Elliot tried not to jump to the worst case scenario, but years of experience with the wide breadth of human depravity predisposed him to assuming the worst.
"I haven't seen her since last night," Elliot admitted. The woman's face fell, and Elliot knew she was falling into the same panic spiral he already found himself in. "I'll check with the boys though. Maybe they saw her, and I didn't." He thought carefully, he didn't want to spread panic but it was probably an important detail for the other parent to know, "We haven't been able to find Colton this morning either."
To her credit, the woman stayed calm, "Maybe they wandered off." She sounded a little relieved, which made Elliot feel like his reaction was way over the top. "If both of them are gone, at least they are together, and maybe they just got lost."
It was actually a pretty reasonable explanation. Much more benign than his original assumptions. It was probably best to approach this from that angle, but Elliot couldn't rid himself of the sick feeling in his gut. He might have only met the kids yesterday, but neither kid seemed like the type to wander off in the dark.
He tilted his head towards the science teacher. "Let's talk to Mr. Jones. Maybe they have a protocol for something like this."
The woman nodded and fell into step behind him as they approached the science teacher. As they approached Mr. Jones hung up the call. Elliot looked over his shoulder at the woman behind him. Wendy. He suddenly remembered her name. It looked like she wanted him to take the lead so he spoke first. "We are missing a couple kids this morning. Colton and Clem," he clarified.
The teacher masked his worry well, in fact, he almost minimized it. "Boy and a girl." He rolled his eyes. "Can't say it's the first time we had a pair sneak off."
Elliot wanted to scream. These kids aren't like that! But he gritted his teeth and spoke calmly. "Do you have a protocol for something like this? We can't find them anywhere."
The teacher flipped through a few papers on his clipboard. "Yeah, the school gives us steps on what to do, let me see." He read over the paper in front of him. "Okay. We need to gather all the kids up." He looked up at the pavilion, "looks like that shouldn't be too hard. Have all chaperones account for their kids who we can make sure we know exactly who is missing. Once that's done we go on a sort of lockdown." He glanced up at Elliot and Wendy. "We are supposed to keep some chaperones at camp to play games or keep the kids occupied while the rest do a basic search of the area. Most kids don't wander too far, and now that it's light they should be easy to find."
"I want to search," Elliot volunteered. He didn't want to leave Noah with anyone at this point, but he knew his experience with this could be valuable. He turned towards Wendy. "Will you keep a close eye on my boys?" She nodded eagerly, but he felt the need to emphasize, "Noah does not leave your sight." Every part of his body language was tense and intimidating. He softened, trying not to completely terrify the woman. "Please."
Wendy dropped a kind hand to his elbow. "I'll keep him and the others with my girls. I won't let him be unattended for a second." Her eyes held his, and he knew she was sincere, and despite his reservations, he had to trust the woman.
"I'll start rounding everyone up," Mr. Jones added.
"I need to talk to the boys." Elliot shook his head. This is definitely not how he wanted this weekend to go.
With Wendy falling in step with him, they hurried over to the pavilion area. Danny and Jace were downing pancakes, and Elliot found Noah walking back towards him from the bathrooms.
"He wasn't in there. I can't find him." Elliot noticed the distress in his voice, and he wasn't sure if the boy was prone to panic, but he wanted to reassure him.
He lightly grasped Noah's upper arms, hoping to hold the boy's focus. "I'm going to go look for him." He hated that he had to tell him his other friend was gone too. "He probably got lost with Clem, and we will track them down."
"Clem is gone too?" His bright blue eyes watered.
"Yeah," Elliot confirmed. Noah wiped at his eyes as he tried to stop himself from getting upset. "We'll find them buddy." He pulled Noah into a hug, and his heart broke as he shook in his arms. Elliot swallowed his emotions and fears. He pulled away and crouched down to Noah's level. "I'm going to look for them with a couple other adults." Elliot brushed away Noah's tears. "I need you to stay with Wendy."
Noah nodded, "Okay."
Elliot kept his intensely trained on Noah's, hoping he would understand how important it was for him to be obedient right now. "I'm serious. You and the other boys stay right next to Wendy. You don't go anywhere." He kept his eyes on Noah. "Do you understand?" After Noah nodded, Elliot added, "Stay far away from Lucas and his dad right now. Okay?" Noah nodded adamantly. He pulled him into another hug. He hated this, and he hated letting him out of his sight, but they needed to find those kids, and he felt certain Noah would do what he was told.
-000-
The first half hour only silence passed between the boys. Noah wasn't sure what to say. Jace who was always upbeat was unnervingly sober. Feeling like he had to say something, anything, to make him feel better, Noah tried to reassure his friend.
"Elliot will find them." He laid a reassuring hand on his friend's shoulder.
