Bear with Me (Bear Mountain Patrol Series Book 1) (5 page)

Chapter 6

Engines rumbled and purred as college students drove around the park laughing and whistling at several people lounging on benches or standing in small groups. Some stopped to chat, holding up traffic and blocking the crosswalks. The asphalt running track was a distance from the condo, near the northern section of the park, but visible from the porch. No more than 10 people, of all shapes and sizes, huffed and sweated as they moved with determination around the trees lining the track. Their wheezing and panting loud in his ear, Tag filtered out the sounds and smells to zero in on one, Camilla’s.

When he arrived, Ryan, Tyra and Jewel went over what they believed happened to Camilla. A tearful Tyra gave him Camilla’s worn nightshirt. Her natural body scent flooded his nostrils and his mental picture of the thin, insecure female changed dramatically. The pictures her roommates showed him confirmed she had grown into a beautiful woman with large expressive brown eyes behind her thick spectacles, creamy golden skin and long, thick reddish, brown hair with gold strands catching the light. Still on the thin side, but her eyes conveyed a confidence that had been missing a couple years before. The banked flame in her eyes stated clearly this woman yearned to live life to the fullest and had been denied. If she were a bear he’d be tempted to release her inner beast.

Grizzle agreed, pity she was human.

Tag, Ryan and Tyra walked through the park. Large, leafy, trees offered shade blocking the blistering, noon-day sun. Early morning would’ve been the best time to run, he thought, wiping the sweat from his brow.

Armed with a visual and her scent, Tag moved slowly through the park following faint traces of her smell. He stopped and looked around. A wood bench, two tall trees and something else. Frowning, he moved slowly to his right and stopped to look over his shoulder. She hadn’t walked in this direction. He moved to his left, searching the ground.

The sun peeked through the clouds. He caught a flash of color beneath some low-lying shrubs near the water fountain, closer to the edge of the park. Bending, he cleared the leaves and debris from the object with his pen. A cell phone lay on the ground. He pulled a pair of latex gloves from his pocket and picked it up.

“That’s Milla’s,” Tyra said pointing. She and Ryan stood somewhere behind him as he sniffed the device. As suspected, Camilla’s scent was evident but there was another one. Masculine. Tag closed his eyes and broke down the components of the male scent. Cologne. Food. Standing, he looked at Tyra then Ryan.

“What does Camilla eat for breakfast?”

Tyra frowned. “She doesn’t, we might have yogurt sometimes or something from the bakery. But we had pizza that night, well morning. I doubt she ate anything else before going to run.” She pointed across the street.

Tag nodded. Whoever took Camilla ate before they came to the park. For the scent to be so strong that person must have come specifically for her. He looked at her call log and noticed the time she contacted her roommate. If she went running the time her roommates suspected, she hadn’t been at the park long. He watched the people jogging the track.

“Have you asked anyone if they saw her yesterday?” He asked Ryan then looked at Tyra.

“Yes, none of them saw her,” Ryan said.

“It was the wrong time of day. We have to ask the people who run in the mornings,” Tyra said looking around.

“Good point,” Ryan said.

“Let’s ask at the bakery, a lot of people go there after they run. Gus knows who runs in the mornings then we can go ask them,” she said taking a few steps in the direction of the bakery.

“You sure you want to go into law?” Ryan teased. “Investigations sounds like something you’d be good at.”

Tyra grinned as she looked up at him. “I can do both… to a degree.”

“Let me know when you have some names to interview, we’ll split the list. I’m going to keep looking around here.” Tag handed Ryan the cell phone. “Get this checked for any threatening calls or anything unusual.”

“Will do. Thanks.” Ryan nodded and walked in the direction of the bakery with Tyra.

Tag watched the two a few moments longer and wondered if Ryan had any idea of Tyra’s attraction to him. Whenever Ryan spoke or when she looked at him for short periods, her heartbeat raced and the scent of her arousal spiked. Just a matter of time for those two, he hoped his friend was ready for a wild ride. Pity humans couldn’t scent possible connections the way bears could. It would make things easier for everyone.

