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Part 5
Harriet sat with the Mattoni family and the commander brought everyone up to speed on how the investigation was going so far. He explained that now the last searchers were in place and that they would search their designated area, bit by bit to find Hope. If they found nothing, then they would widen the search perimeter and begin again. But Janet, his sister-in-law interrupted him and asked him about the person he had mentioned who had tried to help out last night.
"This psychic you had look in Hope's room, Alan…what exactly did she tell you? What were her words?"
"First of all, she isn't a psychic…she just has some abilities sometimes that help to point her in the right direction."
"Okay, she's not a psychic…but is she reliable?"
"She is," Alan nodded, "I'd stake my own life on her ability. She's already saved one of our own in a time of crisis. Call her ability what you want, but she is a person who knows her gut instincts and the majority of the time, she's right."
"Wait, your CO approved this before, as well? He's pretty open minded," Alan's brother Peter broke in, "if he's willing to bring in a psychic to consult in official JAG business…"
"Again, she's not a psychic," Alan insisted, "she's actually one of our officers, a Marine Lieutenant Colonel and she's also added her own insight into one of her cases in order to turn up a missing officer."
He didn't mention that that had been dead officer.
"She seems to have a talent in missing person cases," Harriet added, gently, "When the little girl she was mentoring went missing on her Grandparents farm, she was able to find her, even though she was unfamiliar with the area."
"That's right," Alan noted, "and just because she hasn't felt anything just yet, it doesn't mean she won't. It took her a while to warm up when Chloe was missing. Being at the location helped, too."
"I'm sure that if Hope's anywhere nearby to the colonel, she'll find your daughter," Harriet soothed the emotionally fraught mother, "JAG has many fine officers and I'm sure that between them and the S & R officers sent by the SECNAV, Hope will be home again, soon."
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AJ wiped the sweat from his brow and put his hat back on. Despite the storm approaching, the air was still quite warm. However, it was predicted that they had only a few more hours left before the storm moved in and they would be forced to pull all of their personnel in. He only hoped that they would find Hope Mattoni in time.
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Bud made his way to the cabin where his wife was taking care of the Mattonis. He knocked once on the door and stood back to wait. As he expected, it was Harriet who answered the door.
"Any news?" she asked quietly.
"Not yet," Bud shook his head, "I haven't heard back from the Admiral yet, but I should do within the next half-hour. But detective Stowe did tell me that he's finished questioning residents at the retreat, now. They should be leaving soon. He's happy that none of them will be of any further use to this investigation."
"Do you think he's realized his error in scaling back the search and rescue effort, now?" Harriet asked.
"Probably," Bud noted, "but he'd never say anything about it to me. I was wondering if you could ask the Mattonis something for me?"
"Sure," Harriet nodded, "What do you need to know?"
"Could you ask them for an account of their activities on Wednesday?" Bud requested, "Did they socialize with any other families, spend time with any other people or just run into them during the passage of the day?"
"I'll get back to you," Harriet nodded and went inside to speak to the family.
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"Any news, Lieutenant Roberts?" AJ spoke into his radio, as he checked in with base command.
"Just one thing, Sir," Bud spoke up, having requested to talk with the Admiral ten minutes before, "Mr. and Mrs. Mattoni said that they spent Wednesday alone with all three of their children. They spent the morning walking through the forest, but in the afternoon it rained and they spent it indoors. Sir, I'm willing to bet that Hope enjoyed the experience more than anyone else realized. Mr. Mattoni said she was really taken with all of the squirrels in the forest. I think she went back looking for them yesterday morning."
"You're probably right," AJ surmised, "Have you told detective Stowe about this?"
"Already done, sir," Bud informed him, "and he's about to send his men back out, once they've synchronized their plans with the base command. They'll take the search perimeter out another three miles. It's a good precaution, just in case Hope has gotten further away than any of us anticipated."
That was why he had chosen Bud for this task, the Admiral thought to himself, later on. Not only was he enthusiastic and energetic in his attitude, but he was also diplomatic about it, which helped whenever an outside agency was involved.
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Hope just about managed to garner the energy to raise her head when she heard the voices calling her name. But her mind had been playing tricks on her all night and she wasn't convinced that this time was real. She couldn't have moved anyway, the pain in her ankle was just too severe and struggling through the night with it had totally sapped her energy. Her throat felt like sandpaper and her lips were dry and cracked, so she didn't even attempt to use them. She closed her eyes again and drifted off.
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"Fifty minutes and counting, people," AJ called into his radio, letting everyone know that the storm was edging perilously closer, despite being further behind schedule than they had predicted. The reprieve had seemed heaven-sent when they had thought they were out of time, but even with the stay of execution, they had still managed to find nothing. The sky was now dark and threatening, but AJ didn't want to order them in until he absolutely had to. He just had to put it off as long as possible; every extra minute could make the difference.
The Naval helicopter had long since stopped circling above the trees. The weather was cold and even all the S & R staff-members were now not showing up well on the thermal imaging, they were that cold. Things were definitely not looking good for the child, now facing a race against time on two fronts.
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