“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Why?”
“Your face...your expression...”
“Oh.” She looked away. “It’s just this place.”
“Not a fan of remote islands?”
“Not ones around here.”
She met his eyes again, held his gaze and shook her head slowly. As she did, understanding started to dawn, and Wyatt felt his stomach waver uneasily.
“It was an island not far from here where I was left as a kid.”
“As a kid?”
“A three-year-old.” She swallowed hard and Wyatt thought her eyes might be shining with unshed tears.
He couldn’t imagine being alone at three, even inside a house. But here? In the untamed Alaskan wilderness that had claimed more than one adult life?
It was hard not to imagine a three-year-old version of Elsie, alone, scared.
“And there happens to be a missing person here now?” He raised his eyebrows.
“I know.” Elsie shook her head. “When I knew where we were heading, I wondered.”
“What if it’s a trap?”
“What if it’s not? I can’t leave someone here. Lost people need to be found, Wyatt. Someone has to do it.”
Couldn’t someone else, though? As though she heard his thoughts, Elsie shook her head. And he understood—no one else around did K-9 search and rescue, and in rugged terrain like this, having a dog to help search was a huge advantage.
Still, anxiety wouldn’t release its grip on him. “Let me help you. Please.”
She seemed to be considering him. Studying him. What did she see?
“Okay.”
Okay?
“I could use another searcher. Willow is the star of the show here. I read her cues and help her know what areas to search. I could use someone else with me. It’s better to be in pairs and those guys were just telling me that they had planned to stay together. If we split up, we will be more efficient, but I’m not eager to be alone here.”
Honest. Vulnerable.
“Whatever you need. I want to help.”
“Thank you.”
Any man who could listen to her insist she didn’t need his help and then graciously offer it when it became apparent that she did need it couldn’t be too bad.
Elsie reached down and petted Willow, took a deep breath. She was distracted today, too in her own head and her own past to go through the motions like she usually did. She felt out of the cone, and not sure how to get herself mentally back to where she wanted to be.
Desperate, she closed her eyes, took a couple of breaths and tried to let them out slowly.
Nothing to do now but focus on what needed to be done. The thought of someone dying because she had been distracted was unacceptable to her. They were counting on her to find them.
She wondered if the troopers would have asked for her and Willow’s help if they’d known that this was so close to the island where she’d been abandoned as a kid.
Who had abandoned her was still a major question. Foul play had to have been involved somewhere, especially in the absence of a missing-person report that could have shed light on her identity. But it all remained a mystery.
“Ready?” she made herself turn to Willow and ask, desperate to move past this.
Willow looked up at her, ice blue eyes focused.
“That’s my girl,” Elsie said with a smile and a small laugh. There was something reassuring in knowing that Willow was ready to work, even if her handler was struggling today. She had to do her best for the dog. It was amazing to Elsie how when people and dogs worked together, the humans were usually the weak link. The dogs knew what they were doing and did their jobs well.
She gave Willow the command to search and the dog ran ahead of her, though Elsie knew she wouldn’t go far. She and Wyatt would trail, waiting and hoping for Willow to pick up a scent.
“How will she know who to search for?”
“She won’t this time,” Elsie answered as they moved onto higher ground, trading the dark gray rocks of the coastal beach for the larger rocks and grassy area that made up the higher part of the shore. Willow had already headed into the woods, and they followed her. “I gave her instructions to search for any humans at all, since as far as we know, the four of us and whoever’s missing are the only people on this island.”
“Won’t she just find the troopers?”
Elsie shrugged. “She may. But without a strong scent item from the missing person, this is the best option.”
“They didn’t have anything for you?”