Tag took a seat on the bench and watched the joggers on the trail to the north, the kids on the playground to the east and a large skateboarding area to the south. If Camilla moved from the trail and walked in this direction, had she seen the male approach? Did she know him? Was it possible this was all a mistake and she was laying up somewhere with this guy?

His thoughts flipped three years ago to his former lover Amber, a black bear from Denver. As much as he cared for her, Grizzle refused her as a mate. After a difficult break-up over his refusal to mate her, she called begging for his help to escape her new lover. Same thing, he hadn’t wanted to get involved but she started crying, claiming her lover was abusive and she was afraid.

When he arrived at the house, Justin, another black bear, answered the door. Six bears attacked Tag in the front yard while Amber stood inside watching. He smelled her fear as he fought for his life. When the dust settled, he lay in the dirt on the edge of his property, with a broken leg and numerous bruises. She never contacted him after that. Many times he’d wondered if she set that entire scenario to repay him for refusing to take her as his mate.

Through the years he saw her and Justin; at first he smelled the fear on the smaller male, possibly thinking he’d retaliate in public. But Tag chalked it up as a lesson learned in the school of life and never gave Amber or Justin a second glance. That was the last time he played the knight to a damsel in distress.

Aggravated at the reminder of his idiocy, he shook off the memories and leaned against the bench. Different situation, Camilla had been taken, a planned kidnapping, which made this more dangerous. Someone watched, knew her habits and waited for the optimal time for the snatch. Someone, in some part of the world, wanted a taller, leaner, Halle Berry clone and Camilla fit the bill. He wondered about her glasses, had she been wearing them? In one picture she wore thick eyeglasses in another, she must’ve worn contacts. Is that what the kidnapper saw? A sexy woman with no noticeable visual aid? In all likelihood she would be sold, if not already and swept away to a remote part of the world where escape would be unlikely. According to Ryan, Camilla had a degenerative eye disease that got worse every year. What would happen when the kidnappers discovered she couldn’t see?

His jaw clenched at the amount of time they’d lost. Most snatch victims were moved out of the area quickly, others were flown out of town to staging areas to prepare for long distance transport. He hoped Camilla was still in the country.

An older woman, walking a small beagle, glanced at him and smiled. He nodded and watched as she approached.

“How’s she doing?”

Tag met her curious gaze with one of his own. “Who?”

She frowned. “The young woman you helped… no, sorry. You’re much bigger than him, I see that now. I apologize.” She turned to walk away.

He stood. “Excuse me, ma’am. My friend, asked me to help find his cousin who’s missing. This park is the last place anyone has a record of her being. If you saw her and can you tell us anything it would help.”

She looked around. “Where’s her cousin?”

“At the bakery asking who runs in the mornings so we can talk to them. Did you run yesterday morning?” He pulled out the picture of Camilla and showed it to her. “Have you seen her?”

She gazed at the picture then nodded. “Yes, nice girl. She was running kind of slow then moved off the trail, sat down, I think, then left the track. I finished running and headed home when I saw her bent over, clutching her stomach and asked if she was okay. She showed me her phone. I assumed that meant she called someone for help and continued running. I got a little ways and wondered if I misread what she said. Sometimes I get a little confused.” She shrugged. “So I went back to check on her and heard this guy call her Camilla, said he would help. He was a tall fella, nowhere near as tall as you. Not as big either.” She frowned. “Only thing the two of you had in common was the hair. Thick and dark, like yours. Anyway, he walked her out the park. I thought they were a couple, looked nice together.”

“Have you ever seen him run here before?”

Her brows furrowed and she pursed her lips. “No. Can’t say I have and I would’ve remembered, seeing as how big he was.”

“Was he dressed like a runner? Jogging pants, shorts? Sneakers? Do you remember what he wore?” A picture formed in his mind but he needed more information.

