“But not if they were driven away in a vehicle?” Cynthia asked.
“No, if they were driven away, we are going to have to go back to the original plan of searching the forest grid by grid.” Guy indicated the direction of the farmhouse. “I suggest we get moving. We’ll set up camp in the forest, near enough to the farmhouse to sense if anyone visits, but far enough that no one will know we’re there.”
“Unless they’re a shifter,” Liam added.
“Unless they are a shifter,” Guy agreed. “But there is no scent of a shifter in the immediate vicinity of the farmhouse.”
“What about the truck?” Cynthia asked. Where it was parked now, it might as well have a big neon arrow pointing at it to tell people they were here.
“Once we have everything unloaded, I’ll drive to the diner we passed a few miles back and leave it there. I’m sure the owner won’t mind if I pay him for his trouble,” Hunter told Cynthia.
“We passed a diner?” Cynthia asked, her stomach rumbling at the thought of food. Yes, she’d certainly gone soft in these last couple of months. Before that she’d go hours, days if necessary, without food as she hiked to some remote area of the world or hid out waiting to capture criminal activities on camera.
“We did. I’ll grab you something to go,” Hunter offered.
“It’s okay, I’m fine,” she insisted.
“You could grab us all something to go,” Liam suggested. “I’m starved.”
“I’ll get what I can,” Hunter said as he helped unload the last of the equipment out of the truck.
“You go, we’ll get this moved to the farmhouse,” Guy said. “Meet us there as soon as you can. With food.”
“The boss man has spoken,” Hunter said, giving Guy a quick salute.
“This is going to be a fun trip,” Cynthia stated as she pulled her own pack out from the pile of other equipment.
“You have no idea.” Hunter kissed her cheek and then jumped into the truck, started the engine and drove away back down the road. A road she had no recollection of. She rubbed her forehead, at least she was feeling better now, more like her usual self. The sleep had done her good, and since she wasn’t sure when she might get another good sleep, she was not complaining.
“Let’s split the equipment down,” Guy ordered. “We should be able to move it to the farmhouse in one go.”
“Why didn’t Hunter drive the truck there?” Cynthia asked as she hauled another pack toward her.
“Don’t overload yourself,” Guy instructed. “We don’t know what surveillance they might have around here. If we cut through the trees, we can keep ourselves out of view of anyone watching the trail leading to the farmhouse. But that means covering some uneven terrain.”
“Since this might be a trap, we’re being extra cautious,” Liam explained.
“Don’t we want to spring any trap they might have set?” Cynthia asked. “If we deal with any threat first, that makes it easier to look for the children afterward.”
“True, but we want to spring the trap on our terms,” Guy said. “Which means we have set our own trap.”
“That’s the plan?” Cynthia asked. “A trap of our own?”
“That depends on what we find.” Guy stopped arranging his own pack and stood up straight, his hands on his hips. “There’s so much we don’t know right now. But we’re going to work our hardest to find the children. We just have to be patient.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I know how these things work. I’m normally extremely patient…”
“But this is too close to home.” Guy nodded, his expression clouded. Did he wish they’d left Cynthia back in Bear Creek?
Cynthia decided it was time to stop asking questions and get moving instead. The long drive had eaten into their daylight hours and they didn’t want to get caught up in any kind of ambush in the dark. However, they had to make sure they weren’t missing anything at the farmhouse. One small vital clue could be all that stood between finding Horatio and the others, and them being lost forever.
They split the packs down, with Cynthia carrying much less than her fair share, but there was no way she would make it to the farmhouse with more weight on her back. However, Guy and Liam seemed to manage easily, it was as if the packs weighed nothing at all.
“Super strength and super senses,” Liam joked as they set off toward the farmhouse, crossing through the forest at a roughly forty-five-degree angle.
“Impressive.” Cynthia could only imagine what it must be like to have enhanced muscles and be able to shift into another creature. “Does it hurt?”
“Does what hurt?” Liam asked. “Shifting?”
“Yes, when you change from human to bird, does it hurt?” She could only imagine how weird it would be to have feathers popping out of your skin.
“No, I don’t change. I don’t morph into something else. It’s like we both exist at the same time but only one of us can be present in the world at a time,” he explained.
“Wow. So your other side, your other self goes to like an alternate universe?” Cynthia asked, unable to switch off her reporter’s brain.
“Something like that.” Liam suddenly stopped. So did Guy.
Cynthia’s heart raced as she listened, but all she could hear was the sound of the forest all around them. She itched to ask what they’d heard, but she knew when to ask questions and when to keep her mouth shut. This was one of those keep your mouth shut times.
“To the north,” Liam hissed.
Guy nodded and turned his body to face what Cynthia presumed was north. “I can sense it. Faint, very faint.”
“What?” Cynthia asked quietly.
“There’s something out there,” Liam whispered.
She strained her ears to hear. She strained what she assumed was her sixth sense, the part of her that told her if something was wrong. Nothing.
“It’s gone.” Guy relaxed and hitched the pack up on his shoulder and carried on walking. “Let’s get to the farmhouse.”
