“No, she’ll be arriving in about an hour.” He paused. “If the arrival was not so imminent, I would be tempted to come and join you in Virginia. I do not like the idea of the way matters are sorting themselves out. I thought you’d still be at your house in Louisville when I was finished here. You may need my brilliant and invaluable assistance.”
“We’ll struggle along.” She glanced at Sam and Luke in the rear seat. “I told you Sam is here, and so is Luke.” She added dryly, “And I’m sure Luke believes he can easily replace you. He informed me that you’d have no problem letting him go find Kelly.”
“Wise boy. You might have had a slight chance of getting him to not go with you if his friend had not been involved. But it was very slight. Do you have any idea where in the woods Kelly is hiking?”
“There’s a trail that goes by Jefferson Dam in the woods north of the school. Luke said she mentioned a dam that she passed on her hikes, and that one is a logical distance. Six miles. There’s another one to the south, but that’s over twenty miles from the campus. I called the special agent at the university who is searching for Kelly and told him to grab a couple more agents and get on the trail.” She paused. “But he talked to the girlfriend she spent the night with again, and she said that Kelly had left her camping gear in the garage and it was gone this morning. So she may be planning to camp out.”
“If she stops for the night, you might be able to find her more easily.”
“So will anyone else following her.”
“True.” He paused. “You’re truly concerned that she might be the next target?”
“I don’t know. Santos is clever, and he might have mentioned those e-mails to throw me off base or to torment me. It could be either one. And it certainly made me second-guess my list of possible targets. It could be anyone.”
“And therefore increase the torment. Still, I do not like your situation. Santos is feeling angry, and his nose is out of joint by the destruction of his helicopter and the removal of Nagoles. That could mean that he feels the need to outdo his former actions to regain self-respect. I may have to make adjustments to ensure that your safety is—”
“Do not come here,” she said flatly. “Take care of Erin.”
“You’ve not had any recent word from Cameron? He might be willing to take over for me here. After all, he considers Erin his responsibility.”
“I told you about my last contact with him. I wouldn’t have even known that he was alive and had taken down Nagoles if I hadn’t gotten that call from Santos.”
“You’re annoyed with Cameron.”
“Yes, he’s so used to working alone that he thinks it’s perfectly okay to leave me in the dark.”
“And the displeasure is mutual from what I gathered when he contacted me to find out what was happening with Erin and you. He also felt in the dark, and it did not go down well.”
“Too bad. I didn’t even know Erin was definitely in danger, and I had to move fast.”
“And he did not consider that an acceptable excuse?”
“Excuse? I don’t make excuses to Cameron.”
“I believe it’s time for me to close this conversation. If Cameron’s help with Erin is not a possibility, I will explore other avenues. Your safety and that of Luke are my primary concerns. I will consider my options and get back to you.” He hung up.
And Hu Chang would probably ignore her wishes and be on his way here within a few hours, she thought resignedly.
“We’ll be landing in twenty minutes,” Ernie Walker, their pilot, told Catherine. “I think there’s a heliport for the university north of the parking garage. It shouldn’t take you long to reach the woods from there. Unless you want me to circle the woods and try to—”
“The heliport will be fine. The other option could be a waste of time. I don’t have any idea if there’s anyplace else for you to set down.”
“Whatever.” He turned back to his instruments. “Venable said that I was to do anything you wanted me to do. You’re looking for a young girl? Student?”
“Yes, sixteen years old.”
“She must be smart to be in college.”
“Yes.” Smart and intuitive and pretty, everything you’d want in a friend or child. Yet she had lost her father to a murderer, and she’d never been what her mother had wanted in a daughter. In her short life, Kelly had never had the life that she deserved. But she’d made the best of it and tried to handle the fallout from the hand life had dealt her. Like this trip into the woods to distract herself. Keep busy, she would have thought. Keep the pain at bay. Don’t remember the night she had watched her father die.
Catherine felt a hand grip her shoulder.
Luke’s hand.
She glanced back at him. He was leaning forward and his expression … intent, thoughtful, gentle.
“It’s going to be all right, Catherine,” he said quietly. “You know that Kelly’s smart, and she sees patterns and kind of feels things. That will help her. And we’re smart, too. We’ll find her.”
She was unbearably touched. She reached up and covered his hand with her own. “You keep getting it wrong, Luke. I’m supposed to be comforting you.”
“But things are piling up on you, and it’s hard to see stuff.” His voice was grave. “I know people die. I’ve seen it. I know things go wrong. But this won’t be one of them. We won’t let it.”
“Of course we won’t. But do me a favor. Don’t get too much ahead of me in those woods when we’re searching for her. You may not think I need to look out for you, but what about sticking close enough to look out for me?”
He chuckled. “Hey, are you trying to manipulate me, Catherine?”
“You bet I am.”
“And doing a good job,” Sam said, amused. “How can you refuse, Luke?”