Underneath The Surface, Chapter 20
Mossy Ruins
The cruiser turned left at a mailbox marked "Taylor" and then aimed for a large white trailer set a respectable distance away from a house. The command trailer had been parked on an empty stretch of grass close enough to be useful, but not close enough to invade the Taylors' privacy.
"Your friend's last name is Taylor?" Emma asked her passenger.
Callie replied with a simple "Yeah."
Emma stopped the truck a short distance from the cruiser and killed the engine. "Wait here, I'll go talk to Stirling."
Callie nodded, released her seat belt and watched Emma walk toward Sheriff Stirling.
"Sheriff Stirling..."
The tall man turned at the sound of Emma's voice. He nodded to her and then turned back to address the crowd of volunteers and deputies gathered around him. "I need everyone's attention..."
He waited for silence before continuing. "This is Sheriff Swan, she is to be given the same respect you would show me. If she needs anything, you help her out. Any questions?"
No one seemed to have any as they all looked at her. Emma smiled tightly and shoved her hands in her back pockets.
Stirling turned back to Emma and lowered his voice. "Go through the packs that Ms. Bailey gave you. If you want anything that isn't in there, come find me."
As he turned to walk away, Emma reached out and put a hand on his arm. "I meant what I said back at the house, if we have to be out overnight, I don't want anyone to worry."
"Your reputation in the woods precedes you, Sheriff Swan, just don't make this a search party for three instead of one."
"Understood."
As Emma approached the truck, she spotted Callie sitting on the opened tailgate. When Emma had come close enough to hear, the teenager spoke.
"So what now?"
"First, we go through these packs to see what we have. Stirling has offered us the loan of anything they have that we might need. I don't suppose you have a piece of paper and pen in the cab of the truck?"
Callie hopped off the tailgate. "Yep. In the glove-box."
"Okay, you grab that. I'll see what we have here."
Emma emptied the contents of each pack, keeping them organized and separate. When Callie returned with a small notebook and a pen, Emma looked up. "All right, you take notes, I'll name off a few things."
Callie nodded.
"We'll need headlamps if they have some but, at the very least, flashlights. Topographic maps, a compass, and whistles. Sleeping bags too, in case we get stuck out here overnight."
Emma glanced up to gauge the teenager's reaction to that possibility. She seemed calm as she wrote up the list. Emma returned her attention to the packs in front of her. There seemed to be plenty of water and food. She repacked the bags carefully and as she zipped up the zipper on the last one, she glanced up to locate Stirling. He was leaning against his car facing the Taylor house, looking haggard and worried.
Emma turned to face Callie. "I'll go ask him for those things. You make sure you're ready to go, okay?"
Callie nodded and handed Emma the list.
Stirling rubbed a hand over his face and watched Emma walk toward him. "Got a list for me?"
"Just a few things." Emma passed the paper to him and watched his eyes flick over it.
"You'll need a radio, too. Come with me." Stirling pushed off the car and moved toward the command trailer. He held the door open and let Emma precede him. Once he had followed her inside, he shut the door behind him. "It's quiet in here right now, but once the groups move out into the bush, it'll get crazy. Let's get you these things. Follow me back here." Stirling went to the back of the trailer and slid a pocket door back to reveal steel shelving, piled high with all kinds of equipment. He pulled a pack off the top shelf and proceeded to fill it with everything Emma had asked for. Then he bent and pulled two rolled up sleeping bags from a bottom shelf and passed them to her. She set them on end on the floor beside her feet.
From a charging dock, he pulled a radio. "It's fully charged." He handed it to Emma, who clipped it to her jeans.
"I'll need a roll of police tape, too."
"Can I ask why?"
"I can navigate through woods, but I'll make better time following my trail back if I'm not following someone else's fluorescent trail markers. I don't imagine I'll find much police tape out there."
"Pretty smart, Swan." He almost sounded impressed.
Emma watched a tic under Stirling's jaw. She'd seen that before, in others, when something played on their mind. "There's something more going on here. What aren't you telling the others?"
