Page 49 of Just Right

"We're almost there," Connor said as he pressed down on the gas pedal.

Cami was biting her lip. She couldn't stop thinking about the horror of this scenario and what it would bring. Jayne was an innocent woman who did not deserve to die at the hands of a psychopath. Surely, they could save one, just one, from this lethal killer.

"What's the plan?" she said.

"If we haven't been able to track her, then we search. We have three police who’ve just arrived on site at the closest trail head and are waiting for us. That’s where we’re going to set this up."

Cami had her phone open but didn't know what she could do with it—if anything. There might be nothing she could do. She checked Jane's social media again, read closely through today’s updates. And yesterday’s. She hadn’t mentioned a walk in the woods. Surely, there had to be a way of finding where she was. She needed to think, think as fast as she could, because they had arrived.

There, ahead, she saw the gate to the school, winding up through the treed hills. And on the other side, the entrance to the forest trails. A police car was waiting there.

Connor jumped out of the car and strode over to the cops. They already had a map of the trails unfolded on the hood of their car. Scrambling out of the passenger seat, Cami hurried after them.

"There seem to be two main routes here. The northern one and the eastern one," the cop explained. "Both lead to a main path that passes her house. Both pass several rivers, and the routes run each side of a small lake."

Cami knew that meant there would be water available and close by for him to drown his victim. This would happen fast. There wouldn't be time, and they might already be out of whatever time they were going to get. She felt as if they were living a nightmare. It felt like they were trying to stop a runaway train that was already speeding lethally out of control.

"Right. Let's split up. We're going to take one of the main pathways each. We need to be on the lookout for a hiker fitting his description. Any parked cars should be treated with suspicion and checked out. He must have parked somewhere nearby." Connor glanced at his phone again. Cami guessed that he was looking for any messages, any updates that might give a clue about the killer's car.

"Nothing from the camera feed yet," he said. "But they’re working on it now. They might get a result in a few minutes, or it could take another hour."

So, it looked like they weren't going to get lucky there. Finding the killer's car via the camera feeds might not be possible in the time available, and Cami guessed that they’d just have to resign themselves to that fact.

"Shall we start out?" the other cop said.

Cami was sure that she would be deployed in Connor's group, but she was wrong. He turned to her, his face serious. "I want you to stay here," he said. "Lock yourself in the car. Two in each group is enough. If you can do any research on site using your devices, make any progress with where she might be, I need you to do it and to tell us."

Cami tried not to feel disappointed. Holing up in the car, doing her research, tracking the killer through her IT expertise, was her strength. Walking out on the trails in pursuit of the killer was most definitely not her strength, and she knew that in these situations, a pair of cops was generally the most effective.

But in this critical situation, she wanted to be out there. She wanted to tread impatiently along the trail, each step potentially taking her closer to the killer. It felt futile to lock herself in the car. Cami wanted to argue it, but she knew that would be pointless too. Because someone had to keep checking for clues online, even if there didn’t seem to be any. And that someone was her.

Connor strode off into the forest on a trail that led north, walking shoulder to shoulder with his new partner. The other cops set off to the east, and Cami watched them both go. Her stomach flip-flopped with tension. She tried to tell herself that there was no reason to worry. Even if the killer was here, Connor was good at his job. He would be able to handle it.

But what if the killer had come and gone already?

Of course, there was always the more reassuring option that he had never intended to target Jayne at all. He might have been trying to track Meryl and that seeing the cops outside her door had put a spoke in the wheel. He might be ducking and diving in a panic now, knowing they were on his trail.

But he might also be waiting in the woods, ready to kill again, and Cami feared that was the more likely option.

She got back into the car, locked the door and sat back. She would do what she could.

Inside the car, she opened her laptop and began to work through all the information she had on Jayne Bell. She scrolled through the woman's social media again, scouring the pages, looking for anything that might help her pinpoint where she would be.

As she did that, her phone rang. It was Ethan. Her heart quickening, she picked up. She’d been worried about Ethan. It was good to see him calling.

“Hey,” she said. “Are you okay?”

“Hey, Cami. We just finished the takedown. Got both of the bad guys in custody. No injuries to any agents. So, it went well, and I’m on the way back. Just checking in to see how you’re doing?”

“I’m frustrated. We’ve worked out who the next victim probably is. But she’s out walking somewhere in a network of trails. Her phone’s on silent and they haven’t been able to track her geolocation yet.”

“There’s a problem with that system. It’s down in a lot of places at the moment, and it also caused us to have snarl-ups and delays. But that’s a huge problem for you now. So, she’s out there somewhere, and you don’t know where?”

“Connor and three other cops have gone out searching. They’ve left me here to trace him online, but I don’t know where to look or how he’s planning his next kill, if he is at all. I need to think!”

Ethan sighed. “That’s big pressure, Cami. How’s he doing it? The last I heard, he was using location pins?”

“Yes, he is. But this woman, Jayne, is out for a walk and nobody seems to know where. The problem is that I’m sure he knows.”

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