He straightened and said, ‘All right. You know what to do.’
Collins’ body no longer mattered. They would find her soon enough, no matter what he did with her. There was a more urgent task that needed tending to.
Whiteside left the house through the front door and went to the passenger side of his cruiser. Inside, he opened the glove compartment, reached up, and found the phone. He waited while it powered up, then opened the web browser. Within a minute, he had logged in to the forum.
One new direct message:
From: RedHelper
Subject: Re: Items for sale
Message:
Dear AZMan,
Exchange will take place today at 4:00 p.m. at the aforementioned location. Once exchange has taken place, monies will be deposited to your nominated account. Please confirm.
Once again, I remind you of the importance of discretion. Security is our paramount concern.
Best wishes,
RedHelper
Whiteside hit reply:
To: RedHelper
Subject: Re: Items for sale
Message:
Dear RedHelper,
I confirm exchange today at 4:00 p.m. as discussed.
Regards,
AZMan
Whiteside sent the message, powered off the phone, then secured it beneath the dash once more. He went back to the house, fetched his bag, then returned to the car. A few minutes later, he had the coordinates McCall had given him programmed into the GPS on his main phone and was steering the cruiser out of his yard.
One hour fifty-four minutes, the route calculator said.
Less than two hours, and he’d have them back.
A few hours after that and he’d be heading south to the border, three million dollars richer.
50
Private Forum 447356/34
Admin: RR; Members: DG, AD, FC, MR, JS
Thread Title: This Weekend; Thread Starter: RR
From: RR, Saturday 10:57 a.m.
Gentlemen, it’s a go. Seller has confirmed handover of the goods for this afternoon, which my assistant will take care of. My driver will pick up at the airport in two groups, at 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. respectively.
And don’t forget, we also have three more imported items, so plenty to go around.
Looking forward to seeing you all, my friends, and to a lovely evening.
From: DG, Saturday 11:05 a.m.
Leaving for the airport now, hope to get some sleep on the flight. I’m looking forward to seeing you all, but even more than that, I’m eager to meet the goods.
From: FC, Saturday 11:13 a.m.
Likewise. See you all soon.
From: MR, Saturday 11:14 a.m.
On my way. It’s going to be a wonderful evening.
From: AD, Saturday 11:20 a.m.
I’m so glad it’s all worked out. See you all there!
From: JS, Saturday 11:27 a.m.
Excellent. And thank you once again, everyone, for allowing me to join this group. I can’t tell you how good it is to find like-minded people. So many times I’ve felt isolated and alone with this thing inside me, but not anymore.
And RR – thank you for procuring these goods. We’ve all seen the photos on the news, and you were quite right, they are beautiful.
51
DANNY STOPPED AND leaned his hand against a tree, his chest heaving. He pulled his phone from his pocket, checked the compass. As far as he could tell, they’d followed the direction they thought the children had taken in more or less a straight line. He was no Boy Scout, didn’t know the first thing about tracking, but it seemed they’d given it a good shot. They’d found nothing, but they’d tried.
‘We should go back now,’ he said, knowing she would argue.
‘No,’ Audra said. ‘They’re children. They can’t have gone that far. We can’t give up.’
‘It’s not a question of how far they got,’ he said. He pushed off from the tree, came face to face with her. ‘They have no way to navigate. They could have veered off in any direction. Besides, it’s not giving up. We go back the way we came, find the road, try to get to a town. Then we can get hold of Mitchell, tell her what’s happened, and they can organize a search party. They’ll have search planes, dogs, all of that. They know how to look for someone out here. We don’t.’
Her eyes brimmed, and she wiped the back of her hand across them. ‘But we’re so close. They’re here, I know it.’
Danny took her in his arms. ‘The further we go, the more time we lose. We can’t just keep wandering out here. For all we know, somebody might have found them already. We need to find a town, or get to somewhere with a cell signal, then we need to call Mitchell.’
‘Another hour,’ she said. ‘Thirty minutes.’
‘No, Audra, we have to—’
Her eyes widened, and she clamped her hand over his mouth.
‘Listen,’ she said.
He did so, heard nothing. Taking her hand away from his mouth, he inhaled, ready to protest, but she sealed his lips with her palm once more.
‘Listen.’
Now he heard. A rumble in the near distance. Metallic rattles. The sound of an engine rising and falling with the gears.
‘This way,’ Audra said. ‘Run.’
She took off through the trees, and Danny followed. Though his lungs, legs, and lower back ached, he kept pace with her, just a few yards behind. Up ahead he saw the thinning of the trees, a change in the light. A road or a trail there. The engine noise swelling.
The track – that was all it was, he could see now – rose from right to left, climbing higher into the forest. Down the slope, Danny caught a glimpse of white. A car climbing as its engine revved hard.
‘Come on,’ Audra called, breathless, nearing the treeline.
The car came closer, and Danny saw the gold insignia, the dark-blue lettering. The blue and red lights on top.
‘No,’ he said. ‘Get down.’
If Audra heard, she didn’t let it show. She kept her arms churning, her feet hammering on the ground. Danny dug deep and found a shred of extra speed. He cried out at the effort, reached for the back of her shirt, grabbed the tail with his fingers. She went down on her knees, and he landed hard beside her.
‘What are you—’
‘Wait,’ he said. ‘Look.’
The car passed in front of them, the lettering clear: ELDER COUNTY SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT. The driver with the big hands and bigger shoulders.
‘Whiteside,’ Audra said.
‘Yeah,’ Danny said between gulps of breath.
‘Why is he here?’
‘I don’t know,’ Danny said. ‘But it’s no coincidence.’
‘We have to go after him.’
‘Yeah, but keep to the trees. Let’s go.’
They followed the trail, keeping it to the right, even as the engine noise faded into the distance. They maintained a steady jog until they heard gunfire.
Then they ran.
52
SEAN SAT OPPOSITE the old man, his hands on the table. Tiredness dragged at his eyelids, filled his head with cotton. Louise lay on a couch covered in animal furs, sound asleep, little snorts and wheezes coming from her. Occasionally she gave hard coughs that rattled in her chest.
The walls of the cabin were lined with guns suspended from hooks. Rifles, shotguns, pistols, a couple of bows, quivers of arrows, even a crossbow. Sean couldn’t count how many. The old man had said his name was John Tandy. He had made the call using a radio hooked up to a car battery. The place had a low smell, as if the air hadn’t moved in years.
‘You doing all right, kid?’ Tandy asked. He scratched his stubbled cheek. ‘You want a smoke?’
‘No thank you, sir,’ Sean said.
‘You want a drink?’
Sean hadn’t realized until that moment how thirsty he was. The idea of some water, maybe even a soda, made him move his tongue around his teeth. ‘Yes, please,’ he said.
Tandy rose from the table, went to a box by the fireplace, and fetched two glass bottles. He brought them back to the table, popped the caps of both on the edge, then set one in front of Sean.
Beer, Sean realized.
‘Sorry it ain’t cold,’ Tandy said. ‘Ain’t got no fridge. I’d fix you something to eat, but Sheriff McCall should be here any minute. Do me a favor when he gets here, though, would you?’
‘What?’ Sean asked.
‘Don’t tell him I had a fire going. Ain’t supposed to, on account of how dry it is up here. Might burn the whole damn forest down.’
‘I won’t tell.’