FINDING THE LOST, Jeanne Tody Beroza [reading tree txt] 📗

connected, she thought. The deranged man who stole a little six-year-old girl and then dumped her someplace in the middle of a wilderness where no one could find her could easily have started a fire to cover his tracks.

Keying her radio while she drove she reached Charlie and asked if this couldn’t be a possibility. “We’re thinking that way too,” he told her. “You’ll be here in a few minutes. We can discuss it then. We’re wondering if he didn’t drive way back into one of these areas, dump the little girl, then set the fire on the way out. It’s a problem because both roads are impassible due to fire and smoke. If she’s near either of those roads, we can’t get to her.”


CHAPTER FOUR:

As Christi neared the Stockade Lake Campground entrance, a Highway Patrol Officer stopped her telling her she’d have to turn around in the campground and return to Custer. “Road’s closed, Ma’am,” he told her.

“I’m with search and rescue,” she said and showed him her ID. “I’m the canine unit or, we (she pointed over her shoulder to Blaze who was trying to stick her head out the window and say hi to the officer) are the canine unit. I’m supposed to go on up to the staging area.”

The officer radioed Incident Command, verified that she was expected and instructed her to proceed slowly. Driving through thick smoke and falling embers she dodged fire trucks and fire fighters. She heard a helicopter overhead and looked out the window to see it descend and then hover while it filled the bucket hanging below it with water out of Stockade Lake.

Fire trucks were parked on the beach. The SAR communications van was set up with its big antenna extended to the sky. SAR vehicles were parked near the comm. van. They’re all waiting to go in, she thought. They need some direction to take so they can look for this little girl.

Several white canopies sat near the outhouses directly across from the comm. van. As she pulled in she could see firefighters and sheriffs deputies pouring over maps and talking on radios. That would be Incident Command. One of the Custer’s Ambulances was parked next to another canopy. Under it Para-medics checked out firefighters for damage from smoke inhalation and burned or singed skin.

Charlie must have heard her getting cleared through the road checkpoint because he was waiting on the beach and directed her to a parking spot next to the other SAR vehicles. He pulled her into his arms the minute she stepped out of the Subaru. “I’m freaking out, Charlie,” she said, her words muffled as she pressed her face into his chest.

“I know you are. Working around a fire can be scary.”

“And dangerous, I don’t want Blaze hurt, can you guarantee me Blaze won’t be hurt doing this?”

“I can’t ever guarantee that. Remember Jana’s Tahoe fell off a cliff while on a search and hurt his back. Blaze loves to trail. Are you going to keep her from doing what she’s so good at because you’re afraid? She’s not afraid, Cristi. I’ll be with you. If it would make you feel better we’ll take Mike with us too. He’s just standing around with the other search people right now waiting for a target area.”

“Did you tell them you want me to try to connect with this little girl in my mind, Charlie?”

“I would never do that to you, babe. That’s our secret. No one but Jana, Mike, you and I know you have that ability. None of us would ever violate your privacy.”

“What if I can’t see her Charlie? What if I’m useless? You know I can’t control it.”

“Hey, now, none of that useless stuff,” he growled and held her tighter. “If you can see something, it might help. If you can’t, we’ve lost nothing. We’re just trying to help this little girl. It’s not our fault if we can’t help her but it’s pretty amazing stuff if we can.”

“Ok, let’s get with it, let me try,” she said, pulling away from his chest while wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. “I’m ok now and I’m ready.”

Charlie handed her a plastic bag containing the pajamas and teddy bear. “Her name is Janie,” he said. “Here’s a picture of her.” The picture showed a tiny little toe-headed girl in pink pajamas, curled up on a sofa, holding the teddy bear as she slept. Oh boy, she thought, Janie, honey, we have to find you. I’m going to try real hard to see you in my mind. You need to try to find me too.

Cristi took the plastic bag in her arms and sat cross-legged on the ground, leaning her back against the driver’s side tire of the wine-colored Subaru. Charlie folded his long, lean body and lowered himself to the ground, blocking her from the view of passersby. She closed her eyes, gathered her energy to form a bright, glowing sphere of yellow light in her center and then pushed that energy out through her arms and hands into the pajamas and teddy bear. Her center of energy continued to move upward, to her heart, into her head and collected just behind her eyes ready to be used. Opening her eyes part way she left her gaze unfocused and looked at the heart of the teddy bear. Concentrating on seeing with all parts of her eyes, she pulled the most light in through her peripheral vision. Being less damaged from the bright daylight of every day use than other areas of the retina, it was best for focusing on auras.

