They both slipped out of the SUV. They kept their guard up as they walked to the house. Nothing seemed to be disturbed outside of it. It was small, barely taking up any space at all, but there was a lot of land around it. After being on Oahu for a few months, he had moved over to Kauai. He liked the vibe, and homes tended to have more land around them than on Oahu.
As he studied the house, he realized that it would work as a safe house. From first look, it was at a dead end. But being next to a wooded area gave you at least a chance at hiding from whatever was coming. With no other houses on the street, she didn’t have to worry about every car that drove by. It had been a really good choice for safety. In fact, Jenner was pretty sure Sam was alive thanks to this house.
El knocked on the front door, which creaked open.
“That’s not a good sign. I’ll go high, you go low,” Jenner said.
El nodded. They pulled out their guns and made their way into the house. There wasn’t much to it, just a living area, a very small kitchen, and one bedroom and bath. But there was nothing, no man, no blood, no signs of a struggle.
One thing, though, were the post it notes. There was an insane number of little pieces of paper all over the wall in the kitchen. A blond wig sat on the table along with a discarded pair of mirrored glasses.
“This has my ass twitching,” El said, his mouth pulling down into a frown. The Texan always had the strangest sayings.
“Is she confused? Maybe she went for a walk? Did she get attacked on the trail?”
El shook his head. “Sam would never leave her door unlocked. When we worked at the CIA, she would lock her office even if she was just stepping out in the hallway for a few minutes.”
“Hyper vigilance?”
He nodded. “Her parents and brother were killed when she was young. I think twelve, thirteen. I always figured it had to do with that.”
It would make sense. Something that profound happening at that age would affect behaviors later on. Hell, he had to fight locking doors, checking mirrors…just everything, and he had been an adult when his world had been blown apart.
“So, if Sam said it happened here, it happened here,” El said.
He was probably right. “Who would have been able to get here, clean up this mess, and make it look like no one was ever here?”
“A few people, and unfortunately, that could mean the CIA was involved. They have really good cleaners. And since they burned her, they could have been behind it.”
“Shit. She’s burned?”
He sighed. “Yeah. I thought that was all cleared up, but apparently not. Let’s look around.”
“I thought you said they had good cleaners?”
“They do, but none of them are perfect. I’ll take the kitchen.”
Jenner nodded and headed to the living area. The coffee table looked a little off, so he moved it back to align with the couch, and that’s when he saw it. A drop of blood.
“Found some blood.”
“That’s probably all we’ll find, but we should still search her bedroom and then the grounds outside. If they missed a drop of blood, that could mean they missed something else.” El rolled his shoulders. “This is starting to feel like something really big.”
“How long since she was burned?”
“A couple of years.”
“What do you think all this is?” he asked motioning toward all the post it notes. There were names on them that he didn’t know, but he did see Ian’s. It was in the center of everything with all the other post it notes circling.
“Hmm. Not sure. But Sam works this way. She’s visual, from what I remember. When we were trying to figure out who set me up at the CIA, she was the one who suggested Ed and I make up what she called the snowflake method.”
Jenner motioned with his gun. “All these people have something to do with Ian?”
“Not sure. Like I said, she’s hyper vigilant, so there is a good chance she used his name to throw off anyone who could see this.”
He started down the short hallway to the bedroom area. “You know this Sam?—”
“You should know that’s not her real name.”
