Page 77 of Crash and Burn

Chapter Sixty

Sebastian looked at the faces around the table.

It was Watson who told him, “We have enough evidence to arrest William Treat Sanders as the Blue River Killer.”

“So, why haven't you arrested him?” Sebastian demanded.

“He’s disappeared,” was Watson’s only answer, said as Decker replied. “He's in the wind.”

That didn't help.

“But we've been tracking his movements.”

Sebastian’s eyes were bouncing back and forth like it was a tennis match.

“This,” Ranger Leo Evans said as he pointed to a spot on the map in front of him. “—is a small section of the Rock Creek park that has cabins. Sanders’ family owns one of them.”

“It’s close to water and we think this is where he takes his victims,” Decker added.

Sebastian realized he was being given information that was still withheld from the public, probably in hopes that he could add something to it. He couldn’t.

“We've been working on this for quite some time,” Watson told him, as if hoping he would understand why it had taken them so long. “Sometimes it takes months to pull this kind of evidence together.”

Sebastian looked back and forth, “But it’s not Sanders who has her. We think it’s Geller, right?”

“Right. But Sanders usually attacks his victims where they are. He's clearly taken her somewhere else.” Watson turned to Evans again, and he picked up the thread.

“The cabins were there before the land became a state park. So the owners are grandfathered in. The units don’t see much use and they don’t really have neighbors because they’re reasonably far apart. The Sanders family has owned one of the cabins for three generations. The owners can come and go as they please, but the park rangers note activity in the area.”

He looked to Decker then, and when he received a subtle nod in response, he plowed ahead. “The FBI contacted us and we pulled our information. We would have handed it off tomorrow or so, but your call bumped up the timeframe. The bottom line is that we can tie activity near this cabin to the time frames of at least six of the Blue River killings.”

“Isn’t that enough?” Sebastian asked frantic. But the Blue River Killer had murdered far more than that.Only six?

Watson looked to Decker, and then they both looked back at him. It was Decker who said, “It has to be enough, because it's all we have. So we're going to go perform a raid on these cabins. We're heading out in the next ten minutes, if you want to come with us.”

“What if she's not there? What if he didn't go to Sanders’ cabin?”

“Then he didn't go to Sanders place and she's not there.” The answer was so simple and so stunningly awful that Sebastian’s brain didn’t want to process it.

“It’s the only path we have,” Watson offered solemnly.

Sebastian didn’t know what to do. If he went, he had the chance of being there when they found her. Or he had the chance that she was somewhere else, and he wasn’t there to help. Sitting here meant doing nothing and waiting. He didn’t have that in him. He was the kind of guy who naturally ran toward disaster—not a hero trait, just a hardwire in his system.

“Go.”

He turned, having recognized the voice behind him. “Rex?”

Sebastian almost tripped over the stroller in front of his fellow firefighter. Rex had his toddler in tow, but he’d come anyway. Then Sebastian looked beyond him. Most of A-shift had shown up.

“We’ve got the house covered,” Kalan told him. “If she shows up, we’ll call you.”

“My dad and Aidan are at dispatch monitoring all the calls.” Though Watson raised an eyebrow at that borderline practice, Ronan Kelly didn’t flinch. “We’ll notify you if anything comes in that might be related.”

“Go with them,” Rex urged him. “Find Maggie and bring her back safe.”

Sebastian nodded, glad that the decision was now made, glad that the guys were watching out for Maggie.

He bolted into the house and pulled his gun from the drawer by Maggie’s bed. For good measure—and not to look like he’d just grabbed a gun—he also pulled his lightweight jacket off the hook. With one last glance at the bed they shared, he headed out the door.

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