Chapter 42

Emma forced herself to meet David's eyes squarely and steeled herself against the hurt and bewilderment she read within them. Despite the case she was trying to build, she truly didn't believe that he was guilty. Not knowingly guilty, anyway, she reminded herself. She got up to pour a cup of tea and handed it to him.

"Thanks," he said, accepting it. "I hope Kathryn's somewhere warm and not out in the cold."

Emma winced. Coming from someone else, it might have sounded as though they were laying things on a bit thick, but to her ears, David sounded genuine. If he was guilty, he had to be like Jekyll and Hyde. Or maybe he had an evil twin, somewhere. Whoa. Save that idea for if any eyewitnesses to the car crash turn up. Aloud, she said, "David. I think you need to start worrying about yourself a little bit more here. Your wife is missing. You are in love with another woman. There's this… unexplained phone call."

"I know," David said. "I know. I just… I can't explain why it says that. I didn't do anything to my wife.

Emma sighed and gave in. "I'm pretty good at spotting a liar," she told him. "And, honestly, liars have better material." She took another breath. "Now, go home."

David blinked in surprise. "I can go?" he repeated, with a startled smile.

Emma exhaled. "We don't even know if there was a crime yet," she pointed out. "So, get some sleep."

David heaved a sigh. "Thank you," he said, and rose to leave.

Emma paused for a beat. "And, David?" she added, "maybe… Get a lawyer." She didn't have enough evidence to charge him. She didn't have any proof of a crime. But either circumstance might change and probably would. And if something had happened to Kathryn, that line in the phone records and David's inability to explain it, still made him her most likely suspect.

Emma had only walked half a block when she realized that someone was following her, and making no efforts to hide it. She turned to see Mary Margaret and waited for her to catch up. "Is he okay?" the schoolteacher asked. "David?

Emma smiled reassuringly. "Oh, yeah. He's a little shaken up, but he's headed home. He's fine."

Mary Margaret heaved a sigh of relief and asked if there had been any news about Kathryn. "Did you check with Boston again?" she asked, when Emma admitted that there wasn't.

Emma shook her head. "She's not there, Mary Margaret," she said gently.

"So, we have no idea what happened to her?"

Emma sighed. "All we know is that she found out about you two, gave you a well-deserved slap, and then disappeared."

Too late, she saw the hurt in her friend's eyes when Mary Margaret repeated, "Well-deserved? Do you really believe that?"

"No," Emma said, though she was glad that she was the only person she'd ever met with her superpower. Really, if she'd found out that Neal had been carrying on with someone behind her back, she'd probably clobber both of them, but telling this to Mary Margaret would only make her friend feel worse and accomplish nothing. "I'm just preparing you for what everyone else is going to think. You two are going to look bad until we figure the truth out."

"You mean David?" Mary Margaret asked, horrified. "Th-That people are going to think in order to… be free with me…"

Emma nodded. "Some are," she said honestly. "And, he's not doing himself any favors. So, if there's anything you could think of to pin down his whereabouts that night…"

Mary Margaret shook her head. "He wasn't with me. We really are through."

Emma stopped, seeing Ruby waiting by the bus stop—where, come to think of it, Emma couldn't recall ever having seen a bus before—and Whale apparently annoying her.

"Sorry, no," Ruby was saying. "Don't need a ride."

"It's awfully cold out here," Whale pushed, to which Ruby responded that she was fine.

"I can carry your bag," Whale insisted. "Where are you headed?"

"Dr. Whale?" Mary Margaret called.

Startled, Whale turned to see the two women standing close by. "Mary Margaret," he said, with a grin that was just a bit too wide. "Emma. Hello there."

"Hey!" Mary Margaret said, and Emma suddenly remembered that Whale had a bit of history with her.

Whale chuckled nervously. "I was just having a talk with Ruby here. But, I should, um…"

"Yeah," Emma said, her hand reaching into her jacket pocket and closing on her sheriff's badge in case she needed to pull it out. "Yeah, you should."

Whale gave her a tight nod. "Yeah…," he said, turning quickly and hurrying off into the night.

Mary Margaret turned to Ruby. "Was he bothering you?" she asked.

Ruby smiled. "The day I can't handle a lech is the day I leave town." Her smile dimmed and she exhaled noisily. "Which this is, I guess."

"You're leaving?" Emma asked, surprised.

"I had a fight with Granny," Ruby admitted. "Quit my job."

"You quit?" Mary Margaret repeated. "Where you going?"

Ruby's smile dropped away entirely. "I don't know," she said. "Away."

