Page 31 of Catching Fire

Kalan was the last one still sitting there, finishing the double sized portion of oatmeal that Maggie had made.

He’d wanted to stay out of the way. The FBI was doing all they could. He figured he would make it his job to help Seline. But now, that seemed to mean getting involved with whatever was happening on the couch.

Scooping his last bite, he stood up. Oatmeal wasn't his favorite, but he'd eaten far worse when Ronan was in his first year at the Firehouse. The new guy did most of the cooking. It had taken Patrick’s son about six months to figure it out.

His belly full for the moment, Kalan joined the others crowded around the couch, watching as Verner showed them a video. Kalan had to lean way over the side to see what was on the screen.

His arm brushed Seline’s for a moment, but he pulled back. The last thing he wanted to do was crowd her. None of the things he wanted to say or do fit into this scenario in the slightest. Verner kept forwarding and reversing the video, speeding up and slowing down the moving dot.

“Here,” she told the group, not bothering to bring him up to speed. “Watch it in real time.”

He was still huddled close enough to Seline to smell her shampoo. Leaning in close to Seline again, he whispered, “What am I supposed to see?”

On the one hand, he was trying not to bother the others, who were coming to some very serious conclusions. On the other hand, it was a good excuse to get closer to Seline where he could.

“The dot is Marina’s tracker,” Selene whispered back, her breath brushing the skin of his neck. “What Verner is pointing out is an unusual motion, where the dot went forward and then suddenly jerked backwards.”

Verner overheard them. “I think this is where Sanders attacked her. Because after this, we can see that the tracker moves to the center of the room in an odd and slightly jerky pattern. Then it remains in that one spot—though with some movement—in the center of the room for several hours.”

She muttered something and no one asked her to elaborate, but Kalan was fairly certain she’d said, “Why did no one notice this when it was happening?”

“Do you think she was tied to a chair?” Seline’s voice was shaky.

Kalan didn’t really want to know if his friend was tied to a chair by a serial killer. It was clear Seline already felt guilty.

He asked another question. “What's the timestamp?”

“Seven-oh-seven.” Verner had clearly already looked for herself.

If Sanders had caught her in her own home—her own borrowed home—at just after seven, then Marina had been in BRK’s clutches for just over twelve hours.

Everyone came to the same conclusion.

No one said anything.

Kalan wanted to ask how long Sanders tended to keep his victims alive after he took them, but he wasn't even sure if Verner and Rossi could answer that.

A sharp sound cut the air and even Kalan jumped. He brushed Seline’s breast and was in the awkward spot of apologizing—yet again—or dealing with whatever the hell that noise was.

“Ring tone.” Rossi waved her phone at them as it lit up with the incoming call, then headed through the kitchen toward the back of the house to answer it. Clearly, she didn’t want to be overheard and his curiosity was piqued.

Verner—unfazed by the obnoxiously loud ringtone or her partner’s absence—kept rolling the video, watching the dot move from one location in the digital house layout to another. Kalan didn't learn anything new, though Verner apparently did with each time she watched it.

When Rossi came back, she flicked a hand in front of her partner to get her attention. “We've been called out.”

“What?” Seline jumped to her feet, seemingly involuntarily.

Verner didn't even question the order. She simply began powering down the laptop and closing everything up. She had her bag zipped before Rossi was able to tell Seline, “You’ll still have agents on you. But it's important that it looks like you've been left alone.”

Jesus, Kalan thought.Seline should appear to bealone?

Despite the fact that baiting Sanders had worked, everything had gone wrong. Balero wasn’t supposed to be taken, nor her tracker dug out of her arm. Now the FBI was leaving.

As Verner and Rossi headed out the door, he looked to the others and realized that they’d just decided to use Seline as bait.

Chapter Twenty

“Ihave to dosomething,” Seline announced. She could still hear the fear in her own voice even though she’d tried to quell it.

---