"I don't know. I can't find him." Austin cries as Adam snatches the glasses from his hand.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN? YOU CAN FIND HIM?" Adam shouts in panic. "WASN'T HE WITH YOU?"
"NO! He dropped me off at Canes Creek and he went to Beaver's Ridge and he never came back after me!" Austin says as he wipes his tears.
"Okay, Y'all. Let's not panic." Bob says.
"NOT PANIC, BOB!!??" Adam begins to cry. "My husband is missing and you're saying to not panic??!!"
"Austin, show us where you found Tim's glasses. We need to start searching for him, like NOW." Mark says. "Adam, you go with Austin and Bob and I will follow."
"I'll stay here in case he shows up." Olena says. "Take Satchmo with you. He might be able to help. Yall be careful."
"Come on, Satchmo!" Adam calls out as he and Austin jump in Tim's truck.
Satchmo jumps into the back of the truck.
"Oh, my God. What could have happened to him, Austin?" Adam sobs as he clutches his husband's glasses to his chest. "I should have gotten my lazy ass out of bed this morning and went with him."
"Then we could be looking for both of you." Austin says as he tries watching the road through his tears.
"So what are you thinking, Mark?" Bob asks as he follows Austin.
"Tim has trapped all of his life so he knows to watch out for gators. I'm thinking, those sons of a b*tches that spray painted his house." Mark says as he stares angerly out the window.
"I thought that too. Just didn't want to upset Adam and Austin more than they already are." Bob nods.
"If it was those assholes, you know what we have to do, right?" Mark asks as he turns his dark eyes to Bob.
"Hell yeah. We're killing the motherf*ckers." Bob growls.
They soon arrive at Beaver's Ridge. Adam jumps out of the truck before Austin even had it in park.
"TIM!!! BABY, WHERE ARE YOU!!!??" Adam screams. His own voice echoes back.
Satchmo hops out of the back of the truck and automatically starts sniffing the ground.
"Where did you find the glasses, Austin?" Bob asks.
"Oh, right over here in this tall grass." Austin says as he points then starts walking to where the glasses were.
Mark and Bob start looking for any kind of sign. No one ever comes to Beaver's Ridge, so any kind of foot prints or tire tracks might tell them something.
Adam wipes his tears, still holding on to the glasses as the expert trappers do their job investigating.
Satchmo seemed to have caught his master's scent and was now whining and running around with his nose to the ground.
"Hey, Guys? What do you make of these?" Austin asks as he looks at some footprints in the loose dirt.
"Those are tennis shoe tracks." Bob says as he looks at the tracks.
"Tim doesn't wear tennis shoes." Adam comments.
"Exactly, I've never seen him wear anything but cowboy boots." Mark replies. "And these tire tracks over here are not from his truck. They're too wide."
"Oh, my God. Are you saying that someone kidnapped Tim? But why?" Adam asks, his eyes widening.
"Do you want to know what we think, Adam? I'm not meaning to scare you or anything." Mark says.
"Of course, I want to know, Mark. This is my husband that's missing." Adam says as tears, once again, fills his eyes.
"We're thinking the dudes that spray painted yall's house may have him." Bob says. "Tim knows to look out for gators. If it had been a gator, there would have been some blood and gator tracks. Which there's not."
"But we don't even know who they are. How are we supposed to look for someone when we don't know who we are looking for?" Austin says as he begins to cry. "They have my big brother and I can't even help him."
"Well, we're not finding any answers here." Mark says. "We need to talk to Pa, Hattie, Chris and your doctor friends. To see if they've seen any strange people in town. Hattie overhears a lot of sh*t in the cafe."
"I'll go check at the trading post. If they are holding Foust anywhere they may have come in to buy rope or something recently." Bob says.
"I'm going with you guys." Adam states firmly.
"Me too." Austin nods.
"Austin, you need to go home." Mark says.
"Mark, this is my brother. I'm not going home." Austin says.
"You also have a beautiful pregnant girlfriend at home. Who's to say these guys won't pay a visit since they know Foust ain't there." Mark adds.
"Oh, no. You're right." Austin says, fear creeping upon his boyish face.
"We'll just swing by and pick her up." Adam suggests.
"That's fine. She just doesn't need to be there by herself." Bob replies as they head to the trucks.
Austin and Adam go home to get Olena. Mark and Bob follow them to make sure there are no unwanted visitors at the house. Olena locks up the house and gets into the truck between Austin and Adam. They explain their suspicions to her on the way to town.
By the time they arrive in town, the clinic was closed. Luckily Rob, Kelsey, Chris, Jenika and Chance were at the cafe. Along with Joe Ben. There were a few other customers eating as well.
"Sorry, Folks. The diner is closing early. You'll have to leave." Mark announces as they hurry into the cafe. "Now!"
"What? Mark, honey. what are you doing?" Hattie asks as the customers look at Mark with a mixture of confusion and fear.
"We have an emergency on our hands." Mark says.
Hattie stares up at Mark for only a few seconds and knew it had to be bad. She runs behind the counter and grabs some carry-out containers and starts handing them to the customers.
"Yall, what's going on?" Rob asks from their table.
"We'll explain in just a minute but yall need to stay." Mark says, pointing to their table.
"I'm sorry but you people have to leave. Your meal is on the house." Hattie says to the other customers as she hands out the 'to go' boxes.
"You heard the lady. Leave!" Bob says as none of the customers made any movement to pack up their food to go.
The customers quickly packed up the food and left the restaurant.
Mark locks the door behind them and turns the closed sign around.
"Whad going on dar, Boy?" Joe Ben asks. "Why you be so rude?" (what's, there)
"I'd like to know what's going on myself." Hattie says, crossing her arms across her chest. "This had better be good."
"Adam? Austin? What's going on?" Chris asks, slowly standing up from the table as he sees both are crying. "Uh, where's Tim? Why ain't he with yall?"
"Chris, he's gone." Adam sobs. "Somebody took him."
********
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