"You need someone with you," Miles said.
"I'll be fine.You and Kim can wrap it."She shrugged and added, “It might just be the opportunity Kim needs.”
Miles hesitated.He wanted to argue, wanted to insist that he should be the one to take her to the hospital.But Vic was right.The investigation was moving fast now, and if the fingerprints came back with a match or the APB got a hit, he needed to be ready to move.
"You're sure?"he asked.
"I'm sure.Go catch this guy."
Miles stepped closer and squeezed her hand.The gesture was brief but solid, a moment of connection that said more than words could.Vic squeezed back, then released his hand and stood carefully from the ambulance bumper.
"Let's get you to the hospital," the medic said, moving to support Vic's elbow.He then helped her into the ambulance, and Miles watched the doors close before turning back toward the forensics team.One of the techs was still photographing the helium tank while the other was taking inventory of everything inside the van.
Miles walked to his car and climbed in, starting the engine as he watched the ambulance pull away. At one point, there had been two on the scene—one for Vic and one for Vivien.The one currently pulling away had Vic in the back.Yes, he knew Vic would be okay, but it was the first time he’d seen her taken down in such a way.While this killer may have gotten careless and sloppy, this was a reminder that none of that made him any less dangerous.
He put the car in gear and accelerated out of the desert, eager to get back to Kim at the field office.They still had security footage to look through.It was infuriating to have prints and a portion of a face but still no name.But it was only a matter of time now.And it was that certainty that had him somehow looking past the lack of sleep and a series of dead ends…looking toward an end to this case that would bring them closer to dismantling Gabriel Kane’s little army.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
"Holy shit," Kim said.
Miles was sitting back behind the desk in their conference room at the LA field office, and he had just finished explaining what happened in the desert.The helium tank, Vic's concussion, Bennett nearly being launched into the air before Lawson had showed up and saved her—and then, of course, the killer fleeing in a stolen truck.Kim sat across from him with her laptop open and her phone beside her on the table.
"And you're sure Vic's okay?"Kim asked.
"She will be.I think the CT scan is just a precaution.”Miles rubbed his face with both hands, feeling the exhaustion starting to catch up with him."But as for you and me, we need to keep moving on this.The killer knows we're close now…and that makes him desperate and more unpredictable."
"Right."Kim pulled her laptop closer."So we're waiting on fingerprints from the helium tank and hoping someone spots the stolen truck on the APB."
"That's what we've got."Miles checked his phone for what felt like the hundredth time in the past hour.No updates from the forensics team yet."The prints should come back sometime in the next twelve hours, maybe less if we're lucky."
“God, that feels like forever.”
“I agree.”
"And what about the truck?"
"I'm assuming he’s already ditched it.If he's smart, it's already abandoned somewhere and he's using different transportation.I hate to say it, but it was a smart move.Leaving the van in the desert separates him from all that evidence."
“Unless he left prints all over it…which is doubtful, if he’s as through as all of the other Elementalist goons.”Kim went quiet for a moment, thinking."Did you get the license plate of the van?”
“Sure did.”Miles pulled out his phone again and scrolled through several photos he had snapped in the aftermath of the attack.He had intentionally taken several of the van.He held the phone out so Kim could see it.
"One of the cops who responded to the scene ran the plates for me while we were out there," Miles said."It came back registered to John Smith at an address in Riverside.But when they checked the address, it was fake.The house number doesn't exist on that street."
“As if John Smith wasn’t fake enough already.”
“Yeah, a double dose of fake leads on that.Another dead end.”
Kim took the phone from him and studied the photo more closely."Well, I wonder…what about insurance?"
Miles looked at her with head cocked quizzically to the side."What do you mean?"
"California requires proof of insurance for vehicle registration.Even if he used a fake name and address for the DMV, he would have needed to show an insurance policy.And insurance companies are usually more thorough about verifying addresses because they need somewhere to send bills.”
Miles felt something shift in his thinking and again felt a bit like an idiot.He really should have thought of that.It was a reminder that being a field agent wasn’t his usual gig.Maybe Vic would have thought of it if she hadn’t been clocked in the head with a heavy, metal tank."We didn't check that."
"Let me see what I can find."Kim handed his phone back and turned to her laptop.Her hands moved quickly across the keyboard as she pulled up the California DMV database and entered the plate number."Give me a minute."
