We weren’t in the spot where she started from with her group, but another trail that would take us in from the south side. It was more direct, but steeper and would have to use the topo map as a guide. We’d been at a run for over three and half hours, and Hayes kept counseling me to slow our pace, or we’d wear out before we got there.
There was no fucking way. No chance I’d stop running. Not when that killer was out there hunting Indi.
“Helicopter? I will get on it,” Kennedy panted from the rear. “Hey,” he said. “You need to drink some water.”
“No.” I kept running, shaking my head as I did. “I’m pushing ahead. You two can pace yourselves if you need to.”
The entire time we’d been moving, my brain had assaulted me with images of Buck’s last moments. The strain of death on his face when he tried to tell me about the pendant.
“I’d been fucking wrong, Kennedy.”
“About which thing?”
He was trying to be flippant, but I couldn’t handle any jokes right now. “You asked me about what Buck said to me before he died. Told me it was probably important. How the fuck did you know?”
“I carry a crystal ball in my pack.”
“Seriously. His words make fucking sense now.”
While we were hoofing it up a two or three percent grade and we’d been at it for a while, we could still hold a conversation. Thank fuck for being fit. Taft had stayed behind to work with the sheriff’s office. His knee couldn’t handle this kind of terrain or distance, and I also liked knowing one of the team was handling operations.
“He’d said, Indi. They can’t know.”
“He meant the necklace,” Hayes added. “The people involved can’t know she has the memory card.”
And now they did.
Buck had warned me about this exact situation, but I’d been too stupid to put it together. Those images blended with the more recent visual of the murder of Abdul Tareen. His swollen and bloody face, the pleading in his voice.
Dread sluiced through my veins, propelling me forward faster. I wasn’t going to let the next death I witnessed be Indi’s. No fucking way.
Fuck, how could I let this happen?
It took another ninety minutes before I reached the saddle where Glacier Lake hung nestled between two peaks. I’d long left the guys behind, but I trusted they’d be behind me, no matter what. They were fucking SEALs, too.
The GPS signal was coming from a little further ahead. I heard voices in the distance and saw a tent pitched by the lake, so I continued my run until I reached the camp where I found two middle-aged women and two adolescent boys.
“Indi?” I shouted, making enough noise they might have thought I was a bear.
The two women immediately jogged over. “She’s not here!” one said as she arrived. “She left with another hiker.”
I could tell by the concern on both their faces that they knew something was off.
“She gave us her emergency pack and told us to pitch camp and then never came back.”
Her emergency pack. That’s where the GPS signal must be coming from.
Double fuck!
Of course. Indi was protecting the family. She left the tracker with them, so they would be found and aided if she didn’t return.
“Was this the hiker?” I showed them the image on my phone I pulled from my pack, even though I already knew the answer.
They nodded.
I took a deep breath and shoved my cell away. It didn’t do anything useful up here except show the photo. “Okay. Listen to me–he’s wanted for murder, and I believe he came out here to kill her. I have two former Navy SEALs with me en route to this location. I want you to pack up and leave with one of them when they get here. They shouldn’t be far behind me.”
Panic and fear spread over their faces, and they whipped their heads around searching for the boys. “Oh my God.”
“Which direction did Indi go?” I asked.
They both pointed in the direction I’d come, but of course, I hadn’t crossed paths with anyone on my way.
Which meant… Indi was leading him off in another direction. Or he was leading her.
Fuck! Please let her still be alive.
“There’s a GPS in that pack. If for some reason you have to run–if the perp returns before my men get here–push the emergency button. They’ll track you either way but will know you need help immediately. You’re going to be okay,” I added when the panic didn’t slip from their faces.
“Wait for the two guys behind me. They’ll be here soon and take you out of here.”
I retraced my steps, going slower this time, paying attention to the footprints on the ground.
There!
I spotted two sets veering off to the east. I picked up my speed, running as fast as I could without losing the trail. The trail made by my woman and a murderer.