in.”
“Where does he go, Fiona? When he’s paid his debt to Perry, where does he go? How does he get off the island? Steal a boat? A car? How does he get through all the search teams to manage that? Long odds. Even if he did it, how does he get through more cops to get on the ferry or get a boat off the island?”
“He doesn’t.” She picked up the empty bowl, stowed it. “It’s not panic, it was never panic. Maybe, back in April when he rented the cabin he thought he could get to me, take care of it and move on, but all that changed when he took Starr. When he brought her here knowing I’d gone to see Perry, when he read her article. It ends with me, one way or the other. Maybe he tries to kill the dogs, and you. Maybe as many as he can manage. But he knows it ends with me.”
“Blaze of glory.”
“He’s never had it.” She took out the scent bag. “But he’s tasted it now. Starr gave it to him, so he made her part of it. This is Eckle,” she said, forcing enthusiasm into her voice as she freshened the scent. “Let’s find Eckle! Find him!”
As they started again, she turned up her radio, winced at the chatter and the demands that she respond.
“Let me do it.” Simon held out his hand. “You need to focus on the dogs.”
He was right. There wasn’t just one life on the line but many. Starr was either alive or she was dead—that depended on Eckle’s whim.
Her unit, her friends, they were subject to that whim, too. As Greg had been to Perry’s.
But for Eckle it had never been about her, she realized. Despite the taunts, the terrorizing. She was no more than an IOU, and his twisted sense of honor demanded he pay that debt before the ugly new life Perry had given him was finished.
“He’s cutting back east now.” She flagged the next alert. “If he keeps the direction, he’s going to cross into James’s sector. I need to—”
“I’ll do it. You missed that.” He took another flag, marked a discarded candy wrapper. “You’re letting yourself get distracted. Stop it.”
Right again, she thought, and paused for a moment. She shut her eyes, let herself hear, scent, feel.
Orcas was a small island, a lot of ground to cover, yes, but limited. If his goal was to lure her into a trap, he’d have to have cover, and a vantage point.
“His route had to cross with the route he took with Starr. Somewhere he has to cross it, or parallel, but crossing from this direction...”
She had the map in her head, but took the one from her backpack to study again. No chances.
“Perry took high ground when he killed Greg. That was another kind of payment.”
“Perry got caught, put in prison. I don’t think Eckle is looking at prison as an option.” Over Fiona’s shoulder, Simon scanned the map, the trails, the routes. “Neither does Tawney.”
“He’s got work to do first,” she murmured. “He’s traveled in an arc—a wide curve, rounding west, now rounding east. Taking himself away from Starr, moving back toward her. Not to her. That doesn’t make sense. But near enough to watch. Maybe even hear the dogs, the radios when they get close enough. And in this direction, he’s going to start running into houses, Gary and Sue’s farm.”
“I don’t have your sense of direction, but your place is before the farm. How far are we out?”
“From my...” Her breath caught. “My place. You said it before. My own backyard. He’s taken everyone, even Starr, from their own place—school, routine area, work. He’s never deviated from that.”
She gripped Simon’s hand as certainty, and urgency, coursed through her in fast streams.
“Not just the island, my home. It’s empty, my house, because I’m out here looking for him. Or maybe he knows I’m at your place. Either way, he’d have the woods for cover.”
“And if he could get you inside, a place to take that last stand. How far, Fiona?”
“Maybe a half mile. Less. It depends on how far he circles, which point he’s picked for his hide.” She scanned the shadows, pools of gray and green. “The wind’s picking up, and that’ll affect the scent cone. We’re going to be crossing into James and Lori’s sector if we keep going east. We have to make the dogs stay in the trees, even if the trail goes into the open. We have to keep them quiet. And once we contact base, we have to turn the radio off.”
He considered telling her to stay there, but she wouldn’t. Considered telling her they’d both stay where they were and give Tawney her best guess of Eckle’s location. He knew the answer to that, too, but gave it a shot.
“We stay here, call it in, give Tawney the information.”
“And if Eckle changes direction? We can’t tell them where he’s going until we’re sure. We can only theorize.”
“That’s what I figured. Take out your gun. It’s in your hand from this point on.” He took out the radio. “Mai, put Tawney on.”
“They’re alerting again.” Fiona moved forward to flag the location.
“He wants to talk to you.” Simon passed her the radio.
“This is Fee. Over.”
“Fiona, I want you to listen to me. Stay where you are. We’ve triangulated your route with the other two search teams. We believe he’s on your property, or close. We’re dispatching a unit to your house, and pulling officers off search to join you and your unit. Do you copy?”
“Yes, I copy, Agent Tawney. Do any of your men know this area, have dogs who are giving stronger and stronger alerts? We’re just crossing into Team One’s sector. I see one of their flags.”
Getting closer, she thought and her blood pumped hard.
“He crossed here, too, crossed the area where he took her. James and Lori could... He could kill them. Simon and I are approaching from what should be his blind side. Send the cavalry, please God, but we’re following the dogs. I have to turn off the radio. We can’t risk him hearing us.”
She turned it off, handed it to Simon. “James won’t hold back. He might argue with Lori and convince her to wait, but he won’t. Not when there’s a chance he could find Starr alive. And I can’t wait, Simon, and take the chance someone else I love gets killed because of a vendetta against me.”
“Who’s arguing?”
It settled her, she realized, that faint edge of irritation in his tone. “We need to leash the dogs. Keep them close. And quiet.”
She glanced up when thunder rumbled. “We’re going to lose the light. It’s nearly dusk anyway. The wind’s good cover. Rain would be better. But both are affecting the scent. We’re all going to be going on instinct soon.”
“I want you behind me. That’s my instinct,” he said before she could object. “I need you to respect it.”
“I’m the one with the gun,” she pointed out.
“That’s right.” He kissed her lightly. “And I’m the one who’s counting on you using it if you need to.”
They continued in silence through air that cooled with the wind. The rising surf of wind through the trees made good cover, and would—she hoped—mask their approach. But she couldn’t hear over it either. And every sigh and shake of the trees caused her heart to jump.
They used hand signals, for each other and the dogs.
They came to the edge of the clearing where Simon found the stump. She saw the young sapling he’d planted without telling her. It made her galloping heart calm.
She touched her fingertips to him, just a brush of thanks.
She spotted another flag, and when the dogs wanted to cross into the open, she ordered them back.
Her blood froze when she heard the crackle of the radio, but even as her gaze flew to Simon’s belt she realized it wasn’t theirs.
James, she thought. Closer than she’d realized. She couldn’t make out the words, not all of them, but the excited tone translated. As did the happy bark.
“They’ve found her,” she whispered.
And a shadow moved in the shadows.
Her breath stuttered in her throat. He’d been sitting behind a tree, she saw, on the far side of the clearing. And now he used the wind, the gloom, those first quick patters of rain to mask his movements.
Simon laid his hand over her mouth, leaned close to her ear.
