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Brian would come
back.
    There were people everywhere, the driveway so full of
cars that anyone arriving had to park on the shoulder of
the road and walk in, but he felt completely alone.
    Around midnight, when he noticed Jeff pacing up the
driveway, Dean Owens disengaged himself from the group
he was talking with and met him halfway. Dean was wearing
a heavy coat with a reflective vest over top. The sight of
him, and his misty breath in the night air, made Jeff think
of Brian in the woods, in the dark, scared, shivering —
    He tried to block out the image.
    â€œAny news?” he asked Dean.
    â€œNot what you’re wanting to hear. The teams met mid-point in the woods about an hour ago. There’s no sign of
your son.”
    Jeff flinched despite himself.
    Dean shook his head. “That’s not necessarily a bad thing.
If he’d been swept into one of the creeks or attacked by an
animal, we would have found something. His pack, maybe.”
He paused, shook his head and touched Jeff’s shoulder.
“I’m tellin’ you this straight, because you’re a friend: the
fact that we haven’t found his pack or anything is a good
sign. It means he’s holding onto it. It means he’s probably
all together. See what I’m telling you?”
    Jeff nodded, barely able to conceal his sudden need to
vomit.
    The true magnitude of the situation washed over him like
a chilling storm. He had spent that evening downplaying
everything in his mind, expecting the Search and Rescue
to find Brian easily, if he wasn’t going to walk out of the
woods on his own.
    But neither of those things had happened. And now he
couldn’t shake the image of his son floating down one of
the swollen creeks, his backpack soaked and heavy, keeping
him just under the surface.
    â€œWhat — ” His voice came out broken and soft. Jeff
coughed to clear his throat. “What do we do next?”
    Dean took a deep breath. “We’ve split up the team that
started from this side. They’re going to move out from your
fence lines through John and Claire’s place that way, and
over young Tom’s place that way. The team that started at
the logging road is going back in, but in the other direction.
Toward the mountain.”
    â€œBut he’s not — he knows to keep to this side of the
logging road. He wouldn’t — ”
    Dean smiled and shook his head. “I seem to recall you
and me taking a few liberties with your father’s rules, too.
Right?”
    Jeff hesitated, then nodded.
    â€œYou remember what it’s like when you get out there. A
lot of the rules don’t seem to apply so much. Doesn’t make
him a bad kid. Just a kid.”
    â€œRight.” Jeff nodded again. “But” — he glanced at his
watch — “it’s almost one in the morning. When do you — ”
    â€œCall off the search for the night?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œWe don’t. If this was an alpine search, we probably
would have called it off at sundown. Mountain terrain is
too treacherous to mess around with after dark. But this is
pretty flat, pretty straightforward. We can search through
the night if we need to.”
    â€œThat’s good.”
    Dean nodded. “The crews have been spelling off for the
last while. Fresh eyes so the first crew can get some rest.”
    â€œWhat about you?”
    â€œJohn Sears came on about an hour ago. I was just
waiting to let you know what was going on.”
    Jeff felt suddenly as if he wanted to cry: the small
kindness was overwhelming. “Thanks, Dean,” he said.
    Dean shook his head and clapped him on the shoulder.
“You should get inside. Your wife’ll be starting to worry
about you.”
    Ex-wife , Jeff was about to say, but Dean had already
turned away.

    By the time the school bus brought him home and he had
changed into his scrubbies from his good clothes, Brian
had little more than an hour