Part 12 (2/2)
Catherine and Jan looked at each other. Jan took the photo the corporal was trying to return to her, as if holding it any longer was going to get him in trouble.
”Maybe I'm not understanding something,” Jan said. ”You've got a bunch of folks back there who have paid money to run around in the woods with you guys for the weekend and you won't let me back there to find one of them because...why? Is there something going on there you don't want people to see?”
”If you would stay right here, ladies.”
Watson stepped away a few yards and turned his back before speaking into his radio. He returned to them with more confidence.
”Someone will be here shortly to answer your questions.”
”Thank you, Corporal,” Catherine said. ”You've been most helpful.”
Watson took up a post a few yards down the trail as it started to narrow into the woods. Jan considered barging by him and running toward the training camp, but knew he was just the first in a line of defense. She could feel this camp's difference from the other two she'd visited. There was an air of caution and paranoia, which meant answers wouldn't come easily from any member of the Fifth. It also meant they'd climbed right into the top spot of likely places Maddy would be found.
”Do you think our girl is here?” Catherine whispered to her. ”It seems a b.l.o.o.d.y odd spot for a young girl to run away to.”
Jan paused. She didn't know if she wanted to start talking about the case with Catherine. She was mad at her. But she was also thrilled. No one had ever done anything like this for her.
”I'm going to hold my thoughts until we talk to whoever they're sending out here. I'm not convinced that so-called corporal hasn't seen Maddy before, though.”
They stood awkwardly for another ten minutes before a burly man in a sergeant's uniform came running up from the trail. His face was red and his forehead wrinkled in a frown as he spotted Jan and Catherine. He wore a sidearm on his belt and had an a.s.sault rifle slung across his shoulder. He didn't look like he was playing soldiers. He was a soldier.
”You ladies have a problem here?” he asked. There would be no preliminaries with this fellow.
Jan looked at his s.h.i.+rt tag. ”Sergeant Drecker? My name is Jan Roberts. I'm investigating the disappearance of someone and we have reason to believe she may be training with you this weekend. We'd like to take a look to see if she's here.”
Jan handed the photo over and watched carefully as he peered at it. Drecker was still breathing heavily from his run, but there was no change in his stony face as he handed it back to Jan.
”I have no idea why you're looking here, lady, but I've never seen that girl.”
”That girl is a minor, Sergeant. She has parents who are worried sick about her. You can understand that we would feel more comfortable having a look ourselves.”
Drecker made quite a show of hocking up some spit and sending it flying to the right of where Jan stood. Catherine had an amused look on her face.
”Not going to happen. This is private property, and unless you have some kind of warrant, I'm not letting you back there. You're going to have to take my word that your girl isn't here.”
”Is it a warrant you want?” asked Jan. ”I think I can arrange for that, but of course it will mean that I'm accompanied by the local sheriff. That might be interesting for you. I mean, I'm just looking for a girl. But law enforcement? They might be interested in all kinds of things you guys have back there.”
Drecker stepped in closer and leaned toward Jan. ”Believe me, lady. We are not worried about what the local sheriff might find. If you can get the judge to get you a warrant on a Sunday, by all means come on back and I'll give you the tour. Until then, I'll ask you to leave our property.”
The corporal was standing right behind Drecker, ready to act if necessary. Jan sighed and slipped one of her cards into Drecker's s.h.i.+rt pocket. ”I can see you're going to force us to do this the hard way. We'll be back.” Jan and Catherine turned to leave.
Drecker turned back toward the trail, breaking into a double-time trot. The corporal took up a post at the trailhead.
Catherine followed Jan to her Jeep.
”I don't know what sort of reactions you got at the other camps you visited,” Catherine said, ”but it feels to me like they know who she is.”
”Yep.” Jan unlocked her car and started to climb in.
”Wait! What are you doing?”
”I'm getting in my car. Get in if you want.”
Catherine settled herself in the pa.s.senger seat and looked around the inside of the car. It was spotless.
”Pretty spic-and-span for an investigator's car,” she said.
Jan didn't reply. She picked up her phone and hit the speed dial for Peet. The call went to voice mail. ”Peet, it's me. I'm sitting up here in Michigan with Catherine in my car. Interested to hear from you how the f.u.c.k that happened. Call me.”
”I thought I just explained to you how this happened,” Catherine said.
”Excuse me if I don't take your word for much right now.”
Catherine looked dismayed. ”I know we need to talk. I'm not sure what happened, but between the time I last saw you in the conference room, which was so lovely, and now, something has become very tangled. But we need to decide what to do here about Maddy. What do you think?”
Jan's knuckles were white on the steering wheel, as if she were maneuvering a Grand Prix course instead of standing still in a parking lot. She took a deep breath.
”Do you feel like a walk in the woods?” she asked.
Catherine smiled. ”That would be brilliant. Let's go find our girl.”
Chapter Seven.
David joined Maddy and Kristi's squad for the afternoon session on hand-to-hand combat. They were covered with mud after a half hour of practicing break and rolls, their cammies still wet from a disaster in the wetlands ambush session earlier in the day. Maddy lay on the ground and thought if she had to stand up one more time, she'd find a way to take a rifle b.u.t.t to Sergeant Cooper's head.
David lay sprawled next to Maddy, a smile on his face as he looked over at her. ”Isn't this great?”
”I'd rather be coding,” she said.
”Come on, Maddy. You can't live your whole life in your head. This is good for you. We're going to be a cohesive unit out in Idaho.”
She looked at him and shook her head. ”If you say so. It seems to me we'd be better off learning how to chop wood and plant seeds than learning about choke holds and pressure points. But call me crazy.”
Sergeant Cooper ordered them up for the next round of exercises. Kristi groaned and hauled herself up. ”All I know is I could eat an entire elk right now. I already know how to field dress and butcher it, so I've got that covered for us.”
She leaned over to give Maddy a hand up. ”Come on, you wimp. Let's practice some more of that close quarters stuff. It's fun.”
They lined up facing each other, half the people with dummy knives in their hands, the other half crouched to ward off the attack. Maddy worried a little at the gleam in Kristi's eye as she stood across from her. Tommy was next to her, standing more slumped than crouched. He stared at David across from him and looked like he was just waiting to be impaled.
Kristi was just moving in with her knife when Sergeant Drecker ran up to their group and pulled David out of the line, holding him by the elbow.
”Sergeant Cooper, dismiss your squad.”
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