The pace was faster now, and Cynthia struggled to keep up with them, but she forced her legs to work harder, her lungs to breathe deep. There was no way she was going to hold them back and slow them down. However, she was relieved when the farmhouse came into view and Guy signaled for them to stop.
Cynthia fell in behind Liam and stopped walking, grateful for the chance to catch her breath. Again she pushed her senses to their utmost, again she could hear nothing.
“All clear. We’ll go to the edge of the clearing and dump most of the packs. If it’s still all clear, we’ll go into the farmhouse and start our search. Cynthia, if you have any information about the case that might help what we see in there, let us know.” Guy ducked under a low branch and stalked across the clearing, which had once been the vegetable garden where the farmer grew food for his family. The previous owner would never have guessed how his home would be used by a future purchaser.
Cynthia had details on all the past owners. During the investigation, Cynthia had gone through the past history of the farmhouse thoroughly, including vetting all of the past owners and their families. She’d built up a picture of the farmhouse that told her it had once been a profitable working farm. However, ten years ago the farm had fallen into disrepair and the once fertile land became overgrown. The encroaching forest had soon claimed back the land and new trees had rooted and thick shrubs had spread.
It had made a perfect hideout for Cracol’s men. Isolated and forgotten, it was not a place many people passed, either by accident or on purpose.
“Are you okay?” Liam asked as he followed Guy out into the clearing, while Cynthia hung back under the protective canopy of the trees.
“Yes. The place just gives me the creeps.” She shuddered. “When I visited here it felt as if I was looking into the very depths of hell.” Cynthia took a step forward and then another. “I don’t think I’d ever really seen evil until I came here.”
“Did you visit any of the other sites where the children w
ere held?” Liam asked as he walked with her toward the farmhouse. His voice might be soft and gentle, but his senses were trained on the area around them. He was on high alert but was good at hiding it.
“A couple of others. But nothing like this.” She pulled the strap of her pack forward, easing the strain on her shoulder. “Did you work undercover?”
He swung his head around to look at her, his eyes narrowed. “How did you guess?”
“You’re good at masking your actions. Your emotions. You put a shield up around yourself.” Cynthia gave a short laugh. “Maybe it takes one to know one. I’ve been undercover. It’s how I cracked this case. But luckily I didn’t have to abduct a child to gain their trust.”
“I’ve done some things I’m not proud of in order to earn the trust of some very bad men. I know it was the right thing to do, but that doesn’t make it sit any easier. But I don’t think I could live with myself if I’d had to abduct a child, or seriously hurt anyone else, either physically or mentally. But I know people who have. And those people have brought an end to unimaginable reigns of terror.”
“The higher the reward, the harder the risk.” She stopped ten feet away from the farmhouse. Police tape circled the house, it looked untouched since the police had raided it. Yet according to Liam and Guy, someone had been here recently. But who? And why?
“If you want to wait here, we understand,” Liam said.
“No. I’m here to see this through to the end.” Cynthia took a deep breath and braced herself for what they would find inside.
Liam walked on ahead and she followed, picking her way over the rocks which were part of a half-ruined wall that once kept the cows off the farmer’s beans. She could picture the house in its former days, she could see the vegetables growing and hear the sound of children laughing. Screwing up her eyes, she shut out the other images that tried to force their way in. The same images that often haunted her dreams.
Children, scared and alone.
“Cynthia.” Guy’s call brought her back to the real world. She took a moment to appreciate the sun on her face before she pulled herself together and put on her professional persona, the one who could deal with anything life threw at her. She was no longer just Cynthia, mom to Thomas and Laurel. She was Cynthia Callaghan, a woman who had brought crime lords to their knees and would do so again if it meant saving lives.
Chapter Fourteen – Hunter
Hunter reached the farmhouse and found the others waiting for him outside. Cynthia looked pale, but there was a firmness in her expression, a steeliness to her eyes he hadn’t seen before.
“Food?” Hunter passed around the food he brought from the diner to the subdued people before him. “That bad?”
“That bad,” Guy confirmed. “Although we’ve only done a peripheral search. But there’s something about the building...a sense of misery.”
“Eat, you’ll feel better,” Hunter instructed Cynthia, who held her food in her hand, but hadn’t taken a bite.
“I doubt anything is going to make us feel better,” Liam told Hunter. “But you are right, we need to eat. This is just the beginning and we have no idea what we’ll find, either in here or out there.”
Cynthia nodded in agreement and bit into the large filled baguette he’d bought from the owner at the diner. The woman had also given him some useful information. Information that he needed to share.
“Wendy, the owner of the diner, was helpful,” Hunter began. “It seems she has been taking more notice of who comes and goes along the highway since she found out what was happening here.”
“She has?” Cynthia asked. “Wendy Bloom was one of the people the police interviewed, she said she hadn’t been aware of any suspicious activity at the farmhouse. But she did recognize some of the men the police arrested. She told the police in charge of investigating the trafficking ring, that these men used to come by every couple of weeks. Wendy thought they were traveling salesmen, and this was their route. There was no reason for her to connect them with the farmhouse since she believed it was still abandoned.”