After a few minutes she closed her eyes and could see a faint bluish-pink glow around the shape of a teddy bear. It faded after a couple of seconds. “She’s a special little girl,” she whispered. I see light pink and light blue meaning she’s normally happy, and pure, loving and sensitive. The teddy bear retains a little of the energy she gave off when she held it. This man’s rough treatment of her could send her little mind into a catatonic state. If that’s happened already she’ll be balled up somewhere she felt safe when she collapsed and will never hear us searching for her.”

“Can you see her at all,” he asked. “I haven’t tried yet,” she replied. “Do you have anything from the abductor?” Charlie held out another bag containing a baseball cap. She shook her head repulsed by the dark energy radiating off the hat but concentrated on it anyway and was sent into instant shock and darkness. She came to feeling a hand gently touching her shoulder, a soft voice whispering, “Cristi, you’re ok, baby, come back to me.”

“ I saw log cabins with trees and rocks behind them and the shine of water off to the side, then fire, lots of fire! Bob Marshall, Charlie, he was at Bob Marshall. It was him that set the fire. Can we get in there with a vehicle? Is it all engulfed in fire? Is it too late?”


CHAPTER FIVE:

Charlie checked with the SAR commander by radio to see if the road to the Boy Scout camp was engulfed in fire and was told that parts of it was. He couldn’t ask Cristi to risk herself and Blaze by driving through fire. That would terrify her. He asked about the road to the Bismark Lake day area. If that was clear they could climb the huge granite rocks and plateaus to reach the cabins from the rear.

That road was also partially engulfed but they could get in across the dam at the south end of Bismark Lake, take the foot trails past the campground to the day area and then climb the rock bluffs to traverse another mile of plateau and rock cliffs to the back of the cabins.

“I’ve got Cristi and her dog here,” he told his commander. “No one has checked those cabins in the Boy Scout Camp. If Smith was the one who set this fire, he might have driven in there and dropped her off on a dirt road or even in the camp area itself. Or she might have fled the fire and ran into the camp area. We won’t know unless we check. We’re going in over the dam to come at the cabins the back way. You want to send any other teams with us?”

“That’s dangerous,” the Incident Commander said upon hearing the search team’s plans. “Right now the wind is coming out of the west keeping the fire out of the Boy Scout area but if the fire starts swirling in the treetops or if we get any kind of downburst or change of wind, they could be engulfed in a second.”

“Once we’re at the cabins, we can run down to the lake if we have to,” Charlie said. “We’ve got a window here to check those cabins. We have to try.”

“Is this based on something Cristi’s said,” the SAR commander asked. “Let’s just say it’s a hunch,” Charlie replied. “Can I get another team with a portable stretcher, just in case and maybe someone can bring in a medical bag with some oxygen?” “You got it,” the commander replied.

Mike came running over with the medical bag and the portable, basically rolled-up plastic with handles, stretcher. I’ve got Denny with me. We’re in on this Charlie, Cristi,” he said and nodded to her, his form of a hello.

By now Cristi had gotten Blaze out of the vehicle. She’d watered her and let her relieve herself. She packed Blaze’s harness and long lead along with several bottles of water into her waist pack. Charlie had her emergency medical bag in his pack.

The two teams of searchers jumped into a SAR pickup, drove up to where Cristi had been stopped on the road, and pulled off into the grassy drive bordering a little (water release formed) turtle pond at the foot of the dam. With radios set to monitor goings-on with the fire they climbed the two-hundred-foot, straight-up dam, then ran along its top to the campground and down foot trails along the lake to the day area. From there they started the serious work of climbing the two apartment building-sized granite boulder ridges, separated by a grassy plateau, that formed the barrier between the Bismark Lake recreation area and the Bob Marshall Boy Scout Camp.

The camp area was full of acrid smoke making it hard to see. They had to duck into a cabin as the helicopter dumped water on the fire side of the camp. “They’re going to keep doing that while we’re here,” Mike said. “They’re giving us every chance they can to get in and out of here safely.

Cristi shuddered. The fire was maybe a quarter mile away. Luckily the land sloped uphill from the lake to the ridge where the fire was roaring. Fire liked to travel uphill. They had a bit of a safe buffer zone between the camp and the inferno since the fire had already run up the first ridge, leaving scorched ground behind it. Supposedly fire did not turn around and cross the ground it had already burned.

“These cabins are locked,” Denny said. “Try to get a window open in each one so we can get inside to search them. I guess if we can’t do that we either have to kick the doors open or bust windows. These bigger buildings have several rooms. We need to get inside to check each room, under and on