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“What do you see?”
“Well, it’s like Mr. Needham said. There’s only one road which leads out of town where he or one of his buddies wouldn’t see it. It’s how he seems to have eyes everywhere. He and his VFW friends have houses at opposite ends of town, so they pretty much know the comings and goings around here. They consider themselves the watchmen of Millforth. Anyway, when he said that about how no one has traveled out of town as far as he has seen, he reminded me about this road.”
“Can you really call this a road?” He was only half teasing, and she turned triumphant eyes in his direction.
“Exactly. If you’re unfamiliar with the area, you’re likely going to GPS directions to and from town. No GPS invented is going to send you on this road. It’s one only the locals know well enough to voluntarily take it. Which means it could very well be the road Autumn drove to head out of town, and it could be the reason why we haven’t been able to find her anywhere in town. But if the shooter or the stranger took this road, a local had to tell them about it.”
BB nodded. “I see where you’re going with this. Maybe the redhead who works at the hotel tipped off the stranger about this road. And maybe the stranger tipped off the shooter or is the shooter. Why did you feel the need to drive down this road without talking to the hotel employee first?”
“I texted my uncle to have him identify the employee, and then I texted Panther about him. He and Wings would be way more intimidating than me and you, so I figured they would have better luck at getting the guy to talk.”
“Back to my original question,” BB said. “Why are we here?”
She sighed. “I don’t know.”
She was unable to hide the frustration from her face. He understood where she was coming from. There was nothing more irritating than a case with nothing but dead ends. Silence stretched between them until she decided to fill it.
“I guess I thought there’d be a clue or something. Like unusual car tracks or…God, I don’t know. It sounds stupid when I say it out loud.”
“Your gut’s churning. That’s good enough for me. Let’s keep driving. If we turn up nothing, then we’re no worse off than we are now. We won’t know until we check.”
Gennessey smiled. “Thanks, BB. I never knew what a good partner you made until all of this. I can see why the other Alphas value you as a member of the team.”
He widened his eyes to feign shock and placed his hand over his heart in a dramatic flourish. “Did you just compliment me? Did hell freeze over, and I missed it?”
She punched his arm with her fist, and he winced at the force behind the playful hit. “Shut up and keep your eyes open.”
He stifled a chuckle. Now wasn’t the time to lose focus, but he’d wanted to erase the worry from her face, even if it was only briefly. He forced himself to look out the windshields. He didn’t expect to see anything, but he had a feeling Gennessey wouldn’t move on until they exhausted every lead, however thin it may be.
Only, he soon learned this lead wasn’t as fruitless as he anticipated.
“There!”
He pointed out the passenger window, but he wasn’t surprised when Gennessey said she didn’t see anything. The disturbance in the gravel and brush along the side of the road was subtle. It could have been made by anything — an animal, a strong breeze, or a hiker.
Nonetheless, he called for her to stop so he could climb out. He heard her do the same, but he zeroed in on the spot as he carefully walked along the road’s shoulder, studying the ground as if it might start talking to him.
Just when he started to give up, he saw the hint of black shining through the brush. Mostly obscured by thick green bushes and fallen limbs, the car would probably never have been noticed if Gennessey wasn’t following a hunch.
“Right through there. I can’t be sure, but it could be—”
“The car that picked up Autumn,” she finished for him, locking her stare to the spot he pointed to. “Call it in.”
His hand snaked out to grab her arm as she started to make her way through the brush and down the embankment. “What are you doing?”
“Searching it for clues. Call it in, and then you can help me.”
“It could be a trap. We should wait for back-up and secure the perimeter.”
Gennessey rolled her eyes. “This is backwoods Millforth. Back-up will take a while, and we’re under a time crunch, remember? If it was a trap, they wouldn’t have gone to all the trouble of hiding it from view.”
He didn’t stop her from pulling away, but he did watch until she made it to the car without falling or hurting herself. Then he called Jay, hoping the two bars on his phone’s service would be enough for the call to go through. While he waited for his boss to answer, his head swiveled to make sure no one got the jump on them.
He got Jay’s voicemail, which was odd, but since he didn’t want to leave Gennessey alone for too long, he left a message and then made his way to her.
“He didn’t answer, so I left a message.”
She opened the back passenger door. “The call probably dropped. Reception is not great in this part of Millforth. You check the outside. I’ll search the interior.”