“Has she seen anyone suspicious in the last few days?” Guy asked.
“She isn’t sure.” Hunter paused and looked up at the house. “But on Thursday she served a couple of guys who were in a phone company van. They said they were doing work in the area, but she said the area is covered by a different utility company. When she tried to question them further, they clammed up.”
“Could be unconnected to this place,” Guy pointed out.
“It could. Except while she was telling me, one of her regular diners said he saw tire tracks leading down to the farmhouse on the same day. Fresh ones. He thought the sheriff had been back to the farmhouse.” Hunter watched as Cynthia ate, pleased to see the color back in her cheeks.
“We should find out if they have.” Guy reached for his phone.
“I already have. Wendy kindly called the local sheriff to check if he’d sent anyone down to the farmhouse lately. He said no one from the local police force had checked there for a week or so. She asked him if the detective in charge of the case had been back. He said not as far as he was aware and that if the detective dealing with the case had sent someone here, he would have informed the local sheriff as a matter of respect.”
“Good work. So the simple answer is the guys from the phone company came here. They’re the ones that left the tracks.” Guy fell silent as he thought this over.
“That would tie in with the fresh scent we picked up before.” Liam eyed the farmhouse warily. “The question is, what were they doing here?”
“Only one way to figure that out.” Cynthia stood up. “We won’t find it sitting here.”
“So we’re looking for some kind of device that might tip them off that we’ve arrived. Or that you have arrived.” Guy pointed at Cynthia.
“But who is setting this trap?” Liam asked as he stood up and stretched. “Cracol? I don’t see what he has to gain. If he wanted to hurt you, he would go after your children.”
“Maybe that’s what the plan is. Once they know I’m here, they go after the kids.” Cynthia’s face paled.
“We’re only going to find out if we spring the trap,” Hunter didn’t like this one bit. However, he didn’t want Cynthia living her life forever looking over one shoulder to whatever or whoever might lurk in the darkness. “Flint and Jenna can keep the children safe.”
“I know.” Cynthia inhaled deeply and then let it out slowly as she fought to control her panic.
“So let’s go and find the trap.” Guy got up and headed toward the farmhouse. “Where were the children kept?”
“They were kept in the cellar underneath a trapdoor in the kitchen,” Cynthia pulled out her phone and scrolled across the screen. “Here are the photos I took at the time.”
The three men crowded around and looked at the photographs on Cynthia’s phone. They showed a trapdoor which had once been covered with an old rug with a table positioned on top of it. The whole imaged depicted a house that had been left to rot. However, the next images showed the trapdoor open, and modern soundproofing installed to mask any noise from the cellar below.
The next set of images were of the stairs leading down into the cellar, which was dark and unlit. Except for the soundproofing, there was no indication of what the next images showed. As Cynthia swiped through the images, they descended down the stairs and into the cellar. There, the floor area had been divided up into eight small cells.
“The images do nothing to describe the smell and the feeling of hopelessness,” Cynthia told them. “We’d hoped to find the children who had been shut in these pens, but they were gone, and the pens hastily cleaned out.”
“But the police were sure this was part of the operation?” Liam asked.
“Yes, there was human waste found in the drains, plus some blood samples were taken from the walls.” Cynthia put her phone away, as if unable to look at the images any longer. “They never matched them to any missing children.”
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“But you matched an item of clothing to Horatio?” Guy asked, even though they had discussed it before. It was as if he were going over the facts and sifting through them in his head.
“Yes. There was a jacket worn by Horatio the day he disappeared. There was also a toy, a plastic dinosaur which the parents of one of the other children, Joey Leonard, said was his favorite toy. He wouldn’t leave home without it. Joey disappeared from a local park two months ago.”
“You didn’t mention Joey when we discussed people who might be behind the letter.” Guy studied Cynthia closely.
“They are not responsible for the letter,” Cynthia said firmly. “They were grateful the child trafficking ring was broken. They never held me responsible for not finding Joey.”
“And you are certain they couldn’t be hiding their true feelings from you?” Guy pressed Cynthia, who shook her head firmly.
“Cynthia has a good feel for people,” Liam told Guy.
“Does she?” Hunter sounded jealous of Liam’s assessment of his mate. Hunter never got jealous. “Sorry, I’m not sure what came over me.”
“The mating bond has that effect on a shifter.” Liam brushed it off. “But Cynthia did figure out I’d been undercover. Which leads me to believe she would pick up on anything off about Joey’s parents.”
“I met them a couple of days ago. I’m certain I’d have known if they resented me or wished me harm,” Cynthia insisted. “In the same way I knew it wasn’t Michaela as soon as I spoke to her.”
“Good point.” Guy turned his attention to the farmhouse once more. “Let’s go in carefully. If someone has set a trap here, it would seem likely they would set it down or around the basement.”
“Since that’s where I’d naturally go to if I wanted to find out more about this operation,” Cynthia agreed.
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