Chapter 8 - The Wrong Road
I asked Owen where he was. He hung up.
Tess traced the call only far enough to confirm a cell tower near the old fire lookout. Leah checked the token's last access and found a second login from the courthouse parking lot. Someone was using Owen's credentials to follow our search.
“Then somebody wants us on that road,” Tess said.
We borrowed an unmarked state vehicle and took the long route through farm country. Leah noticed the same dark SUV at two different intersections. Tess called the sheriff's department to confirm whether it was theirs. It wasn't.
At the next exit, the SUV accelerated toward us. Tess turned into a crowded gas station rather than an empty back road. The SUV followed, then stopped short when two marked patrol cars entered the lot.
A man in a baseball cap got out, saw the deputies, and ran. One deputy caught him before he reached the highway.
Inside his vehicle were a camera, a map of the fire lookout, and a photograph of Nora and June.
There was no gun. There didn't need to be. The message was clear.
The man gave his name as Eric Vale, a private investigator hired through a subcontractor. He claimed he was conducting “risk assessments” for Meridian Field Systems. Tess asked the deputies to preserve his phone and payment records.
“You're making this bigger,” Leah told me as we resumed our drive.
“No,” I said. “We're finding out how big it already was.”
The lookout stood beneath oak trees, more weathered than I remembered. The porch sagged, and June's carved name was still visible in the rail. I went up the steps alone while Tess watched from the tree line.
A chair scraped inside.
“Owen?”
The door opened two inches. A thin man with a scar along his jaw stared at me through the gap. His left hand shook. His right held an old photograph of our team.
“You came,” he whispered.
May you like
I reached for him.
He stepped back and said, “Before you hug me, Sarah, you need to know what I did after they left us.”
