Hill, Gerri - Angel Fire

“Why use his own cash when he can charge to a false account?” Cameron asked.

“Isn’t he taking a chance that these guys know their cards have been compromised?” Tori shrugged. “As careful as he’s been, this seems reckless.”

“They’re not real,” Rowan said. “Well, the cards are real, but they’re forged,” he explained. “Identity theft. By the time Justin Black and Charles McDaniel were made aware of the charges, he had already ditched the cards. The only hits were just in that one month.”

“Okay,” Reynolds said. “What else? Surely this isn’t all you have. I mean there is no way this proves that it was Angel using the cards. And even if it did, it doesn’t help us find him.”

“Five weeks ago—the same pattern, different cards, different names,” Rowan said. “Only, there were added stops. Lodging and fuel hits near the armored car company. And there were two car rentals this time, not just one. The second one was in Santa Fe.”

Tori shook her head. “Okay, maybe I’m just not seeing it, but what the hell does this prove? And how the hell does it help us?”

“It’s not black-and-white,” Cameron said. “If you put in the data and get returns, you’ve got to trust it. I know it doesn’t make sense.”

“Say I trust it,” Tori said. “Now what? What does it do for us?”

“I’m running car rentals within the last month,” Rowan said. “We know he had a getaway car, we know he had a car stashed in the mountains. And now we know he’s got a white Ford.”

“Maybe he bought them,” Sam said. “Not rented.”

Rowan nodded. “Yes. Maybe he did. I’ll run that too. I’m also doing a search on those two names to see if anything pops up.”

“What else are you running? You said you had a couple of things still going,” Cameron said.

“Property in the Taos area that’s been purchased or rented in the last six months. Hiding in abandoned property is one thing, but wouldn’t he feel safer if he had his own place?”

Reynolds shook his head. “That makes no sense. He steals three million dollars. Wouldn’t he just take the money and run? Besides, if he’s got his own place, why did we find him at an abandoned property?”

“Because his picture has been plastered all over the news,” Sam said. “If he does have a place, it’s most likely in a public area. Maybe even an apartment.”

“I think if he does have a place, it wasn’t part of the original plan,” Cameron said. “Yes, take the money and run makes the most sense. But he’s no longer operating under that plan. He’s on Plan C, at least.”

Reynolds stood, pacing behind the picnic table. He shook his head again. “Conjecture. Nothing more than assumptions and conjectures. I have to agree with Agent Hunter. This doesn’t help us. We’re no closer to finding him.” He looked at Cameron. “So we had a pattern? It tells us what he did, not what he’s going to do.”

Cameron smiled. “You know me, Reynolds, I’m all about speculating.”

“Actually, two patterns,” Rowan corrected him. “And I’m still running credit card transactions, looking for something during the last two weeks to current.”

“He was here five weeks ago,” Andrea said. “Isn’t it safe to assume he never left?”

“The credit card hits lasted three weeks, then stopped,” Rowan said.

“So he’s got more cards. Or maybe he started using cash,” Eric suggested.

“Well, we know he’s got three million dollars now,” Tori said.

“Look, before we all get discouraged by this, let’s let it play out,” Cameron said.

“What’s there left to play out?” Reynolds asked. “We have nothing. We’re sitting around here with our head up our asses doing nothing,” he said, his voice getting louder.

“We’re doing what we do,” Cameron said calmly. “If the federal marshals are beating the streets or the sheriff’s department is beating the streets…that’s what they do. That’s not what we do. We let Rowan do his thing. When he gets something, we’ll check it out. Just like we did today.” She paused. “Like we worked it in Barstow,” she said.

Reynolds stared at her, still slowly shaking his head. “We missed him today. That was probably our only shot. My guess is he’s long gone from this area by now.”

“Not without the money,” Sam said.

“After everything that happened today, you still think he’s hanging around?”

“Yes. Otherwise, what was the point of it all?”

Chapter Thirty-Three

“I’m so ready for this to be over with,” Andrea murmured against Cameron’s lips.

“Me too.”

Cameron kissed her again, but when the kiss deepened, Andrea pulled away. They didn’t have time.

“Rowan will be back soon,” she said.

Cameron sighed. “I know. I’m also ready to get our house back.”

“You’re the one who agreed to let him sleep here tonight,” Andrea reminded her.

“The sooner he finds something, the sooner we can get out of here,” she said. Cameron grabbed her hand and pulled her closer again. “Are you okay?”

She nodded. “Yes. Why do you ask?”

“You were kinda quiet today. I know the thing at that house—”

“I’m fine, sweetheart. Quit beating yourself up over that.” She met her gaze. “Besides, I don’t think we were ever in any danger from Angel.”

Cameron frowned. “Is that what you and Sam went to talk about?”

Andrea smiled, wondering when Cameron would bring that up. She tugged Cameron down beside her on the love seat, moving Lola into her lap. The purring cat stretched out, then crawled over to Cameron’s lap instead. Cameron immediately plunged her fingers in Lola’s black fur.

“Angel never took a shot at us,” she said. “And it couldn’t have been that he was too concerned with the deputies to worry about us. We were in his line of sight.”

“So what’s your theory?”

“He didn’t want to kill Sam’s lover.”

Cameron shook her head. “No. That’s not how it works, Andi. The Angel I knew, he was by the book when it came to this. There are only two concrete rules—accomplish the assigned mission and get out alive. Everything else is simply collateral damage. No matter what it is,” she said. “There can’t be any type of emotional attachment in his line of work. Angel doesn’t care about that. He wouldn’t care that Tori might be out there. He’s a killer.”

“I disagree,” Andrea said. “At least in this case. He does care. He cares about Sam. For whatever reason, he does.”

“So you think because Tori was there, he wasn’t shooting at you?”

“Yes. He could have killed us. He could have killed all six deputies, if he’s as good as you say he is. But he didn’t. No one was killed.” She met Cameron’s gaze. “The Angel that you knew, he would have killed them, right?”

“Yes.”

“So maybe Sam is right. Maybe it was simply a distraction. Maybe his true mission here is the money, nothing else. He’s not just shooting to kill every time he tries to—”

“Distractions are one thing, Andi. But killing that innocent family? Killing eight law enforcement officers to escape?”

“There’s your collateral damage. He was escaping. His goal is the money. That’s it.”

“So are you saying he didn’t shoot you because Tori was there or he didn’t shoot you because there was no need to? That he only needed to distract us long enough to get away?”

Andrea smiled. “Maybe a little of both?”

Cameron smiled too. “Maybe. And I guess we’ll never know.”

Headlights flashed outside and a few seconds later, Rowan was knocking on their door. Andrea took Lola as Cameron got up to let him in. He had a small duffel bag, which he tossed on the floor beside the love seat.