“I am who I am” were his last words to her before slamming the door behind him. “If you can’t take me as I am, then leave.”

And go where? Sarina never cursed, but she had raged inside and the words spewed from her mouth. “You go to your devil in the hell you believe in.”

“Señora Sarina, come, lie down on the couch. I bring you tea. You drink, you feel better. You no worry. No cry. The men gonna find him. My Jose, he gonna find him.”

How could they find one man at night, in the dark, on a thickly forested mountain? Zachary could be lying face-down in a cold river or might have fallen over a cliff and lie crushed or injured on the rocks below. Sarina’s anger faded. She loved him. The thought of losing him terrified her. The huge loneliness she felt in their relationship was preferable to living without him.

“Come,” Anna said. “No use to sit here and cry. We go to Señora Hannah at the office.” Anna wrapped the baby in a blanket and handed her to Sarina, who stared down at her child with blank eyes. Anna took the baby from her mother. “We go. Come.”

They crossed the porch, went down the steps, and hurried onto Cove Road. At the church Anna stopped, walked up the path, and tried the handle. The front door opened, and they entered the cool dim interior. Anna kneeled and crossed herself.

Sarina, a Hindu, followed suit. She kneeled, crossed herself as Anna had done, bowed her head, and prayed. “Krishna,” she whispered, “hear the cry for help from sincere hearts like Anna’s and my own. Bring my husband home safe to me.”

They stood and left the church, closing the door behind them, and moments later reached Bella’s Park. Anna handed the baby to Amelia and went out into the night.

Sarina curled her small body into Hannah’s embrace. “My dear child,” Hannah said. “It’ll be all right. Search and Rescue will find him.”

“What are Search and Rescue?” Sarina blinked back tears.

The roar of a helicopter drew the ladies to the office windows. “What does it mean?” Sarina asked.

“It’s the helicopter they sent to find your husband, and it looks as if they’ve found him. I see men coming down the hillside.” There was alarm in Grace’s voice. “They have not one but two stretchers.”

“Dear God, something’s happened to Max.” Hannah pressed her hand to her chest.

“Why Max?” Amelia asked. “It could be anyone.”

Sarina poked her head out an open window. “I must go to him.”