Page 75 of Crosshairs

“TBI killed one of the escapees but two of them got away. Don’t know if Maddox was the one killed yet,” she said.

Hugh held up his hand. “But if it wasn’t Maddox who attacked you here, it’s someone else—someone who might still be after you.”

“Spoken like a true FBI agent,” Linc said with a dry laugh.

She rubbed the back of her neck. “But why?”

“If we can figure that out,” Sam said, “it’ll lead to the who.”

“Did you get any hits on Jesse Mason?” Linc asked Sam.

“Nothing. Of course, that might not even be his name,” Sam replied. “We need his prints.”

“How about a photo? I snapped one of him just now.” Linc held up his phone and turned to Hugh. “Can you run it through your FACE program in case he’s using an alias?”

FACE was the Facial Analysis, Comparison, and EvaluationServices that the FBI used to identify unknown subjects, and Ainsley had requested the service in the past for cases in East Tennessee.

“Shoot it over to me,” the FBI agent said. “And if everyone is ready, I’d like to see the crime scene.”

“You two can walk if you’d like, but I’m driving Ainsley to the site.”

“I have no desire to tramp around these woods in this heat,” Hugh said. “Sam can ride with me, and we’ll meet you there.”

The other two men pulled out first, and they fell in behind them in the Tahoe. Ainsley’s phone rang.

“It’s Brent,” she said and punched the answer button. “What do you have for me?”

“Bad news, I’m afraid,” he said.

Dread coiled in her stomach. “Hold on and let me put you on speaker so Linc can hear you.” A second later, she laid the phone on the console. “Go ahead.”

“Turns out Maddox wasn’t with the other two escapees.” Brent’s voice sounded tiny inside the Tahoe. “They’d stayed together as far as the cabin around Chattanooga,” Brent said. “Sometime Friday night Maddox stole the weapons and the car they’d made their getaway in, leaving the other two stranded.”

“But I thought there were three men at the cabin in the mountains,” Linc said.

“There were, but one was a friend they’d called to help them out. He was supposed to find them another car, but he got killed for his trouble,” Brent said grimly. “Thing is, they confirmed that Maddox really had it in for you. It was all he talked about—getting even for what you did to him.”

Ainsley clenched her hands. “What I did to him? What about what he did to his wife and her new husband?”

“I know, but this morning my IT specialist informed me we’ve been hacked. He’s not sure when yet, but if it was Maddox, he definitely knows where you are, so take every precaution.”

“Don’t worry, I will,” she said. “Keep me posted.”

“Oh, and he’s changed vehicles. The one they made their escape in was found in a bad area of Chattanooga, stripped. Witnesses indicated the car had been there for at least twenty-four hours.”

“Any lead on what he’d be driving?” Linc asked.

“Three cars and a motorcycle were reported stolen earlier yesterday, but there’s no way to know if Maddox took one of them.”

She and Linc exchanged glances. “We heard a motorcycle leave Connie Hanover’s area last night.”

“Just be careful,” Brent said.

Ainsley wanted to punch the dashboard but instead punched the red button, disconnecting the call. “How did he know we would be at Connie Hanover’s place?”

“There was no motorcycle following us,” Linc said. “We both would have noticed that. And it sounded like a motorbike last night, not a big cycle.”

If she was the reason Connie was lying in a hospital bed, fighting for her life ...

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