had been going their way. That didn’t mean things couldn’t take a turn for the better, but she hated to hold out hope.

  Roger turned to face her, slowly walking backward. “I wasn’t aware the guy you’d been training had such an interesting résumé,” he said, motioning toward Casper.

  Though she couldn’t really identify why, she found herself a bit proud. Casper was her friend, but she was also grateful he was making such a good impression on Roger. It would make selling the idea of going back and redoing the training that much easier.

  “He’s a good dude,” she said. Grover came over to her and brushed against her leg as she walked, pushing his head into her hand and forcing her to love on him. There was something about the dog nosing his way into her life that reminded her a little of Casper, but in all the right ways.

  They were both painfully cute, though Grover may have had the edge.

  She smiled at her thought.

  “I’m going to head back to the incident command center. If you need anything, and I mean anything, let me know,” Roger said, looking back at Casper as he spoke.

  “We got this.” Kristin took a dog treat out of her pocket and handed it to Grover. “We have the best additional team member we could hope for, so it won’t be long before Michelle is back with her family.” Which included Casper, and once she was back, Casper could get on his way back to Big Sky and out of her life.

  Maybe she didn’t want to rush this search too much, after all.

  “Good luck,” Roger said, letting her move by him.

  Though the landscape was different, scrubby and dry compared to the timbered mountainsides of the western side of the state, as they walked, she found herself thinking about how much time she had already spent hiking through the wilderness with the man in front of her. Even in the face of chaos and mayhem, she found comfort in his presence. It was strange.

  They went for about a mile before she realized that the only sounds were of them walking and nothing more. “Hey, Casper?”

  He stopped. “What’s up?”

  “Have you seen Grover lately?” she asked, looking around them, but not seeing the tan, curly-haired dog anywhere.

  “I’m sure he couldn’t have gone far. He normally sticks around pretty well.” Casper gave a long, shrill whistle. “Grover!” he called.

  They listened, and though she expected to hear the clicking of nails on rocks and the breaking of brush as the dog came running back to them, she heard nothing.

  “He never runs away.” Casper whistled again.

  She didn’t want to point out that, right now, that didn’t appear to be true. “He couldn’t have gone that far. I mean, how long has it been since we saw him?”

  Casper cringed. “I don’t know. Ten, fifteen minutes?”

  “Do you think he followed Roger back to the camp?” She took out her phone and sent Roger a quick text, asking him about the dog. “I asked. I’m sure he will get back to me soon.”

  “Hopefully that’s all that happened. Grover can get a little preoccupied and lose track of what he is supposed to be doing sometimes.”

  Her phone pinged and her heart sank as she read the message. “Roger hasn’t seen him. We could turn around and go back?”

  “He was out in front of us. Unless he got a little lost, I’m thinking we just need to keep pressing forward. Like you said, he couldn’t have gotten that far.” He called the dog again, but this time she could hear the panic in his voice.

  “We will find him.” No man or beast who had spent any real time with Casper would want to be away from him for very long. Or maybe that was just her.

  She took hold of Casper’s hand, trying to console him in the only way possible. “You know, maybe he got on Michelle’s scent.”

  He nodded, looking at the trail in front of them, but there was a terror in his eyes that she hadn’t seen since they had gone down. “Yeah.” He whistled loudly.

  Her phone pinged again with another message from Roger. “The boss wants us to stick to the plan. He will send out a crew-wide text for everyone to keep an eye out for the dog. He will be picked up by someone from our team in no time.”

  She had thought losing Michelle was bad enough, but she hadn’t really considered losing the dog and the impact it would have on Casper.

  He started to hike faster and she struggled to keep up with his pace as they both yelled for the dog. After ten minutes, her voice had started to grow hoarse from the yelling and they paused again.

  “Can you text Roger, see if anyone has a ping on Grover?” Casper asked. “I shouldn’t have taken him along with us, but I swear he hasn’t done this before. He’s never disappeared like this. I’m getting worried that something happened to him.”

  She patted their entwined hands. “I’m sure that nothing happened. He probably just got on the scent of something.”

  “Yeah, but we haven’t been here before. He’s not going to know how to get himself out. If someone doesn’t catch him...”

  “Is he chipped?” she asked.

  He nodded. “That’s great if someone else finds him, but what if he fell? I’ve heard of dogs making mistakes and going down embankments and getting hurt. What if he has a broken leg somewhere?”

  She tried to comfort him, rubbing the back of his hand with hers. “Don’t freak out. Any number of things could have happened to him, but I highly doubt that he is hurt. We will find him.”

  She pulled out her phone, but there was nothing from anyone on her team about the dog. There were only a series of pinned locations, where people had last moved during their search for Michelle.

  “It looks like there are two teams to the east and four to the west. We have lots of boots on the ground,” she continued.

  “No one needed this,” Casper said, running his hand over his face in aggravation. “I should have left Grover with my friend.”

 

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