Page 88 of Run for Her Life
“I’m looking at it.” Aiden zoomed in on the attachment. Zoe peeked over his shoulder at the map riddled with markings. “This is the lighthouse with the foghorn.” He tapped a spot. “It has woods on the south, east, and north side. On the south side, there is a Forest Service road, here, these double dashed lines. The north is all uphill and dense, so it wouldn’t have been there. But the east side also has dry stream.” His finger circled a blue dashed line with a stream symbol. “If you’re around there, you’d hear the horn echo down the whole valley like a gunshot.”
“I don’t know if I have enough resources to check both those sides.” Ethan sighed. “I’ll have to request help from other counties, unless the FBI can be faster.”
“There has to be a way to narrow it down to at least one side,” Zoe said. “We don’t have time.” She chewed on her thumbagain—a habit she could tell annoyed Aiden. Lisa’s image kept flashing in her mind. “Spector.”
“What?” Aiden said.
“The Cyber Division had gotten back to us after tracking Spector’s IP address down to a certain area.” Zoe pulled up that email on her phone. “There has to be an overlap.”
They huddled over their phones. Due to VPN masking, the net they had cast was too wide. But then Zoe compared it to the woods around the lighthouse. “It’s the woods on the east.”
The greenness was overwhelming. It filled her senses. She felt it everywhere inside her. Just damp, wet, green earth.
The tree line was a black wall against the deepening twilight. Towering Douglas firs and western red cedars crowded the trail, their trunks thick with moss and glistening with rain and their canopies blotting out most of the sky. The scent of wet pine and decaying leaves was rich enough to taste. She felt it coat her tongue.
“Are we close?” she asked Ethan, who seemed to navigate the tangled roots with more swiftness. It was still a big search area with mossy, feathery trees. Over six deputies had joined Zoe and Aiden to search through the woods. They had decided to divide and conquer.
“Just westward here.” He gestured at the path that curved around the slope.
She squinted into the gloom ahead. The rain had come and gone earlier, leaving the forest drenched and silent. So silent that it pressed against her ears. There were no more tracks past this point, just slick underbrush and the uneasy stillness that set her teeth on edge. She couldn’t imagine wandering these woods. The ever-present drizzle alone irritated her.
“I think I see something,” she said.
The ground dipped into a narrow, winding trench where the soil was pale. Exposed roots snaked from the banks like tendrils. Smooth stones and scattered branches. Moss clung to rocks in shaded pockets. Water once rushed through here.
“Do you copy?” Ethan said on his walkie-talkie but there was too much static. “Shit. I can’t hear anyone.”
“I’ll stay here. You try to get someone.”
Ethan disappeared behind her, still talking over his walkie-talkie. As Zoe continued scoping the area, she made a turn and noticed a cabin cloaked in fog. The roof was caved in on one side, the wood soft and gray. Ferns sprouted from the porch and the forest swallowed it whole.
Her hand hovered over her gun in the holster. She crouched low, eyes scanning the clearing. No movement. No sound. She edged closer, boots quiet on the soft ground.
Nothing.
The woods hushed as wind whooshed through. She peered around, searching in the dying light when she saw something.
Her heart kicked.
A few of the trees had a piece of cloth wrapped around the branches. Red cloth with a blue border like it was marking specific spots in the area.
There was something familiar about this. It was tucked somewhere in the folds of her memory. It came to her with a sudden force, every sense on fire.
The scarf Lisa had mentioned finding at home.
Jim Gray.
With a shaking hand, Zoe’s hand went to her phone and then something hit the back of her neck. Sharp and pinching. A dart. An awareness whispered through her mind—she was being hunted.
FIFTY-FOUR
Eyes squeezed closed.
Ragged breathing.
Zoe tripped over a root. Her body fell like her bones were melting.
Her fingers found the dart buried in the back of her neck. She pulled it out and then felt three quick darts shoot into her upper back. “Ah!” A scream leaped out of her throat.
