Page 26 of Hard Rain

“Any luck?” Axel asked.

Grady exhaled hard through his nose.

“No,” he admitted. “You know this son of a bitch knows these ranch roads better than we do.”

“Yeah.” Whip glanced toward the wall crowded with maps and paper.

One map already told half the story. Too much open land. Too many places to disappear if locals stayed quiet.

Grady wasn’t saying much, but the tension rolling off him said enough. The locals were staying very quiet.

The sheriff’s office conference room was an old break room that somebody shoved folding tables into years ago and never fixed afterward.

Whip dropped his bag on a chair and took a seat. Axel did the same before they got to work going over the information gathered by the Sheriff’s office.

Rain rattled steadily against the windows while heater vents pushed stale hot air through the cramped space hard enough to dry out Whip’s throat.

“Hey. But there’s fresh coffee,” Grady promised.

That would certainly help. Most investigations ran on coffee and stubbornness anyway.

County maps covered half the table already. They had access to all the things, roads, ranch land, forest access, and old hunting trails.

Grady walked over to the whiteboard with a marker tucked behind one ear while familiar faces sorted paperwork nearby.

“I don’t need to introduce these two,” Grady said, nodding toward the back desks.

“No.” The corner of Whip’s mouth quirked.

Scott Mercer and Tina Morales both looked exhausted, tired in the way people got after spending three straight days chasing somebody through bad weather and open country.

Whip understood that feeling.

“Hey, Tina,” Axel said, dropping into one of the folding chairs beside the table and immediately pulling papers from the nearest stack.

Tina looked up with a grin. “Still flirting with anything in a skirt, Axel?”

Axel shot Tina a wicked grin.

Damn it.

Whip ground his teeth hard enough to feel it and turned toward Grady before Axel could answer.

“What do you have?”

Grady tapped the map with one thick finger.

“Clay Cutter’s buddy owns land.” Tap. “Ranch out here.” Another tap farther north. “Ex-girlfriend rents a trailer outside Summer Lake.”

“Places already searched?” Axel asked.

“Twice,” Scott said from the other side of the table.

“And he still slipped you?” Axel asked without looking up from the paperwork.

Scott’s jaw flexed.

Tina answered before he could. “Somebody’s warning him.”