Page 30 of Catching Fire

“Under the skin near the bend of her elbow,” Verner answered almost without thinking. Her own eyes were glued to the screen.

Seline wasn’t surprised by the response, she’d thought she might be seeing Marina swing her arm as she walked.

“There! It jerks back.”

It was a small movement, and Seline wouldn’t have noticed on her own.

“Nine fifteen. I’m guessing that’s when he got the tracker out of her. She didn’t have time to activate her emergency call.”

“What?” Seline asked. “Emergency call?”

“She also had a necklace that looked like jewelry but she could activate it and let us know she was in trouble.”

“She didn’t activate it,” Seline murmured, but neither of the agents answered her.

They watched through what they now believed was Sanders restraining Marina and removing the tracker.

“Look, here.” The tracker moved down the street at nearly nine-thirty p.m. toward Seline’s home. It tracked the property line between the neighbor’s home and hers and then headed toward the side of her home. Next, it jumped under the house.

“Looks like he threw it.” Verner commented softly.

Seline wondered if anyone had noticed the odd movement at the time. She couldn’t hold her tongue. “What did you think of this when you saw it last night?”

“We didn’t see it until now.” Rossi tipped her head up as though to look her in the eyes and let her know that she, at least, had not missed this and let her friend go missing. “Another team of agents was watching the tracker in live time. It’s a shitty, boring job, and they are only supposed to check it every minute or so.”

So they might have missed the odd little movements that were the only clues.Merde.

Verner kept her eyes on the screen but added, “We were in our car down the street, watching in real time. He—or whoever—came in from the other side of the property, like he knew we were watching and what car we were in …”

Seline was only more confused. “But if you were watching from the car, did they not tell you that she was on her way over?”

She shouldn't have asked. She shouldn't have put the agents on the spot or suggest that they had failed.

“We weren't watching the tracker. The people watching the tracker probably thought we’d see Marina. She came here on other nights and visited just fine. There was no protocol for them to alert us.” Verner looked up from where she was watching the video again.

“I’m sorry I asked.”

“You were right to ask.” But Verner was looking at the next thing, her attention clearly not on soothing Seline’s wounded and worried nerves.

Rossi stood up and walked around the room as if she would find the clues she needed here. She looked out the window, checking up and down the street, just as she had every fifteen minutes since she’d arrived. She pulled out her phone and texted someone, while Verner took over her seat at the folding table and watched the video again and again.

Maggie had served steaming bowls of oatmeal to the guys while Seline watched the dot move on the screen. Her own bowl was waiting and it was a relief to sit down and do something normal, but it only lasted for five minutes—just long enough for Seline to realize she wouldn’t be eating the whole thing anyway.

“Giulia, come here.” Verner motioned to the other agent. “Quickly.”

Rossi crossed the room and watched whatever Verner was pointing at. “Holy shit.”

“Yeah,” the other agent replied, snapping Seline’s attention back to them once more.

“What?” She abandoned the food and her friends who’d sat silently by.

Though she stood and confronted them, the two agents looked to each other, as if deciding whether or not they would tell the residents in the room what they had seen.

Chapter Nineteen

“Here, look … and here.”

The murmured responses from his friends finally made him leave the table.

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