Mindhunters 4 - Deadly Intent (38 page)

It didn’t matter to him. He’d be back on his sunny beach under his umbrella, enjoying the heat on his skin. After this, he didn’t think he’d ever take another job in the cold.

A rocky shale cliff loomed in front of him and he slowed. He’d traveled enough miles to be wary about an upcoming terrain change. The tracks before him seemed to disappear, which indicated a steep descent on the other side.

Anticipation loomed. Maybe the fucking kid had fallen and even now lay at the bottom of the slope. Thoughts of putting a quick bullet between her eyes vanished. He’d gone to far too much trouble to set aside his plans now. He’d take her back to the portable ice fishing shanty where he could spend some time with her.

His knife was in that shelter.

He took off his glove and slipped his hand in his pocket, fingers closing over the Glock he carried there. His breathing was coming faster. Not from exertion, but from the burst of adrenaline that sent shocks through his system. Making his way carefully, he topped the slope and started down the other side.

And then stopped. Cursed viciously.

A figure in hunter orange was at the base, walking along, as if examining the cliff carefully. A dog was ahead of him, running circles in the snow like a fucking lunatic.

The man was wearing snowshoes.

A headache spiked, brutal and keen, the kind he used to get as a kid after the first few blows from the holy book. His fingers tightened around the gun in his pocket. He’d kill the man where he stood. Him and the damn dog for making him waste precious time tracking them.

A hunter. Not the kid.

“Hey!” The man below him looked up. Waved an arm. “Hey!”

Vincent stopped. Considered. The man was inviting death to his door. It seemed a shame to disappoint.

He made his way down the slope carefully. The hunter was dressed much as he was himself, in full winter wear and an insulated mask and gloves that trapped body heat. Keeping a wary eye on the dog, who gave him only a cursory glance before continuing to frolic, he continued his approach.

“Just wanted to warn you,” the guy called. “There are a few of us hunters out here. Mountain lion season. You really should be wearing some sort of reflective outerwear. Don’t want an accident.”

He drew closer before responding. “I don’t look much like a mountain lion. And I’m very careful.” So careful, in fact, that he scanned the area closely before determining no one else was in the vicinity. In his pocket, the weapon warmed in his fingers.

“When the dog’s on the scent, you never know. Guy follows the dog into the trees, maybe gets a sighting, and the next thing that moves is liable to get shot. That damn near happened yesterday. And worst of it was, I think it was a kid I nearly put a bullet into.”

Breathing slowed. “Wouldn’t expect to see a kid out here alone.”

The hunter shrugged. “Probably had parents nearby, but I didn’t see them. If I had, I’d have told them the same thing I’m telling you. Take some precautions and avoid a possible tragedy.” He cocked his head. “You camping out here? Are you the one been making those snow caves?”

Adrenaline surged. “Yeah, that was me.”

The hunter made a gesture of disgust. “Man, it’s important to make sure you include an air hole. Make a hole in the roof with a branch or something. Wiggle it occasionally to be sure the air is flowing. If the snow collapses, you don’t want to suffocate.”

A grim smile crossed his mouth beneath the mask. “No. I don’t want that. I’m a bit new at this. Lost my way and can’t recall where my last shelter was. Some things fell out of my pack while I slept, and I need to go back and look for them.” The dog ran over then and sniffed the ground around him.

“No offense, buddy, but if you’re inexperienced, you should be traveling with a friend.” Shaking his head, the hunter pointed to a spot well in the distance. “The one I saw today was that way, probably four miles. See that evergreen that’s split there at the top? Probably thirty, forty yards from that tree.”

His fingers eased from the Glock. The man’s information had him feeling charitable. “Thanks. You’ve been very helpful.”

Ellie needed to pee. She kept her eyes tightly shut, willing the feeling away. It was a major pain when she had to do it because the coat and snow pants needed to come off and she nearly froze in the process. Willing sleep to return, she tried to think of something else. Anything else.

