Page 59 of Deadly Attraction
Mitch withdrew his phone and snapped a picture. “And the drawings?”
They looked familiar, but he couldn’t place why.
“Tom was captured by the cyborg colony at the end of Season Seven,” Emma said. “The premiere of Season Eight opened with him being branded by one of the cyborg leaders and thrown into a slave camp. The brand was like a bar code reader, identifying him as a prisoner. Once he escaped the camp and made it back to his resistance fighters, he had his girlfriend turn the brand into a new tattoo. All the fighters then wanted one. It created a wave of fans in the real world getting them as well.”
Mitch shook his head and fired off a couple more shots. “Keep the dogs away from here. I’ll get a couple of evidence bags.”
At his horse, he dug into the saddlebags and brought out his last two bags. He’d hoped to find evidence of his arsonist, but now had found more evidence of the Tom Monahan stalker.
Keeping an eye on the area around them, he sensed more than felt Will’s presence, closer now than before. No doubt the ex-Special Forces soldier had seen them staring at the ground and knew something was up.
Mitch felt better knowing Will was keeping an eye on them, but with the find of the campsite, he felt fresh unease wash over him. He’d had alternative reasons for not leaving Emma behind, most specifically because he liked having her around, but it had been a dick move.
Emma moved back to the horses, calling the dogs after her while Mitch collected the evidence. When he was done stuffing the bags into his saddlebag, she hoisted herself up onto Twinkie and started toward the park once more.
“We should go back,” he called to her.
She reigned Twinkie around to look at him. “Why?”
“Your Monahan nut may still be out here.”
“It was Linda,” she said. “I’d bet my ranch on it.”
“Why?”
“She was featured in one of the fan magazines when the show ended. There was a picture of her in her house with an altar to Tom in her bedroom.”
“Let me guess,”—he tapped his saddlebag—“it held all of these items.”
Emma nodded. “And more.”
Mitch looked north toward the woods where the park’s boundaries lay. Linda Brown had been here. Helping Gordon or the other way around?
“‘The Chosen One will be protected by the Resistance, carrying fire in their hands.’”Emma recited, as if confirming Mitch’s thoughts.“Fire will consume them, and He will rise from the ashes of their destruction.’”
“Brown and my arsonist worked together and started the fire, but was it to get to you or to free Goodsman?”
“Does it matter?”
“My money is on freeing Goodsman, but she wanted it to look like the resistance was after you. Why else would she get this close to your place and not set one of your barns on fire or your house? She picked the park, hoping the fires would go south and burn up your home, as well as cause the prison to have to move Goodsman. The fires veered around the ranch, but she got her favorite actor freed.”
“That would be my guess as well,” Emma said. “All we need is proof she was in that park at the time the fire started.”
They might need more than that, but that would be a start. Mitch hopped up on Igor and touched the horse with his heels. Emma wheeled Twinkie back around and they headed for the park.
