Page 51 of Relentless
“Really?” Sabina said, her voice oddly quiet.
Ethan reached over and took her hand. She didn’t know what was going on with her sister any more than he did.
“Really,” Kara answered. Instinctively, she knew her response wouldn’t be the balm, the assurance, she hoped, but it was all she could offer.
They heard the rumble of Chad’s voice—as if he’d covered the phone while speaking to Sabina. Then he spoke to them again. “We’ll let you know what Colton’s contact says. Any plans for today?”
“I know you talked to Evelyn yesterday afternoon,” Ethan said. “But after learning what we just learned, we might benefit from having her and Kara talk about the assignment in South Sudan together.”
“That’s a good idea,” Kara agreed. Out in the field, when she or one of the other doctors wasn’t sure how best to diagnose or treat a patient, round-robins weren’t unusual. Almost inevitably, someone would say something that would spark an idea that would lead to a solution. She wasn’t sure if, together, she and Evelyn might remember something either had forgotten, but it couldn’t hurt.
“Would Cody mind if we invited her here?” she asked.
Ethan shook his head at the same time Chad answered, “No.”
“I’ll give her a call,” Ethan said. Then, rising from his seat, he made his way to their bedroom where he’d left his phone.
Kara drummed her fingers on her thigh. “There’s one thing that’s bothering me. Well, there’s more than one thing, but there’s one thing we haven’t talked about.”
“What’s that?” Sabina asked.
“If it’s someone from the team doing this, they’d have to be traveling. Shelley was in Houston, Sunil in North Carolina, and Danielle in New Mexico. If we don’t count Evelyn as a suspect then that means either Lucky, Astrid, Shane, or Peter is the killer. Shouldn’t there be some record of travel for them? None of those places are exactly easy driving distance from each other.”
“They aren’tnotdriving distance either, though,” Sabina said. “Based on the timetable, it’s possible they killed Sunil, then drove to Houston, then to New Mexico, before heading to California.”
“Astrid is in Portland. If they decided on a cross-country murder trip, they could continue right up to Oregon from LA,” Kara said. “But that doesn’t explain Shane who is in Boston, Lucky who is in New York, or Peter who is in DC. Those three are clustered close together. If it’s one of them, wouldn’t it have made sense to start killing off the closest team members andthenstart the murder circuit?”
“For that matter, are we tracking any of them?” Ethan asked, rejoining her. “Evelyn and Warren are going to be by after lunch. I’ll let Cody and Tia know,” he added, taking a seat beside her.
“We started tracking them when we made the initial calls. At that time, Lucky was in LA visiting family. Peter and Shane were in LA as well for a conference. Astrid was in Portland,” Sabina answered.
“The timing is interesting. If the killer is Lucky, Peter, or Shane, they would have been in the area roughly around the time the electric was tampered with,” Kara said.
“So they at least had the opportunity,” Ethan added. “Where is everyone now?”
“Right where they should be. Or their phones are, anyway,” Sabina said.
“Lucky went to Mexico?” Kara clarified.
“He did,” Chad confirmed. “Both phone and flight records confirm it.”
“Flight and phone confirm Shane and Peter are back home as well,” Sabina added.
Kara huffed in annoyance. “Couldn’t they just be a little bit stupid about something?”
Ethan reached over and tugged her against his side. “They probably were, and we haven’t found it yet. Or if they haven’t done something dumb yet, they will, and we’ll be waiting.”
“Any chance we can track usagebeforeyou made the calls? Find out if any of them were in North Carolina, Texas, or New Mexico?” Kara asked.
“Ava is working on it. It takes a little more finesse to backtrack than to live track,” Sabina said.
“The good news is, chances are there won’t be another attempt on either Evelyn’s or your life. Not with the remaining team members all in different states,” Chad said.
“A rather dubious silver lining,” Kara grumbled.
“I’ll take it,” Ethan said, dropping a kiss on her head.
“Me, too. Unfortunately, I think we all know that we aren’t going to catch the killer until they make another attempt,” Kara said.