Emma winced. She knew what that felt like. "Yeah, well," she said, "buses out of town don't really happen. And, you might want a destination first." Not that she'd ever needed one herself, but being on the run from foster care hadn't been any kind of fun.

"Hey," Mary Margaret said with a gentle smile, "if you need a place to figure things out, you could always come home with me. I've got a spare bedroom."

Ruby's eyes widened. "Could I?" she asked. "I-I mean, just for a little while? Until I know what I'm doing," she added quickly.

Mary Margaret beamed. "Come on."

The power was back on by the time Emma made it home, but there were two fat candles burning on the table and the scent of popcorn shrimp wafted from the oven as she made her way into the kitchen.

"I just put it in ten minutes ago, when you texted you were on your way," Neal grinned, as Emma dropped her jacket on the back of a chair and promptly sat down. "Long day?"

Emma nodded. "Unfortunately, I don't know if I can tell you about it without jeopardizing an investigation."

Neal's eyebrows shot up. "You think I'll blab to the press?" he asked lightly.

Emma sighed. "I've already made enough mistakes in less than a day. I'd better not make any more."

"Sorry," Neal said at once. "You're right."

Emma sighed, but when Neal went to bring the shrimp to the table, she didn't reach for the serving spoon. "Caught Henry trying to break into the clock tower," she said.

Neal blinked. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. He was trying to pick the lock, but the alarm went off."

"There's an alarm now?" Neal asked quickly.

That clinched it. "Yes," Emma shot back. "I guess there wasn't one when you helped him break in the first time."

Neal flinched guiltily. "He was pretty sure that Rapunzel was up there. I figured the best way to show him he was wrong was to take him inside and show him."

"Neal…"

"Look, if I hadn't been up there, I wouldn't have been able to set you on Gold's trail when he nabbed that florist. Where did you think I was when I took that photo?"

"I don't know… some roofing job on Main Street," Emma mumbled, fighting down a wave of irritation as she realized she should have noticed his vantage point ages ago. "Meanwhile, I had to deal with Regina and for once, we were on the same side." She winced. "Not a great feeling."

"Want me to apologize to her?" Neal asked easily.

Emma shook her head. "It'll just vindicate her suspicions and, since I told her I doubted you'd been contributing to the delinquency of a minor—"

"You make that sound so… harsh," Neal said, feigning hurt.

Emma glowered. "He's our kid, Neal. Do you seriously think teaching him how to be a criminal is going to help convince a judge that we'd be better parents than Regina?"

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," Neal held up his hands in surrender. "It was a dumb idea in hindsight, but I tried not to let him see what I was doing."

"Yeah, well, telling him not to look wasn't good enough," Emma retorted. "Anyway, if you go to Regina now, it'll make us both look bad. Just… let it drop and, hopefully, it'll blow over." She hadn't missed the way the town's attitude toward Mary Margaret was already beginning to thaw, though she somehow doubted that the mayor would be nearly as forgiving, should her suspicions be confirmed.

"Emma?" Neal asked hesitantly. "I know you told me about what happened when you asked Mary Margaret to read to David. What if Henry's right and there's really someone locked in the clock tower?"

Emma's shocked stare yielded almost at once to a startled laugh. "Good one, Neal," she admitted, still chuckling. "I guess I needed that after a day like this one. Thanks."

"You're welcome," Neal said, and Emma didn't notice that he wasn't laughing along with her.

Emma was late getting into the station the next morning. She didn't want to go in; police work in a small town was one thing when you were dealing with traffic violations, peace disturbances, and crowd control. Kathryn's disappearance, however, was completely different.

It wasn't that she didn't feel up to finding the woman; she was a private investigator and a bail-bondsperson. Finding people was what she did for a living. Usually, though, she found people who didn't want to be found, not people who might have been murdered.

And there it was: the 'm' word Emma hadn't wanted to think about, but which had been there, lurking at the back of her mind. Kathryn was missing. She hadn't left town. And if she hadn't turned up yet, the reasons why she might not have were… starting to look a little grim.

Emma knew how to locate a runaway child or a bail-jumper, but her knowledge of police procedures came from a couple of weeks on the job with Graham and a bunch of outdated training manuals. Sure, there was overlap with her PI training, but a lot of her PI training had consisted of "This, you leave for the cops to handle." Well, now she was the cops, and she was playing catch-up on the fly. When you were a bail-bondsperson, you didn't worry about botching evidence or mucking up a crime scene; by the time you got there, that part of the job was over and done. She didn't know how many procedural violations she'd already committed, but she was all but positive she wasn't done with them, yet. It was, she thought glumly, entirely possible that she'd find out what had happened to Kathryn, but see the killer walk free because of her mistake.

