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“Do you want another cup of coffee?”

“Yeah, sure, thanks. Okay, I’m looking up more about Helen. Oh, wow, according to Facebook, she is Harvey’s sister.”

“So she’s Wendell’s cousin. They’re all involved in it, or at least knew about it.”

“Yeah, I agree.” She tried calling Pierre again, but there was still no answer. “I still can’t get through to Pierre. What do you think is going on with him? I would think he would be home at some point. Although if he’s involved in the kidnapping for ransom scheme, as in he gets a cut of the money, he could have left the state already.”

“Right. He would have taken his cut and hightailed it out of there. He wouldn’t have any need to rejoin the other conspirators. Though it might make him guilty of a conspiracy to commit fraud if he defrauded a company or individual to obtain the ransom money in the first place.”

“I agree. I’ve pulled up his car license number. We can issue a BOLO to be on the lookout for his Mercedes because he still might be a victim. Wendell and his men might have taken him hostage and disposed of him somewhere. We don’t know.” She closed her laptop.

But Andy bet that Pierre was one of the bad guys.

“Let’s go check out some security video footage at the service station to see who might have tampered with my car if it was done there.”

“I’m ready.” He grabbed their coats and carefully helped her into hers.

She was still in pain when she gingerly pushed her hand through her coat sleeve, and he could tell her back was hurting her again by the way she winced.

Once they arrived at the mini-mart service station, they went inside and asked for the security camera video.

“Sure,” the manager said. “Hey, Trooper MacMathan, we heard what a mess it was out there.”

“Yeah, lots of people were in accidents. We were looking for security video on this date when FBI Special Agent Monica O’Connell’s SUV was getting gas.”

“Right there!” the manager said. “She filled up her vehicle and then came in to buy a few things—a bottle of water, protein bars, and some jerky.”

“You were holding out on me,” Andy said to Monica.

She smiled. “I ate the jerky on the way to crash into you. Sorry.”

Andy examined the video further. “So you moved your SUV to the parking area in front of the service station there.”

“Right. I never leave my vehicle at the gas pump after I’m done in case someone needs to use the pump.”

“So you were on your phone while the gas was filling the tank.”

“Yes.”

“I didn’t see anyone near your vehicle while you were getting gas.”

“No. But when I went inside the station?—”

“Someone slipped between your vehicle and a van. He didn’t get into the van, but he crouched down and disappeared,” Andy said.

“Right there. As tall and bulky as he is, he is wearing a black parka with red fur around the collar. That’s Teague, one of the men with Wendell.”

“Yeah, that’s who I thought it was. Then right there, he’s behind your vehicle and heading toward?—”

“That truck with the camper. Wendell’s truck. God. Here they were sabotaging my SUV all along, and I never had a clue.”

“And they knew you were going to Helen’s rescue because you talked with Pierre about the kidnapping.”

“Exactly.” She couldn’t believe Pierre would set her up to possibly die so that other agents would think she was handling the case until she had backup.

She got a call from one of her fellow agents. “Hey, did you get the lot of them?”

“No. I was calling to give you an update. They were long gone by the time we reached the motel, but they left a lot of handcuffs at the cabin.”