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“I found it”

“Let anize a search party” Hank reached inside the cruiser for the police radio “The snow has slowed so we have time”

Salanced over at the cruiser's open door He could see Josie's neinter coat sitting on the seat and fear flattened his chest “No ti now”

“Sam, wait!”

There wasn't any time to wait Josie was out there

Chapter Eighteen

Sam trailed Josie's tracks to the base of McPherson's Bluff The snow had tapered off, leaving only the hacking at his body like an icy hand He raised the zipper on his heavy coat to ward off Mother Nature's attack

Scanning the bluff, he searched for her platinum hair and the all-black outfit she'd worn to break into his house, grateful her sense of drama wouldnothing, he followed her footprints, noting how they grew closer together and in some spots they were broken where she h the snow near a bolder An ie of her bare hand, red with cold, flashed in his mind

It had to be five degrees out and she didn't have a coat or gloves How long had she been wandering around the bluff and howteuilt-filled pain spreading outward He pushed back the anxiety curling around his heart Later, after he had her warm and in his arms, he'd deal with that For now, he just had to find her

Josie's tracks circled around in an aie dent in the snowpack was evidence that she'd fallen at least one more time Sirens blared in the distance The sheriff's deputies, fire department and ambulance, no doubt The cavalry had arrived too late

Halfway up to the top of the bluff's eight-hundred-feet summit, the tracks disappeared near a steep drop-off Blood rushed in his ears, drowning out the sirens, and he ran to the edge and looked into the abyss Evergreen trees broke through the undisturbed white blanket like polka dots between the bluff and the badlands' deep ravines beyond, but no black clothing to give away Josie

He whipped around, looking for e rocks near a two-foot crack in the limestone wall broke up the perfect

blanket of white Rockslide Those were usually a proble, not the dead of winter An animal must have—

Adrenaline electrified his body and he rushed to the opening He couldn't see anything in the inky blackness, but part of him knew, just knew, she was in there

“Josie, I' for you” His voice echoed back at him