Whoa. Slow down, there. She's still missing. Not dead. And she might turn up safe and sound in an hour. You just don't know. Don't go assuming the worst until you have to.

She entered the station to find Ruby and Henry already there, a newspaper spread open on the desk to the want ads. Ruby was on the phone.

"Uh, no," she was saying, "that's not a prowler. That's Archie's dog – Pongo. Throw him a vanilla wafer. He'll quiet down. Did you still want to talk to Emma? Great. Glad I could help." She hung up as Emma walked forward.

"How's it going, you two?" she asked, smiling.

"Great," Ruby said, looking up. "Except I can't do anything."

Emma shook her head. "I'm sure that's not true," she said, still smiling. "I just saw you on the phone. That was good."

Ruby blinked. "That? That's nothing."

"No," Emma countered. "No, it isn't. I actually have some money in the budget if you want to help out around here."

Eyes wide, Ruby leaped at the offer, practically falling over herself with enthusiasm. Emma fought not to laugh at the image of the eager puppy that jumped into her brain, as she told her new hire to pick up some lunch. Ruby was nearly out the door when Mary Margaret walked in. "Hey," Ruby greeted her. "Lunch, Mary Margaret? I'm getting for everyone."

"Uh, no," Mary Margaret said, sounding distracted. "I'm not hungry."

She turned to Emma, not paying attention as Ruby left. "David's in the woods," she said, her words nearly tumbling out of her mouth. "There's something wrong with him. He looked right through me. It's like… It's like he was a different person…"

"Here," Neal said, pointing to the ground. "Someone definitely passed this way, but the area's been swept clean. I can't make out any tracks."

His companion frowned and bent down to see for himself. He looked up again with a raised eyebrow and an appreciative smile. "I guess you got your merit badge for tracking," he said.

"Huh?" Neal shook his head. "No. Actually," a newspaper article from more than a year earlier flashed into his mind, "I don't think that's a thing anymore."

"Really?" Jim asked, sounding surprised.

Neal thought back. "Sorry, I read about it a while back. There was this feature on how, as part of the BSA centennial, they were bringing back four badges they'd discontinued, for one year only. Tracking was one of them, except that back in the day, they used to call it 'stalking'."

Jim whistled. "Doesn't exactly sound like a good name for it today," he said.

"Hence the change to tracking. But since they only offered it for the one year last year, I was too old to try for it. Plus I traveled around a lot when I was younger. Never really went out for extra-curriculars like scouting or sports." Realizing that he should probably explain how he had come by his wilderness skills, he added, "I grew up way out in the boonies. Lot of animals around, not so many people or roads. I don't hunt much these days, but if I had to, I guess I still could. Tracking was just something I had to learn if I wanted fresh meat."

"I can tell moose tracks from bear," Jim said, smiling a bit, "but I don't know if I would have realized that someone was trying to hide their trail here if you hadn't pointed it out."

"Okay," Neal sighed, "I guess being a bail-bondsman, sometimes I have to draw on those skills, too. Not usually," he added. "Most of the guys I track try to hide in the big cities, but I was just up in Alaska last month, slogging through a lot of places that were definitely not cities, or even small towns."

"Got it," Jim said. "Let's keep moving. If someone's trying to hide their tracks, well, if we can find out who they are, maybe when we do, we'll also find Kathryn."

Neal nodded. "Here's to hoping, then," he said. "This way."

It didn't take Emma long to grab her jacket, gun, and car keys. "Okay, kid," she sighed. "I don't mean to kick you out, but I got to go see if David's in any trouble out there."

Henry was stashing his book. "It's okay," he said, as he laid he book in one of her desk drawers. "I'm supposed to meet my mom." He slid the drawer closed and locked it. Emma nodded approvingly.

"You know," Henry said seriously, "you can let Ruby do more. She's Little Red Riding Hood."

Emma fought not to roll her eyes. "With the little basket?" she asked, smiling just a bit. "Yeah. She seems like a badass." As soon as the words left her mouth, she wondered whether she should have used that description in front of Henry. Henry, however, didn't seem at all scandalized by her turn of phrase.

"She is," he maintained. "She just doesn't remember how cool she is or what she's capable of, but it's true."

