Chapter 14

Brigid stood in the hospital hallway with a nurse, trying to get information about Daniel Uriarte's condition.

"I'm sorry," the nurse said. "I sympathize with your problem, but I can't tell you anything about my patient."

"I'm a licensed private investigator." Brigid pulled out her wallet and showed the nurse her forged credentials. "I understand the sheriff has been working with Mr. Uriarte's private security. Are you telling me that Miss Mackenzie doesn't deserve the same cooperation?"

"I'm not telling you that. I'm telling you that if you want information, you need to speak to the sheriffs too." She held up her hands. "I can't tell you anything."

The nurse walked away, her blue-and-purple scrubs softly brushing together in the nearly silent hallway. Brigid leaned against a wall, contemplating her options.

Carwyn came to lean against the wall next to her. "No luck?"

"None." She glanced at the hallway. "There are two private security guards on him. I could take them both."

Carwyn turned his head, glanced at the men, then looked back at Brigid. "You could. I think his mother is sitting with him though. So there is likely more security in the room."

"I could use amnis on the mother," Brigid said. "Use that to get her to spill what they know."

Carwyn reached around and rubbed the tight knot between Brigid's shoulders. "That's a definite idea."

"But?" She definitely heard the implied "but."

"But why do any of those things when there's a deputy in the cafeteria right now," Carwyn leaned down and whispered. "He just ordered a hot dinner."

Which likely meant he was there for an extended break. Without another word, Brigid pushed off the wall and headed down to the basement, where a sign pointed to a cafeteria named Tio's.

Brigid spotted the sheriff's deputy immediately by the dull brown uniform and the hat. There were few places left in the world where anyone could wear a felt Stetson cowboy hat unironically, but rural Northern California appeared to be one of them.

"Deputy Ramirez?" Carwyn asked. "We got your name from the department. My partner and I were hoping you might have a minute—"

"You're not from the newspapers or anything, are you?" The man had light brown skin, dark hair, and greenish-brown eyes. He appeared young compared to most of the law enforcement officers Brigid had seen in the area so far.

"No." Brigid sat across from the man, who was demolishing a plate of what looked like meatloaf. "My husband and I are private investigators. We're representing Miss Mackenzie's family, and we were hoping you might be able to share some information about Mr. Uriarte's condition or any details about where he was found."

The young deputy shook his head. "I'd say you needed to talk to that Valero guy, but I know he's not real friendly."

Carwyn smiled a little. "To be fair, it's not his job to be friendly; it's his job to find the Uriarte's son. Just like it's our job to find Miss Mackenzie."

Deputy Ramirez rubbed his chin, which was thick with the day's growth. "So you're from North Carolina or something?"

Brigid smiled. "We're actually from Southern California, but my husband is a friend of the girl's grandfather, so we volunteered to come north to do what we could. The Mackenzies don't have the kind of money the Uriartes do. We're just trying to help."

The young deputy nodded. "Gotcha. I gotta say, that guy's family? They are loaded. They've had, like, their own private army out looking along the trail, shadowing the search-and-rescue guys, but it was completely useless in the end."

"Why's that?" Carwyn asked.

"The area the fishermen who found Daniel? It's over forty miles from where those kids must have started out."

"Forty miles?" Brigid asked. "So there's no way—"

"No way those two made it all the way over to that part of the forest without finding help." Deputy Ramirez shook his head. "They'd have crossed over the highway, several main roads, and the state park. No way. Especially with everything Miss Mackenzie's family has told us about her outdoor experience."

"So you're saying that someone took them from where they went missing and dumped them somewhere else?" Carwyn asked.

The deputy looked distinctly uncomfortable. "I hate to tell you this, but we found no trace of Summer anywhere near the scene. The fishermen took us back over there—"

"Over where?" Brigid asked. "Where was Daniel actually found?"

"Just off the Eel River on one of the creeks that runs into it. Locals call it Rocky Creek, which is kinda ironic because it's one of the best fishing spots. Nice clear water in that area."

"So it's out of the way," Carwyn said.

Ramirez nodded. "Definitely. Whoever took Daniel back there must have known where to go. That's not a place where tourists wander off, you know?"

"Can you show us exactly?" Brigid pulled out a map. "We're willing to go out on our own, but we need to know where he was found. It's possible we may spot something—knowing Summer and all—that you might have missed."

Ramirez pursed his lips, but he didn't say no. "Okay, just letting you know: if you get lost, no one better expect us to look for you. We're already stretched thin enough as it is."

"Understood." Brigid glanced at Carwyn. "We're pretty savvy in the woods. If you can point us in the direction, we'll find it."

He nodded. "I can give you the names of the guys that found him too. If that'll help."

"It definitely will."

"Deputy Ramirez," Carwyn began, "I don't suppose you know if Daniel said anything when he was first brought in to the hospital? Did anyone ask him about Summer?"

"Yes and no," Ramirez said. "I don't think the kid got a word in edgeways once his security got here. We tried asking him about Summer, but the doctors and nurses gave us hell."

"And there was no sign of her at the creek?"

Brigid reached for Carwyn's hand. "My love, he already said there wasn't." She glanced at the human across from them. "Thank you, Deputy Ramirez. If you'll give us your mobile phone number, we'd be happy to call you if we find any sign of Summer."

"That'll be great." Ramirez looked relieved. "Yeah, just any information you can find, please pass it on."

Brigid was guessing he'd been everyone's punching bag for a few weeks, and when a department was getting pressure from multiple sides to solve a mystery, being in the middle was far from fun.

