“You’re going after him, then?”
“I don’t have any choice. I have to try and save that woman.” Amarok was about to walk out. He’d never been in more of a hurry. But, at the last second, he remembered that he’d left his new satellite phone, which he was now glad he’d rented despite the expense, in the drawer of his desk. He returned to get it as Phil came in, holding a soda.
Phil didn’t have a chance to say anything; Amarok spoke first. “Phil, can you take over with the manifests? Keep working until you’re done. I don’t care how late it is. No one’ll be safe until we learn Jasper’s alias and track him down. I’ll call you in a few minutes to get the information Andy here is about to give you.”
Phil set his drink on the filing cabinet near the water cooler. “Whoa! What’s happening? Where are you going?”
“I believe Andy just saw Jasper. The guy had an injury and everything.”
“Where’s he at?”
“With any luck, he’s still driving toward the Barrymore cabin.”
“But why would he go there? It’s so burned-out, it’s not safe to go inside.”
“There’s also the woodshed, or that smaller, shack-like cabin behind it. He might even be going to a cabin past those two, which is why I have to get on the road. I can’t let him get too far ahead of me.” He might already be too late, but he had to try.
“Shouldn’t I go with you?” Phil asked. “I don’t think it’s safe to go alone. We know what this guy is capable of.”
Amarok shook his head. “Makita will go with me, right, boy?”
His dog had jumped to attention the second he’d started to put on his coat.
“Besides, I’m not some defenseless woman who’s been bound and gagged,” Amarok added. “I have no doubt I can take him one-on-one, and you need to keep working on the manifests, just in case I can’t find him.” He started for the door again, but this time it was the memory of Sandy Ledstetter swinging from a tree in the middle of town while Bishop went after Evelyn that made him pause. He couldn’t leave Evelyn alone, wouldn’t take that risk, regardless of what he had to do for his job. “Actually, I’ve changed my mind, Phil.” He glanced at his watch. “Don’t worry about the manifests right now. Evelyn’s heading home to make dinner. Can you go over and stay with her until I get back?”
“Why don’t I do that?” Andy piped up. “I don’t know anything about these manifests you’re talking about, so I can’t help there, but I could certainly keep Evelyn company for a few hours.”
Amarok felt a wave of relief. He knew Evelyn didn’t care for Andy Smith, but Smith was one of her COs—he was still in uniform—so at least she’d feel safe with him. Besides, she’d had dinner with Andy and Brianne last Saturday. Surely she could bear a few more hours of his company. “That’d be great,” he said. “I’ll check in when I can.”
28
Evelyn was eager to get home. She wanted to help Amarok with those manifests, wanted to be sure the night ended with an answer one way or another. Either they established that there was at least one person who’d made all three flights—to San Diego, Boston and Phoenix—or they established that they’d have to try something else.
She had her mind on that, so when James came into her office while she was packing up to leave and asked when they could schedule Mary Harpe for some of their studies she tried to put him off until she was prepared to deal with that.
“Let’s give her a chance to settle in first,” she told the neurologist as she slid files into her briefcase. She probably wouldn’t have time to update them—due to what she hoped to accomplish with those manifests—but she was taking them home, anyway.
“Why?”
She heard the slight whine in his voice and couldn’t help being irritated. “Because I haven’t even gotten a feel for her yet. There’s no rush.”
“For crying out loud, Evelyn! What difference does getting ‘a feel for her’ make?”
“I don’t know. I guess…” She shook her head. “I’m sorry. I’m too distracted right now, not ready to make a decision.”
“You’ve been distracted a lot lately.”
She closed her briefcase. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Rumor has it you’re thinking of leaving Hanover House.”
With a sigh, she rested her hands on top of her briefcase. She hadn’t made that announcement to the mental health team because she wasn’t sure what she was going to do. Nothing had been finalized. “I have some personal issues that I might have to attend to. But nothing’s been decided quite yet.”
“If you do leave, who’ll take the lead here at Hanover House?”
She lifted her eyebrows. “Are you hoping to replace me?”
“Someone will have to do it. Why not me? I feel I’m the most qualified.”
“Except that you’re always talking about leaving yourself. What about your wife? I thought she hated Alaska.”
“She can hold out.”
Suddenly Annie could be tough? He’d acted as though he was on the verge of quitting so many times. “Provided you have sufficient power here?”
“If I have power over my own career and can actually publish my findings, it’d be worth it.”
Evelyn checked the clock. It was five fifteen. She’d told Amarok she’d make dinner and didn’t want to be late in case he was hungry. “James, I can’t deal with this right now. I promise, when things calm down, we’ll have a meeting, and we’ll discuss everyone’s goals and desires, as well as their limitations.”
“And when do you think that’ll happen?”
“James, I—” She caught herself before she snapped at him. “Look, I found out today, only a few hours ago, that Jasper is indeed in the area.”
He seemed taken aback. “You did?”
“Yes. So forgive me if I’m a bit scattered or abrupt. You’d be a little rattled, too, if the person who’d slit your throat and left you for dead twenty-two years ago—and tried to kill you again far more recently—had come back to finish the job.”
“I’m sorry. But you haven’t even mentioned that, so how was I to know?”
“I’m coping as best I can. I need you to do the job you were hired to do and be patient a little while longer.”
“Okay. But if you do decide to leave, will you put my name forward with Janice?”
Evelyn couldn’t believe his self-interest but managed to refrain from firing him on the spot. “I’ll think about it,” she said, and slipped past him on her way out. She knew she should also alert the rest of the team to Jasper’s presence and probably should’ve done that first thing. But she could feel the clock ticking. If they couldn’t come up with some way to identify who Jasper was so they could catch him, nothing else—at least for her—would ever matter again.
*
Bambi had kicked off her high heels and left them in the car, so her feet were freezing. “Hurry up. I can’t even feel my toes!”
Mason Anderson, one of the bartenders who worked with her at Dick’s, was hunched over the lock on Andy Smith’s back door while she stood behind him, keeping an eye out to make sure they weren’t going to get caught. “I’m working as fast as I can. Would you like to try it?”
“If I could do it myself, I wouldn’t need you,” she muttered, but she’d never have come back here alone. There was something about Andy Smith that’d frightened her the last time she’d seen him, some … evil in his eyes he’d managed to hide before. Remembering how he’d looked at her—with such loathing and disgust—right before he slammed the door in her face still gave her goose bumps. She wasn’t sure why he’d relented and thrown that twenty at her, but she could tell it had nothing to do with compassion.
“If you don’t get us in soon, we’ll have to give up.” She was too nervous, felt as though she was about to have a heart attack.