Page 42 of Catching Fire

“I don’t know. I’m more concerned about the trail of odd charges against him. When I add them up, it appears that he was a serial rapist himself at the least. He was questioned more than once in conjunction with several murders, but never formally charged …” there was a pause, then the most concerning information of all. “We already know that the La Vista Rapist and the Blue River Killer were friends. If their friendship goes back further, it might go back to Alexander Holden. If he’s as horrifying as I suspect, then you need to be prepared. I don’t know what kinds of things you’ll find at that farm.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

“Idon't know where they are,” Seline replied to Kalan’s inquiry about where Rossi and Verner were.

“Did you not alert them?” His concern carried as he climbed out of the back seat and joined them next to the car.

Oh, my God, she liked this guy, but she turned and gave him her dumbest expression. “Yes, of course, we alerted them. They're on the investigative team, and they said they would be on their way.”

He nodded slowly and backed away, probably because of her expression.

But Seline kept going. “Also, if you noticed, there was a blue sedan that trailed us almost all the way here. That would be the officers who were watching my house. They watched us go to the library. They watched us come back. And Rossi and Verner and even Watson and Decker have been in contact with them all along. We're not truly here alone.”

This time her erstwhile boyfriend looked contrite. “I apologize.”

She grinned at him, she had to. “I'm sorry for being rude. It's a weird situation.”

And it was about to get weirder.

She reached into her purse and pulled out her gun and the magazine she packed with it. Pushing the two together until she heard and felt the satisfying click of a loaded gun, she racked the slide.

One in the chamber, she thought.

Though Kalan was looking at her with concern, she reached into her large bag again and pulled out a holster. This one was made to slide onto the waistband of her jeans, but she didn’t put the harness strap over the butt of the gun. This was one of those situations where she needed to be ready to draw quickly.

Seline untucked her shirt and pulled the tails over the gun, though she knew she wasn't fooling anyone. Turning to Kalan, she crossed her arms, cocked her hip, and waited until he reached into his own bag and pulled out his own gun, which she knew he’d brought.

Maggie was the only one going in unarmed.

Or so Seline thought. “Maggie? Are you—”

As she turned to her friend, Maggie lifted the edge of her jeans, revealing a hunting knife strapped to her ankle. Seline was impressed.

Maggie had brought down Merrit Geller with a shard of glass. Though her own cuts were healing well, Maggie still had the scars. This time, she was ready.

As Seline watched, Maggie modeled the other ankle as well, and showed off another knife.

Bien!

With the three of them now ready to go, she realized she was going to be disappointed if they didn't find anything. She turned her head a little so the others could hear her over the light wind. “A hundred acres is very large.”

“Very,” Maggie replied.

Kalan chimed in with, “Most of it looks open.”

Though Maggie seemed to agree, she reminded the two others, “A farm this old could hide all kinds of things. It’s been through the ages. The nearly broken down barn—” she pointed, “—could be reinforced and hold something dangerous or be used as a hidden storage. We need to check the ground as we walk. A place like this went through the Cold War. They might have an underground bunker. Something like that might have a manhole cover or it might be accessible under a building.”

Her chest heaved with the hit of those ideas as Seline admitted to herself that she'd not been prepared for all the options. “The place is supposed to be abandoned.”

That didn’t mean it was safe.

“House first,” Kalan declared.

They’d driven all the way up and parked just beyond where they would have had they been visiting. The gravel had crunched as it bounced them along and left slight ruts from their passing. If anyone was inside, they’d just watched the three of them arm themselves.

When they hit the front porch, Kalan put a hand out, stopping Seline when she was ready to grab for the knob. He motioned for the others to look around the porch and particularly the edges of the door frame.

He turned his head without taking his eyes off the old-school peephole. His hand now rested lightly on her forearm, the touch both warming and warning. “Seline, you installed your own cameras, you have a better idea what they look like.”

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