"You'll have it," Brigid said. "We'll help in any way we can."

Baojia stared at the two men from the back seat of the van. Brigid, Natalie, and Jamie were standing a little distance from the front door as the two fishermen who'd found Daniel Uriarte spoke from just inside. Carwyn and Ross sat in the front of the van, holding Baojia back from hovering over his wife.

It was nearly midnight, but Brigid had called ahead and the two men agreed to meet them and share where they'd found Daniel as long as Brigid and Natalie promised they wouldn't use that spot for fishing.

It was one of their easier negotiations.

The father and son lived on the edge of one of the tiny mountain enclaves at the border of the state forest. Old logging equipment in the front yard gave witness to a more prosperous past life, and an array of antlers decorated the back of an ancient workbench by the woodpile.

"Why aren't they using amnis?" Baojia grumbled after the meeting had stretched into the second hour.

"Because Natalie said she may want to use them for an extended quote or interview or something." Carwyn watched his wife and friends work their own, more human, magic. "If the fishermen can't remember them, that makes it more complicated."

Baojia looked off into the trees that grew dense through the town. "What is this place?"

"Doubt it has a name," Ross said. "It's more of a wide spot in the road than a town.

"I imagine they call it something, but it won't be on a map." Carwyn looked at the forest behind them, knowing that Baojia's men were spread out through the trees like deadly shadows. At the first sign of danger, they'd swoop in and anything threatening Natalie would be crushed beyond recognition.

Fortunately, when she turned after shaking the fisherman's hand, she was smiling.

"Good." Ross nodded toward his brother. "They got something. I can tell by Jamie's expression."

"Really?" Carwyn resisted the urge to ask how. As far as he'd been able to tell, Mackenzie men—mortal and immortal alike—had two expressions: stoic and faintly bemused. If it weren't for Ross's immortal pallor, Carwyn doubted he'd be able to tell one from the other.

Brigid, Natalie, and Jamie opened the van door and jumped inside while Baojia went to speak to his men.

"Okay, so the guys gave us really detailed directions, but we are not going to find the way on maps." Brigid spread out the map and pointed at highlighted trails someone had penciled in. "Once we turn off the main road, we're depending on the Stewarts. Old Mister Stewart said there's a dirt track the van can get over with no problem because it hasn't been raining much. Then when we get to the stand of old-growth redwoods, there's space to park. From there, it's about a mile hike in to the creek."

Ross frowned. "They seriously couldn't find a more convenient spot to fish trout?"

Natalie smiled. "We didn't ask them that."

Baojia walked back to the van and scanned the map. "My guys are waiting to follow the van." He put his hand at the small of Natalie's back. "Are we going to have time to find this place before dawn?"

"We've got at least four hours, so I think we will," Natalie said. "But we'll probably have to camp in the woods once we reach the mouth of the creek."

"There is another access road," Brigid said. "But I don't know if we want to try to hide out there. It's a spot farther up the creek where the road actually crosses with a one-lane bridge, but the young man said they don't go that way, as they prefer not to be seen by anyone passing through the area."

"Do you think they're criminals?" Carwyn asked.

"The Stewarts?" Natalie said. "No. They're just fishermen protective of their favorite spot. However, they mentioned that some residents back there—they didn't say who—get ‘real annoyed' if trucks are going around there when it's dark. They didn't say morning or evening, they just mentioned dark."

"Interesting," Baojia muttered. "It could be normal humans moving drugs they don't want to register."

"Or it could be vampires," Brigid said. "Either is a possibility. We're all assuming that Ivan's farm is there, but this could be a coincidence."

"Coincidence or not," Carwyn said, "it's the best lead we have. I say we go search Rocky Creek."

"There was one more lead," Jamie said. "But it doesn't make much sense. The old man said that before Daniel passed out, he kept repeating something that sounded like ‘seagull aqua.'" He looked at Carwyn and Baojia. "Any of y'all know what that might mean?"

"If Daniel was injured and pretty out of it, he was probably speaking Spanish." Baojia crossed his arms over his chest. "Seagull aqua?"

"Aqua was probably agua," Natalie said. "That's pretty obvious, but seagull?"

"Seagull?" Baojia asked. "Or sigue maybe?" He looked at Carwyn. "Maybe he was trying to tell them where Summer was. Sigue el agua?"

"Follow the water?" Carwyn said. "That—"

"That's it!" Jamie nearly shouted. "Summer was with him." He stared at Ross. "Follow the water. Summer woulda told him that."

"Follow the water." Ross nodded before he glanced around the van. "It's a rhyme. ‘Over the heel and 'round the carn, follow the water from trickle to burn.' It's a rhyme we teach the kids when they're little in case they get lost in the mountains."

Jamie said, "It's to teach them that if you find water, stick close to it and follow it downstream because small streams usually lead to bigger ones."

Ross furrowed his dark eyebrows. "Summer doesn't know these mountains, but the same rule applies. She'd have followed the water downstream until she reached help. And if Daniel and her got separated, she'd a' told him to do the same thing."

"So we need to find this Rocky Creek and start searching there," Carwyn said. "If we do that, hopefully we'll find Summer."

Ross and Jamie were silent; Carwyn could scent their desperation staining the close air of the van. "We'll find her, lads. We know where to start now."

"My men and I will follow you," Baojia said. "Let's not waste any time. If Summer is still up there, it's been over twenty-four hours since Daniel escaped."