Page 60 of Long Gone

“The longer we can go unnoticed here, the better.”

Malcolm kept the Jeep in place, the engine idling as we sat in silence for several uncomfortable seconds.

“Waiting for something?” I asked.

“Yeah, for you to give me directions on where to go.”

I nearly argued with him over that. He’d never had a plan. He’d always intended to use mine, yet that’s what I’d wanted, wasn’t it? So why did I want to blow up at him?

What was wrong with me? Sure, it went against my grain to work with a criminal, but I’d done it before. It wasn’t like this was the first time. A little irritation at the unwanted situation was acceptable, but this white hot anger was unwarranted. It made me question my sanity and morality even more than I had the night before.

Which made me crave a drink from the flask I most assuredly had in my pocket.

Malcolm kept his hard gaze on me, and I realized this was the face of the boss of a crime ring, not to mention a member of an international drug cartel. Sure, he’d brought that group down, but nothing could convince me he’d done it out of moral concerns. He could easily kill me and hide my body in the woods on over five hundred acres, and it would be years before anyone found me. If anyone found me. Especially since the only person who knew for certain I was out here was Carter Hale, and I knew his loyalty didn’t belong to me.

Malcolm was still waiting for me to give him directions.

The problem was that I hadn’t come up with a search plan. I’d been too busy entertaining myself in my pity party the night before.

“Or,” he said, his voice a tight rumble, “we could work this out together.”

A slow smile spread across my face as I turned to face him. “How hard was it to make those words come out of your mouth?”

His eyes narrowed to slits, and I suspected his red cheeks hadn’t been caused by the wind.

“Look,” I said. “I’m not stupid. We both know you have a special interest in this case. You have your reasons and I have mine. Maybe they’re mutually beneficial.”

He didn’t respond.

“But if you think I’m going to hand over everything I find on a silver platter just because you showed up with a Jeep, you’re sorely mistaken. This case is five years old, so waiting a week for the land to dry so I can come back out with my own four-wheel-drive vehicle is acceptable.”

“I’m simply your chauffer,” he said.

“Doubtful.”

When he started to protest, I held up a hand. “Still,” I added slowly. What I was about to say was reckless and foolish, but it felt right. “I was used to working with a partner in Little Rock. Having someone to work things through with.” I lifted my gaze to his. “I suggest we work together while searching this land, then reevaluate when we finish and see if we can continue working together.”

“You do realize that I was the one who proposed we work together?”

I simply held his gaze.

“I suspect you know a hell of a lot more about this case than I do,” he admitted, looking beleaguered by his own admission, “which puts me at a disadvantage. Which also means I will let you take lead on a lot of it.” I started to ask him a question, but he grunted, “And no. I will not tell you anything else about why I’m interested in your case, but I suspect you’re right about the results being mutually beneficial.”

It was stupid working with him on this, but working with him had helped me return Ava Peterman to her mother. As much as it pained me to admit, without him, I suspected she would currently be dead.

“I will accept your request for privacy for now,” I said. “But if it becomes an issue, I’ll demand more answers.” I pinned him with my gaze. “And just because I don’t know all the details about why you’re interested doesn’t mean you get out of telling me anything at all.”

“I gave you information on Monday night,” he growled. “Of my own volition, without expecting anything from it.”

“Right.” While what he said was true, I couldn’t help thinking he’d only done it to open the door to this kind of arrangement. I couldn’t say I blamed him. He knew how to play the long game, and as long as it worked to my advantage, I could live with it.

“Okay,” I said grudgingly, because while I still didn’t fully trust him not to withhold information, the piece of information I was about to share was vital to figuring out where we needed to search. “Burton was meeting an investor the afternoon of his disappearance, before his son’s basketball game, which started at five. His son told me the meeting was here at the Sunny Point property. He called his wife at four and told her he’d be late to the game. When his father didn’t come to the game, Anton came to the property to search for him. It was dark, so he couldn’t look far, but he said the utility vehicle they used to take people on tours had muddy wheels. And it was fresh, not dried, so it had likely gone out that day. Not only that,” I added, “but Hugo’s car was found at the Little Rock airport parking lot, and it was clean inside. He always kept it messy.”

“You think someone else took his car?”

“Or at least parked it in the Little Rock airport parking lot.”

He gave a sharp nod. “So you’re thinking the investor killed Burton somewhere on this piece of land.”

---