Chapter 8

Jill came back in the bedroom. "Well, any other memories?'

Noah shook his head. "No, not really. I'm not sure why I'm in Illinois. Maybe my Dad was transferred again. Is there an Army base nearby?"

Jill shook her head. "No, There is a University. Maybe you go to school there."

Noah looked down at the bed. "Maybe, but I had my heart set on Northwestern."

Jill picked up the tray and started to take it to the other room. "People do change their mind about things all the time."
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Luke continued to look into the woods. "Do you really think that he is out there?"

Jack shrugged his shoulders. "That does seem to be the logical place, but there are other options."

Luke looked at Jack. "Like what?"

Jack put his hands into his pockets. "It is possible that if he did get hurt someone found him."

Luke stepped back from Jack and threw up his hands and looked around. "Jack we are in the middle of nowhere. People don't just wonder by."

Jack nodded towards the woods. "We will have every possible person out there looking for Noah, but that doesn't mean that we should forget other possibilities too."

Luke shook his head. "I'm not leaving?"

Jack stepped closer to Luke. "Luke you have to let us do our job. There are several houses in the area. We need to contact those people. Some have phones, but others don't. Those need to be done in person."

Luke was getting frustrated. "You think Noah is dead and you just want to send me away so that I'm not here when you find him. Well, Noah is not dead. If he were I would know it. I can still feel him."

One of the officers came running up to Jack. "We found something."

Jack turned to the officer. "What?"

The officer handed Jack a camera. "It was hanging on a branch. He must of dropped it."

Jack looked at the camera. "Well, that shows he was out there. Anything else?"

The officer nodded. "Well, when one of our men was trying to get the camera he slipped down the hill. He's fine, but if that is what happened to the boy, that is probably where we should concentrate our search."

Jack nodded. "Good job."

Luke stepped up. "There is no way I'm leaving now."

Jack turned back to Luke. "No you are leaving. You are going to the station with me. We will see what is on this camera. Maybe it has some clues and then we are going to check out the neighbors."

Luke started towards the woods. "I'm not leaving."

Jack grabbed Luke from behind. "Luke you are not helping Noah like this. You have to do things my way."

Luke stopped fighting. "Okay. I'll do what you say."

Jack let Luke go. "Good now let's get back to the station."
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Jill came back into the bedroom. "I found somethings that you might find useful."

Noah sat up. "What?"

She had a bowl and kettle with towels. There was also a razor and shaving cream. She had some clothes thrown over her arm. "Just because you are missing part of your life no reason to not keep up on other things. I found more of my husband's old things. You can freshen up and I found some of my husband's old clothes. You look like you are about his size. I also found some old crutches. I'll bring them in later."

Noah smiled. "Washing up will feel good. It will be good to get out of the bed too."

Jill smiled. "We can have some tea and talk in the living room. You can tell me about living on an Army base."

Noah nodded. "Okay."
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Luke hung up the phone. "That's the last one. No one has seen anyone since the storm."

Jack sat on the edge of the desk. "Well there are four people that don't have phones. We have to go see them."

Luke got up from the desk. "Well, what are we waiting for?"

Jack put his hand on Luke's arm. "We can't just go driving around. I'm waiting for a map. A lot of these places are pretty far off the road."

Luke looked at Jack. "Do you really think one of these people has Noah?"

Jack nodded. "If they do, they would have no way to contact anyone. So it is a possibility."

An officer came out and handed Jack a piece of paper. "Here is the map you wanted."

Jack took the paper. "Thanks John. Well, let's get going Luke."

Coming Soon: So close
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Chapter 9