As he pushed on the door to the sheriff station, Ruby returned with lunch and Henry greeted her as he passed by. Ruby returned the greeting and handed Emma her lunch. Emma thanked her. Then she noted her new assistant's slumped shoulders. "You okay?"

Ruby sighed. "I guess. I mean, this is something I know how to do. So," her lip curled up with bitter irony, "yay."

Emma considered. She wasn't quite convinced by what Henry had said, but if David was wandering in the woods, she had to admit that getting a local like Ruby to help her search made sense. "Okay," she said, making a quick decision. "Let's pack these back up, and we can eat it in the car. I need to do a little wilderness search, and I need your help."

Ruby lowered her eyes. "I'm pretty sure I'm just going to screw it up. I mean, I'll screw it up with flair, but…"

Emma shook her head with an encouraging smile. "No, you won't. Come on – you can do this…"

Emma had to admit that Henry's instincts had been right. Not that she would volunteer the information; the last thing she wanted to do was corroborate his theory that Ruby was Little Red Riding Hood! Emma's brow furrowed. Why the hell would Little Red Riding Hood have above-par tracking skills anyway? Her skill-set was supposed to be… picking flowers and talking to strangers, and lousy eyesight, come to think of it, if she could confuse her grandmother with a wolf in a nightgown!

However it was, Ruby had seemed to have a superpower all her own, as she'd unerringly led Emma to where an injured and unconscious David Nolan had fallen in the woods. Their relief at finding him had yielded to frustration, when David couldn't tell them anything about what he was doing in the woods, or how or why he'd even gone there in the first place.

In the end, she'd sent Ruby back to the station and driven David to get checked out at the hospital, where Whale had declared him to be fine. Even the cut on his head was only superficial.

"I can refer him to Dr. Hopper for a mental health eval," Whale went on, "but, it's my opinion that whatever caused this blackout is the same phenomenon we observed when he came out of his coma. Moving around, acting out, not remembering it later…"

"We will figure it out," Emma said grimly. She remembered that he'd spoken to Mary Margaret earlier, though he apparently didn't remember it now, and asked the doctor how functional David could be during one of these blackouts.

Whale frowned thoughtfully. "Well," he said, "people in similar states, even under sleep medication, do all sorts of things. Cooking, talking, driving a car..."

A look of sick horror came over David's face. "You want to know if I could've made that call," he realized. "Or more. You… You want to know if I could've… What, kidnapped her? Killed her?"

While Whale was trying to calm him down, Regina stormed in, demanding to know why David didn't have a lawyer present and whether Emma had read him his rights.

"No," Emma snapped, "because he's not under arrest. We're just talking."

Regina made a scoffing sound. "Right," she said sarcastically. "Just talking."

"What are you doing here?" Emma asked.

That was when Whale interjected—to Emma's disbelieving ears—that Regina was still David's emergency contact. Even David looked surprised at that revelation.

"I thought that changed to Kathryn?" he said.

"Well, Kathryn's currently unavailable," Regina reminded them, fixing her gaze pointedly on Emma. "Some people haven't found her yet. Stop trying to place blame and just find her.

"There's a whole lot of Maine to search, Regina," Emma said with some irritation.

Regina gave her a broad smile. "Well, you've covered this room," she said, too cheerfully. "I suggest you branch out."

Emma bit back the angry rejoinder she wanted to make and left the room to call Ruby in private and let her know that she was going to be a while longer.

Neal's cellphone vibrated, and he looked at the caller ID and smiled. "Hey, you," he said cheerfully.

Emma didn't return the greeting. "Tell me you found something," she ordered. "I've just had Regina breathing down my neck."

"I gather it wasn't as arousing as when I do it," Neal quipped and was rewarded by a growl on the other end of the call.

"She was mashing down every button I've got and she knew it," Emma retorted. "I hate that I knew it too, and I still let her get to me. So… anything?"

Neal hesitated. "We haven't found her," he admitted carefully.

"But you found something?"

"I don't know," he admitted. He told her what he and Jim had uncovered near the site of the accident. "Problem is, about twenty yards into the forest, even that rubbed-out trail went away. It hasn't rained in the last couple of days and the undergrowth is too thick for it not to have been disturbed if someone went crashing through."

"What if it were someone…" Emma stopped and Neal could practically picture her frowning on the other end of the call. "There any truth to that old Hollywood stereotype about Native Americans being able to slip through a forest without leaving any sign they passed by?"

Neal raised an eyebrow. "I know there are Passamaquoddy and Penobscot in this state, but I don't know if there are any in town." In fact, if everyone in this town had come over from the Enchanted Forest, he was willing to lay down good money that there weren't.

