The Courage Tree - Diane Chamberlain [80]
Lucas held the back door open for Janine, and she slid across the seat. “Do you remember the way?” she asked Joe once he was in the car.
“I think so,” he replied, and he turned the key in the ignition and headed out of the parking lot.
The road was once again blocked off with orange cones, but this time, the barrier was at the entrance to the road, a mile or so from the site of the accident. A uniformed guard let them pass through the barrier when Joe identified himself.
The dawn light dappled the road as they drove along its twists and turns. As they approached the accident site, they began to pass cars and vans parked helter-skelter along the route.
“There’s the trailer,” Paula said, pointing ahead of them. A white trailer was parked next to the embankment, directly across the road from where the Honda had been found.
Joe maneuvered his car as close to the trailer as he could get, but there were so many other vehicles in the road, that he still had to park a good distance away. Janine was touched and heartened to see dozens of people milling about. Some wore uniforms of one sort or another; others looked like hikers readying for a day on the trail. A few of them had bloodhounds and German shepherds at their sides. Suddenly, she felt less alone.
“I’ll go see what’s happening,” she said, jumping out of the car before Joe had even come to a complete stop. She ran toward the trailer, up the step and through the open door.
Inside, a woman and a man were leaning over a counter, studying a map. Another woman sat at a built-in desk, working on a lap-top computer. All three of them looked up when Janine walked in.
“I’m Sophie’s mother,” she said. “Janine Donohue.”
The woman studying the map walked toward her, hand out-stretched in greeting, and she squeezed Janine’s hand rather than shook it.
“I’m Valerie Boykin,” she said. “I’m the search manager in charge of the search for your daughter.”
“Great, thank you,” Janine said.
Valerie was a tall, big-boned woman with short dark hair. She looked like the sort of take-charge person who could succeed at any task she chose to undertake.
“What do we do first?” Janine asked.
“Is your husband with you?” Valerie looked toward the door of the trailer. “Then I can explain everything to both of you at the same time.”
Janine followed her gaze through the door, just as Joe, Paula and Lucas were approaching the steps.
“Here they are now,” she said. She made the introductions, and then Valerie took them to one end of the trailer, where uncomfortable seats were built into the walls. They sat down to listen, as she described the form the search would take.
“We’ve called in search teams from this part of the state, and a few from across the border in Virginia. They’ve been arriving for the last few hours. They—”
“Valerie?” The man in the trailer called to her, and Valerie looked in his direction.
“Yes?” she asked.
“The guy’s here with the portable toilets. Where do you want them?”
“You decide,” Valerie said, her voice tinged with annoyance at the interruption. She returned her attention to Janine and the others.
“So, we’ll be using a task force approach. That means, we’ll combine different types of resources to improve the odds of finding clues. We’ll start out with the dogs, breaking the terrain down into a grid so each dog and handler will have their own area to cover. Then, a short distance behind them will be the ground searchers. This way, the dogs don’t get confused by the scents of the ground searchers.”
“Can we help with the ground search?” Janine asked.
Valerie shook her head. “These people are specially trained. They’ll be looking for footprints and other clues.”
“I thought we could get out there in the woods and help to look,” Joe said.
“You’ll have to trust us on this, Joe,” Valerie said. “I know it’s hard to sit and wait, but that’s going to be your job. Oh, and hold on a second.” Valerie walked to the other end of the trailer and returned a moment later carrying a large white plastic garbage bag. She held it open in