Lucky’s image swam across her mind, making her sniffle. Stupid horse. Ellie blamed Lucky for making her feel again. How could she not when the animal’s gentle eyes looked so full of understanding? Like she comprehended all Ellie’s secrets. All the ones she whispered in her ear after brushing her. And even those that were still lodged deep inside her.

If it hadn’t been for Lucky, she’d still be numb inside. And she would have hated the animal for that if she didn’t love her so much.

Her bladder wasn’t giving up. She dragged her eyelids open, tried to focus. When she did, her blood went to ice. I’m still asleep, Ellie thought wildly. Trapped in a nightmare.

The masked face seemed to fill the opening of the cave. Evil waiting. And although she stared hard, willing the nightmare away, he didn’t disappear. She recognized the eyes, those tan empty eyes, even before he spoke.

“What are you feeling right now?”

Chapter 14

“This is supposition. All of it.”

Macy assumed Kell ignored Travis’s objection because it was true. But that didn’t lessen her interest in his actions.

The waitress in the diner kept sending them black looks. They’d commandeered three tables for their small party. Kell had pushed them altogether and she’d cleared them off so he could spread out the maps he and Travis had picked up from the wilderness office yesterday. They were joined by the city map of Denver and its suburbs.

“Let’s look at this logically. Crimes this big don’t happen in isolation. There’s a ripple effect, you know? Things that have to be enacted in order to carry it out. What did Dodge have to accomplish prior to murdering Hubbard? We can all agree that that’s the probable way it went down, right?”

There were no objections, not even from Travis. “There’s no way to be sure Quinn made the mask—the fire destroyed any evidence of that. But none of the other names that Pearce gave us checked out.”

“Regardless of who made it, we can be sure it took some time. Two weeks would be a rush job, a couple of them said.” Macy gestured for the waitress. As long as they were there, she may as well get the coffee she’d been craving. “Assuming Dodge took care of the preliminaries, he needed pictures of Hubbard to get a mask made. Maybe he got them developed.”

“Good thinking,” muttered Kell. He jotted down a note on the legal pad in front of him. “Travis, call Whitman and see if he can round up some DPD officers to follow up on that.”

The agent snorted. “I don’t know how things work with your boss, Burke, but I don’t issue directives to the assistant director.”

“You don’t have to. Just report in and mention it as a logical next step. Or we can text Raiker.” Macy glanced up at Kell. “Let him broach it with Whitman.”

Burke nodded. “I’ll call him. He was going to contact the FBI and Homeland Security and see if he could get a line on Dodge’s entrance into the country by checking the airports and passenger manifests. Who knows, maybe one of his known aliases will show up on one. That’d give us the start of a timeline, at least.”

“He has to have been staying somewhere in the meantime,” Macy mused. She broke off then as the waitress sauntered over. The woman didn’t look any happier when the order was only a pot of coffee.

“Yeah, but showing Dodge’s picture at every motel and B and B in the area is going to take an army of officers, something I doubt the combined weight of CBI and Raiker can summon. Doubtful he took the girl to wherever he stayed, so what’s the point?”

“So where do we suspect he’s been so far?” The agent reached over to stab a finger at one of the maps showing Conifer. “On Mulder’s estate. Quinn’s place on Colfax.” He seemed to search the Denver map for a moment before giving up. “Somewhere in the Clear Creek Canyon area since that’s where Hubbard’s body was dumped.”

Kell meticulously circled each of the spots he’d mentioned on the map. “Maybe see if we can get a lead on long-term rentals from the airport,” he muttered, his head bent over the legal pad again. “He had to have transportation.”

“He drove Hubbard’s car to the Mulder estate to report for duty in the guard’s place.” Gratefully, she picked up the carafe of coffee the waitress set in front of her and filled her cup, since the woman didn’t seem to be into full service. “If our suppositions are correct, he had a snowmobile stashed somewhere fairly close to the outside wall he went over with the girl.”

