Page 36 of Catching Fire

“Was it a real accident or has he gotten sloppy?” Kalan asked the group. But no one knew the answer.

“That’s exactly the problem.” Sebastian was arguing back. “If we understood his methods, or even particularly his goals, he would have been caught long before now. He's been operating for …What?Twenty-plus years and they've only within the last year, found out his name.”

That was all true and all disheartening.Kalan sighed, once again running his hand over his hair. “But wedoknow who he is now. So I don't understand why they can't find him. We even know he's here, locally. He's taunting Seline. She's interacted with him twice and had a conversation with him!”

His voice was rising as his irritation at his inability to do anything got the better of him. He had specific training as a firefighter on how to handle de-escalating a tense situation. It was fine when it was someone else’s problem. But this was Seline. His training had apparently gone out the window. Though he took a deep breath, he was still frustrated and unable to fully calm down. Kalan tried looping back to his original question. “When we go back tomorrow … What then?”

“The FBI is watching,” Sebastian tried to assure him, though Kalan was having none of it.

“Marina had a tracker in her arm, and Sanders still got her. They have no idea where she is or if she's even alive.” He watched as his friend's eyes darted down toward the tabletop, and then off toward the floor. But Kalan couldn't hold back. “And if—as we both clearly believe—he's already killed her, then there's no reason not to come back for Seline or someone else. What happens to them if we're not there?”

That at least brought Sebastian's eyes back toward his. “Honestly, I think Maggie should stay with Seline. She’ll keep Seline safe.”

He was talking it through, but Sebastian was laughing at him. “Seline is better trained with that gun than either you or I are.”

Kalan had to concede that note. Though he wasn't quite committed to the “Kalan and Sebastian just go back to work as usual” plan, he didn’t have an alternative.

He didn’t have long to think one up.

Even as he got frustrated again, this time with the time crunch, Seline came through the door at full speed. “I think we found it!”

Chapter Twenty-Three

Seline stared at Maggie across the breakfast table, this time over a bowl of cereal.

It was just the two of them now. They’d shoved the men out the door at seven-thirty, insisting they were fine and they could take care of themselves.

All of it was a lie.

Theycouldprobably take care of themselves, but they weren't fine. None of them were.

She’d watched at the window until Kalan’s sleek little sports car turned at the end of the street. Then she’d stepped back into the living room and called Watson. She’d checked up on everything they’d figured out the day before.

Ivy had found Sanders’ mother’s maiden name. Not surprisingly it was Treat, but that hadn’t been a guess they could bank on. Then Ivy had been excited to announce that she’d found his grandmothers’ maiden names, too. One had been Bland and the other Holden.

Despite the information dump Seline provided, Watson had had nothing to add. Marina had not been located. No notes had appeared at Seline’s house or at the school.

She didn't have classes to teach on Friday, so she wouldn’t be back on campus until next Monday. It sucked more than ever that she’d been instructed to stay away. What if he’d left something and Watson and Decker missed it? They didn’t know her office or even the campus like she did.

Apparently, Sanders knew it better than even the FBI agents …

Seline swallowed one more bite of cereal before she gave up. Her stomach was still not ready for eggs or any more serious kind of food. She’d been living on oatmeal and Cheerios since they’d gotten the news about the tracker being under her house.

She’d managed only half the bowl before the rest had gone soggy. Next to her, Maggie was methodically working her way through a bowl of her own as she scrolled through her phone. But Seline couldn’t go on with the mundane task of breakfast. She was done pretending everything was okay. At least for right now.

She was convinced her life was about to become a true crime novel. Between planning her lessons for next week and speculating wildly about where her friend might have been taken to be tortured and murdered, she lamented how many hours had passed.

Setting the spoon down with a bit too much of a thunk, she said to Maggie, “If Sanders had a cabin and he was using it with his victims and he was found out …”

That part wasn’t an “if,” it was literally what had happened. “… wouldn't it be really disturbing if he took Marina to that same cabin? It's the last place anyone would think to look.”

“It's an interesting idea,” Maggie said. “But the FBI is all over the cabin, aren't they?”

“Do you know that for sure?”

“We can call Watson and ask. I just don't get the feeling that she's invested in our amateur sleuthing.”

“We're not amateurs,” Seline countered, trying to hold back her irritation and her fear. “You'recertainly not. You helped catch Geller!” She waved her hand up and down at Maggie as if to indicate a certified private eye.

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