Page 94 of A Touch of Treachery
“Through the woods to Grandma’s house?”Gabriel quipped.
I snorted.“More like away from her super-secret weapons lab.”
“Well, I’m sure you’ll figure it out, Char.You always do.”
I flashed him a grateful smile.“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
Gabriel stared at me, his gaze steady on mine.“It’s not a vote of confidence.It’s thetruth.I believe in you, and so does Desmond.Wherever he is, Slick knows you won’t stop searching until you find him.I’ve been in similar situations, and knowing someone is looking for you ...”His voice trailed off, and he shifted in his chair.“Well, it helps more than you know.With all sorts of things.”
Once again, hot tears stung my eyes, but I blinked them back.Gabriel’s calm, unwavering belief made me feel like I could find Desmond after all.I grabbed his hand and squeezed his fingers.“You’re a good friend.”
Gabriel squeezed my hand back and flashed me a grin.“Correction.I’m aterrificfriend.”He pulled out his phone.“Speaking of friends, I have a pilot buddy who owes me a favor.Let me see what she says about flying choppers in this area.”
“Thanks, Gabriel.”
He winked at me.“Anytime, Char.”
Gabriel murmured into his phone, calling one person after another, while I went through all the information on Henrika yet again.And once again, I didn’t see anything different.Even with my synesthesia, I didn’t find any typos, errors, mistakes, or outright lies that told me where she had taken Desmond.
Frustrated and more than a little desperate, I pushed the laptop aside and studied the maps of the resort grounds and surveillance photos of the surrounding area.I looked at one building, then another, then another, but the maps and photos didn’t change, and they all showed the same things as before.
Think, Charlotte, think!
I swallowed a growl, leaned back in my chair, and glared at the ceiling.After a few seconds, I closed my eyes and drew in several deep breaths, cleansing the anger from my system, just like I would do on my yoga mat.Calmer, I opened my eyes, sat up straight, and went back to the beginning, reviewing all the facts yet again.
Bryce had knocked out Desmond, then a guard had carried Desmond to the dock, where he’d been put on a boat.Henrika, Bryce, and their men had used the boat to cross the lake and land on the opposite shore.After that, Henrika had set off several bombs to keep the Section agents from immediately following her up the mountain.Henrika, Bryce, and their men had abandoned their SUVs at the top of the mountain, gotten into a helicopter, and flown away.
Gabriel was still murmuring into his phone, so I sighed and clicked through the photos again, going through them one by one and reviewing the accompanying reports by the Section agents ...
A photo of a dirt road leading up the mountain appeared.I started to click past it, but then I remembered something Diego had said during the briefing before the mission:The resort covers several thousand acres ...Not much else is around it ...Lots of dirt roads and hiking trails ...
Henrika had used one of those dirt roads to reach the top of the mountain, but something about the information nagged at me.I sat back and stared at the screen, letting my synesthesia flare to life, but no telltale grays, pinks, or reds appeared on the photo or any of the other information.It was all true, correct, exact, and didn’t contain any typos, mistakes, or outright lies.
My frustration bubbled up yet again, but I pushed it down and called up the video Henrika had sent demanding a full pardon in exchange for Desmond’s return.I hadn’t noticed it before, but the video jostled ever so slightly.A moment later, I realized why: Henrika had shot the video in the SUV that had hauled her up the mountain.
I frowned.Why would she have made the video while she was driving up the mountain?Why not do it in the helicopter when she was flying away?Or after she had reached a secure location?
My eyes narrowed, and I focused on the photo of the dirt road again.That was the last place any of the Section agents had actuallyseenHenrika.Just because the agentsthoughtshe had flown away didn’t make it afact.No one had witnessed Henrika actuallyboardingthe helicopter.She might have used another form of transportation to escape ...or she might not have gone anywhere at all.
As soon as the idea popped into my mind, everything tilted on its axis, and all the disparate pieces of the puzzle rearranged themselves into an entirely new pattern.My heart pounded, and I leaned forward and started typing, my fingers flying over the laptop keys like I was playing a piano concerto.
Gabriel noticed the sudden burst of noise and motion and lowered his phone.“Charlotte?You find something?”
I ignored him and kept typing and clicking, scrolling through one document and photo after another after another, until I found what I wanted.
There—thereit was.
“Coal mines,” I whispered.
Gabriel frowned.“What?What are you talking about?”
I spun the laptop around so he could see the topographical map on the screen.“In our briefing before the mission, Diego mentioned that this area is riddled with abandoned coal mines.That’s one of the reasons Henrika was able to buy so much land so cheaply.No one else wanted it.”
Gabriel shrugged.“Okay.So what?”
I clicked over to a spreadsheet listing the expenses for the construction companies that had worked on the resort.“Henrika spent a fortune upgrading the hotel and the resort grounds.This is all the money she doled out to bring everything up to code.”
Gabriel frowned again, still not seeing it, so I tapped on a couple of the lines on the screen.
