The receiver sat tucked behind a printer, plugged into a power strip.
Caleb’s jaw tightened. So close, all that time.
“She didn’t think we’d get this far,” Nate said.
“No,” Caleb replied. “She thought she’d been thorough.”
“We document everything,” Nate said. “Photos, placement, times. Then we lock up exactly as we found it.” He crouched beside the desk and pointed. “But we’re not leaving that here.”
Caleb nodded. If it disappeared later, they’d have nothing but suspicion.
Nate photographed the setup. The outlet. The cord. The angle behind the printer. Then, he pulled out a rag to unplug the receiver and then sealed it in an evidence bag.
“Make sure everything is the way we found it,” said Finn. “She shouldn’t know we were here.”
Caleb nodded. Proof mattered. Accusations didn’t. Not yet.
They moved carefully. When they stepped back outside, the house looked the same as when they had arrived.
The afternoon sun still warmed the street. A neighbor’s lawn sprinkler clicked on down the block. Life carried on as if nothing was wrong.
Caleb shut the truck door and exhaled slowly.
They had answers. Just not the kind they could use yet.
He started the engine and pulled away from the curb. The house disappeared in the rearview mirror, neat and untouched, like it had nothing to hide. That was the part he didn’t trust.
No new leads. No forward motion. Just waiting.
He exhaled, slow and controlled. Waiting without a plan was a different kind of threat.
CHAPTER 48
Caleb parkedin the lot and shut off the engine. For a second, he just sat there, hands still on the wheel. Then he checked his watch.
Eighteen hours.
Then the thought hit him hard and unwanted. What if they were already too late?
He shoved it aside. Wherever Mia was, she was running out of time.
And they still had nothing. No location. No direction. Not a single clue as to where she might be. Just the growing sense that they were already behind.
The guys piled out of the truck.
Inside, the campus felt almost wrong in its normalcy. Conversations carried on. People laughed. Dogs barked. Everything looked exactly the way it should, like nothing bad was happening at all.
Ava and Jeannie stood in the hall mid-conversation and offered quick hellos as they passed. From the training room came yips and excited barking. Melissa was still running a class.
Life was moving forward.
They weren’t.
They cut through Chase’s office and into the conference room.
“What’d you find?” asked Chase, not looking up from his computer.
Nate set the receiver on the table. “The receiver’s fine. Still powered. But since the transmitter is dead, there was no signal. We documented everything before we left.”
