Blood will tell

Chapter 4 Gleams of white

     Mitchell quickly broke them up into teams of two or three. Nick and Ruby were put on the same team as Dimitri, who was certifieds. Alexis was teamed up with Ezra and Max, also certifieds.

     Each group was given four buildings to clear. Dimitri decided their group would work left to right, top to bottom. Together they went up the stairs. He knocked at the first door with a heavy fist. Nick and Ruby stood behind him. Ruby had a notebook to record anything they learned. With nothing to hold, Nick clasped his hands awkwardly in front of him. He felt like the missionaries his mom was always turning away. Except they only came in pairs. "Search and Rescue," Dimitri called in his heavy accent. 

    An old woman opened the door. She was pulling an orange cardigan over her maroon flannel pajamas. "Yes?" She looked curiously at their red helmets and SAR backpacks. Her front teeth were missing.

     Nick ran his tongue over his teeth. "Hello, ma'am, we re from Search and Rescue," Dimitri said. "We are looking for a girl. Her name is Mariana Chevez and she is seven years of age. She has dark hair and she is wearing dark clothes and rubber rain boots."

     "Oh, I know Mariana!" The old woman clutched her cardigan tighter. "She's missing?"

     

"I'm afraid so," Nick said as Ruby scribbled something. "But if you do see her or have any information, there will be someone from Search and Rescue in the parking lot you can talk to."

     At each new apartment, they met the same lack of success. No one had seen Mariana, although many of them knew the girl or recognized her description. Four of the apartments they tried were dark and no one came to the door.

     Lights glowed behind the curtains in the next apartment, but there was no answer to their knock. Did Nick hear movement deep within? He held his breath. What if Mariana were being held captive? Despite what Chris had said, he imagined bursting in, decking the dude with a right hook to the jaw, and then sweeping the little girl in his arms.

     But after a pause, Dimitri just moved on to the next door. When they had canvassed all their assigned apartments, they reported back. Nick tried to tell himself that knowing where Mariana wasn't as important as where knowing where she was.

     "Put on your reflective vests and headlamps and take the west side of that road." Mitchell pointed at a dark street bordered by ditches. "Check all open spaces. Backyard if you can see into them. But don't go into any garages or outbuildings."

     They crossed the dark street. Ahead of them, the freeway sounded like a river. Nick was beginning to think there was no girl, at least not here, not anymore. Someone had taken her and maybe they would never give her back.

     Their flashlights and headlamps probed the darkness as they slowly walked along the empty road next to a vacant scrap of land. The first houses were farther down the road. Nick lifted his flashlight and played it over the dark tangle of weeds, blackberry bushes, and pieces of windblown garbage.

"Mariana! Mariana!"

     Nick's flashlight beam picked up a flash of red. His breath catching, he swung it back. But it was just an old McDonald's french fry box.

     "Wait!" Dimitri raised his hand. "Are you hearing that?"

     Across the street, the blackberry bushes were rustling. Something burst out and ran away. In his headlamp, Nick caught a glimpse of something small and striped. 

     "Hello, Mr. Kitten!" Dimitri called out, laughing. He and Ruby turned away.

     But farther back, Nick saw a pale flash. "Mariana?" He squinted. Ruby and Dimitri whipped back around. "We're from the sheriff's department. Your mom asked us to look for you."

     "I got lost." A girl's voice, thick with tears. She pushed her way out of the bushes on the far side of the road. The beams of their lights revealed her pale, scratched face and tangled hair. her eyes were gleams of white, and her rubber boots looked too big for her, bending at the ankle at every step.

     "Well, you're not lost now," Ruby called. "We'll take you back to your mom. She's waiting for you."

     Suddenly, the girl pushed her way out of the bushes and darted across the street, her arms spread white.

     Just as a pick up barreled around the corner.