Chapter One

"MY LITTLE GIRL'S gone! You gotta find her." With arms flailing, the woman ran toward Tempe as she climbed out of her official, white Blazer.

Tempe Crabtree, resident deputy for Bear Creek, a small mountain community in the southern Sierra, had been awakened less than thirty minute earlier by a call from the dispatcher. A child had been reported missing from the campground at Lake Dennison and Tempe was the nearest to the location and could reach it before anyone else. Tempe feared the worst even though, by this time of year, after a rainless California summer, much of the reservoir's water had been used for irrigation.

As she pulled a small notebook and pen from the breast pocket of her crisply creased khaki shirt, she saw the small crowd that had gathered—mostly senior citizens and fishermen. "When did you notice she was missing?"

The woman raked her fingers through straggly, long brown hair. Dark smudges underlined hazel eyes. Despite the early morning chill, she wore a T-shirt that didn't cover her mid-section. A tanned expanse of goose-bumped skin was exposed. Her jeans were tight, faded and soiled, and her feet bare.

"My other kids told me." She waved her hand toward two children hovering behind a skinny blond man clad only in dirty Levis.

"What's your name?" Tempe asked. She noted the old Plymouth station wagon, with rumpled sleeping bags in the back, parked beside a small, battered tent.

"Jan Leaphorn. That's my boyfriend, Andy. These are my other kids Junior and Sarah."

Tempe studied the woman's features again, the last name making her wonder if she might be Native American. Being part Yanduchi herself, Tempe had recently become more aware of her own heritage. With her nearly black hair, her golden skin, and high cheekbones, Tempe was more obviously Indian than Jan Leaphorn. However, there was something about the familiar straight line of her nose and the slight up-tilt of her eyes that made Tempe sure the woman was also at least part Indian.

"Tell me about your missing child."

Jan's eyes filled with tears and she wiped her nose with the back of her hand. "Vicky is only three. I can't imagine where…" She began to cry.

The man stepped forward and put his arms around her. "It's okay, babe. She couldn't have gotten too far away."

The woman sobbed against his bare chest.

The children pressed themselves against their mother's legs.

"I know you're upset. But you must give me enough information so we have something to go on. What does Vicky look like? What did she have on?"

Jan wiped her eyes with her hands. The fingers were raw where the nails had been chewed to the quick. She took a deep breath before speaking. "She looks a lot like Sarah, just darker coloring. She had on her nightie with blue flowers and a ruffle around the bottom." Jan smoothed the honey-brown hair of the little girl who clung to her. Big eyes stared fearfully at Tempe. "The kids were all sleeping in the tent."

"Who let you know Vicky was missing?"

The boy, who looked to be about seven, brushed a long strand of brown hair away from his dirty face and stepped forward. "Me. I woke up and Vicky wasn't in the tent. She wasn't anywhere outside either."

"How long ago was this?" Tempe asked.

Jan shrugged and gazed at her boyfriend.

"Maybe a half hour," he said. "We've been looking for her ourselves. But when she didn't turn up and none of the other people around here saw her, we decided we better call for help." The skinny man tucked one hand into his Levis' pocket.

Copyright © 2004 Marilyn Meredith