CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
When she reached their agreed-upon rendezvous point, Riley pulled their car to a stop near Callahan’s.
The sudden silence when she cut the engine revealed the isolation of their surroundings—no traffic noise, no hum of distant conversations.
She and Ann Marie left the car and spotted Callahan headed toward them.
“We’ll take the final approach on foot,” he said by way of greeting, keeping his voice low. “We don’t want to risk alerting Veach if he’s already here.”
The three of them moved through the woods, following a narrow path that wound between ancient trees.
They crouched low as the forest opened slightly to reveal a clearing.
In its center stood a cabin—weathered timber walls beneath a cedar shake roof, a small porch fronting a sturdy door.
An Audi was parked in the small clearing that served as a makeshift driveway.
“Hers,” Callahan whispered. “I checked out the make of her car. But his could be hidden elsewhere.”
“The front door is open,” Riley observed. “Veach could be inside with her."
They fanned out as they approached the cabin. Her weapon drawn but held low, Riley moved onto the porch.
“FBI!” she called out. “Is anybody here?”
No response came. She paused at the threshold, listening intently. Silence. She nodded to Ann Marie and Callahan, then pushed the door fully open with her foot, weapon raised.
Riley’s eyes registered the signs of struggle—a small folding table lay overturned on the wooden floor, surrounded by glittering shards of broken glass. Dark liquid pooled and spread across the planks, seeping into the grain of the wood.
With expert coordination, the three of them entered the cabin, each taking a different sector.
“Clear,” Ann Marie called from a small kitchen area.
“Clear,” Callahan echoed from the doorway to what appeared to be a bedroom. Then he moved down a small hallway and reported a second open door at the rear of the cabin. “I saw no one outside,” he added.
Riley holstered her weapon and moved toward the overturned table, careful to avoid disturbing anything. She crouched, examining the pattern of the spilled wine and broken glass.
“The table was knocked over with force,” she observed, noting how far the glass fragments had scattered. “Not just tipped, but shoved or struck hard enough to send everything flying.”
Ann Marie approached. “Looks like Caldwell put up a fight.”
“Better than the others,” Riley agreed, rising to her feet. She scanned the room. An overnight bag and small cooler lay discarded near the entrance, their contents partially spilled. “She must have just arrived when Veach confronted her. She ran. Out the back. He must have followed her.”
The three investigators moved to the rear exit, stepping onto a small back porch that faced a denser part of the forest. Here the undergrowth grew thick and wild, a tangle of ferns and shrubs, fallen logs and moss-covered stones.
“That’s where they went,” Riley said, pointing to crushed ferns, a visible path that disappeared into the underbrush.
“They could still be out there,” Callahan said, gesturing to the vast expanse of forest stretching before them.
“We need to find her before he does, if it isn’t already too late,” Riley said, the determination in her voice masking the odds stacked against them. “But we can’t just crash through the forest calling her name. That would alert Veach to our presence.”
Callahan pulled out his phone. “Coverage is spotty out here, but I’ve got enough signal for our needs. We should activate location sharing between our phones.”
Riley was already pulling out her own device. “Good thinking. We can cover more ground if we split up, but we need to stay coordinated.”
The three of them huddled around their phones, setting up the location sharing app that would allow each to track the others’ movements. The blue dots of their positions glowed against the backdrop of satellite imagery showing the vast expanse of forest surrounding them.
“Text only,” Riley instructed. “If you find Veach, don’t engage alone if you can avoid it. Signal the rest of us first.”
Thomas Veach had already proven himself methodical, determined, and utterly remorseless. Now, with his carefully constructed vengeance disrupted, he would be unpredictable as well.
“Stay alert,” Riley said, her gaze moving between her colleagues. “Veach may be focused on Caldwell, but if he realizes we’re here, he could shift targets. Don’t take unnecessary risks.”
The three of them moved in their separate directions, each disappearing into the dense foliage within moments.
Riley watched their figures vanish among the trees, then continued along her own path.
She began to climb a gentle slope, every sense heightened.
Somewhere in these woods, a killer hunted his final victim.
And now, three hunters had to find both of them.
Riley could only hope they weren’t already too late.