by Lisa Harris
Madison was quiet as Jonas pulled out of the parking lot and turned down Main Street behind the sheriff and his deputies. “What are you thinking?” he asked her.
“There’s something still bothering me.”
“What’s that?”
Madison drew quiet for a moment. “We’re assuming he’s either going to try and disappear, which isn’t easy. Or leave the country, which also isn’t easy, but would make more sense long term. Instead, he decides to go into hiding in a place where there is no cell service or internet. Only a landline, which is going to make it very difficult for him to plan anything.”
“Maybe he thought coming here would give him a few days off the grid to make a plan. Either option would need to be thought out.”
“And he’ll need help.”
“Someone besides Mary Margaret?” he asked.
“If he’s looking to change his identity, he’ll need someone else who can get him new IDs while he waits here.”
“Agreed, but who would he go to?”
“I don’t know. Someone he was in prison with or someone he knew before prison?”
“Which narrows it down to what . . . a few dozen people, maybe more?”
All he knew was that this cabin was their best shot at the moment.
“It’s beautiful out here, isn’t it?” she said, staring out the window as if trying to soak up some of the beauty of the place.
“Extremely.”
“Makes it tempting to forget why we’re here. My father used to make trips out to southern Wyoming or Colorado to go hunting with his brother every other year or two. He loved the Northwest, but always said some of the best hunting he’d done was out here.”
“What did he like to hunt?”
“Typically elk,” Madison said.
“What about you?” Jonas enjoyed the momentary distraction. “You said you did some hunting with your dad growing up. Did you ever come out here with him?”
“He never took me on one of those trips. I think my uncle didn’t want a kid hanging around. And now that my dad doesn’t hunt anymore, I lost my partner.”
“Sounds like he was quite a man.”
“He was.” She paused. “He is. It’s tough watching him forget.”
“You should bring him back here. No matter how much he’s forgotten, I bet it would make him happy.”
She smiled. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of that before. I have been thinking a week’s vacation in the wilderness sounds like a bit of heaven. But I’m not talking about hunting. I’m talking about a roaring fire, snow falling outside while I’m cuddled up in a thick blanket, reading a good book. Hot chocolate and takeout.”
A picture of her snuggled next to him in front of a fire in one of these cabins surfaced unexpectedly. Legs pulled up beneath her. Hair down around her shoulders. He’d always been impressed with her work ethic, but he’d only seen her on the go. She’d always been professional and focused, but today he’d seen another side of her. The side that didn’t see her job as a simple checklist but truly cared about the lives that had gotten tangled up in the situation. And it had left him realizing that she was the kind of person he simply enjoyed being around.
He shoved away the image. There was nothing personal about his relationship with Madison, nor did he ever intend there to be. They were too similar—too driven and too focused on their careers—and would end up driving each other crazy. And he knew the danger of falling for people he worked with. That was something he wasn’t going to let happen again.
“Michaels said we’d make a good team,” he said.
“Really?”
“With my experience and your ability to read people. He was right.” He shifted his thoughts, trying to keep them professional only, but realized he was failing. “I saw you with Mary Margaret. You had both the patience and insight to finally get her to talk.”
“Did you just give me a compliment?”
“Just say thank you.”
“Thank you.” She smiled. “I have to say, it’s hard not to feel sorry for the girl. She clearly made some really bad decisions. She seems so lost and empty and for whatever reason thought Barrick was going to be able to fill that void.”
“That seems to happen a lot. But on the other hand, she chose to lie to us. You can’t blame that on being naive. She wasn’t thinking about what was right, only about saving him.”
“I know, but she just seemed so vulnerable. He used her, and even she has to know that this isn’t going to have a happy ending. Either he goes back to prison, or he spends the rest of his life on the run. Neither is something she should be involved in.”
“I’ve never understood it either, but these men become a project that women want to fix.”
“It’s just sad. I have a feeling Barrick will use anyone he can to make sure he doesn’t get caught.”
Which was exactly what had him worried. As far as he was concerned, Mary Margaret was nothing more than a pawn in Barrick’s game. He’d have no problem using her and then disposing of her. And from what he’d seen, the girl had no idea just how dangerous a situation she’d wound up in the middle of.
“We’re here,” Jonas said, pulling up behind the sheriff’s vehicle.
Any talk of hot chocolate and roaring fires vanished. The cabin sat off of a windy dirt road on the top of a slight rise, giving whoever was inside the house the advantage. They parked the car in a heavily forested area and made their way single file along the edge of the house, wearing bulletproof vests, their weapons ready.
The key element in any raid was surprise. Being prepared was crucial. They were already geared up and ready to move in as Jonas stepped up onto the wraparound porch while the other officers surrounded the cabin. One of the deputies kicked at the door, and they rushed inside, swiftly moving from the open living room to the rest of the two-story cabin in a matter of seconds.
Soon all the rooms were cleared. The cabin was empty.
Frustration ate at Jonas.
There was no sign of Barrick.
