CHAPTER 93 SHERIFF ELLIE

93

Sheriff Ellie

WITH BUCK LEADING, THE four kids in the middle, and Ellie at the rear, they followed a narrow path from the side of Buck's house through the dense forest and undergrowth around the west side of the mountain toward the Pickerton place. It was clear the path hadn't been made by deer or other animals; some of the branches had been cut back by hand and tossed aside. When they crossed a narrow stream, they held a rope that had been fastened on both sides. Ellie couldn't help but wonder how many times Buck had walked this path over the previous three and a half decades. How often he'd gone looking for his lost love and come home alone.

"Hey, do you guys see those?" This came from Mason Ridler. He was carrying his baseball bat, swinging it in round arcs as he walked. He twisted it around and pointed the tip at a tree on his right. "More of those creepy birds. I can't tell if they're following us. They all look the same to me."

"It will get worse as we get closer, just like they did with Buck and Emily," Robby Harper said without looking up. "They might try to stop us, too. We need to be ready for that."

Mason swung the bat back down. "Bring it on. I could use the practice."

Ellie couldn't figure Robby Harper out. She knew he was autistic—she'd gathered that much with her numerous visits out to his house to break up arguments between his parents—but she had no idea how that played into all this. It was like he understood what was happening on some other level. Like it all made perfect sense to him. She remembered one particular call about three years ago. His dad had gotten drunk and decided to mow the lawn at eleven at night. At five years old, Robby had no business being up that late, but he was. He'd been sitting on the deck of their front porch, putting a puzzle together, and while that was odd, it wasn't the oddest part. He was completing the puzzle with the image facedown, only the blank cardboard side visible. More than half was done. She watched him for nearly a minute as he systematically scanned the remaining pieces and snapped them into place. It all seemed so effortless, like he already knew where each piece went. He had that same look in his eyes now, as if he'd completed this particular puzzle before and was only going through the motions.

Riley's phone dinged, and she looked at the screen and frowned.

Ellie caught up to her. "What is it?"

"A text from my mom. She wants us to go back to Buck's house and wait for her there. She and Matt are on their way. They found a way to get out of town."

Ellie frowned. "Can I see?"

The girl handed her the phone. The message was on the notification screen. "Mind if I reply?"

Riley shook her head. "Go ahead. I don't have a lock code."

Ellie quickly typed back: This is Ellie. Riley is safe, with me. What is the way out?

Message failed to deliver appeared immediately when she hit Send. The phone had no signal. Ellie was about to hand it back to Riley when another message came in, also from her mother: Where you're heading is nothing but death. Turn around.

The phone still showed that it had no signal.

A thought slammed into Ellie's head: This isn't Riley's mother.

This was someone, something, else.

"I'm gonna hold on to your phone for a minute," Ellie told Riley. "In case she replies."

Riley just shrugged and followed after the others, scratching at her arm.

"It ain't much farther," Buck said. "Maybe it's best you all stay here and I scout it—" He paused and looked up at the sky. "You hear that?"

Ellie didn't hear anything. "What?"

"A buzzing sound."

"Is it the birds?"

"Mechanical. Not the birds."

The sun was nearly gone and the moon was out, but very little broke the canopy of trees. They all stopped and looked up, but Robby was first to point. "There."

Mason Ridley followed Robby's finger, then shouted, "Shit! Heads up!" And jumped to the side of the path a moment before something large and black fell from the sky and crashed into the earth with a resounding thud, missing him and the others by only a few feet.

"Eww, gross," Riley muttered, taking a few stumbling steps back from the object. "Is it dead?"

Ellie stepped by her and knelt. "It's not alive at all. It's a drone."

The mangled mess of plastic and metal was about three feet in diameter, or at least it had been. All four propellers were clogged with black feathers, bits of birds, and covered in the same dust the dead bird back at Buck's cabin had produced when Robby stabbed it. Ellie found two cameras—one on the nose, another beneath meant to record straight down. Both lenses were cracked.

"It looks old," Robby said quietly.

Buck grunted. "Not old but beat to hell for sure."

Robby quickly shook his head. "No, it is old. Look at the plastic. It's faded and cracked, like it's been in the sun a really long time. Plastic doesn't get brittle like that unless it's been outside a long time, exposed to changes in temperature, like toys left out during the winter. This has been through a bunch of winters."

Evelyn Harper, who had been uncharacteristically silent for most of the walk, finally spoke. "It must belong to whoever put the fence up around town."

Ellie didn't disagree. It looked military. No branding of any sort. Although there was no evidence of fire, parts looked melted. She looked up at the sky but saw nothing. From the trees, at least a dozen crows silently looked back at her, their beady eyes glistening with moonshine.

Still holding Riley's phone, she felt it vibrate in her hand with another message from whoever was pretending to be the girl's mother: Turn back

Buck was standing over her when that one came in. "Maybe you should take the kids back to my place and let me go this one alone, Ellie."

"I think it's best we all stick together." She quickly told them what she suspected about the incoming texts. "I don't know if whoever this is is trying to help us or hurt us. Until I figure out that much, they don't get to give me orders."

"Well, it ain't much farther," Buck repeated as he turned away and started back down the path.

And it wasn't.