Page 104 of Mountain Man’s Mystic Touch

Carver looks at me. “What do you mean?”

“The device creates panic, but Mercer’s grievance is with the festival coordinator. If he wanted only to frighten people, he could have triggered it tonight after we found the camera. He chose a time when the grounds would be full.”

“You think the panic covers something else.”

“I think this device is the beginning of his plan.”

Loralee closes her eyes.

I turn toward her. “What is it?”

“The impression I felt at the card.” Her voice is quiet. “He didn’t only want people frightened. He wanted them to understand what it felt like to lose everything at once.”

A deputy approaches Carver before he can respond. “They reached Mercer’s house. No one home. SUV is gone.”

“Put out the vehicle description,” Carver says. “Advise officers he may be armed.”

The deputy returns to his cruiser.

Carver looks at the event coordinator. “The festival is canceled. No delay. No negotiation.”

She nods without resistance.

The bomb technician calls him back toward the monitor. I watch the two men enlarge part of the image from beneath the display. Something rectangular is attached to the inside of the case, separate from the receiver.

A phone.

“If that has cellular service, he could activate the device from anywhere,” I say.

“That’s what they’re determining.”

“Can they recover the number?”

“If the components remain intact.”

Loralee’s phone vibrates.

The sound is ordinary, but every person near us turns toward it.

She removes the phone from her coat pocket. Her face changes as she reads the screen.

“What is it?” I ask.

“A message through my business account.”

“From whom?”

“There’s no name.”

She holds the phone toward me.

The message contains a photograph taken from above. In it, the bomb squad vehicle sits near the lodge while deputies and security personnel gather along the perimeter. Loralee and I stand beside my truck at the edge of the frame.

The image was taken within the last five minutes.

Beneath it are seven words.

YOU KEEP SEEING WHAT I WANT YOU TO SEE.