Page 89 of Trail to Trouble

The thought of having to start all over with the hiding process made her sick. It was so hard to leave everyone behind and if this were the case, she’d have to leave Hunter, the man she loved, behind again.

Chief Ricco looked at Lee. “Do you have any clients on your property today?”

“No, and we don’t have anyone scheduled until this coming weekend.”

“Good.”

“We need to make sure Sebastián, or whoever, gets to the right spot on your property. We can then monitor the roadway access points and the trail accesses.”

The chief paused and frowned.

“What?” Lee asked.

“We don’t have enough trained staff to cover all of those points.”

“Heidi and I can cover two of them,” Lee offered.

“I can’t let you do that.”

“We’ll stay out of sight and watch from afar, and we can radio you if we see anyone.”

The chief eyed his watch and looked a little defeated as he weighed that option. Probably realizing he had little choice. At this point, Sebastián would have received her text almost thirty minutes ago, and if he left right away, depending on where he actually was, it could be just a matter of a few hours before he showed up. If he was in Green Bay, it could be as little as two hours.

“I’ll see if I can get help from the county sheriff’s department. I’m sure Sheriff Anderson will lend a hand.”

“We can...” Lee squeaked out before the chief held his hand in the air.

“No. We’ve got this. But, I will need your help to mark a map of all the access points.”

Chief Ricco rose, walked over to the doorway, and leaned out of it.

“Mandi, call Dewey, Collins, and Hansen and tell them to get to the station ASAP. Then, get one of those large county maps from the records room and bring it into the conference room.”

“Yes, sir.”

The chief stood at the short end of the rectangular table.

“We need to send a text that doesn’t sound blatantly obvious that we’re onto him. It needs to push him to a specific location.”

Hannah set her phone on the table. The room was silent. Chief Ricco was right. Since Sebastián was probably already en route, there was probably no stopping him, so they needed to manage this better.

Hannah’s phone buzzed, and the screen lit up. She snatched it up and read the text.

I went to Lover’s Leap Falls once. Sat on top of the falls and made myself sick thinking about what it must have been like for you that day. All the while, I was so close, lying on the beach out of harm’s way. The dumb luck, I guess.

That text. It’s like God was helping them play their hand.

Hannah handed the phone to the chief.

He read the message.

“How do you know it’s him and not Bianca?”

“Bianca always signs with PB, Princess Bianca. The first couple of messages that came from this number were signed with PB. The last couple, including this one, were not.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yes.”