He gave her the address, the timeline, the description. Single woman, paid cash, keeps to herself. Ten days.
"I'm fifteen minutes out," Diaz said. "Do not go near that address. You hear me? Stay where you are."
"Understood."
He hung up and looked at the others. "She's on her way to check it out."
"And we just sit here?" Colby's jaw was tight.
"For now. Let Diaz do her job."
The next fifteen minutes were the longest of Brian's life. He paced. Checked his phone. Paced some more. Tessa sat on the couch with her hands clasped, knuckles white. Nobody talked much.
When his phone finally rang, he answered before the first ring finished.
"She's gone." Diaz's voice was clipped with frustration. "Place is cleaned out. Clothes, toiletries, everything. She must have left within the last few hours."
Brian's stomach dropped. "She knew we were coming."
"Maybe. Or she's just paranoid enough to stay mobile." Diaz paused. "I'm pulling traffic camera footage now. If she drove out of town, we'll have a direction."
"And if she didn't drive out?"
"Then she switched locations. Found another hole to hide in." Diaz exhaled. "There's something else. We found photos on the wall. Dozens of them. Tessa at the coffee shop. At the pier. Walking into the cottage. At the motorcycle shop. Some of them were taken through windows."
Brian closed his eyes. "How recent?"
"Some from today. The accident scene. Tessa, through Hank's kitchen window this morning."
He felt Tessa's hand on his arm and opened his eyes. She'd moved closer, her face pale but steady.
"She's escalating," Diaz continued. "The photos, the calls, leaving the notebook at your place. She wants you to know she's watching. She's building toward something."
"Building toward what?"
"I don't know yet. But I'm checking traffic cameras right now. I'll call you back when I have something."
The line went dead. Brian relayed the information to the group. The photos. The escape. The escalation.
"She was watching me through the window this morning." Tessa's voice was steady, but Brian could see the effort it cost her. "While I was making coffee. While I thought I was safe."
"You are safe," he said. "Here. With us."
"Am I?" She looked around the room. "She knew where I was this morning. She could know where I am now."
"Then we don't give her what she wants." Brian's jaw tightened. "She wants you scared. She wants you isolated. She wants you to run. So we do the opposite. We stay. We fight."
Hank nodded slowly. "He's right. Running plays into her hands. She's been controlling the board because we've been reacting to her moves. Time to start making moves of our own."
"What kind of moves?" Sabrina asked.
"I don't know yet." Brian looked at Tessa. "But we figure it out together. All of us."
His phone buzzed. Diaz.
"Traffic cameras caught her car heading north on Route 17 around six PM. That's two hours before you called me about the rental."
"So she was already gone."