She watched Stirling lower his chin to his chest and heard him sigh before answering her in a subdued voice. "I don't expect the others to find her."
"Pardon?" Emma didn't bother to hide the surprise in her voice.
"They won't find her."
"Why not?"
"I have more faith in you and Callie than the rest of them out there." Stirling jerked his thumb toward the door before continuing. "None of them have the reputation in the woods that you do. Hell, none of them have done what you did. Not even the hunters. None of them see the way you obviously do. The girls have been friends ever since Genesis moved here. She and Callie used to play in these woods. I have a feeling that Genesis took off to prove a point. Callie will be able to help you find her."
Emma watched Stirling's back, saw the set of his shoulders, watched him breathe. An idea dawned slowly in Emma's mind. "This is personal for you ... Why?"
Stirling sighed again. "Just find her, Sheriff Swan." Abruptly, he straightened, turned and handed her the pack. "There are two florescent orange vests in there, as well as the other things you asked for. It's bear season, you'll need a rifle and ammo." Stirling stepped to the side and unlocked a gun cabinet.
He pulled a rifle from the cabinet and handed it to Emma. "Browning BLR .308. If you do happen across a bear, this will stop it."
Emma could see the gun had been well cared for. The wood was a warm honey color and the dark metal gleamed. She took it with a quiet, "Thanks."
He turned slightly and asked if she had the gun that Patty had given her.
Emma leaned the rifle against the wall, pulled the handgun from its holster, and held it out, grip first.
He pulled the magazine out to find it fully loaded. "She give you any other ammo than this?" He looked at Emma as he passed the gun back.
Emma shook her head as she holstered the gun.
Stirling faced the gun cabinet again, muttering to himself. He pulled two boxes from a shelf and faced her again. "Here's a box of Winchester .357. The magazine holds..."
"Ten rounds." Emma said briskly. "I have some experience with it. Before I was sheriff, I was a bail bondsperson in Boston. It's a good gun."
Stirling smiled slightly and handed her another box. "Those are a gift from me. Winchester makes reliable .358 shells for the rifle. There's 50 in there. Whatever you don't use, bring back to us. The paperwork on department purchased ammunition can be a bitch, as I'm sure you're aware, even in Maine."
Emma nodded once, much more composed than Stirling had expected her to be.
"Here," he held his hands out, palms up. "Let me put those in the pack for you. I'll grab you a tent and we'll get you going."
Emma handed him back the two boxes of ammunition, which he put into the pack and zipped up.
He re-locked the gun cabinet, pulled a rucksack from one of the steel shelves and plucked both sleeping bags from the floor. "Let's go."
Emma retrieved the rifle from where she had leaned it against the wall and followed Stirling out of the trailer.
As they approached the truck, Callie hopped off the tailgate. She eyed the rifle in Emma's hand with curiosity, but said nothing about it. "Three packs?"
The blonde laid the rifle down on the tailgate and slid the extra pack off her shoulders. She emptied its contents beside the rifle and handed the extra pack to Stirling. "That was easier than carrying all that over here loose, thanks."
The sheriff nodded and turned toward Callie.
"Young lady, you know Genesis better than I do, but I suspect she's taken off somewhere familiar. Either she's proving a point or she's angry."
"What would she be angry about, Sheriff?" Callie tilted her head a little as she spoke.
Stirling wouldn't meet her eyes, but he answered her with a practised tone. "It's not for me to say exactly, but I have a feeling her curiosity got the better of her. Just bring her back safe and sound, okay?"
"Yes sir." Callie's upbringing overrode her inquisitiveness.
"Channel 3, Swan. Good luck." Stirling clapped a hand on Emma's shoulder and left.
"That was weird," Callie muttered.
"Yeah." Emma shook her head a little and studied the things she had dumped onto the tailgate. "So we'll be carrying the map and compass. We'll put the safety vests on over our jackets. Oh, you better take a whistle." Emma looped the whistle's lanyard over Callie's head. "Put one of these head lamps in an outside pocket of the food pack, too." She used hook and eye tape to attach one sleeping bag to each of their packs, put the SIG-Sauer on her belt and loaded the rifle. "I'm going to set your dad's jacket just inside my pack, just on top of the tent bag. It's already afternoon and I suspect we'll be out overnight. That okay with you?"
