Chapter 411 Chapter 411
Emersyn’s eyes popped open. “What about Aspyn? How will we find her if he’s gone?”
“She wasn’t with him.” Noah said quickly, “there were no women or children with them at that house.”
“Was the house in a city?” She turned to Calum. “He wasn’t keeping her in a city. I know that from the pictures he showed me.” She shook her head, “he came every few days and showed me pictures of her on his phone, her playing in a creek or-or walking on a path, there were no buildings in them.” Jerking her head, she looked at Blair, “I thought he was punishing me by not coming back for so long…”
“How long were you in that basement?” Kobie was on the edge of the chair now.
“I’m not sure, it’s hard to keep track.” She looked down at the pillow and squeezed it in her arms, “I thought maybe a month, but it could have been longer, I can’t be sure.”
Noah looked at Calum, “what happens with the phones and personal items after we get them?”
Calum was looking at his phone, “I’m finding out right now.” He tapped the screen of his phone a few times then held it out in his hand. He’d put it on speaker.
“I’m a popular man today.”
He’d called Illias.
“Illias, what happens to phones when we take down a location?”
“Didn’t see that question coming. We do a deep dive into them and then dump everything off them onto a secure server to weed through them when there’s time—which there hadn’t been lately, why?”
“We need photos from Lindon Elden’s phone.”
Emersyn was staring at the phone, her eyes wide.
“Is that the one Blair eliminated?”
“It is.” Calum’s gaze flicked to Blair briefly.
“Okay, two seconds, and I’ll be looking at them—what am I doing with them?”
“Can you send them to my phone, Blairs,” he looked over at Noah, “and Noah’s—we’re trying to track down a young girl that was taken.”
Illias made a clicking noise, “there’s more than one child on this. All blonde, blue-eyed gems…”
“Send them all,” Calum stated with a cold tone in his voice.
“Will do. It’s a large file, so I might just pop them into a data file all of you can access and I’ll send a link.”
“Whatever works.”
Noah’s phone beeped at the same time as Blair’s. He took it out of his pocket and opened the message. The room was completely silent as the others looked as well. Noah held his breath and quickly scrolled through the photos. He stopped at one of a cute child with snowy white hair. Her eyes were as light as Blair’s, but the shape of them and her high cheekbones were just like her mother’s. He pushed away from the window and went over to Emersyn. “This is Aspyn.” It wasn’t a question.
She gasped and reached out to clasp his hand in both of hers so he couldn’t move the phone away. “I haven’t seen this one.”
“She looks like she has a little sass to her,” Blair said.
Emersyn smiled and glanced at him. “Oh, just a bit.” She swatted at the tear on her cheek. “Are there more?” She looked up at Noah.
The way she looked up at him, with such sorrow and hope in her eyes caused pain in his chest. He dropped down to one knee and turned the phone around. “Let’s look.”
She leaned closer to him, her scent smelled like home, he noticed with awe—or it would have if it wasn’t smothered with fear, anxiety, and grief. He paused on each picture of Aspyn so she could look at it as long as she wanted.
“Calum?” Illias was still on the phone. “I can take the last known locations of that clan and see if anything in the pictures matches any topographic charts with the water, creeks, rivers—”
“Do that and send Devin a list of all of them. Raymond Hardy is having discussions with the men we found with Lindon, so send any information he can inquire about.”
“All right, I’ll get on that. How long are you staying there?”
Calum turned to look at Emersyn, “we’re heading to Blair’s in the morning.”
“Got it, let me know when you’re on the road so I can have the tracking app warmed up.”
Shaelan smiled, “you think someone is stupid enough to try for us when we’re with Calum?”
“Dumb people happen, Shaelan. I’ll be in touch.” Illias hung up.
Shaelan turned to Emersyn, “they’ll find the location.” She then turned to Calum, “we need to get her a phone or tablet or something, so she has the pictures of Aspyn.”
Calum studied her for a moment, then nodded. “I’ll see what’s in the gear in the van.”
Noah looked back to see Emersyn looking at the phone, a mother’s pride on her face.
“She’s really cute.” He said and meant it.
A real smile lit up her face, “and isn’t afraid to use it.”
Kobie laughed and patted Blair on the chest, “guess she has something in common with her uncle.”
“Hey,” Blair gave her a hard look, “I can’t help how good I look.”
Kobie laughed more and then went into the kitchen.
“You are her uncle.” A note of surprise was in Emersyn’s voice. “I said I would never admit out loud that he was her father, but he’s gone now.”
Blair blew out a breath, “I don’t even remember the clan, but I think it’s time I introduced myself to them.”
Calum raised an eyebrow. “You going to add more buildings?”
Blair winced, “hell no. I said I should introduce myself, not bring them all home.”
Calum looked at him for a long silent moment. Noah wasn’t sure what the look meant exactly, but he suspected it wasn’t going to be as easy as Blair thought.