Maya was glad to have Josh as her backup running this track with Juniper. Right now, he was really the only person she trusted. Juniper, of course, would always have her trust.
Maya went over to Kessler and caught him without anyone else around. She knew the look he had on his face—defeat. She understood that feeling. Abigail was an expert in bringing that emotion out, but Maya had also experienced it in Afghanistan. The hard part was that they couldn’t stop. There was no rest, no time to react in any other way than to move forward and keep searching for Hope and Abigail. Maya knew that all the various emotions like anger and sadness would hit her later. She was sure Kessler was no exception.
“Josh, Juniper and I are ready to go in,” Maya said.
“The HRT guys have probably walked over all the scent from Abigail and Hope. Plus, they’ve cleared the building and no one’s there,” Kessler said.
“That’s okay. I still have a scent article for Hope. I will take Juniper to the back of the building and let her work around the different exits outside the visitor center. If she can give me a general direction, that would be good. It’s hot enough, I don’t know how long I’d ask her to track anyway.”
“Okay,” Kessler said. “Give it a try and radio me when you have an idea of which direction she’s headed.”
“That’s the thing,” Maya said. “I’m not going to radio you.”
“What? Why not?” he asked.
“Bernardo was shot quickly. Abigail knew he was coming. From what I’ve overheard on radio chatter, Abigail was probably upstairs. Waiting. Hunting. She has no mercy, but more importantly, that tells me she had time to prepare,” Maya said. “This happenedonce to my team in Afghanistan. Turns out our interpreter was giving out information. We trusted him. We shouldn’t have.
“Someone told Abigail our plan. She didn’t even hesitate. She went upstairs and ambushed Bernardo. I am not telling anyone anything from here on out unless it’s you or Josh. And if you don’t promise to keep things quiet, then it’ll just be Josh.”
“You’re right,” Kessler said, kicking a rock. It tumbled down the hill and stopped near a grove of evergreen trees.
“What?” Maya said.
“You heard me. You’re right. I’ve been sitting over here, kicking rocks down this hill so I can think about what went wrong. You were also right about the cell phone connection, but even if we had wired Bernardo differently, it wouldn’t have mattered. Abigail knew we were coming. She’s been one step ahead and I need to figure out who’s leaking information to her. I’m calling my supervisor and taking everyone off this investigation except you and Josh.”
“Okay,” Maya said. She was tired of Kessler having to call his supervisor, but she knew it was FBI protocol. The saying was they couldn’t tie their shoes without permission. But at least she didn’t need to worry about anyone else having information for now. “Then Josh and I will go track with Juniper.”
“Good. Once you have an idea of which direction she went, text me or call me if you have service.”
“I will do that,” Maya said, turning around with Juniper by her side. She was ready to get started.
“And Thompson?” Kessler said.
Maya and Juniper stopped. “Yeah?”
“I’m ordering complete files and backgrounds on my guys. I know things about them, but I don’t know everything about their careers. Same with Nick and Aaron. My boss gave me clearance to get their information. One of these guys must be her partner. I’ll work on that, you figure out which direction they’re headed, okay?”
“You got it,” Maya said.
She nodded at Josh, who joined her with Juniper as they trekked to the visitor center. Maya hated that Bernardo wouldn’t be going home to his family. But maybe Bernardo’s family would find some sort of peace if the person who shot him was rotting in prison for the rest of her life. Maya knew it probably wouldn’t. She understood that after Abigail took her mother and grandmother from her. But at least Abigail wouldn’t be free to hurt anyone else. And that brought Maya a little bit of peace.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Maya, Juniper and Josh made their way over to the entrance of the visitor center. She could feel the vibration up the leash from Juniper. The Mal was feeding off Maya’s intensity and focus. They were both ready to find Abigail and make her pay. The building might be empty, but if they could at least get the direction that Abigail and Hope went, that would help.
The fire was encroaching close enough to see some flames off in the distance. Maya wasn’t too worried. The wind was low and the fire didn’t have a lot of fuel in this area since the visitor center and lodge did some fire mitigation, created with defensible space. Or at least that’s what she told herself. She wasn’t a trained firefighter.
The trio went around the perimeter of the visitor center. The HRT guys had gone in a side door closest to the break room where they thought Hope was being held. Maya wondered if the side door was where Abigail and Hope came out after Abigail shot Agent Bernardo. They could have left before HRT showed up.
She asked Juniper to start a track in that area, but there was no interest. They continued around the building and came to the back door. This would bethe perfect spot to escape and she was certain that the hallway went from the break room to this back exit. She was getting ready to cast Juniper out to start their search when Maya saw some blood spots on the ground.
“Look at this,” she said to Josh. “It’s not a huge amount of blood, but I wonder if one of them cut themselves or scraped up a leg or something.”
Josh peered where Maya was pointing. “I see what you’re talking about. I’ll take some pictures and radio Kessler about marking evidence.”
“No, don’t radio him,” Maya said. “That might alert Abigail’s partner. Send him a quick text. Do you have service here?”
“It’s iffy, but maybe I can take a picture and then try sending it.” Josh took some pictures on his phone. Maya saw him type in the message. Then he moved around a bit holding his phone up in the air. He finally hit a button to send the photo. “Hopefully that’ll go through. I’ll check again in a minute.”
