“Yes there was,” he said. His smile was definitely looking more forced than it had been even a minute ago.
I turned to look at Michael for some guidance on what to make of the situation.
“How are you liking the precinct here?” Michael asked him.
Why was he asking him that? Why were we all pretending like nothing had happened and this was all somehow supposed to be normal?
“It’s a great place to work,” Rob replied flatly. “Now, what is it that you came here for exactly? What can I help you with?”
“Actually, on second thought,” Michael said. “I think we’ve already resolved it. I don’t think we’ll need to involve the police after all.”
“Well, that’s good to hear,” Rob said as he started to get up from his desk.
“When are you coming home?” I asked without standing up yet.
“I told you,” he said with a sad look in his eyes that he was trying to hide. “I’ve moved out. I’ve already found a new apartment.”
I didn’t want to get up to leave. This was an even bigger mess, with even bigger questions to be answered, than it was when we got here. Everyone could tell that there was something going on. All of us knew that something was wrong, but none of us knew what it was. After several failed attempts to talk to Rob, there wasn’t really anything else that we could do except to leave and go back to the cabin to try to sort this new mystery out. Even so, I still didn’t want to leave Rob here, not without knowing what had happened and why he was acting this way.
Michael and Adam stood up and walked toward the door that Rob was now holding open for us.
“Come on,” Michael said as he pulled my hand to follow him out.
There was a very definite and dangerous tension in the air. I could feel it, and so could the guys. They weren’t wrong about wanting to get out of the police station before anything bad had a chance to happen. But just as I was getting ready to follow them out the door, Rob grabbed me quickly and held onto me for just a split second - long enough to slide something into my back pocket. He patted me on the butt to make sure that I knew he had put something in there. But I had already felt his fingers slide into my pocket. I wanted to ask him about it and take whatever it was out of my pocket and look at it, but Rob rushed us out the door with urgency.
“Take care,” he called as we walked out of the precinct and back onto the street.
“What the actual hell just happened?” Adam asked as he ran his hands through his hair.
Thank god for his reaction. I was beginning to think I was the only one freaking out about it. Michael and Adam just had better poker faces in there than I did, I guess. I was getting ready to reach into my pocket and tell them that Rob had slipped me something, but Michael was adamant about getting out of there first.
“We can talk back at the cabin,” he said. “I have a strong feeling that we need to get out of earshot and eyesight of everyone here now.”
I glanced back at the windows of the police station just as I was opening the door to get into the car. Michael was right, and it was so creepy that I felt all the little hairs on my arms stand up. Several sets of eyes were watching through the window at us.
As soon as we got back inside the cabin, I yanked the note from my pocket, and we all sat down on the couch to see what it said.
“What is it?” Adam asked as he looked over my hand to see it. “There’s nothing written on it; it’s just a drawing.”
“Not a drawing,” Michael said. “A map.”
“A map of what?” I asked. I looked at the sketched out lines and it looked like trees, and paths, and a few random squiggles here and there that had arrows on them. “Is that our cabin?”
“Yeah,” Michael said. “Think so. I think it’s a map of the wilderness in the mountains.”
“Why would Rob give us a map of the woods?” Adam asked. “And how would he even know what was out there, unless—”
“Unless he really was out there when he went missing,” Michael finished Adam’s sentence for him. “And then somehow ended up back at the police station.”
“There’s a spot marked on it,” I said as I pointed to a little hand-drawn star that marked a shape which resembled a cave on the map.
“Is that the little cave that you and I stayed in?” I asked Michael.
“When did you guys stay in a cave?” Adam asked.
“Right after Lisette took a dive over the side of the mountain,” Michael answered. “And no, that must be a different cave because according to this map, it’s on the other side of the woods.”
“Do you think he wants us to find that spot that’s marked on the map?” Adam asked.
“I don’t see why else he would have slipped it to Lisette. There must be something there that he wants us to see.”
“But what are we supposed to do about Rob in the meantime?” I asked. “Something is definitely not right. What if he’s being forced to stay there against his will?”
“By who, the police?” Adam asked. “These Asheville police didn’t even know Rob.”
“I don’t know,” I said as I shook my head. I didn’t have any answers. “All that I know is that he’s definitely not okay and something is very off.”
“Yeah, I think we all picked up on that,” Michael agreed. “But I don’t think there’s really much we can do except for follow this map that he gave you and hope that it leads us to some answers. He wouldn’t have risked giving it to you if it wasn’t important. In the meantime, Rob is just going to have to hang tight where he’s at. At least we know that he’s not dead.”
“Yeah, but you could tell that there was something wrong with him,” I reiterated. “He wasn’t acting like himself at all.”
“Agreed, there was definitely something wrong.”
“So when do we head out on this treasure hunt to find the spot on the map?” Adam asked.
“Well, Michael sighed. “It’s far; really far. And off in the opposite direction of where we went the last time. We’ll need some better supplies than what we have. At least enough for a few days each way without having to return to the cabin until we’ve found the cave. Tomorrow, we’ll head into town and get the supplies that we need for the longer trek into the wilderness.”
