Before locating rooms for the night, Erica had one quick stop to make first. At some point, Harper and Martin would find their way back to Flagstaff. The way she saw it, she had two choices. Leave either Clausen or Markle to stake out Harper’s car and deal with him and his friend permanently when they returned, or see if the two interlopers could prove to be more useful. Since she’d rather not waste the manpower, the second option was more attractive.
She drove back to Harkin Services and stopped behind the El Camino.
Without a word, she popped open the trunk and got out.
In the back was the leather bag that had been waiting for her when she’d picked up the rental car. As was her habit, she had prepared for all contingencies. The bag contained some of that hardware her money had paid for, including the guns and matching sound suppressors she and the others were using. What she was interested in now was a small case with several magnet-backed trackers.
She took one out, and attached it to the inside of the El Camino’s rear bumper.
As she drove away, her anger at the botched evening started to subside. They were on the right path again. She could feel it. Tomorrow she would find a new lead on Diana.
One way or another, this problem would soon be closed.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
If Diana and the Paskota woman weren’t working together, then the only way The Hideaway’s former bartender could have been there was because she had followed the doctor’s car. So that meant she’d hidden her own vehicle somewhere in the woods between where Logan and Dev stood and the main road, the opposite direction in which she’d run. At some point, she would have to circle back.
“Come on,” Logan said.
He and Dev ran along the path that Dr. Paskota had used to bring them here. They made it almost all the way back to the dirt road before Logan pulled to a stop and knelt down. Even in the darkness, he could see the eight-inch strip of compacted pine needles that led off the path. Predictably, he found a second, identical strip a few feet away.
Tire tracks.
Silently, he pointed in the direction they headed. Dev nodded.
Careful not to make a sound, the two men followed the tracks. About a hundred feet from where they began, they found a Ford sedan with California license plates, and a tag that identified it as a rental car. Though there was no one sitting inside, Logan saw that the keys were in the ignition, the car ready to go the moment the owner returned.
Dev raised a finger to his ear and tapped twice. Logan listened. Footsteps, fifty yards away and heading in their direction.
The two men immediately pulled back into the trees, hiding behind two pines close to the car. It was a whole minute before Logan saw a shadow moving through the woods on the other side of the sedan. It was Diana, of course. He’d never doubted that. She moved slowly, taking her time with each step, and probably thinking she was doing a good job of masking any noise.
Upon reaching the car, she abandoned her caution, and raced around to the driver’s door. As her hand shot out and grabbed the handle, Logan silently moved in behind her, his gun in his hand.
Sensing his presence, she started to whip around, but he yanked the gun out of her hand before she could bring it even halfway up. She staggered backward and slammed against the car door, knocking it closed again. “Get away from me!”
Logan tossed her gun to Dev. “You drive. Ms. Stockley and I will sit in back.”
He grabbed her arm and pulled her over to the rear door.
“Let me go!” She jerked back and forth, trying to break his grip, but succeeded in only getting him to squeeze tighter.
After Dev opened the door for them, Logan pushed Diana inside and jumped in right behind her. She immediately tried to get out the other door, but Logan was having none of it. He grabbed her again and pulled her back. “Don’t waste your energy. You’re not going anywhere.” To Dev, he said, “Child lock.”
“On it.”
Dev jogged around the car, opened the door next to Diana, and engaged the child lock so that the door couldn’t be opened from the inside. That done, he circled back around and got behind the wheel.
As soon as the car was moving, Logan released Diana. She pushed herself away from him, and tried the door despite the fact she’d seen Dev set the lock. When pulling on the handle did nothing, she yelled out in frustration and grabbed hold of the front passenger seat so she could climb over.
Logan clapped a hand on her shoulder and yanked her back, forcing her once more into a sitting position.
“Don’t try that again,” he ordered.
“I’m not going to sit here and let you kill me.”
“I’m not going to kill you. I don’t even want to hurt you.”
“Bullshit. You’re just trying to trick me, get me to tell you where Sara is. Once I do, you’ll shoot me, won’t you? You don’t have to answer that. I know you will.”
She lunged for the front seat again. This time Logan shoved her back harder.
“You don’t get it,” he said. “I’m not here to hurt Sara or you or anyone. I’m here because of Alan. That’s all. He knows something’s wrong, and he wants to help.”
“I don’t know where you got your information. Sara’s not married. I don’t know who this Alan is. It’s all lies.”
It was easy to see that Diana had been going over everything as she’d made her way back to her car. This was probably what she wished she’d said before. It was delivered with practiced conviction.
“Don’t,” he said. “You’re making yourself sound stupid. You pretty much admitted you knew I was telling the truth.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The fear in her eyes was seemed to consumer her. Logan sensed it wasn’t so much for herself as for Sara, the woman she was trying to protect for some reason. He thought for a moment, then reached for his phone in his pocket. It wasn’t there.
“Where’s your phone?” he asked Diana.
She closed her lips tight and glared at him.
She hadn’t been carrying a bag in the woods, and he could tell there was nothing in the front pockets of her jeans. He rolled her on her side so he could see the back.
“Hey!” she said.
The rear pockets were empty, too.
He let go of her.
“Is there a purse or bag up there?” he asked Dev.
Dev glanced around. “Yeah. There’s something in the passenger footwell.”
He stopped the car, retrieved it, and tossed it back to Logan.
“That’s mine!” Diana shouted, reaching for the bag. “You have no right!”
Though he didn’t want to do it, Logan raised his gun. That seemed to sober her up. She retreated to her corner, her gaze burning holes in his head.
He opened the bag and felt around until he found not one cell phone, but two. The first he pulled out was a Blackberry. He activated the screen, made sure it was getting a signal, then reached in and pulled out the second phone.
This time Diana visibly tensed.
The phone was a bare-bones model-no Web access, no email, just calls and texts. The kind of phone with prepaid minutes you’d buy at a 7-Eleven or corner shop. A throwaway phone. Anonymous.
