The cold water she’d doused her face with dripped down over her chin, spots dotting her black T-shirt. Over a week of grueling days spent scouring thick thatches of dark woods, hampered by rain and heat. A sensation of sheer exhaustion combined with growing fear that they may not find little Finley Szymanski created a dark cloud that pressed from within as well as without.She listlessly reached for a coarse towel and patted her chin and throat dry. It didn’t help that she had yet to hear from Dari. Every moment that ticked by inched up the worry quotient and made her itch in places she couldn’t possibly scratch on her own. Areas she tried to ignore, ones that transcended the mere physical.She put the towel down and went back into the other room where the television droned on, broadcasting the late local news, which was dominated by the continuing search for the missing girl. The team’s final briefing of the day had broken up a short while ago, each member returning to his room, all of them experiencing discouragement to some degree, but vowing that tomorrow was another day.Megan sat down on the edge of the made bed and checked her cell where it lay on the nightstand before grabbing the remote and flicking through the stations.“Don’t bother.
