Page 64 of Fatal Thrill

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“Jon, what is it?”Jaya reached for him, the sudden paling of his face setting off warning bells in her head. Instantly, her stomach cramped and her grip tightened. “Is itFinn?”

He nodded, then shook hishead.

Which wasit?

Jon tried to pull out of her grip, his mouth tense. “Are you sure?” he asked into thephone.

“Is he alive?” Jaya demanded, hanging on to his jacket. “Jon!”

Charlotte, Miles, and Shelby closed the distance. Shelby touched Jaya’s arm in a supportivegesture.

“Hold on, boss.” Jon lowered the phone and placed it next to his chest. His eyes had gone flat and seemed darker here in the shadows. “Rory traced the message sent from Finn’s phone to a place in North Carolina. That’s it. Give me a minute, J, and I’ll give you all the details,okay?”

That’s it. She wasn’t buying it. The look on his face and his body language as he turned his back on her saiddifferent.

“Finn has been in North Carolina this whole time?” Miles asked no one in particular. “What a fakeout.”

“Yeah,” Shelby said, facing Miles. “But did he go back to America on his own or did his kidnappers grab himthere?”

“What’s in North Carolina?” Charlotte asked. “Whythere?”

Why there, indeed. Jaya scanned her memories, coming up blank with anything that tied her dad or any of her family to that remote area of thecountry.

Jon’s shoulders were pulled tight, his feet planted on the stone floor. Even without his Navy whites, he looked like he was standing atattention.

“That makes no sense,” he said into his phone. “It’s just acoincidence.”

Whatwas? She waited impatiently, catching herself tapping her foot against the floor and forcing herself not topace.

Jon nodded as if Beatrice could see him. “We’ll be on the plane before evening, but I’d like to leave Miles and Charlotte here, Shelby too, if she can get an extension from the Bureau, to keep on top of the investigation into Sean and hiswhereabouts.”

Beatrice must have given her okay. Jon said goodbye and disconnected, turning to look atJaya.

“Why do you look like you just saw a ghost?” Jayaasked.

He looked away, eyes still flat,hard.

She took a step toward him. “Jon, why did the kidnappers take Finn to North Carolina and why does that upset you somuch?”

“It’s nothing.” He ran a hand over his face and shook his head. “Looks like Finn’s in Thief River. That’s where the messageoriginated.”

Percy arrived just in time to hear that last bit. “Crime scene techs are on the way.” Behind them, the Gypsy family was packing up. “Does this Thief River have any significance to you,Jaya?”

She shook her head. “Never heard of it, but it seems like a fitting name for something involving my father, doesn’tit?”

Shelby gave her a consoling smile. Jon seemed oblivious to the irony. “It’s a heavily wooded area,” he said. “Veryremote.”

Factual, noemotion.

Jaya felt like the ground under her feet was shifting like sand. She’d never seen Jon so…detached. Machine-like. “You know the place, don’tyou?”

“My father owns a cabin in the woodsthere.”

Again, not a drop of emotion. Probably because it had to do with his father. Whenever he talked about his parents, especially his dad, he shut down. “That’s good, though, isn’t it? You know the area. Your dad can help us findFinn.”

“No, hecan’t.”