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He tapped the steering wheel in rhythm with the music while he drove to the location where he’d seen the light on the shore. He pulled onto the shoulder, got out, and walked in that direction. And then he understood why this spot had been chosen. Amid the rock there was a short stretch of sandy beach. He didn’t think anyone would want to wade through waist-high icy water to get to shore once the rocks kept the smaller boat from proceeding any further. But here they could have run right up on the beach, dropped off whatever, and the boat would have returned to the larger vessel out in the Gulf of Maine. He walked around to see if he could find any evidence of the people who had been here the previous night, like a cigarette butt or a footprint, but there was nothing. They had come and gone without leaving a trace. Devine figured this was not their first rodeo doing whatever they were doing.
He got back into the truck and drove the short distance to where the Escalade had rammed the Tahoe and started firing at him. He saw lots of shiny glass shards from his back window and the windshield, and the part of the Tahoe’s rear bumper that had been torn off with the impact between the two trucks. He found some shell casings and pocketed them. He doubted he would ever find a gun to match them to, but one never knew.
Devine then walked to the spot where the Escalade had spun off the road. The ground was all chewed up here but he could see the tire tracks clearly. He also noted where the SUV had gone back on the road. So it had not been disabled, but merely knocked out of the chase by the anonymous shots.
He stood off to the side of the road and tried to re-create the scene in his mind.
Devine had performed a J-turn and was heading in the opposite direction. The Escalade had mimicked this maneuver and was speeding after him when the shots had struck the larger SUV.
He looked in front of him and then behind, trying to configure a rough trajectory of the third party’s shooting lanes in his head.
Devine walked along the side of the road about a hundred yards and stopped, then looked up and down the road. It was all open field except for this spot where a towering multilimbed evergreen sat.
He walked over to it and looked all around. A nice spot to do some decent sniping and not be seen, he concluded. But not a single shell casing could he find, so they had policed their brass, or maybe theirpolymer. But how had they gotten here? He’d seen or heard no other vehicle. And surely he would have under the darkened, isolated conditions. And they couldn’t have been simply waiting here, guns ready, for Devine and a chase car to just happen by.
There was clearly more here than met the eye. And then a thought occurred to him.
He called Campbell. “Is there a reason you didn’t mention you sent backup to cover my rear flank?”
“You had enough on your plate.”
“But I saw or heard nothing. And the only possible sniper position had no trace.”
“It wasn’t a person.”
“Come again?”
“It was an armed drone employing AI to fire a machine gun on a target, Devine.”
“Seriously?” said Devine.
“Yes.”
“Then real soldiers will be obsolete before long. Did you catch the guys, then?”
“Agents Saxon and Mann were close, but they found nothing.”
“Couldn’t the drone follow them, or shoot out the tires?”
“It would have, but it suffered a mechanical failure and had to be recalled. It might have been shot for all I know, and those things are not cheap, let me tell you. They’re examining it as we speak. We also checked the film footage from the drone’s camera, but there was nothing helpful. Nifty piece of driving on your part, by the way.”
“They might have flown into Bar Harbor airport. That’s the closest for jets.”
“We’re already checking the flight logs. Got anything new to report?”
Devine told him about Alex starting to remember details from that night. “It was a friend, someone she knew.”
“Think they’re still in town?”
“I believe Earl Palmer would say they are, if he could.”
“But again, we come back to how would someone leverage Palmer to pretend to find Jenny’s body? Does the man have skeletons in his closet?”
“By all accounts he’s a stand-up guy.”
“Everybody has some shit that stinks, Devine. Everybody. So find his, and maybe that leads you to where you need to go. Oh, and about saving your ass last night? You’re welcome. But don’t take that to mean you’re special or anything. I just don’t have time to train a new one.”
Campbell clicked off.
