Page 167 of Dead Man's List

Then froze once more at the feel of cold steel against the side of her head. A handgun. He was armed with more than one weapon.

“Throw your gun away, Detective,” Peter Shoemaker said. “And stand up.”

Fucking hell.

Outskirts of Julian, California

Thursday, January 12, 8:45 p.m.

“They’ve stopped,” Sam said, staring at his sat phone. Navarro had told him how to track the GPS on Kit and Connor’s department vehicle through the SDPD server, and Sam had never been so relieved to see a little blue dot on a screen.

They’d watched Kit’s car meander up State Route 79, stopping for ten minutes here, fifteen minutes there.

Then the two detectives had stopped, turned around, stopped again, then turned back around. That had been twenty minutes ago.

Since then, the two detectives appeared to have been checking driveways. They’d gone up and down three driveways before coming to the fourth. It was a much longer driveway than the others.

“Thank God you brought the sat phone,” Navarro said. “I haven’t had a signal in miles.”

“I hike the deserts, often alone. Just me and Siggy. A lot of the places we go don’t get good cell coverage at all. Pays to have a sat phone in your gear.”

Gear he’d grabbed from the back of his RAV4 as he and Navarro had hurried to Navarro’s department vehicle. He also had water, power bars, a headlamp, and the night-vision goggles his parents had given him for Christmas. He never figured he’d use them, but his mother had made him promise to include them in his backpack.

Now he was glad he had them with him. Just in case.

“I’m sure they’re fine,” Navarro said. “This could be just a nice drive into the countryside. But I don’t like that we haven’t heard anything since Kit left that message.”

Sam didn’t, either.

Kit had called Navarro from a gas station, leaving him a voice mail that they’d seen the tan Chevy Suburban pulling a trailer on a security camera feed. The trailer had passed by on Wednesday night, about two hours after Munro had been abducted.

Since then, neither Sam nor Navarro had heard anything.

Sam had a bad feeling about this situation, but he usually did when he thought Kit was in danger.She can take care of herself. She always does.

“Have they left that property yet?” Navarro asked.

“No. They’ve been there for two minutes now. In all the other driveways, they immediately turned around.”

“They might have found something, then. Can you call the sheriff’s office in Julian? We might need backup.”

Sam dialed the number and put it on speaker.

“San Diego County Sheriff’s Office,” a woman said. “How can I direct your call?”

“This is Lieutenant Navarro, San Diego Homicide. We’ve got two detectives searching for a suspect’s vehicle along State Route 79. A colleague and I are en route to provide support. Requesting backup.”

“Location?” the woman asked.

Sam gave her the coordinates. “Sorry, we don’t have an address.”

“No problem. I’ll get someone out there as soon as I can.”

“Thank you,” Navarro said. “We’ve got nine people in our morgue. We think we may have found one of the killer’s hiding places.”

“Oh,” the woman said. “That’s the Munro case in San Diego. I’ll make sure this is put at the highest priority.”

“Thank you,” Navarro said again, then nodded to Sam.

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