Page 105 of See How They Hide

“No.”

Matt switched over the call. “Yes, Sheriff?”

“There’s a trespasser at the Morrison house. The neighbor at the bottom of the road called it in. A dark green truck. I sent two deputies, but they’re nearly an hour away. Since you just left here ten minutes ago heading toward the mountain, you’re closer.”

Anton and Ginger? Very possible, Matt thought.

“We’ll check it out.”

39

South Fork, Colorado

The fire alarm in the hotel went off and Kara knew there was no fire.

Riley jumped up, panic on her face. “There’s a fire?”

Odd, Kara thought. Whenever she heard a fire alarm she assumed a malfunction or someone pulled it. Her last thought was there was an actual fire.

“I highly doubt it,” Kara said. “We’re going to stay put for a few minutes.”

“But what if thereisa fire? We’re on the third floor, we could be trapped!”

“Stay. I’ll call.”

If she could hear anything through the ear-splittingwhir-whir-whirof the alarm, she thought as she called the head of security on his cell phone.

On the fifth ring when she was almost certain she was being sent to voice mail, he answered. “Agent Quinn,” he shouted. “I’m helping evacuate the hotel.”

Detective Quinn, but she didn’t say it. “Is there a fire?”

“We don’t know yet.”

“Smoke? Flames? Gas?”

“The alarm goes off, we’re required by the fire department to clear the building until they respond and give us the green light. You need to leave. I’ll meet you in the lobby and escort you out.”

“There’s no fire,” Kara said, frustrated.

“I don’t know what to tell you. I don’t think there is either, but there are regulations and the hotel will be fined if we don’t comply.”

“Call me if there is an actual fire and I’ll bring Ms. Pierce out, and if the fire chief has an issue with it, he can talk to me.”

She ended the call before he pushed again.

“No fire, we’re going to ride this out.”

Riley still looked terrified.

Kara texted her team about the situation and her decision to stay in the room. She ended it with:If there’s an actual fire, jumping from the window won’t kill us. Ha.

She sent it, grinned. Immediately, Matt texted back:

Agree with your decision. Keep us informed. Trespasser at Morrison’s. Michael and I checking it out. Stay alert.

Kara walked over to the window and looked out to the front. There weren’t a lot of guests here right now, since this hotel catered to the skiing crowd. She craned her neck and saw a half dozen or so. A few more exited as she watched. Out of the corner of her eye she saw a lone male rider in ski gear driving an ATV from the field behind the hotel to the parking lot, then lost sight of him.

She looked at the vehicles in the lot. No dark green Ford truck that she could see, but a couple of the vehicles were covered in snow. Also unlikely to be their suspects.

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