TWO HOURS LATER
“So what’s going on in here?” Lynch said, returning to the sunroom where Kendra, Jessie, and Stevie were working. “I’m getting an extremely productive vibe.”
“You should,” Kendra said. “We’ve been brainstorming ways to locate Stevie’s father. Where have you been?”
“Getting results. I had to check on a few things before I came to lay those results at your feet.”
Kendra shook her head. “This had better be good.”
“Don’t be a doubting Thomas. Actually, the results should probably be laid at Stevie’s feet.” He turned to Stevie. “I have a gift for you.” He stepped toward her as he reached into his jacket pocket, pulled out three cell phones, and dropped them onto the table beside her.
Stevie picked up one of the phones. “What are these?”
“Property of the three gunmen I recently neutralized.”
“Neutralized?” Kendra repeated. “That’s an elegant way of putting it.”
“You’re welcome.” Lynch turned back to Stevie. “I took them from the bodies of the three thugs who were trying to kill Kendra and Jessie the other day at the gas station. You cannever tell what you can find out by reading texts and voicemail messages on phones of the recently departed. I’m normally pretty good at tapping equipment like this, but these phones are equipped with custom software that’s proving tough to crack. I figured since I’m in the presence of a certified computer genius, you might be able to extract some useful information quicker than I can.”
“Maybe.” Stevie opened her laptop and connected one of the phones to it. “I’ve been able to defeat some high-level encryption schemes with my rig. I’ll give it a shot.”
“Good. I was hoping you’d say that.” He took Kendra’s arm and motioned to Jessie to come with them. “We’ll just step outside and let you work your magic.”
Less than thirty minutes had passed when Stevie called them back into the room.
“Find something?” Lynch asked.
“I was able to decrypt text messages from all three phones.” Her hands were shaking a little as she motioned toward her laptop screen, where the texts were displayed. “Lynch, these guys were assigned ‘PN Guard Duty’ every other night.”
“Palmer Nolan . . .” Kendra said.
Stevie nodded excitedly. “My dad. It has to be him. He’s near here somewhere, along with the rest of Korkil’s men. But we still don’t know where.” She motioned toward the makeshift workbench across the sunroom, where the phones were connected to her laptop. The screen pulsed as her software tackled the encrypted contents. “It could take days.”
“It only took you half an hour to get their messages.”
“This could be totally different. We don’t know if the phones’ location data is still in there.”
“Isn’t it usually saved automatically?”
“Usually. But these phones are equipped with a lot of custom software. The location data may have been wiped clean by the operating system every few hours, or even every few seconds. We just don’t know yet.”
Kendra nodded. “Well . . . even without location data, I have a pretty good idea where those guys had been before they ran into us.”
Stevie’s eyebrows rose. “What, seriously?”
Kendra pulled a piece of paper from her back pocket and unfolded it. She showed Stevie a hand-drawn map. “Lynch helped me draw this up. We both think it’s accurate. We weren’t together but he’s spent quite a bit of time in this area in the past few days, and I have, too.”
Stevie cast a doubtful eye on the map. “Yeah . . . ?”
Kendra nodded. “I think those gunmen came from somewhere on the other side of this dry lake bed. It’s a couple miles south of here.” She ran her finger along the map’s lower edge. “Before that, they were walking through this field. That runs at least another mile or so, especially if they were coming from due north, which I think they were.” She traced straight upward. “That would have them walking through this small valley, at least for a little while. We’re not sure what’s beyond that, but your father could be somewhere up in that area. At least it’s a place to start looking.”
Stevie looked up from the map. “Wait a minute. How do you know any of this?”
“Trust me,” Lynch said quietly. “She knows.”
Stevie shot Kendra a side-eye glance. “You’re not claiming to be psychic, are you?”
Kendra smiled. “Not at all. I just . . . pay attention.”
