Angel Fire

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Cameron paced beside the table where her phone was, nibbling on a fry as she did. Her burger was long gone. Rowan had texted her, saying he had something. She was waiting on him to call.

“Jesus, how long has it been?”

“Forty-five seconds,” Reynolds said dryly. “I’d forgotten how impatient you were.”

“I’m just ready to get on with it,” she said.

She glanced around the room, seeing Andrea sitting on the edge of one of the beds with Eric. They were sharing fries. Tori and Sam were on the other bed. Sam was still eating her burger. Reynolds was in the chair. He too was still finishing his lunch. She hadn’t had a chance to speak with Andi alone, but she could tell that Sam appeared to be a bit more relaxed now. If Andrea hadn’t gotten any new information from her, perhaps now Sam would be more inclined for a thorough debriefing. That is, if she could do it without Tori around.

The ringing of her phone brought her attention back to her phone and she snatched it up.

“Took you long enough,” she said.

“Sorry. I wanted to compile all three reports,” Rowan said.

“Okay. Let me put you on speaker. We’re all here.” She put the phone down on the table. “Can you hear me?”

“Yes. But we can do this with video if you want. I can link to Reynolds’s laptop,” he offered.

“Not that I don’t want to see your pretty face, but let’s just get to it,” she said.

“Okay. Well, I tried the obvious links to him. Found two addresses of where he lived as a child. One house has been torn down and a subdivision was built there. The other was a rental house near Angel Fire Resort,” he said.

“How ironic is that?” Eric said. “Angel Fire?”

“Yes. That was where they were living when he was born. Makes you wonder if that’s how he got his name.”

Cameron paced again. “Don’t care about how he got his name, Rowan.”

“Of course. Sorry.” He cleared his throat. “That house is still standing, but it’s occupied. It’s still rental property. It’s been pretty much swallowed up by the resort. The owner won’t sell. Well, he will, but he’s asking an outrageous amount of money.”

Cameron glanced over at Andrea, noting her amused expression. Cameron rolled her eyes.

“Do you have anything useful?” Reynolds asked.

“Those were the only hits on property linking him to this area. Of course, he was twelve years old when he left so I imagine those don’t hold much attachment for him. I’ve found no family that still lives here. His father lives in California as do his grandparents. I’ve found no evidence that he ever contacts them. His mother’s family is gone except for an aunt who lives in Tucson. Again, no evidence that he’s been in touch with her in years.”

“Okay,” Cameron said. “I’m assuming that’s only one of the programs you ran.”

“Yes. I wanted to eliminate the most obvious. Next, I took a shot at doing what we did in Barstow. Finding abandoned property that has no human traffic. Meaning, abandoned and not for sale. There are too many to name, really,” he said. “I’ve done several different runs. Abandoned property next to other abandoned property. Abandoned property with no close neighbors. There are a few hits, but it’s like—”

“Shooting in the dark,” Cameron finished for him.

“Right. There isn’t enough data to use for any of the algorithms to get a good read.”

She sighed. “What else?”

“Well, he had to have done some surveillance of the area at some point.”

“Yeah, you don’t steal three million on a whim,” Eric said.

“We know he got back to the States six months ago. I’m looking through credit card receipts. Gas, hotels, that sort of thing. Starting in Santa Fe and moving up here to Taos.”

“How will that help?” Tori asked. “Surely he wouldn’t have used his real name.”

“Most likely not,” Cameron said. “But Rowan might find a pattern with the receipts. That’s how we targeted our guy in Barstow.”

“Exactly,” Rowan said. “The program is running now. It’ll take several hours though.”

“So basically you’re hacking into servers you’re not authorized to be in?” Reynolds asked.

Rowan paused. “Yes, sir,” he said quietly.

As Cameron was about to speak, Reynolds held up his hand. “I know. I know,” he said. “Any means necessary. I just don’t happen to agree with it.”

Cameron turned toward the phone again. “Well, we’ve got to do something. Send me what you found on the properties. We might as well take a look at them. We might get lucky.”

“I will. I’m also trying to find real-time surveillance video and doing face recognition. I assume the federal marshals and sheriff’s department are doing the same thing. I don’t anticipate finding anything this early. I think Cameron is right and he might lay low for a day or so. His picture is everywhere on the news.”

“Yes, I can’t see him feeling comfortable going about town,” Reynolds said.

“Okay. Sounds like our best bet is credit card receipts then,” she said. “Let me know as soon as you get some data.”

“I will. And I’m sending you the list of the properties that I hit on.”

“Thanks, Rowan. Good job.”

“Sure.” He paused. “And by the way, I’m kinda hungry. Is there something here I can eat?”

Cameron looked at Andrea with raised eyebrows.

“Feel free to raid the fridge,” Andrea said. “And the pantry.”

“Stay out of my beer,” Cameron added.

Rowan laughed. “I will.”

Cameron tapped her phone, ending the call. She pulled up her email, finding the file from Rowan. “Well, it’s not much. Six properties.”

“Beats sitting around here,” Tori said. “Let’s check them out.”

“Are we supposed to share any of this data with the other agencies?” Reynolds asked.

Cameron shook her head. “No. Murdock is still trying to swing it so that we’re in the lead. So far, no luck. Federal marshals want this guy bad. They feel like they should be in the lead.”

“Can’t blame them,” Andrea said. “I’m sure the sheriff’s department feels the same way.”

“Yeah, they just don’t have the resources to play hardball.”

They all stood and Reynolds looked at her questioningly. “Do we split up into two teams or stay together?”

Cameron hesitated. The last time they’d split up, there’d been an explosion and two members of Reynolds’s team had been killed. She looked over at Andrea, knowing she was remembering it too. But the reason Murdock had sent in another team was to share the duties. That was why he’d insisted Hunter stay behind too.

“Two teams,” she said. “Andrea and Tori will stay with me. You and Eric can take three properties, we’ll take three.”

Reynolds nodded. “Okay.”

“What about me?” Sam asked.

“You’re not really cleared to work this, Sam.”

“She belongs here as much as I do,” Tori said.

Cameron was surprised by her protest. She’d expected Tori to be happy that Sam was going to stay behind, out of harm’s way.

“She’s not FBI,” Reynolds explained. “Goes against protocol.”

Cameron laughed. “Yeah, it does, doesn’t it?” She glanced at Sam. “Okay. You can come with us.”

Sam smiled at her. “Thank you. I’ll try to stay out of the FBI’s way.”

Reynolds simply shook his head as he headed out of the room.