Hill, Gerri - Angel Fire

“Reynolds is old school and by the book. Besides, it’s personal for him, too. One of the agents killed was a good friend of his.”

Sam met her gaze. “You said personal for him too…meaning it’s personal for me.”

“Isn’t it?”

Was that what had her in such a funk? That she felt this whole situation was now personal for her? As if she had some stake in it.

Andrea sensed her hesitation, and this time it was she who reached out to touch Sam’s arm. “I don’t mean that in a derogatory way, Sam. I’m not judging you. But as you said, you feel like you have a relationship with him. The guilt that you’re harboring stems from a lot of different avenues.”

“Everything that he’s done, the killing of innocent people, that family,” she said. “Yet I don’t want the same to befall him.” She shrugged. “I guess I want him to be captured without incident and spend his life in prison.” She met Andrea’s gaze. “Of course, I know that’s not going to happen. He won’t be taken alive.”

Andrea nodded. “What if Tori is the one to take the shot?”

“I would feel terrible,” Sam admitted. “And I would question whether she did it for justice…or if she was simply settling the score with him.”

Andrea leaned back against the table, her gaze going to the swing set where the kids were laughing. “When Cameron and I first worked together, I had no idea how Murdock’s teams operated. I think Cameron’s intention—when we found Patrick Doe—was to kill him without even attempting to apprehend him. I told her I wasn’t going to be judge and jury. That’s not how I was trained.” She turned to her. “But when it came down to it, I was the one who took the shot. And in that instant, I had no thought other than shoot to kill. He had a knife. He had injured Cameron. I was judge and jury at that moment. And I took the shot.”

Sam nodded sadly. “Yes, when it comes down to it, I guess Patrick Doe and Angel aren’t really any different. Does Angel deserve a judge and jury?”

Andrea blew out her breath. “We could say that about so many, couldn’t we? I’d like to say we should let our legal system run its course here, but I don’t think that will happen. He’s killed too many. It’s personal for everyone chasing him. So you’re right. He won’t be taken alive.”

Sam nodded again, for she knew Andrea’s words to be true.

Andrea stood then and motioned to the truck. “I guess we should get going. I don’t know about you, but I’m getting hungry. We didn’t have breakfast.”

“Me too.” And she was. She’d had little appetite lately. She supposed it had been good to talk to Andrea about how she was feeling. She could have told Tori all of these same things, mainly about the guilt she felt. But Tori wouldn’t know how to fix it and Tori was all about fixing things. She didn’t want to transfer her guilt to Tori.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Cameron paced beside the table where her phone was, nibbling on a fry as she did. Her burger was long gone. Rowan had texted her, saying he had something. She was waiting on him to call.

“Jesus, how long has it been?”

“Forty-five seconds,” Reynolds said dryly. “I’d forgotten how impatient you were.”

“I’m just ready to get on with it,” she said.

She glanced around the room, seeing Andrea sitting on the edge of one of the beds with Eric. They were sharing fries. Tori and Sam were on the other bed. Sam was still eating her burger. Reynolds was in the chair. He too was still finishing his lunch. She hadn’t had a chance to speak with Andi alone, but she could tell that Sam appeared to be a bit more relaxed now. If Andrea hadn’t gotten any new information from her, perhaps now Sam would be more inclined for a thorough debriefing. That is, if she could do it without Tori around.

The ringing of her phone brought her attention back to her phone and she snatched it up.

“Took you long enough,” she said.

“Sorry. I wanted to compile all three reports,” Rowan said.

“Okay. Let me put you on speaker. We’re all here.” She put the phone down on the table. “Can you hear me?”

“Yes. But we can do this with video if you want. I can link to Reynolds’s laptop,” he offered.

“Not that I don’t want to see your pretty face, but let’s just get to it,” she said.

“Okay. Well, I tried the obvious links to him. Found two addresses of where he lived as a child. One house has been torn down and a subdivision was built there. The other was a rental house near Angel Fire Resort,” he said.

“How ironic is that?” Eric said. “Angel Fire?”

“Yes. That was where they were living when he was born. Makes you wonder if that’s how he got his name.”

Cameron paced again. “Don’t care about how he got his name, Rowan.”

“Of course. Sorry.” He cleared his throat. “That house is still standing, but it’s occupied. It’s still rental property. It’s been pretty much swallowed up by the resort. The owner won’t sell. Well, he will, but he’s asking an outrageous amount of money.”

Cameron glanced over at Andrea, noting her amused expression. Cameron rolled her eyes.

“Do you have anything useful?” Reynolds asked.

“Those were the only hits on property linking him to this area. Of course, he was twelve years old when he left so I imagine those don’t hold much attachment for him. I’ve found no family that still lives here. His father lives in California as do his grandparents. I’ve found no evidence that he ever contacts them. His mother’s family is gone except for an aunt who lives in Tucson. Again, no evidence that he’s been in touch with her in years.”

“Okay,” Cameron said. “I’m assuming that’s only one of the programs you ran.”

“Yes. I wanted to eliminate the most obvious. Next, I took a shot at doing what we did in Barstow. Finding abandoned property that has no human traffic. Meaning, abandoned and not for sale. There are too many to name, really,” he said. “I’ve done several different runs. Abandoned property next to other abandoned property. Abandoned property with no close neighbors. There are a few hits, but it’s like—”

“Shooting in the dark,” Cameron finished for him.

“Right. There isn’t enough data to use for any of the algorithms to get a good read.”

She sighed. “What else?”

“Well, he had to have done some surveillance of the area at some point.”

“Yeah, you don’t steal three million on a whim,” Eric said.

“We know he got back to the States six months ago. I’m looking through credit card receipts. Gas, hotels, that sort of thing. Starting in Santa Fe and moving up here to Taos.”

“How will that help?” Tori asked. “Surely he wouldn’t have used his real name.”

“Most likely not,” Cameron said. “But Rowan might find a pattern with the receipts. That’s how we targeted our guy in Barstow.”

“Exactly,” Rowan said. “The program is running now. It’ll take several hours though.”

“So basically you’re hacking into servers you’re not authorized to be in?” Reynolds asked.

Rowan paused. “Yes, sir,” he said quietly.

As Cameron was about to speak, Reynolds held up his hand. “I know. I know,” he said. “Any means necessary. I just don’t happen to agree with it.”

Cameron turned toward the phone again. “Well, we’ve got to do something. Send me what you found on the properties. We might as well take a look at them. We might get lucky.”

“I will. I’m also trying to find real-time surveillance video and doing face recognition. I assume the federal marshals and sheriff’s department are doing the same thing. I don’t anticipate finding anything this early. I think Cameron is right and he might lay low for a day or so. His picture is everywhere on the news.”