Callie nodded and set her jacket over the food, then did the pack up.
Emma retrieved Tommy's leather jacket from the front of the truck, locked it up and pocketed the keys. She slipped her pack over her shoulders and turned to Callie. "Which way should we go?"
"To the ruins first."
Emma followed the teenager silently. She really wanted to ask her what ruins they were going to, and why Callie thought Genesis might be there. But Emma was smart enough to know that Callie didn't want to talk much with the others milling around. Many of whom turned to watch them walk away. But Emma neither waved to them nor made any acknowledgement of them at all. They were not here to socialize. They had a job to do, and people were expecting results. Emma trailed Callie towards the back of the Taylors' property, and through a hole in the screen of trees. Once they stepped through the trees, Callie led them through the brush without hesitation. Emma realized they were on an overgrown trail the girls must have used when they were younger. The sounds of the other searchers faded away, and Emma was relieved to find that Callie didn't crash through the bush. Likely from living out here her whole life. They walked for a little while longer, Emma keeping a watchful eye for broken branches or some other sign Genesis had been this way. Finally, Callie stopped and pulled the pack from her shoulders.
"Do you want some water?" she asked.
Emma nodded and smiled when she was handed a water bottle. She unscrewed the cap and took a drink before asking, "So...what are these ruins?"
"Gen and I used to hang out there once our mothers let us out of their sight. Just an old stone building out in the bush that's halfway crumbled. We'd go out there to get away from adults, hang out and talk. I haven't been out there in a couple of years. Not since..." Callie sat down on a fallen tree.
"Since your dad died?" Emma guessed.
Callie nodded. "I didn't want to be out in the bush for a long time after he died out here, and then I gave my mom all kinds of grief." She shrugged. "Now it's been a couple of years."
Emma spotted their tracks in a bit of dirt they had walked through and studied their treads so she would know their own tracks from anyone else's they might see. "Any idea what Stirling might have been going on about?"
"Yes."
"So you played dumb to get information out of him."
"I'm a teenager, Emma, I'm not dumb."
Emma straightened and faced Callie. "Never said you were."
"Sorry." Callie slouched a little.
"Don't be. I remember what it's like. Hell, people see my blonde hair and figure I have the I.Q of a box of hammers. So I get it." Emma took another drink. "So?"
Callie stood and put the pack on again. "I'll tell you if you swear on your badge that you won't repeat this to anyone."
Emma nodded and put one hand on her badge. "I swear."
"Okay, let's go. I'll tell you while we walk."
Emma let Callie lead the way again.
"Genesis wasn't born here like me. Her mom had grown up here, but moved away, and then came back with Genesis when she was ten. Apparently her mom and mine were friends in high school or something, so when Ms. Taylor came back, they picked up their friendship again. I liked Gen right away. We've been friends ever since. A couple of years ago, around the time my dad died, she started asking questions about her father. Her mom didn't want to talk about him. She would put her off with all kinds of excuses. They fought about it every now and then, and Gen would take off to my house. My mom called hers and after a few days, everything would go back to normal. But the last little while, Gen has been noticing the sheriff at her house for no good reason. She called me the third time he came over. We tossed around ideas on why he could be showing up with no reason. Nothing sounded reasonable though, and I think she finally asked her mom about it."
Emma ducked to avoid a low, heavy branch. "You think they argued?"
"More than likely. I know Gen is getting pretty fed up with being kept in the dark. I think they argued and she took off for the ruins."
"Makes sense to me."
Callie stopped suddenly and spun on her heel. "It does?"
"Yeah." Emma was forced to stop. She slung the strap of the rifle as best she could over one shoulder and put her hands in her pockets. "I had a colorful enough childhood to know how to take off myself."
Callie narrowed her eyes ever so slightly and cocked her head. She watched her travelling companion for a few seconds and Emma knew that the teenager was trying to figure out if she was lying. So Emma told her about growing up in the foster system in the States. Callie must have decided Emma wasn't lying and turned around to stride between the trees again.
