He propped her up in the passenger seat and opened one of the packets Kit provided and a plastic bowl into which he dumped the cereal. Tot wasted no time grabbing a handful and cramming it into her mouth. The puffs he didn’tcatch spilled onto the floor and some stuck to her fingers and his when he tried to catch them, but this was clearly an experience to be enjoyed. She smiled, hamster cheeks filled.
“Gah,” she said again.
“Not sure if this is playing or eating, but you’re doing awesome, Tottie.” He caught several more puffs before they hit the floor. Maybe his hand-eye coordination would improve along with his bowling. Delighted, he continued to field rice puffs, lost in the game.
“It’s small,” Kit said, startling him.
He looked at her. “What is?”
“Whatever Nico’s after.”
“Yes.” The thought had occurred to him too. “He mentioned photos. Could be prints or a memory stick?”
“Whatever it is, it’s easily hidden. You said he looked for it in Tot’s things, and he was after the diaper bag. And he didn’t care about the money?”
“He wasn’t aware she’d taken any, and he didn’t appear all that eager to retrieve it. He’s looking for something else.”
“Annette’s phone?”
“He asked about it. Could be why he sent Simon after her and came to the library himself to find us. Cover his bases. Do you remember her having a phone on her? Talking to anyone? Dirt bike Kyle maybe? I’m thinking he’s an ally of Annette’s.”
Kit exhaled in frustration. “No. So far I’ve only got that one memory of her in the pink coat.” She lapsed into a moment of silence. “She was desperate, Cullen. I remember that.”
Desperate. Scared, for herself and Tot. Going to meet Kyle? Escape her life as Nico’s prisoner? Cullen thoughtabout plenty of things that might be stored on Annette’s phone to make Nico worry. Photos, recorded conversations, files. Tot dove in for another fistful of cereal.
“I’ll search through the baby bag again,” Kit said, “but if it were me, I’d have had my phone in my pocket, close by the whole time. She was trying to meet up with Kyle. It would have been her lifeline to communicate with him, especially meeting in the wilderness like this.”
“Yes. My guess is it would have been on her person when she bolted.” He hesitated. “But it could be that Nico might not have allowed Annette to have a phone, or he cloned it to his so he could track everything she did.”
He could feel the fury radiating off Kit as she extracted the duffel bag and plopped it on the seat next to her. “Nico’s an animal. If he’s still looking, Annette is probably alive though, right? Or at least he’s worried she is. The helicopter spotted her, like John said.”
Her voice lifted with hope he didn’t want to squash. Annette had been spotted hours before, according to John, and there had been no further contact. Plenty of time for Simon to have found her and killed her, while Nico pressed on to pursue the people he believed had her possessions. No point in sharing that information.
He peered through the binoculars with one hand, his other steadying Tot. No sign of them or their vehicle, but they might have purposefully moved the truck out of sight to entice their prey into giving themselves away. Much as he detested hiding like some helpless rabbit, it was the smartest choice, maybe their only one.
When he swiveled the lenses in the other direction, he could make out the timber boom of the mill in the distance,a relic from the lumbering days. Though they’d decided to reroute to Flame Ridge, they hadn’t made it very far, and Silver Canyon was tantalizingly close. He recalled what he’d seen on Archie’s paper map; this hollow where they currently hid was nestled at the side of a small valley through which ran a creek large enough to power that decrepit sawmill. It was in ruins now, according to Archie, only some stout walls remaining, but interesting to hikers and the odd photographer.
The trailhead was accessed near that old dinosaur of a mill, the way they might just have to go, regardless of the fact that Nico and Simon were also on the trail. Maybe they could get ahead of the two. He didn’t put much stock in that idea. Nico and Simon had proved to be savvy trackers.
As soon as they moved away, Cullen would have no choice but to sneak them onto the Silver Canyon trail. Somehow. He felt better, having at least oriented himself. An illusion since they were on the brink of a geological catastrophe.
Stay asleep fora little while longer,Ember.
Tot wrapped her tiny fingers around his thumb and pulled it toward her mouth.
“No way, kiddo. You got barracuda teeth.”
She burbled at him.
Kit finished rummaging through the contents of the duffel. “There’s nothing in here that I didn’t see before. Now I wish we hadn’t taken the money along. It’s too bulky.”
Amusing. In what other circumstance would money be an inconvenience? Ten thousand in cool cash would certainly outshine his monthly police pension payout. But this was blood money, bought and paid for with the freedom of other human beings.
He checked his phone, glad he’d charged it while they journeyed away from the library. No signal, but at least the clock worked. Going on 9:30 a.m. Where was Archie? Not at the truck yet, for sure. Archie didn’t expect to find John alive; he’d likely thrown that in for Kit’s sake. No, he’d seen plenty of death in his day, and John couldn’t have survived the amount of blood he’d lost from those lethally placed shots. His stomach muscles tightened.
There would be a reckoning. Nico and Simon would pay. He’d summon every last bit of his strength to ensure that they both went to prison for an eternity. Justice. Elusive though it was, every once in a while he’d gotten a taste of it in his career as a cop. He craved another, one last savor of it, and he’d get it when he handed Nico and Simon over with enough evidence to lock them both up.
“Cullen.”
