Missing Persons

First, rant on.

I get that Craig feels slightly guilty for giving me the missing kids story which factored into Rose's disappearance. I get that he may think I'm still a little...delicate, despite the time that's passed. And I get that it happened while Vi was still in the hospital. But where in the fuck does he get the stones not to even tell me about this? Not to even hint that anything was wrong? When I could help, no less?!

Okay, rant off. Now for the facts.

Last Friday -- the day after Vi went into the hospital -- a missing persons report was filed with the police. Four men and two women (the wives of two of the men) went missing in Rocks State Park. Word has it that they geared up, headed out, and just never came back. Here's the kicker, internet: they were all parents of missing kids. All of them.

And nobody bothered to give me a heads-up.

As far as we can deduce, these parents (one of them is the same woman whom I encountered in the police station that day two months ago) came across some kind of lead that whoever kidnapped their children preferred to set up shop in deeply wooded areas or forests. They decided that Rocks was the most likely place for the sick bastard to hide out, and went on their own private search party. The report was filed by the wives of the two other men and the other couple, all of whom opted out of going.

I live next to Rocks State Park, internet. I have to drive either through or around it every day to get to work or go into town. How in God's name could I have missed this?

It's been nearly a week since the report was filed. A search party full of police and Rocks locals has been gathered and is heading out tomorrow. So far they have about ten groups, each with about five volunteers and a couple of chaperones from the sheriff's department or Bel Air PD. I've convinced (although "guilted" is a better word) Craig and a couple of the other freelancers to join a group with me; Sheriff Thomson and two detectives will be our chaperones. Depending on what we find, the search could take all weekend.

I'm a little scared, though. The thing about Rocks is that it's a total dead zone -- cell phones just don't work there. We'll be coordinating via walkie-talkies for the most part. But if somebody gets lost and doesn't have a walkie...I guess that's why they're asking for people who know the park. There are places in there where the canopy is so thick that sunlight can't get through; it'd be easy for somebody from outside the area to panic if they got cut off from the group. Especially if they think some child molester is creeping around.

I'm in limbo as to whether to tell Violet about this. On one hand, it could throw her into panic and steel her resolve to leave...but on the other, it could be just the wake-up call she needs to realize that this is serious and she can't just go playing around with it on her own, miles and miles away from support. Riley and I have been talking to her about it. We think we're nearing a breakthrough. We still have a couple of weeks till her finals. We may yet be able to convince her to stay.