Chris Carter - Gallery of the Dead

‘And you really think that instead of waiting for the strike team, the four of us storming the property right now is a good idea?’ Garcia asked.

‘Yes, I do.’ Agent Fisher’s voice was firm. ‘Whoever accessed the medical records of Kristine Rivers, Albert Greene and Timothy Davis did it from that house, twelve days prior to their murders. We know that there’s someone in there right now. Maybe that’s what he’s doing again, searching for a new victim, scanning the Optum platform. If he finds what he’s looking for, he might not come back here for days, weeks, months even. Remember, we don’t have a name or a face. All we have is this location, which on paper belongs to no one. What that means is that if he’s in there and we miss him now, we have no other way of tracking him down until he comes back here again, by which time it will probably be too late for whoever he might be selecting right now.’ She paused and looked back down the hill. ‘If you’d rather wait for the FBI strike team to get here, be my guest, but I’m going in.’

Neither Hunter nor Garcia could argue with Agent Fisher’s reasoning.

‘Fine,’ Garcia accepted. ‘We’re in. So how are we—’

‘Light,’ Agent Williams announced, this time indicating the stables. A faint light was seeping through some old wood boards on the far left.

They all went silent and still.

Agent Fisher used the binoculars to have a look.

‘Can you see anything?’ Garcia asked.

‘No, nothing.’

The light stayed on for less than a minute before being switched off again.

Hunter borrowed the binoculars one more time, spending another full minute regarding the ranch.

‘I haven’t seen any movement,’ he said. ‘So he’s either still in the stables, or I’ve missed him as he walked back into the house.’

‘So how do you guys want to do this?’ Garcia asked.

‘I think our best option is if we split up into two teams of two,’ Agent Williams replied. ‘One enters the stables, the other the house.’

‘Do we have any sort of communication device?’ Garcia asked. ‘So the two teams can stay in touch?’

‘I’ve got two headsets in my trunk,’ Agent Williams announced.

‘That will help,’ Hunter said.

Agent Williams quickly ran back to his car and picked up the headsets, handing one to Hunter and one to Agent Fisher.

‘Larry and I can take the stables,’ Agent Fisher said, checking her Glock Model 22 and making sure she had an extra fifteen-round clip with her. ‘You two the house. What do you say? We’ll use the headsets to keep in touch.’

‘No problem,’ Garcia replied. ‘But if I’m going into possible close combat with deaf ears, I’m taking the Twins with me. Hold on.’

‘What?’ Agent Fisher made a face, but Garcia had already rushed back down the hill. A minute later he was back, carrying with him a sawn-off double-barreled shotgun.

‘Meet the Twins,’ he said, indicating his weapon. ‘The bad boys of close combat.’

‘You give your weapons names?’ Agent Fisher asked.

‘Boys with toys,’ Garcia replied. ‘What can I say?’

She shook her head. ‘If possible we would like to take him alive.’

‘Haven’t killed anyone in my career yet.’

They checked their weapons and tested their headsets. All was in order.

‘We’d better get going before the rain gets here,’ Hunter said. ‘If our shoes get wet, once we enter that house, each step will sound like a duck being strangled.’

‘Let’s do this,’ Agent Williams said.

They took off in the direction of the house.

Hunter, Garcia and both FBI agents walked as fast and as stealthily as they could, and considering that they had opted to keep their flashlights switched off so as not to give away their approach, they bridged the two hundred and forty yards between their last position and the ranch in almost no time. Their dark clothes also helped them blend into the night, in case anyone was looking.

As they got to where the old gates to the ranch would have been — about forty yards from the house — they all heard a distant sound like a car engine running in low gear.

‘What’s that noise?’ Agent Fisher asked.

‘Generator,’ Garcia replied. ‘Probably somewhere at the back of the house.’

Hunter also noticed some fresh tire tracks on the dirty road leading into the ranch. They rounded the stables and disappeared toward the back of it.

‘OK, this is where we split,’ Agent Fisher said, looking up into the sky. The wind had strengthened a few notches in the last two minutes. The smell of damp soil now seemed to be part of the night. Rain was just minutes away. She paused and looked at both detectives. ‘Stay safe.’

‘Wait,’ Garcia said, as he reached into his pocket and handed her a hairband. ‘Here, for your hair. You don’t want it flipping onto your face while you’re chasing the bad guy, do you?’

She shook her head. ‘This is my good-luck charm. Only once I chased a perp with my hair tied back. That was the only time one ever escaped me.’

‘OK.’ Garcia returned his hairband to his pocket.

Agents Fisher and Williams made their way toward the large stable building, while Hunter and Garcia carefully approached the dilapidated house on the right. Hunter used his flashlight to examine the front door. There was no lock. Its frame was old and split in places, and most of the dark-green paint that had once covered the door and the rest of the house had long ago cracked and chipped away, thanks to the elements.

‘We’ve got to find another way in,’ Hunter said.

‘Why?’

‘Check out those hinges,’ Hunter replied, flashing his light at them. ‘They’re covered in rust. We open this door and even under cover of the generator’s noise, those hinges will sound like an alarm.’

‘Great!’ Garcia looked right, then left. ‘So which way do you want to go?’

Hunter pointed right.

Once again, being as careful as they possibly could not to make any noise, they rounded the house to the right. As they made it to the side of the property they halted. A faint light showed at one of the second-floor windows.

‘The killer being upstairs isn’t necessarily a bad thing,’ Garcia said.

Hunter agreed with a nod.

‘Team A, this is team B,’ Hunter whispered into his headset. ‘What’s your location? Over.’

A second later Hunter’s earpiece cracked into life.

‘We have just entered the stables, over,’ Agent Fisher whispered back.

‘We’ve got a light on the second floor of the house,’ Hunter said. ‘You guys might be in an empty building over there, over.’

‘Not sure about that. We’ve also got a light here. Inside one of the enclosures. Can you see any movement? Over.’

‘Not from where we’re standing. We’re still outside the building. How about you guys, can you see any movement? Over.’

‘Same as you. Not from where we’re standing.’

There was a short silence.

‘I think it’s best to proceed as planned and maintain radio contact. Over.’

‘Ten four. Over and out.’

Hunter passed on the news to Garcia.

‘Oh, that’s awesome.’

The first ground-floor window on the right side of the house was completely gone. No glass, no frame, nothing. All that was left was a huge hole in the woodwork.

‘I guess we’ve found our way in,’ Garcia said.

Hunter quickly checked the floor inside the house directly under the window — no glass.

‘I’ll go first,’ Garcia said.

‘Careful with the floorboards,’ Hunter said. ‘They might crack, squeak, or both, so step lightly.’

‘Sure, Dad.’ Garcia smiled. ‘Here, hold the Twins.’ He handed his shotgun to Hunter.