“And there were enough snowmobile thefts in the surrounding areas to keep us chasing our tail on that end for weeks,” Travis muttered. Wordlessly, he held out his cup. Macy took it and tipped coffee into it, handing it back. His smile of thanks held a little more warmth than she was comfortable with.

“He might be working with someone else,” she said, sipping from her own mug. “Once he stashed the snowmobile until he needed it, how did he get back to his vehicle?”

“Unless another body shows up in the area, we can be fairly certain he’s working alone.” Setting his pen down, Kell reached for his own mug and poured himself a cup. “According to Raiker, that’s his MO. And we’ve seen what happens to people who cross his path in the enactment of the crime. He had a fairly narrow window of opportunity to kill Hubbard.” Kell blew gently at the steam rolling off the coffee. “Hubbard’s girlfriend had spent the night with him the night before. They’d planned something for the night of the abduction, but Hubbard never answered her calls that evening.”

“And where’d you get this information?” Travis’s voice held an obvious edge.

“Uh . . . Raiker.”

Macy hid a wince, but Kell seemed unconcerned with the lie.

“The man seemed to come across an awful lot of ‘tips’ while he was away.”

“What can I say? The guy knows people everywhere.” A bit more hurriedly, Kell went on. “Anyway, Hubbard was on duty the next day. Did Dodge also have access to the guard schedule? Almost had to. He could have staked out the estate and gotten it that way, I suppose. Chose the guard who would be easiest to utilize in enacting his plan. Hubbard was the only one on the security team who lived alone.”

“And he was on the duty roster for two days running. Security tapes bear out Cramer’s claim that he rode to work with Hubbard the day before the girl was taken. No way Dodge takes the chance of impersonating Hubbard more than the one day he needs to. Why take that kind of risk?”

Kell nodded at her assessment. “So we have the hours between one A.M., when a neighbor saw Hubbard’s light on, and sometime before six A.M., when he was due back at the estate.”

“Takes at least forty minutes to get from his house to Mulder’s,” Travis put in.

“Dodge was probably hiding in the house. Park the car on the street in back of the house and cross through the yards. I’ve already shown you his locks were a joke.”

“One to six.” Macy stared hard at the map, tracing the distance from Hubbard’s house to Clear Creek Canyon with her gaze. “He’d have had to get right on it. That’s a lot of traveling if he dumped the body before reporting to work in Hubbard’s place.”

With the tip of the pen, Kell indicated the maps. “So he kills Quinn several days before the abduction.” He touched the spot on Colfax Avenue. “Shows up in Hubbard’s house the evening before the girl was taken.” He shifted to indicate the Denver street where Hubbard had resided. “Afterward he travels to here.” He traced a path to Clear Creek Canyon on the next map. “About how long would that take him?”

The agent stared at the maps consideringly. “An hour. Depends on when the snow started that day. We’re figuring he was driving Hubbard’s SUV, right? It’s equipped for the weather.”

But Macy had had another thought. “If he planned to load up the body in Hubbard’s own vehicle, how did Dodge get to the man’s house? Either a cab or his rental was abandoned on a nearby street. Either way, we check with the Denver police and local taxi companies’ dispatch logs, see if we can get a lead on him that way.”

Kell gave her a wink. “I knew I kept you around for a reason. Okay.” He jotted down the suggestion before returning to the maps. “From the Canyon area he heads to Conifer.” He touched all the places on the maps lightly, in the sequence the man had been at each. “If it’s me, I’m not going to dump a body near the same area I plan to hole up with the girl.” Shifting his gaze to the wilderness maps, he said, “The rangers’ office we stopped at yesterday said there are no snowmobiles allowed in the Rocky Mountain National Park. The terrain makes it a perfect place to hide out, but there are no structures allowed there, and the ranger we talked to seemed to think they’d find one pretty quickly if it were built. The park is better staffed with law enforcement officers than are the forests on either side of it. But any of them is in close enough proximity to conceivably reach by sled after snatching the girl.”