“Just one question. Now what?”
“Can’t you guess? Why, Kendra, of course you’ve made the logical deduction.” He was silent a moment, then he whispered, “Now I finish Colby’s work for him.”
CHAPTER
15
Mount Laguna
“GET OVER HERE, LYNCH,” GRIFFIN SAID. “I’m at the helicopter. I have something you’ve got to see.”
“Ten minutes. I’m waiting for a report on the searchers in the west quadrant.”
“Now,” Griffin said. “We may not have ten minutes.” He hung up the phone.
Shit.
Lynch didn’t hesitate. He didn’t like the sound of Griffin’s tone. In four minutes, he’d left the woods and was striding toward the helicopter, where Griffin was standing with Metcalf. “So what’s so urgent?”
“Reade sent me a sketch by Dillingham that he told her he’d been working on for Kendra. Did you know about it?”
“Yeah, she told me she’d asked him to try to do a mock-up of Myatt without disguise.”
“He did it.” Griffin handed him his laptop computer. “Take a look.”
“Holy shit.” Lynch’s hands tightened on the computer. “This is Bobby Chatsworth.”
“Clearly,” Griffin said.
“Incredible,” Lynch said.
Metcalf took another look at the sketch. “According to Reade, the sketch artist has never seen Chatsworth before. This was just a concept sketch based on disguises Myatt might have used.”
“Brilliant,” Lynch murmured.
“Reade got hold of Chatsworth’s producer. The team left for England this morning. Everyone except Chatsworth. He’s still here.”
Lynch tensed. “Have you called Kendra?”
Griffin and Metcalf exchanged glances. “That’s why I wanted you to drop everything and get over here. She’s not answering her phone.”
“What?”
“And she’s not at the hospital, either,” Metcalf said.
Lynch asked slowly and carefully, “Then where the hell is she?”
“No one knows.”
“Don’t tell me that. Chatsworth has her. You know it and I know it.” Saying the words made that truth more stark and terrible. “Now tell me how we’re going to get her back. Chatsworth has to have his own phone. He won’t get rid of it if he doesn’t know that we’ve zeroed in on him. Have you started the trace?”
“Reade started that trace before she sent me the sketch. We’ll have it very soon.”
“Soon?” Lynch started cursing as he started walking toward the burning embers of the house.
“Where are you going?” Griffin called after him.
“I’m taking Nelson’s car.”
“Where?”
“I’ll start with the hospital, unless you can find me a more productive place to go.” He stared at him over his shoulder, and said with icy softness, “And you’d better find me that phone location in a damn big hurry. Or I just might be more angry with you than I am with Chatsworth. You don’t want that, Griffin.”
Jurupa Mountain
Riverside County, California
STILL, DEATHLY SILENCE.
There was nothing else to hear after Chatsworth cut the engine. They had left the paved roads fifteen minutes before, and Kendra had been aware of a slight incline ever since. A slight odor of pines had found its way into the passenger compartment, destroying her previous belief that they were heading for the desert.
Chatsworth climbed out of the vehicle and opened the rear door. He yanked the tarp off and dragged her out of the car by her jacket collar. It was still nighttime, but the full moon bathed the area in a bluish glow.
Chatsworth cut the ropes around her ankles. “Do you know where you are?”
Kendra looked around while she tried to steady herself. They were on a hilltop, at the end of a forest. “Should I?”
“I believe it will come back to you. It’s one of your best efforts.” He motioned with a long knife. “But it didn’t happen quite here. It’s up ahead. Come along. I can’t wait to show you.”
* * *
“BAD NEWS,” GRIFFIN SAID when Lynch answered. “Chatsworth has dropped off the network.”
Keep cool. “Entirely?”
“He hasn’t pinged a cell tower in over thirty minutes. Either his phone died, or he decided to yank the battery. Maybe he doesn’t want to leave tracks.”
Lynch pulled off the road and stared at the map on his tablet computer. “It looks like he was heading toward Riverside County, or maybe San Bernadino.”
“That’s a lot of territory.”
“Unless…” Lynch’s mind was racing. “Think about your bulletin boards of Kendra’s old cases.”