Free A Gift of Time (Tassamara) by Sarah Wynde Page B

stared at the paper, wondering what he wasn’t seeing, the phone rang. Leaning forward, he picked it up. “Sheriff’s office.”
    “We got nothing.” The skipped greeting revealed Shelby’s concern, though her tone was as laconic as always.
    “Nothing?” He could hear his own dismay. He hadn’t realized how much he’d been counting on the rangers to find the girl’s family. His favorite scenario had been a dad on a trail with a sprained ankle, a frantic mom at a campsite with a dead cell phone.
    “Nada. Zip. Zilch.”
    “How far have you looked?”
    “As far as we could, but you know the problem. We’ve got over 200 miles of off-road trails, hundreds of lakes and ponds and springs, fourteen major campgrounds, numerous recreation sites. Even assuming the girl couldn’t have walked any long distance from where you found her, it’s a lot of ground to cover.”
    Colin snorted in agreement. He felt as if he’d covered quite a bit of it this morning, but they’d only explored a small area.
    “But everyone’s accounted for at the nearest campground,” Shelby continued. “No missing kids have been reported. And no accidents have been found on the closest roads and trails.”
    Colin rubbed his chin again. He needed to shave. And he needed to sleep. But neither of those things would happen any time soon. “What about the water?” he asked. “Anyone rent a kayak and not return it?”
    “I’ll check,” Shelby answered. “Good idea. Except, of course…” She let the sentence trail off.
    “Yeah.” Colin didn’t need her to explain. If the girl had somehow survived a boating accident, but the adult who’d been with her had disappeared, chances were they were looking for a drowning victim. “Her clothes were dry, though.” He’d take another look at the dress she’d been wearing, see if he could detect any sign it had been in the water. He scribbled a quick note on his pad.
    “It was a warm day yesterday.” Shelby didn’t sound optimistic. “Only takes an hour or two to dry off.”
    “Yeah, but let’s not go there yet. Let’s find a kayak first.” Colin wasn’t ready to give up on the picture of joyful reunions his imagination had painted.
    “I’ll start making calls right away,” Shelby promised.
    “Damn it,” Colin muttered. He’d hoped this would be easy. He tilted back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling. “She didn’t get dropped off by aliens.”
    “You thinking flying saucer aliens? ET and friends?” Shelby’s tone held a smile.
    “Not seriously, no.”
    “Hmm. It could be the other kind of aliens, you know,” Shelby said, the humor gone.
    “Illegals?” Colin tipped forward again. Parents afraid to report a missing child. Now that was a scenario he hadn’t thought of.
    “You know we get squatters out here. It’s a big park. Policing almost four hundred thousand acres—well, there are corners we don’t get to so often.”
    “I don’t know,” he said, doubt replacing his first enthusiasm. “She understood English. Recognized automatic door locks.”
    “Did she look Hispanic?” Shelby asked.
    Colin picked up his pen and tapped it on the desk. “Not so much, no. Light brown hair, blue eyes.”
    “Central America’s got plenty of blue-eyed blondes. Guatemala, Argentina. Even Mexico’s got some.”
    His response was a noncommittal hmm. It didn’t feel right to him, but he’d keep an open mind. “Will you keep looking?” he asked.
    “Oh, yeah, of course,” Shelby assured him. “And I’m spreading the word. It’ll take hours, maybe more, to make sure every family is accounted for at the campgrounds. I’ll check on the kayaks, and we’ll be watching for abandoned cars, too. Maybe they were out for a day hike and something happened.”
    Colin grimaced. Ocala was a wilderness and people sometimes underestimated its risks. Snakes, bears, and of course, other human beings. He hoped to God the girl’s family hadn’t fallen prey to a human predator. A