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“Let’s go find out.”
“I’ll lead the way. She’s got no phone—doesn’t believe in them—and she’s got her place gated and barbed wired off. I’ve got bolt cutters in the truck. If she’s back there milking that damn goat, she is gonna be pissed.”
Twenty minutes later, they pulled up at the open gate.
Neederman angled his truck across it to block any exit, then stepped out. He picked up a set of keys, shook his head when Beck opened her window.
“No way Jane would leave this gate open. Keys on the ground. Son of a bitch.”
“Do you have body armor, Sheriff?”
He tipped back his hat. “Yeah, yeah. Son of a bitch,” he said again. “She’d never leave the gate open.”
“Let’s suit up. Call for backup. My partner and I will take the lead from here. He’s our quarry.”
He aimed a hard look at Morrison. “If he hurt Jane, he’s mine now, too.”
After they’d put on vests, they drove through the gate.
“He’s not here anymore, Tee. He got a whiff of us, that’s what this means.”
Face grim, she kept driving.
“There’s the red truck, and groceries all over the ground. Front door open, that outbuilding door open.”
“Somebody had a temper tantrum,” Morrison muttered.
“Looks like it, but let’s not get shot being wrong.”
She drove between the outbuilding and the cabin, and using the car as a shield, they got out.
“Gavin Rozwell! This is the FBI. Come out with your hands up.”
No sound but chickens clucking, pigs rooting.
She picked up a rock, tossed it to draw fire. And nothing stirred. She tossed another so it banged against the house.
“Okay, Quentin, let’s clear it.”
They came out of cover, stayed low as they ran to the door. He swept first, went in high as she swept and went low.
The place smelled of sweat and dust and looked like the scene of a bar fight.
They cleared it, and the shed.
“She has a Ford Ranger pickup, a… 2015 or ’16, I think—and I’ll confirm that,” Neederman told them. “Blue, a medium blue, and I’ll get the plates. Would he have taken her with him?”
“That’s very doubtful.”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m going to look around for her,” he told Beck. “And the goat.”
“He had to see us, this morning. He had to see us, or why run like this after buying all the food?” Beck had to stop herself from kicking the melting packages. “He came out of the market and saw us. Or he’d loaded up already. Likely that. He got in the truck, drove here, did this, got what he wanted, and went.”
“Running again, Tee.” Because they both needed it, he put a hand on her shoulder. “He’s running again, running scared and mad with it. Let’s get the alerts out on her truck.”
“She’s back here!” Neederman called out. “And the goat. Jesus, what’s left of them’s back here. He just dumped her on the ground,” he said when they joined him. “Just tossed her on the ground for the scavengers.”
Chapter Thirty
