“How did Julie manage to visit him here?”Jessica asked.“She doesn’t really strike me as the outdoorsy type, and—Ah!Son of a bitch!”
She slapped her neck and pulled her hand away, glaring at the remains of the wasp she had killed.“This is very much an outdoorsy area,” she finished.
“He’s her brother,” Faith said.“You make sacrifices for family.”
“Well, if my brother ever decides to go crazy and turn into a hermit, he’s gonna do it on his own.”
Turk barked, signaling their arrival at the cabin.Faith held her hand up to stop them and drew her weapon.Turk looked at her for instructions, and she said, “Hold here, Turk.”
No one came out to investigate the barking.If Sullivan was there, he was hiding.
The cabin was barely visible through the trees that grew around it.It was a small lean-to, maybe eighteen feet square, with an open doorway and an uncovered window next to it.A massive yellowjacket nest glued a pair of elm branches to the eaves.Jessica eyed the nest dubiously, but no insects buzzed within it.An old nest, now abandoned.
“James Sullivan!”Faith called.“This is the FBI!Come out with your hands where we can see them!”
No response.
Faith glanced at Jessica, then called again.“James!We have a K9!If you don’t surrender yourself peacefully now, hewillbite you!”
Turk launched into a deep, heavy stream of barks at that, growling and snapping and making it clear that he absolutelywouldbite.
No response.
Faith took a deep breath.“James!We’re sending in the dog now!”When there was still no response, Faith said, “Go, Turk.”
Turk sprinted toward the cabin and launched through the door.His barking lasted a few seconds.When he fell silent, Faith’s heart twisted.Oh God, did he have a weapon?Did he hurt Turk?
Then Turk trotted out of the cabin door, looking disappointed.He looked at Faith and barked again, this one a far less aggressive bark than the warnings he’d given James Sullivan.
The absent James Sullivan.
Faith sighed.“Shit.He’s not here.”
“We should still search the cabin,” Jessica said.“We might find out where he’s going next.”
“Yeah, I agree.”
They approached the cabin, trading their handguns for flashlights.When Faith ducked into the cabin, she swore and put a hand on Jessica.“Careful.”
The floor was almost completely covered.A sleeping bag lay in one corner, and a narrow path led from it to the door.There were no clothes or personal belongings that Faith could see other than the sleeping bag, and an ancient radio was plugged into a gas generator with a pipe attached to its exhaust that pointed out the window.Nothing else was plugged in at the moment, but the generator had a couple of one-hundred-ten-volt outlets and USB connectors on the front of it.
Most of the floor space was taken up by a massive duffel bag filled with blank dog tags and a manual press next to it with multiple typefaces that could effectively impress the information found on a legitimate dog tag.The large press bore the logo of a company called Memorial Manufacturers, Ltd.and proudly advertised its ability to make "official quality" pressed items.It didn't specifically say dog tags, but that's what it was for.
Jessica took some pictures for evidence while Faith and Turk scoured the place for anything else that might tell them where Jimmy was right now.They didn’t find anything.Jimmy was in the wind.
When Faith finally accepted that crawling over every square inch of the small lean-to wasn’t going to tell them where their killer was, she sighed and wiped sweat from her brow.The wasps had left her alone, but she was sporting a healthy collection of spider bites from checking corners and looking underneath the sleeping bag.Hopefully none of those bites were dangerous.
Turk snorted and plopped moodily atop the sleeping bag.Faith scratched him behind the ear and said, “It’s all right, boy.Good job.”
Turk glared at her for a moment, then rolled his eyes.Obviously, itwasn’ta good job because where was the bad guy?
"We have his name now," Jessica said."We can put out a real APB.Something will turn up."She smacked at her neck, not a wasp this time, but a mosquito almost as big as a housefly."God, what is it about me that makes insects love me so much?"
Faith would have cracked a joke, but she was worn out from yet another fruitless search.Not entirely fruitless since they now had proof of Sullivan’s guilt, but as Turk might have pointed out, the bad guy was still out there.Until he was brought into custody, innocent people were still in danger, and Hayes and Cruz were denied the justice they deserved.
Jessica called in the APB, then put a hand on Faith’s shoulder.“It’s okay.We’ll find this guy.He has nowhere to go.”
Faith recalled their trek through the wilderness.It was barely a mile from the road to this cabin, and it took them over an hour.If Jimmy was used to this kind of environment, then he could disappear easily and live off the grid for decades.He couldn’t hurt anyone living like a hermit, but that wasn’t good enough for Faith.That wasn’t justice.