But he had to be here somewhere.
Jonas met Madison and Sheriff Fischer back downstairs.
“There were a couple shirts hanging up in the master bedroom and a toothbrush in the bathroom along with some deodorant,” Madison said.
“Maybe he went for a walk,” he said.
She frowned. “He doesn’t really seem like a nature lover.”
“True.” He turned in a slow circle in the middle of the living room. Mary Margaret was still at the station without access to a phone, so she couldn’t have warned him. But then where was he?
Jonas turned to the sheriff. “Have an officer guard the cabin until you can get a forensic team in here to see if you can find anything Barrick might have left behind.”
The sheriff nodded. “I’m on it.”
Madison headed toward the door, then stopped.
“What is it?” he asked.
“He was here. He is here.”
“How do you know that?”
She picked something up off the floor and held it in the palm of her hand. “This was in my backpack.”
He walked across the room to where she was standing, trying to read her expression. Something had shaken her. “What is it?”
“It’s the challenge coin Luke got me when I made it onto the police force.”
His mind reached for an explanation. “Maybe it’s not yours. It could belong to someone who stayed here—”
“No. It’s mine. There’s a prayer on the back, the police officer’s prayer.” She turned it over and held it up. “He had his initials engraved as well. Wanted to remind me that while God was always at my side, so was he. I always keep it in the front pocket of my backpack.”
The one Barrick had taken from her.
Jonas looked around the small room, then opened the closet in the entryway. “Here’s your backpack.”
He set it on the table. “Looks like we have confirmation that Barrick was here. We need to spr
ead out and search the surrounding grounds. This road is a dead end, and we didn’t run into any cars, which means he has to be out there.”
“Mary Margaret couldn’t have warned him,” Madison said.
“Maybe he heard us coming and got spooked.”
“It’s possible he got spooked and ran, but the sheriff said the nearest town is forty miles away. There isn’t even any phone service here, so we’re going to have to assume he saw us coming and is hiding out somewhere. We still don’t know what kind of resources he has. There’s a good chance Mary Margaret’s not the only person helping him.”
Jonas signaled for the sheriff and his deputies. “Our search radius is spreading as we speak, which means time is against us,” he told them. “We need to contain the area which, in turn, will limit the area that needs to be searched. The sheriff has officers stationed at roadblocks on the bridge going out of town, and the south main road.”
Madison stepped up beside him. “Six of us will do a grid search fanning out from here. We need to move as quickly as possible. Carter, I want you to stay here in case he comes back. We need to move out. Now.”
Seventeen
Madison moved forward as they fanned out from the cabin, each step intentional as she paid attention to every sound and movement around her. She could see Jonas to her left through the trees and Deputy Camelia Ferrer to her right. She reached into her pocket and ran the coin between her fingers, irritated at how this case had gotten under her skin. Maybe that was exactly how Barrick wanted her to feel. The threats to her sister’s family, finding the coin at the cabin—he wanted her off balance.
No matter what she wanted to think, the past forty-eight hours had become very personal. But she wasn’t going to let Barrick get into her head, or steal her focus. He was out there, and they were going to find him.
While it was still several hours before sunset, the heavy tree cover looming above left deep shadows around them. A shiver slid through her, but it wasn’t from the dropping temperatures. It felt more like déjà vu, knowing Barrick was out here. Knowing he’d do anything to stop them from finding him.
The terrain they were covering was thick with trees and sprinkled with a few narrow trails, but for the most part was left wild, leaving a feeling of isolation and being almost completely off the grid. But something still seemed wrong about the whole situation. She’d seen Barrick’s profile as she read through his files. Holing up in a cabin and waiting didn’t sound like something he would do. So what was his plan?
If she were Barrick, she would never rely on someone like Mary Margaret to arrange his escape beyond the cash she’d offered him. He was going to need someone who could get him what he needed and quick.
Someone let out a yell to her right. Weapon in hand, Madison hurried through the shadows toward Officer Ferrer, who had been walking parallel to her.
She pulled out her radio. “We’ve got a distress signal from Officer Ferrer. I’m on my way to the location now.”
“Stay alert.”
“Roger that.”
Madison hurried through the thick underbrush. Ferrer had been in her sights only moments before. Now there was no sign of her.
“Officer Ferrer, what’s your status?”
“Do you see her?” Jonas asked over the radio.
“Negative.”
She heard twigs snapping behind her and turned to see Jonas approaching.
“She was there just a few seconds ago, walking parallel to me.”
They found Ferrer a minute later under a tree, holding her ankle.
“I’m sorry.” The officer’s jaw tensed. “I fell, twisted my leg, and now I’m not sure where my radio is, but someone’s out there.”
“Our suspect?”
She nodded. “I didn’t get a good visual, but from what I did see—from his height and build—it very likely is Barrick.”
Madison clicked on her radio. “We’ve got a possible sighting of our suspect, heading north-northeast. We found Officer Ferrer, but she’s injured from a fall.”
