It was an odd combination of people in the dark blue LTD racing north on 101, followed by an assortment of black and whites and unmarked police cars.
DeWitt checked his rear-view mirror every few minutes, ensuring that everyone was still there, then looking straight ahead again at the chain of mountains that were holding his detectives captive.
Young Andy Williams sitting next to him had been mostly quiet, except for some routine speech he'd given him about what terrain to expect. Roy Delany sat behind him, and an overly worried Ed Randolph behind Andy, their eyes meeting in the rearview mirror more than once as they shared the same concern.
The moment his call for arms had gone out, Ed had gotten a hold of him, suggesting to come along in hopes that his background as a field Medic in the Army might come in handy, in case Stone and Keller had ran into trouble.
It wasn't a situation they were faced with on a regular basis; searching for two of their own in unfamiliar territory outside their jurisdiction, and DeWitt had pulled rank more times than usual to get extra support for a case he'd had a bad feeling about since the beginning. Questionable intentions of the local Sherriff's department aside; he was beginning to curse himself for giving Mike that Christmas Day shift that had started this whole fiasco.
After reviewing the map with his two helpers, he'd laid out a plan of attack that included a full-on breakdown of every part of the property, one section at a time. For the remote chance that neither Mike nor Steve could be found there, he would divide up his teams in groups of four, ready to fan out into any direction the guys might have fled to.
It sounded good on paper- but so did Mike's idea this morning.
"It's gone down to forty-eight outside. Probably much colder up in those mountains. Hopefully they managed to flee and are hiding out in their car somewhere up there."
DeWitt's speculation remained without a comment for the longest time. Finally, Ed cleared his throat and interweaved his hands in his lap, as he looked out of the passenger window.
"Roy, you know Mike as well as I do. By the time we get up there, those two will probably have all those killers lined up and handcuffed, while they're playing a round of chess waiting on us."