Katie didn’t hesitate. Cubby trusted her to do this, so she would. To hell with finishing the race; none of that mattered if they found some evidence to help them with Jilly and Melanie’s murders.
“Okay, let’s go.”
They started running, with her in the front and Brady at the rear.
“How far in, do you think?”
“The sound could have carried for quite a while, and I think it was coming from that grid I checked, up by the old Pearson hut.”
“Okay, then that’s the way we’ll head.” It wasn’t cold, but she only had on a tank top and short running shorts. Katie reminded herself she’d be back down soon and in Cubby’s arms.
“I don’t think there’s anything happening,” Katie said after a while. “We should head back now, Brady.”
“I don’t think so, Katie.”
She looked over her shoulder at his words, and straight down the barrel of a gun.
“What the hell, Brady?”
“Keep walking up the hill to the Pearson hut.”
“What’s going on here? Tell me you weren’t involved in Melanie and Jilly’s death’s.”
Katie kept her voice calm as she walked. Brady. God she couldn’t get her head around the fact that he held a gun at her back.
“They got in the way, and I had no choice.”
“No choice but to kill them. Jesus, Brady, how could you do that.”
She knew this part of the trails, and could easily get lost if she had a chance to escape, but with a gun pointed at her head and the knowledge that Brady had already killed two people, she wasn’t about to take any risks, until she was sure she could get away.
“They heard me talking in the hut.”
“About what?”
“Turning you over to the Alessi brothers for the reward money.”
“This is about money?” Katie shot a look over her shoulder. Brady’s eyes were focused up ahead, and he looked scared.
“Shut up and walk, the hut’s close now.”
They reached it minutes later, and the door was open, so Brady nudged her inside.
“Well if it isn’t Katie McBride. So pleased you made it.”
“Kurt?” Katie looked into the cold eyes of Kurt Sinclair. “I don’t understand this? What the hell are you doing here?”
“You always were slow, McBride, so let me spell it out for you. I’m in with the Alessi brothers, have been for a while now. Brady contacted them when he found out there was a reward for information on you and told them you had fired the bullet that killed Caleb. I needed to confirm he wasn’t just lying to get the money, and finally managed to get my hands on the ballistics’ report E.J. had locked away in his office. The Alessis then told me to come down to finalize getting you out and finish the job. They’re waiting to meet you in the helicopter, and then they’re taking you somewhere quiet so you can become better acquainted.”
His laugh made Katie want to punch him.
“Don’t tell me it was you who informed the Alessis we were raiding them that day?”
“It shouldn’t have happened like it did.”
She saw a flash of guilt.
“I was genuinely sick, and Jessie called me before you went to the warehouse, told me it was going down. I only had minutes to tell the Alessis you were coming. Told them not to hurt her, but she got shot anyway.”
