Jessie was still looking at the hand. “It’s a prosthetic. Whoever lost this can’t be very happy right now.”
Kendra turned the hand over and examined it. “It’s big. It probably belonged to a large man, at least six feet, probably more.”
“Hmm.” Jessie was still looking at it objectively. “Do you think Lynch might have separated this hand from that large man?”
“He’s entirely capable of it. You know that. Depends on what this guy was trying to do to him.” She cleared her throat. “There was a drop of dried blood on that glove. I’ve just been hoping it wasn’t Lynch’s.”
“You think you’ll find something else in the other cave that could lead us to Lynch?”
“I have no idea,” Kendra said absently. “But it might have had a certain appeal for Lynch. I know he’d like the chance to go caving. He spent three months last year in India doing that. He was supposedly on a mission to locate a terrorist arms cache in the mountains there but he probably took the assignment because he has a passion for exploring and he thought he’d enjoy it. He likes the thrill of the chase, and hunting those terrorists down in the mountains would have been right up his alley.” She made a face. “Much more fun for him if he can probe and fight and dig his way to get what he wants.” Her lips tightened. “Not so much fun to stand in the midst of the target zone and watch him work his way through an inferno or an ice storm.”
“You’ve been through quite a few of those yourself,” Jessie said quietly. “I’ve watched the two of you work through some pretty rough situations.”
“Not voluntarily. I’ve gone caving with Lynch several times, but I’m primarily a therapist who prefers to use my brains instead of any hunting skills. But sometimes it just happens with Lynch.” She shrugged. “However, I admit knowing the way instinct drives him gives me the advantage of being able to see what would draw him to a place or idea. He’d at least explore those hills and caves if he either had a reason to hide himself or was looking for whatever Justice had sent him here to find.”
“That sounds logical,” Jessie said. “If a bit vague.”
Kendra nodded ruefully. “I agree, but I’m at the point of grasping for straws. So I’ll go with it. Will you contact Fitz and give him directions how to get here while I find a spot to set up?”
Jessie pulled a large mobile phone from her duffel. “Since cell service is nonexistent out here, Fitz set us up with satellite phones. Anything else I can do after I get him moving?”
“Not right now. I want to examine that hand more carefully and think about it. Right now all that comes to mind is how much it reminds me of the victim in a horror movie.” She turned the hand back and forth and watched the chrome finish gleam in the moonlight. “This is amazing. It looks like it would be heavy, but it isn’t.” She flexed the metallic fingers. “But it still seems strong.”
“It’sincrediblystrong,” Jessie said. “I served with someone in Afghanistan who lost his hand. He got one of these, or one very much like it. It took him a while to get the hang of it, but it’s amazing how well these things can work.”
“Then it’s our job to find out as much as we can about it,” Kendra said as she put the hand back in her backpack. “But right now we should get some rest so that we can be fresh enough to put everything together with some kind of clarity. We should probably take turns napping until we find a way to set up an alarm system to alert us of any ugly customers in the vicinity. It’s not only Cambry and his agents we have to worry about. I told you how he tried to frighten me by telling me that Vlad Korkil and some of his men had been sighted in these hills lately. He could have been bluffing, but I don’t like the idea that he might have been telling the truth.” Her brow wrinkled in thought. “And for now, since you were the one who was operating that cycle for most of the past day and night, you should be the one to take the first break.”
Jessie shook her head. “You’ve evidently been hiking through these hills since you made contact with Cambry. You sleep first.”
“Don’t argue,” Kendra said. “I don’t think I could sleep anyway. I’m too wired. My mind is zooming like a rocket and going over everything that’s happened in the past few days. I need some quiet time to try to make sense of it all. Grab those blankets Fitz gave us and wrap up and take that nap.”
Jessie was silent for an instant and then shrugged. “Whatever you say. I know you’ve been under a lot of stress lately.” She turned and headed back toward the bike. “I admit I’m kind of worn out, and I’m not thinking too well myself at the moment. It’s better if I leave it to you. If you start to get drowsy, wake me and I’ll take over.” She took the two blankets out of the cargo bin in the cycle, carrying one to Kendra and handing it to her.“I’ll settle down beneath that big pine tree over there. If you call, I’ll hear you.”
“I’m sure you will.” She wrapped the blanket around her shoulders. “Thank you for understanding. I can always count on you.”
“You bet you can.” Jessie switched on her satellite phone. “Now to let Fitz know where we’re perched up in these hills. Don’t pay any attention to me. Shut me out and go ahead and work on that rocket that you mentioned . . .”
“Right. I’m on it.” She settled down a short distance away from Jessie and leaned back against another pine tree. She had no choice but to do as Jessie suggested. She had to clear her head of everything but the events of the past days that had led her to this spot where Lynch had come on the last day before he disappeared. She had told the truth when she admitted that this moment of weakness frustrated her. She had no time for it, and its existence only increased the panic she was feeling that she couldn’t seem to make any progress no matter which way she turned.
She drew a deep breath and unclenched her hands. Calm down. She might have made a breakthrough today. Just follow the breadcrumbs that Lynch had tried to leave for her. Start with that first email from Lynch to Olivia that had immediately alerted Kendra. Think about it and everything connected to it and go from there.
Don’t take anything for granted. Go over every contact for anything she had missed. There must be some way of putting everything together . . .
The package in the seal fountain . . . She had been sure that she’dfound what Lynch sent her there to retrieve. Could there have been something else there that she hadn’t noticed?
The thugs who had tried to intercept her on the drive away from Lynch’s safe house in San Diego . . . Anything that she should have noticed about them? Should she have followed them and tried to get more information?
The interview with the Queen’s Walk bookseller . . . Go over everything that had been said and done that night. Dredge out every single word and action from the woman.
The fire and hideous murder of that poor woman the next day . . . She had carefully examined as many bystanders in that crowd as she could bear. Try to recall if she’d seen any of themanywhere else.
The woman’s hairbrush in the bathroom at the safe house . . . Had she deliberately avoided thinking about it because it bothered her more than she’d let Jessie know? Ignore the pain. Bring it back, think about it, and consider as many reasons for it being there as she could imagine.
Ted Cambry . . . He had proved to be almost as frightening as those thugs Vlad had sent after her in San Diego. She should try to remember every word and intonation to make sure it wasn’t envy and bitterness against Lynch that had made him so vicious with her today. Could it be something more sinister?
Enough.She was even more dizzy and disoriented than she’d been before she’d forced herself to dive into those nightmare memories. She closed her eyes and tried to relax. She knew what to do, and now she just had to let her mind accept it.
But it took her another thirty minutes before she could start the mental process that she’d followed throughout her entire career.
