“I’ll pretend like you didn’t just say that,” Kessler said. “What did you find?”
“I think Marcus’s girlfriend lives in Wyoming not far from here. I think she’s in a small town like Centennial or Tie Siding. Possibly even Laramie. But I couldn’t pinpoint her exact location. I have some good leads, though.” Eric pulled out a piece of paper and gave it to Kessler. “Again, I hope you’re careful about who you share this information with, but with FBI resources, I think you can find her pretty quickly.”
“You think she knows for sure if Abigail hired Marcus?”
“I do,” Eric said. “And I also think she might know who Abigail’s partner is. But she’s deliberately made herself hard to find and I don’t blame her.”
“You really think this accomplice is FBI?” Kessler asked.
“I do. Or like I said, in another federal agency that works with the FBI. DEA, ATF, you know, any of the alphabet soup agencies. How well do you know the agents with you?”
Kessler gave Eric a hard stare. “I know Agent Ross well. He taught me at Quantico. He went up to Montana and taught some classes about behavioral science and kidnappings. Kidnappings are his area of expertise, so I’m glad he could come. He remembers Abigail being in a few of the classes, but doesn’t know her well. After getting to know him at Quantico, I can’t believe he’d have anything to do with this.”
“And the other guy? The one who kind of is my doppelganger?” Eric said.
“I don’t know Agent Bernardo as well,” Kessler admitted. “But he’s closed many cases and has a good reputation. He investigated a string of bank robberies in your hometown. Abigail was helping him. I thought having someone who worked with her would be good. Bernardo told me he thought Abigail wasn’t on the up-and-up, but he didn’t have any proof. Again, I can’t believe either of them are involved.”
“I understand,” Eric said. “We want to believe that everyone would do the right thing and is in law enforcement for the right reasons. Hell, I started out that way, but look at me. Things happen, people change. Sometimes, there’re even good reasons. Money is needed for medical bills for a child or something like that, but it doesn’t matter, once a line is crossed it’s hard to ever go back. I don’t think you can. I wouldn’t trust either of them if they’ve ever been around Abigail. She’s very persuasive. She’s part of the reason I made some of the bad choices that I did.”
“You admit you’re guilty of your crimes?”
Eric nodded. “I do. Like I said, I can’t go back, but telling the truth and doing the right thing now, that’s all I can do. But someone like Abigail would never admit her crimes. Even right now she’s probably convinced that what she’s done is okay.”
Kessler sat back in his chair and glanced to where Maya and Josh were standing. Maya could tell the agent was thinking things through. One of the many reasons she liked and trusted him. She took a deep breath and let it out. Listening to Eric expand on his story with Kessler and get into more details only added to Maya’s anxiety about Abigail. She’d lost her mother and grandmother, but how many others had Abigail killed or had murdered? How many lives were lost because of her desire for power and control? Anger mixed with Maya’s anxiety, but she worked to calm herself. If Abigail was able to get Maya to cross a line and lose control, then she would win. And it was exactly what Abigail wanted.
Turning his gaze back to Eric, Kessler said, “I don’t want to see anyone else get hurt. I believe what you’re saying. I’ll keep all this between us here right now. I’ll tell my guys a few things to keep them happy and share anything that will help us find your granddaughter. You have to understand, though, I can’t keep this quiet forever.”
“I understand,” Eric said. “And I appreciate everything you’re doing. I’d be glad to help. If you release me, I can also give great insight into Abigail and how she works. Probably even better than Bernardo. And I may not have the psych background and kidnappingcase expertise of Ross, but it’s my granddaughter. I’ll do anything to help find her.”
“No. There’s many reasons you can’t be involved in this case, but especially because our missing girl is your granddaughter,” Kessler said. “That’s where I draw the line. But I’ll let you stay here at the Western River County Sheriff’s Office detention cells. If you were to help then it would only complicate things, jeopardize prosecution and bring up more questions. I need you to stay here. Can you do that? I’m sure you have about ten different ways to escape. Will you work with me so if I need some questions answered I can find you?”
“I’ll do that,” Eric said.
For once, Maya felt like her father was making a promise he was going to keep.
Chapter Eighteen
Maya leaned against the doorway, thinking things through. Abigail was out. Did she know what Eric was investigating? Was that one of the reasons she decided to escape? Or was it purely revenge? Had she flipped out that much? Maya knew they’d have to catch Abigail to answer any of these questions—if Abigail would even tell them the truth.
Kessler was sitting back in his chair, not moving. Eric was staring at the table. Lost in thought, Pops also didn’t say anything.
Josh, standing near Maya, broke the silence. “I know there’s all hands on deck for the fire response, but part of that response will be finding Hope Dawson and Abigail before she can hurt anyone more. If we can figure out who Abigail’s partner is, that would help. This partner could have information that would help us.”
“True, assuming that person would cooperate with us,” Kessler said. “What are you proposing?”
“That you use Eric’s information and track down Marcus’s girlfriend. Then tomorrow, Deputy Wilson and I will drive to Wyoming to see if we can locate her. Maybe she’ll talk.”
“I already texted the details to my resources at theFBI. They are working on locating her now. Once they finish, I can give you her phone number. You could save yourself a trip and try calling,” Kessler said.
“That might tip her off,” Josh answered. “If she’s been in hiding all these years, someone figuring out where she is might just scare her. She can hang up and leave.”
“True,” Kessler said. “I was just thinking about the fire response and what needs to happen there.”
“This fire is to the point there are multiple agencies responding,” Pops said. “Josh and Wilson can go tomorrow and we’ll be okay. I’d rather see if we can figure out who Abigail’s partner is anyway. Plus, we’ve had to continue patrols during fires in the past. Forest fires don’t mean that criminals evacuate.”
Maya noticed Eric hadn’t said anything. He stared at the wall in his own world.
“Juniper and I can start tracking tonight once Hope’s family arrives with the scent articles. I can take Rory with me for backup. Josh, you and Wilson could work Finn. If we look over some maps, we could probably figure out where Abigail would go. It’s not like there’s a lot of routes through the mountains and I know where the couple were camping that had Hope. As long as the fire doesn’t stop us, we should be able to come up with some possible places to have the dogs search. Heat is the other factor, but if we wait a little bit, the sun will start going down and it’ll cool off. We’ll just have to be careful, we don’t want to overdo it with the dogs.”
