Page 58 of So Lethal

“Upstairs. I want the house scoured, starting with the bedroom. I want to know where he went.”

“No way we find anything,” Michael said.

“Fix that attitude,” she snapped. “We never know until we look.”

“I’m gonna look,” he replied, “I’m just pissed.”

She sighed. “I know. Me too. But we don’t stop. We keep going until we get him, no matter what.”

He nodded. “Fair enough.”

The two of them returned to the bedroom and started digging through Harrison’s belongings. Turk helped, sniffing through everything, but he didn’t turn up any more evidence than they did. The home’s other bedroom yielded nothing important either, and the living room provided only the photograph Faith had already found.

By the time they finished searching the house, they had found nothing that might indicate where David Harrison had gone, and they had wasted an hour of time not finding anything. Faith sighed and sat at the kitchen table, drumming her teeth on the oiled pine and trying to think where to go from here. Waiting was unacceptable to her.

Of course, she’d learned recently that it didn’t matter whether waiting was acceptable or not. Sometimes she just had to deal with it.

Her fists closed at that thought. Screw that! I’m not going to “deal” with murderers escaping.

She got to her feet and started pacing. Where would Harrison go to hide?

He was a former equipment tester for the Army. She had seen the display case above his dresser, so she knew he was proud of his service. If he was going to go somewhere, it would probably be with one of his friends from the Army.

“Michael, do we know what unit Harrison served in?”

“Not from his medical record, but I can probably find out.”

He pulled out his phone and dialed the number. As he talked, Faith second-guessed her initial conclusion. Soldiers were loyal to their own just like Marines, but that loyalty had limits. Harrison could probably get by with no questions asked for a short while, but eventually, the news would get out that he was on the run. His friends would want to know the truth, and what could he tell them? A lie, maybe, but that wouldn’t hold water for long.

Best case scenario, he’d be booted out and allowed to leave without the friend ratting him to the cops. That would leave him right back at square one. Harrison clearly lived alone and had lived alone since leaving the Army. He was comfortable by himself. With his hearing gone, he was probably more comfortable by himself than with others. He would want to go somewhere he felt comfortable holing up by himself.

“Fine,” Michael snapped, loudly enough to pull Faith’s attention to him. “Sounds good to me. We’ll be more than happy to tell the entire world that you’re protecting a serial killer to hide secrets. Considering current opinions on military secrets, I’m sure that press will be just great for the Army.”

“What’s wrong?” Faith asked. “They won’t tell you where served?”

Michael held up a finger and winked. “All right, we’re done here. Oh.” He grinned and winked again. “General. Yeah, I don’t give a shit. He’s a suspected killer. I need every byte of data on him, or I will personally blame the Army for his existence. I’m good on the news too, General. I look real pretty on camera. Oh, you can help me? Wonderful.”

He covered the phone and said, “You just gotta know how to talk to ‘em.”

Faith wasn’t sure that Michael’s approach was necessary, but it had worked, so she wasn’t complaining. A moment later, Michael said. “Five-oh-ninth Infantry Company. And that’s a testing unit? Equipment testing, got it.” He frowned. “No, that isn’t all you’re going to tell me. He’s on the run, and we think he’s hiding with friends.”

Faith snapped her fingers. “Here,” Michael said. “Let me hand you to my partner.”

Faith took the phone. A rough male voice informed her, “Your partner is an asshole.”

“He sure can be,” Faith agreed, “but I’m not. I’m a very concerned investigator who’s trying to bring justice to the loved ones of four innocent people who Captain Harrison may have murdered. I believe he’s going to hide somewhere important to the five-oh-ninth, not at a friend’s house. I think it will be an abandoned classified facility where he can be reasonably sure he won’t be looked for. Is there anything in the rive-oh-ninth’s history that might fit that bill?”

The general was silent for a moment. Then he sighed. “Shit. Yeah, there might be. We had a testing facility on the north side of Mount Hamilton. It’s just east of San Jose. We shut the facility down after Harrison’s accident. I’m technically committing treason by telling you this, but we didn’t test anything black out there, just some less lethal stuff for crowd dispersal.”

“Less lethal stuff like an acoustic weapon?” Faith asked.

“Yes,” the general admitted. “But you need to keep that out of your official reports. You found him at an old storage depot that we haven’t used in years. Got that?”

“I got it.”

“I mean it, agent. I’m trying to help, but if this comes back to bite me, I’ll make damned sure it bites you, too.”

“It will bite no one but David Harrison, sir. You have my word.”

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