"Me either, but if that's actually a thing—the skill, not it being some… Native American superpower, I mean—then maybe there's someone in town who knows how to do it." A rueful note crept into her voice, as she went on, "With the way my luck is going, there are probably a couple of dozen if there's one, just to make for more suspects."

Neal smiled. "Considering that a lot of prey animals have good instincts about running off if they hear a noise, I'd guess that most decent hunters learn how to move silently without leaving clear traces, Native or not," he said. "I don't know how much hunting gets done in these parts or who might be doing it, though. Fishing, sure, but I don't think anyone's stalking a lobster through the wilderness park." He sighed. "I'll keep trying to pick up the trail, only…"

Emma waited an uncomfortable twenty seconds, before she prompted him. "Only?"

He sighed. "It's possible that whoever was here didn't haul her off through the woods after all. Suppose someone grabbed her, hustled her into a car or the back of a van or something… and then laid a false trail to make it look like they'd dragged her into the forest?"

Emma groaned. "Seriously? I wish that didn't make as much sense as it's making right now."

"Well, I don't know if I'm right," Neal admitted, even though his gut told him he probably was. "Jim and I are going to keep at this. Maybe we'll pick up the trail again. All the same, if you have any other ideas or leads in town…"

"I'll follow them up," Emma sighed. "By the way, I sent Ruby down to the old bridge where I picked David up. She's got good instincts, but maybe you could head over there when you're done and lend a hand? She's new enough at this that she might miss something."

"Hey, even us seasoned investigating types can miss stuff," Neal grinned. "Sure, I'll check up on her. See you later."

As Neal approached the toll bridge, he heard a scream that chilled his blood and made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. An instant later, Ruby came running toward him, her eyes wide, and her long dark hair streaming behind her. One high-heeled boot caught on a tree root and she stumbled and fell heavily to her knees.

"Ruby!" Neal exclaimed, hurrying to her side. "You okay?"

She shook her head and frantically motioned for him to stay back. Then she turned her face to the ground and was promptly sick.

"Hey," Neal said softly. "Here." He handed her a bottle of water, taking a moment to break the cap's seal first. "Drink."

Ruby nodded and took a gulp. She coughed, sputtered, and raised the bottle to her lips once more, this time taking a smaller sip.

"You okay?" Neal asked again. She wasn't okay. She was trembling and looked as though she might vomit once more. "Easy," he said. "Easy."

Ruby took a deep breath. Then, with a shaking hand, she pointed back to the direction from which she'd come. "B-box," she whispered.

"Box?" Neal repeated.

"Jewelry box," Ruby gasped. "Heart."

"What?"

She took another breath. "By the bridge. There's a jewelry box. W-with a heart in it." A sob escaped her. "I-I think it's human. I-I think it's Kathryn's."

He opened the box just long enough to ascertain that it did, indeed, contain a heart, before snapping it closed and taking Ruby back to the station. He called Emma to let her know what she'd found and that they were on their way, so she was a good deal calmer than she might otherwise have been when Ruby handed her the box.

"You okay?" Emma asked.

Neal nodded tersely, but Ruby shook her head. "I don't know what I am," she admitted.

"It's going to be all right," Emma did her best to reassure the young woman. "We can figure out what happened now. Ruby, you did good."

Ruby looked stunned. "This? Is doing good?"

"Jim and I've been combing those woods for hours," Neal said softly. "You uncovered the first solid lead we've got."

"Yeah," Emma nodded. "It's amazing. First you found David, and now this. I know you say you don't know what you are, but whatever it is, I got to say… I'm impressed."

Ruby winced. "Don't be," she said. "I'm scared out of my mind."

"But you did it anyway," Emma said. "Grab a seat. I'll get you a coffee."

"Got anything stronger?" Ruby asked, settling into a chair.

"Afraid not," Emma admitted. "But I'll make it a really strong coffee." She realized that the carafe was empty and remembered with some irritation that she'd finished the canister that morning. She headed for the back room, hoping that there would be another canister there. Neal followed.

"What happens now?" he asked.

Emma sighed. "Now? I turn that box over to the lab and find out if it's Kathryn's. I hope so," she added. Then she caught herself. "I mean, really, I hope it turns out to belong to a-a… deer or a horse or something else not… human. But if it's human, and it's not Kathryn's…" Her face seemed to have grown several shades paler, while she was speaking. "…Then I think we might have some kind of ritual murder going on here."

Neal whistled. "And here I thought this was supposed to be a quiet little seaside town."