Page 52 of Just Right

He called her back, now feeling his heart racing with urgency. But Cami didn't pick up.

Connor clenched his fists, his fingers digging into his palms as he listened to the phone ring and ring and ring.

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

Cami had figured it out. At least, she thought she had. She was pretty sure she now knew how he'd tracked—or was tracking—Jayne. And since it was evident that he had non-specialized IT knowledge, Cami now understood the other ingredient he'd used in this deadly mix.

Patience.

Because with all these intertwining trails and so many possible routes through the forest, it made sense that Jayne must be a creature of habit. For the killer to have gone in after her, he must have known where she'd be going. And that was because, like many people, Jayne would publish her exercise routes online.

Maybe she did the same route every time she taught at that school,Cami thought, now intent on exploring this idea. Or maybe she alternated, doing one route one day a week and the other the other day.

Whatever it was, she was now searching back in Jayne's archives, looking for a published route that she was now confident would be there. And, to her incredulous relief, she found one from a week ago. It wasn’t in her main feed, which is why she hadn’t seen it earlier. It was hidden away in an album entitled, “Vistas.”

"I do love this walk! What a fabulous view it gives from the top of the hill! My post-coaching ritual!"Jayne had posted, exactly a week ago, with a photo of a forest hilltop surrounded by a sea of trees.

And alongside that happy comment, she'd posted a diagram of the route, just like many people did online when they wanted to show the world, or their followers, how far they’d walked.

Immediately, looking at it, Cami saw a big problem. This route hadn't been taken by Connor or his partner. They'd been discussing where to go, and they had picked the two trails that led in the most direct way back to Jayne's house.

This route was horrendously complicated. It wound its way through the trees, sometimes seeming to veer off the tracks entirely. There was no way anyone logical could have followed it, and that was because it wasn't a logical route, it was a customized route.

Devised through years of walking the woods, Jayne had chosen this because she liked it the best. Clearly, it met her demands for the distance, the elevation, and the view.

But it also satisfied someone else's needs. Because it was the ideal route for someone—armed with the basic technology Cami had seen—to monitor Jayne's movements.

And the killer was using that route.

He must have monitored her,Cami thought, feeling sick as she considered it. He'd watched Jayne posting her cheerful maps and photos, and he'd decided that it was his own route too. He'd tracked Jayne, and he'd memorized the route.

"Connor! He has to know," Cami gasped.

She called him immediately, punching in the number, waiting impatiently for the call to connect. But there was only a busy signal.

Cami sighed in frustration. Connor must be on another call. Connecting with the office, perhaps some kind of breakthrough had come in. But this couldn't wait. This was way too important.

And the problem was that from the direction they had gone, both Connor and the other team would be too far away.

She was closer.

She tried Connor again, but still no reply, and that meant she had to make a tough decision.She could at least go,Cami thought. She had to try to help. There was no way she could sit here now that she had discovered this bombshell. Every moment that passed could mean life or death for Jayne as she walked her beloved forest tracks.

Cami knew that she was going to have to head out alone. Hopefully, Connor would call her back as soon as he could, but in the meantime, she left a quick voicemail message saying she was heading out.

Taking a deep breath, Cami snapped open the locks and climbed out of the police car.

She felt exposed and scared. No technology, no IT knowhow, could help her now. She was feet on the ground, just like Connor, and she was realizing how vulnerable this left her.

She didn't have a gun. Not that a gun would be of any use to her. She'd be more likely to shoot herself in the foot than disable a criminal. Her only advantage was that Becker didn't know she was coming.And maybe, seeing she was just one woman on her own and not an obvious cop, that would give her a chance to get there in time, quickly and quietly, to rescue Jayne.

Her mouth dry with fear, Cami looked around her.

She was in the upper valley. It was a wide, open area, with a lake glinting in the distance. But she was going to have to go up an embankment and through a dense copse of trees.

Cami put her phone in her pocket. She put her laptop in the trunk of the car, took out the keys from the ignition, and locked it.

Then she set off up the hill, with the coordinates and route of Jayne's map fixed in her mind.

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