"How do you know?" Jace's voice cracked. "You barely know him." Jace's tone was harsh, but Noah knew he was just scared. He was scared too.
"My mom's job is to help women and kids who get hurt." He knew if his mom trusted Elliot, he knew he could too. "Elliot was her partner for a long time, and he did the same job my mom does. He'll find them."
Jace lifted his head a little so he could see Noah better. "Thank Noh."
Noah nodded in acknowledgement before admitting. "I know Elliot will find them, but," Noah felt nervous, "I'm kinda scared too."
"I just want them to be okay." Jace dropped his head into his hands.
"Me too," Noah agreed. "Did Colton say anything yesterday? Or Clem? I don't think they would go off on their own…especially Clem."
"He didn't say anything about going exploring or anything like that. And you know Clem, she never breaks the rules." Jace thought for a minute before bringing up the incident from the day before. "The only thing weird was that thing that happened with Lucas."
"Why was he bugging Clem anyway?" Noah asked.
"Probably because she's so quiet. He probably thought she wouldn't tell or anything. Don't tell anyone, but Colton has a crush on Clem. That's why he stood up for her."
"I won't say anything," Noah reassured.
"I wish we could help look." Jace sighed and leaned his back against the picnic table.
"I know, me too. But my mom made me promise I would do exactly what Elliot told me to do, at all times." Noah signed and mimicked Jace's position. "And Elliot told me to stay here. Plus, if I got lost looking for them I'm pretty sure my mom would kill me AND Elliot."
Jace chuckled. "She totally would." He shook his head, "Colton's gonna be grounded for the rest of his life when our parents find out about this."
"Have you called your parents yet?" Noah swung his legs, letting the toe of his shoes brush against the cement.
"No. I don't want to freak them out. Dad's in London for the week. He left yesterday after we did. I want to give Colton a chance to get his butt back here before I tell my mom. She will freak out a lot less if I tell her after they get him back here."
"Sounds like a good idea. What was Colton thinking though? He usually doesn't do stuff like this."
"I really have no idea. We're brothers, but we don't share the same brain."
"Yeah that's true. Only child remember?" Noah let out a light laugh, "I have no idea what it would be like to have a brother."
"That's so weird to me. I mean I was born with a brother. Kinda a package deal." Noah watched Jace swallow back some emotion. "I just want them to find him."
"They will."
-000-
After the first hour, Elliot knew they needed to call it in, but everyone else wanted to do one more sweep. He was tempted to say screw it and calm it in, but he wanted to go over the places the other adults searched. He wanted to make sure they didn't miss something. After he checked in with Noah, he started down the trails the other adults already covered.
The first trail yielded nothing. It was like the kids had evaporated. He started walking the length of the creek, after remembering the kids gushing about it the day before.
At first, nothing looked out of place. Everything was exactly what you'd expect to see at a creek bed. The area was rife with rocks, squishy mud, and copious amount of moss. Whoever looked down there didn't go far in either direction. Footprints littered the edges of the creek bed. Only one pair of adult sized shoes left impressions in the sticky mud, and they didn't encompass a large area.
Beyond the sound of the water running across the rocks, and the croaks of frogs, the creek was silent. He couldn't hear the sounds of bustling twelve year olds he knew were not far from this spot. The sucking sound of his boots lifting step by step through the mud was the only unnatural sound in this eerily peaceful creek.
Elliot paused when something unusual caught his attention. A tree hung over the trail, almost blocking it entirely. Elliot leaned in closer and his heart began to pound nervously. "Shit," he muttered.
Wrapped around a small protruding branch was a few strands of long hair. Long dark hair. "Damn it." He wanted to be hopeful. He wanted to believe Clem and Colton sat further up the creek, unharmed and scared. He knew that was a wish more than a reality. If they had been this close they could have heard the searchers , right? The hill down to the creek and the sounds of running water could muffle sounds in either direction, but Elliot knew they would have heard the searchers' cries when they searched the actual creek area.
He noted the location of the hair, leaving it in place so potential techs could assess an uncontaminated area if it became necessary.
He continued up the creek, but beyond the hair, nothing looked out of place. The trail opened up, as the creek widened.
At first he thought it was a glare, a weird reflection from the sun overhead. He stepped into the creek. The water was freezing. It must have been runoff from the snowfall in early spring because it chilled his entire body. He waded in a couple more steps and froze. Just ahead of him, the freezing water rushed past a cluster of rocks that barely peeked above the shallow water line. The rocks were covered in blood. As he stepped closer to the bloodstained rocks something gleamed beneath the surface of the water. Thinking it might be a fisherman's lure long forgotten and wedged between the rocks, he reached into the water. He grasped something small and metallic, and lifted it above the surface.
A ballerina earring. Clem's earring.