Page 51 of Burning Secrets

Crew stood up. Stared at her, drew in a breath. Oh no.

“But you’re going to have to trust me.” She met his eyes, almost a dare in it.

Oh, so that’s where they were, huh? He smiled.

Nodded.

“What?” Rio said. He turned. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“This is exactly where she should be,” Crew said. “She was there. She saw their operation. She found the nightshade greenhouse.”

Rio shook his head.

“And I know what their plan is,” JoJo said. “Come with me.”

She headed out the door, and Crew raised an eyebrow to Rio, then followed her.

“Let’s just brief the entire crew,” Rio said and followed him out.

JoJo stalked over to the administrative offices, glancing over at Crew. Grinning.

What—

Then she banged inside. “Jamie? You still here?”

Jamie came out of the room she seemed to have claimed as her office sometime in the last few weeks, looked past JoJo to Crew. “What are you doing here?”

“Right?” Rio said, on their tails.

“Show him the map, Jamie,” JoJo said, and Jamie stepped back to let them into her office. Jo stopped in front of a large map pinned to the wall.

A fire map. But also—“Is that the map you gave me, Jamie?”

“Yes. Superimposed on the fire map. The orange places are?—”

“Where there were fires. At least in a couple areas.” He pointed to the areas in green on the map. “And this blue circle is today’s warehouse.”

“Yes,” said JoJo. “And this orange circle”—she pointed to a spot just north of town—“is called the Refuge. They had fire, were evacuated. But south of that, a homestead was mysteriously poisoned. Chickens killed. A woman was affected. Nearly died.”

He ran a hand over his mouth. “Yes. And this is where you found your dead wolf.” He touched the map north of the SOR compound, then tracked the river north. “There was a fire at this village.”

“And north of there, dead salmon, according to Vince and Cadee,” Jamie said.

Another orange circle.

“The plane went down in that area,” said JoJo. “It caused the fire that spread to the village, but…it’s possible that was part of the endgame.”

“They wanted the plane to crash,” Rio said, also studying the map. “Everywhere they’ve circled has been a fire.”

“And maybe poison. Fire used as a cover-up,” JoJo said, taking a step back, arms akimbo.

Rio was nodding, and even Crew could see him doing the math, but just in case…“There are two areas left.”

“This one is a closed community,” said Jamie. “Five homes, a large garden, a fishing pond.”

“Food supply,” Crew said.

“This one is the water supply that feeds into a reservoir that pipes out water to Anchorage.”

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