Jonas helped Ferrer to her feet. “Do you know if he was armed?”
“No. I’m sorry.”
“That’s okay. We’re going to assume he was.”
“Leave me here. You need to go after him, and I think I can get back.”
Jonas nodded. “Stay here while we go after him. We’ll radio and have someone help you back.”
Madison glanced up at the rain clouds hovering above them and started praying for both wisdom and direction. If a storm came or darkness fell, it was going to be a lot harder to find the man out here.
They converged on the trail and headed in the direction that Ferrer had seen their suspect traveling on foot. So far, Barrick had been ahead of them every step of the way, but all it would take was one misstep by him, and this would be over.
The image of Ryan Phelps’s wife and kids pushed its way to the forefront of her mind, along with the sick feeling she’d had for days. Their job was to get guys like Barrick off the street so things like this didn’t happen. It was too late for Phelps, but she wasn’t going to let Damon Barrick destroy another life.
“Sheriff,” Madison spoke into her radio, “we’re heading in the direction he was moving. Where’s he going?”
“You’re not as isolated as it seems. Two miles in that direction leads to the main road. To the south is a back road, but that’s heading away from any towns. I don’t know how well he knows the area, but if I were him and had the authorities after me, I’d head to the main road and try to flag down a car.”
“What about the roadblocks?”
“If he keeps going east on foot, it’s possible he could miss them, but we could move them farther out a mile or two.”
“Do it.” Madison pocketed her radio and followed along behind her partner.
“Madison,” Jonas said, “fifty feet ahead of us.”
She saw movement, then clicked on her radio. They had him. “Suspect is in view. Still heading toward the main road.”
They picked up their pace and ran across the uneven ground. Once they were close enough, she held up her gun and yelled. “US Marshals. Put your hands where we can see them and turn around now.”
The man paused, then turned around slowly. Her heart sank. It wasn’t Barrick.
“Drop to your knees!”
The man hesitated again, then obeyed, raising his hands in the air and dropping to the ground. “I don’t know who you’re looking for, but I’m just here on holiday. I’m looking for my dog.”
Jonas searched the man for weapons, then took a step back.
“He’s clean.”
“Of course I am. Let me see your badges, then tell me what in the world is going on.”
“What’s your name?” Jonas asked, holding up his badge.
“Mike. Mike Wells. I’m renting a cabin not far from here.”
“Do you have any ID on you?”
“I’m on holiday in the middle of the woods, so no, I don’t have any ID on me.”
Madison met the man’s gaze. “Where are you from?”
“Fort Collins.”
“What are you doing out here?”
“I’m a writer, working on a book. I noticed my dog was missing, so I came out to look for him.”
“We’re looking for a fugitive who escaped a prison transfer. We have reason to believe he’s in the area.” Jonas held up a photo of Barrick on his phone. “Have you seen this man?”
“Wait a minute—an escaped fugitive? Are you kidding?”
“Have you seen him?” Jonas repeated.
“No. I haven’t seen anyone around here for days. Trying to find a little peace and quiet. What did he do?”
“We’re going to escort you back to your cabin,” Madison said without answering his question. She returned her gun to its holster. “It’s not safe out here right now.”
“Hold on. I get the whole ‘it’s not safe out here’ thing, because I’m assuming the two of you wouldn’t be freakin
g out if this guy wasn’t dangerous. And I’m even fine with going back to my cabin. But what about my dog?”
“With a little luck,” Jonas said, “he’ll be waiting for you back at your cabin.”
Madison hurried ahead a few yards and radioed the sheriff. “I need you to do a background check on a Mike Wells. He says he lives in Fort Collins and has rented a cabin nearby.”
“Roger that,” the sheriff said. “The second team is almost to the main road and there is no sign of Barrick.”
“Go ahead and send them back once they’re at the road,” she said.
ddd
Twenty minutes later, they were at the cabin where Mike had been staying. It was directly beside the cabin Mary Margaret had rented for Barrick. The rest of the deputies had met them there, but there was no sign of the convict.
“Here’s my ID,” Mike said, dropping it onto the kitchen table. “And feel free to run a background check on me because you won’t find anything. All I’ve done is write twelve hours a day for the past five days. I was just out looking for my dog, like I said.”
Madison stepped away with the sheriff.
“So his story checks out,” Fischer said. “The cabin owner says he came to work on a book.”
“Any criminal background?”
“Nothing more than a couple speeding tickets. He’s got several books out.” The sheriff checked his notes. “A murder-for-hire series.”
“Sounds like a relaxing read.”
Madison stared out the window toward the house where supposedly Barrick had been staying. Family and friends often lied because they didn’t want their loved one going back to jail. What were they missing?
“We’re going to need to canvass the neighboring cabins. He’s got to be hiding somewhere,” Jonas said as he walked up to them. He turned toward Mike. “Does your dog normally wander off like this?”
“He never has before.”
“He must have run pretty far from your cabin.”
“Which is why he’s lost.”
“What kind of dog do you have?”