She clicked her tongue and pulled the leash reining in her dog. “He wore jeans and a plain white tee shirt with sneakers. I remember thinking she had great taste in guys. He was cute and filled his pants quite nicely.”

Tag didn’t know how to respond. Judging by the wrinkles on her hands, this woman had to be in her late 60’s, early 70’s.

The older woman chuckled and pointed at him. “I see you’re one of them that thinks women lose interest in men at a certain age.”

His face heated as he raised his hands. “No I don’t. It never entered my mind.” And it hadn’t. He wished she hadn’t mentioned it either because it would remain within the database of his mind forever.

“We don’t. Well some do but not all. Especially if we can find a young buck who likes to rock it.” She winked and walked off leaving Tag’s mouth gaped open.

Tossing away the end of their conversation, he focused on her description of the man who spoke to Camilla. It was vague but he would work with that. If she saw something, others may have as well. Ryan and Tyra headed toward him and he moved in their direction. At the halfway point, the hair rose on the back of his neck. He looked over his shoulder. The older woman waved and blew a kiss.

“Cripes,” he muttered, embarrassed knowing she watched him walk across the park. He picked up his pace. Tyra’s face lit with excitement. “What did you find out?” he asked her.

“Gus saw her leave with the guy.” She shook her head. “Well he saw the guy put her into his car. Camilla wasn’t moving much. It was a late model gray Ford Taurus. We pulled a part of the tag from the camera in front of his shop.” She clapped her hands in excitement as if Camilla had been found. But they still had a ways to go. Tag met Ryan’s gaze and realized his friend had come to a similar conclusion - Camilla had been deliberately taken. Rather than dwell on that point, he sifted through the information they’d gathered so far.

“Did you see his face on the camera?” he asked Ryan.

“No, when he backed up to leave, the camera caught the tail end of his car. There aren’t any other cameras on the street. But Gus gave a general description of the guy,” Ryan said. “My height, a little slimmer, dark hair and he wore sunglasses. Gus said he reminded him of Brody Jensen, a guy who owns a travel agency in Loveland which is a good ways from here.”

“Camilla doesn’t know anyone in Loveland,” Tyra said with absolute authority. “We need to pay Brody a visit. My Nana said a tooth for a tooth, in this instance she’s right and I’m definitely down.”

Tag looked at Ryan and wondered if he planned to take Tyra. If what he suspected were the case, Loveland was the last place Tyra needed to be.

“You promised to let us handle this,” Ryan said in a hard voice.

Tyra stared at Ryan then looked at Tag. “Am I in the way?”

“No. You’ve been very helpful,” Tag said refusing to acknowledge the glare from Ryan. “Did Gus say how he knew Jensen?”

“Yes, his church used Brody for a trip they took to Israel last year. Gus said the travel agency did a good job,” Tyra said rocking on her heels with her hands in her back pocket.

“Thank you.” Tag looked at Ryan. “We need someone good to run checks.”

“I know a few guys but…” He looked at Tyra and Tag was happy Ryan didn’t want her to know their suspicions. “But I’m not sure they have access to the deep-level searches we need.”

“I know some people,” Tyra said slowly, her brows furrowed. “Want me to ask around?”

“No. The fewer people who know we’re on their trail the better,” Ryan said frowning at her.

“Wouldn’t it be better if a lot of people were looking for Camilla, seems like we’d find her faster,” Tyra asked Ryan.

Tag left the two talking as he moved in the direction of the bakery to look at the footage.

“Hold up,” Ryan called. When he reached Tag, he was alone. Tyra walked slowly in the direction of their condo. “Who do you know that can do what we need with computers?”

“I know a guy who knows the area fairly well. He lives between Grand Junction off I-70. I’m not sure what he does these days but he can get into anything online and spent zero jail time so he’s not in the system,” Tag said thinking of Amber’s brother, Lorenzo.

“Can you contact him, see if he’ll help us out? The clock’s ticking. Whoever took her did it for a specific reason. I can’t allow them to sell her to the highest bidder,” Ryan said, his voice cracked as he gave voice to Tag’s suspicions.