They stepped out into the early morning air as two cars pulled up to the curb.The sky was beginning to lighten in the east, shifting from black to deep blue.Miles felt the exhaustion pulling at him, but adrenaline was starting to override it.They were close now.After hours of dead ends and false leads, they finally had multiple avenues worth pursuing.It felt like they were ambling along at a decent speed now.
Vic climbed into their original rental car, headed back to the hospital to speak with Anderson.Kim took the first Uber toward Silver Lake and the climbing gym where Anderson had been drugged.Miles pulling up Terry Sullivan's address on his phone as he slid into the back seat of his own car.
A hot air balloon operator who had survived a catastrophic accident...it certainly seemed like it fit the narrative.A man who had watched people die from falling, who couldn't experience flight anymore, who worked every day with the equipment that had once been his passion.
It fit.Everything about it fit.But then again, so had Bradford.
Miles gave the driver Sullivan's address in Pasadena.As the car pulled away from the diner, he looked at the photo Kim had sent to his phone.Terry Sullivan had an average face with no distinguishing features.Sandy hair, medium build, the kind of person who could blend into any crowd.
It was exactly the sort of person Lisa Anderson had described.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Vic pulled into the hospital parking lot as the sun started to truly show its face over Los Angeles, dragging another day along with it.She made her way through the hospital corridors, making her way back to Lisa’s room.She had to hand it to the woman; wanting to speak so soon after getting out of surgery—no matter how minor—was sort of badass.When she reached the room, she knocked softly and pushed open the door.Lisa was propped up in bed, covered up in the bedsheets.An IV drip fed into her arm, and monitors tracked her vital signs with quiet beeps.She looked surprisingly awake as Vic entered.
"Ms.Anderson?"Vic showed her credentials.
Lisa smiled weakly.“Just Lisa, please.And yes, I remember you.No need for the ID.”
“Sorry.I guess I was expecting you to be a little out of it.”
“Oh, I am,” she said with a small laugh.“But coherent enough.”
Vic pulled a chair closer to the bed and sat down, careful not to jostle any of the medical equipment."The doctor called my partner and said you thought you remembered something.Can you tell me what it was?”
"Yeah, I can try.Just…God, it all happened so fast.One minute I was in my car in the parking garage, and the next thing I knew, I was waking up strapped to this harness with balloons all around me.But…I think I can remember some details…about where he had me launch from.I can remember some of it…"
Vic pulled out her phone and opened a map application.She gently and carefully reached over and showed Lisa a map of the area.
"The reservoir where you landed is here," she said, pointing."But you would have drifted in the wind before you managed to free yourself.How far away from the reservoir do you think you were?”
Lisa studied the map, her expression tightening with concentration."I remember looking down and seeing water.Lots of water.But there were other things too, before the reservoir came into view."
"What kind of things?"
"Buildings.A parking lot with white lines painted on it…and there was this tall tower with red and white stripes on it.Like a radio tower or something."
Vic zoomed out on the map, scanning the area around the reservoir for structures that matched Lisa's description.Her finger moved across the screen, tracing potential flight paths based on wind patterns from that morning.
"If you drifted from northwest to southeast, that puts your launch point somewhere in this area."
She marked a rough circle on the map, then zoomed in closer.A radio tower appeared on the satellite view, its position matching what Lisa had described.Vic felt a small surge of satisfaction.
"Is this the tower you saw?"She held up the phone again.
Lisa leaned forward as much as her injuries would allow."Yes.That's it.I remember because I was so high up that I could see the whole structure, all the way down to the base.And right there…" she said, pointing to another small parking lot, “is where he was.That’s where I saw him, looking up at me.That’swhere he launched me from.”
“You’re sure?”
Lisa nodded, staring at the map.“Almost certain.”
Vic saved the location data and pulled up the pins marking where Parker and Thompson had been found.She overlaid all three locations on the same map, looking for patterns or connections.She was aware of Lisa watching sleepily beside her but didn’t worry about it.After all, this brave woman may have just given them a huge clue.
But on the other hand, the results were disappointing.Parker's body had been discovered in the Santa Monica Mountains, roughly thirty miles west of Lisa's estimated launch point.Thompson's body had been found in the Mojave Desert, forty miles northeast.The three locations formed a triangle with sides measuring dozens of miles, with no obvious geographic center or connecting feature.
Vic zoomed out further, trying to see if there was something she was missing.A highway system, a particular type of terrain, anything that might explain why the killer had chosen these specific locations.
Nothing emerged.
