After they'd left the Point Lobos Inn, they'd lost track of the footprints and blood near a fork in the nature trails. Arbitrarily Dance had gone right, Kellogg left.
She'd moved silently through the brush--staying off the trail--until she saw motion by the edge of a cliff. She'd identified the women and approached them quickly.
Now, she called the FBI agent from her mobile phone.
"Win, I've got Sam and Linda."
"Where are you?"
"We're about a hundred yards from where we split up. I went due west. We're almost to the cliff. There's a round rock near us, about twenty feet high."
"Do they know where Pell is?"
"He was near here. Below us and to our left about fifty yards. And he's still armed. Pistol and knife."
Then she tensed, looking down, saw a man's form on the sand. "Win, where are you? Are you on the beach?"
"No. I'm on a path. The beach is below me, maybe two, three hundred feet away."
"Okay, he's there! You see that small island? Seals all over it. And gulls."
"Got it."
"The beach in front of that."
"I can't see it from here. But I'm moving that way."
"No, Win. There's no cover for your approach. We need tactical. Wait."
"We don't have time. He's gotten away too many times already. I'm not letting it happen again."
The gunslinger attitude . . .
It bothered her a lot. Suddenly she really didn't want anything to happen to Winston Kellogg.
. . . afterward. How does that sound? . . .
"Just . . . be careful. I lost sight of him. He was on the beach, but he's in the rocks now. There'd be perfect firing positions from there. He can cover all the approaches."
Dance stood up, shielding her eyes as she scanned the beach. Where is he?
She found out a second later.
A bullet slammed into the rocks not far from her, and then she heard the crack of Pell's pistol.
Samantha screamed and Dance dropped to cover in the recess, nicking her skin, furious that she'd presented a target.
"Kathryn," Kellogg called on the radio, "are you firing?"
"No, that was Pell."
"You okay?"
"We're fine."
"Where did it come from?"
"I couldn't see. Had to be the rocks near the beach."