They walked on for a while before Callie asked, "Can I ask you a question?"
"Only if I get to ask one of my own," Emma countered.
"Fair enough."
A few steps later Callie spoke up again. "How did you and Regina find each other? You seem so different."
Emma snorted. "You can say that again. In a lot of ways, we are. But she balances me out somehow. I've learned a lot from her. She tempers my impulsiveness, but then when I want to move slowly, sometimes she takes the bull by the horns and does what needs doing." Emma thought about holding Snow in Neverland while Regina ripped out the heart of a Lost Boy. "We were introduced kind of against our wills, and you already know we hated each other. Well, she hated me more than I hated her. I just thought she was a cold, unfeeling shrew."
Callie stopped and turned around with a small smile playing on her lips.
Emma shrugged. "Truth."
Callie resumed walking.
"Then how did you change your mind?"
"Regina and I worked together a lot and over time, we both began to trust each other. We travelled. I saved her life once or twice. She's saved mine once or twice...after that, we just kind of relaxed." Emma reflected on how much more complicated their lives really were, but mentioned none of that. "My turn?"
"That was the deal."
Emma chuckled. She was beginning to discover that Callie was not like most teenagers she'd known in her youth.
"Is your mom really okay with letting us stay there for free?"
Callie nodded as she stepped over a fallen tree that laid across the path. "Yeah, she is. I think Mom is lonely. I mean, she's got friends in Desperation Lake and all, but I think she needs something new and interesting and ..." Callie let her thought dangle. "It's not really about the money for her. It sucks that your car blew up, and my mom likes being able to help. She likes you and Regina." Callie blew out a long breath and mumbled, "She's not the only one."
Emma grinned when the admission floated back. She scrambled across the same fallen tree, pleased her suspicion had been confirmed.
They walked in silence for a long time. Emma listened for any unusual sounds and watched the surrounding woods carefully. She had faced down a giant, but she knew she did not want to go up against a bear, rifle or no rifle. Off in the distance up ahead, she spotted a dark blob through the trees. "Is that your ruins up there?"
"Yep. That's it."
As they got closer, Emma could see the remains of two stone walls. They looked like field stone, moss covered and well aged.
"You want to call out for your friend? She'll recognize your voice."
Callie nodded and called out. "Genesis! It's Callie! Come on out!"
No answering call came back to them.
"Gen?" Callie called out, louder this time.
Still no reply.
Emma put a hand on Callie's shoulder and faced her. "Callie, let me go ahead. I need you to hang back so I can check it out, okay?" She had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.
The teenager nodded and Emma gave her what she hoped was a reassuring smile. "Just hang out here until I holler for you. I won't be long." Emma patted her shoulder and then turned away.
As she approached the ruins, she strained her ears for any suspicious sound of anyone trying to stay out of sight. She heard only her own breathing and a bird in the trees above. She angled her approach so she had a clear line of sight into the corner where the two walls met. From a distance, she couldn't see anything suspicious, but as she went closer, she kept an eye on the ground for tracks. There was no evidence of the walls ever resting on anything but dirt. There were shoe prints that looked to be a size a teenager might wear, and the tracks were fresh. Emma wasn't surprised by this. There was a jacket that laid against the base of one of the walls that looked relatively new. Seeing nothing alarming, Emma began to raise her head to call Callie when something off to the side caught her attention. With the hairs on the back of her neck standing up, she stepped closer for a better look.
Emma knelt and studied it for a full minute, wanting to be sure. When she was certain she knew what she was looking at, she straightened up.
"Damn it." She sighed.
She looked down once more.
At a clear, very fresh, very large track of a man's hunting boot.
"Damn."
**Author's Note: Before I get all kinds of messages asking me what kind of a hack I am out in the woods, let me just say that Sheriff Stirling had his reasons for sending Emma and Callie out there the way he did. That being said, I welcome your theories, thoughts and feedback. Rest assured, there's something big coming Thanks for reading!**