Threat Detection, page 16
“So he hired Nathan to take something valuable out of the research room and hid it in a place no one would look, somewhere in the volcano,” said Isaac.
“Only I had just put in to do research in that area.” Aubrey hurried back into Duncan’s office where the maps were still laid out. She stared at the one that would be closest to where she had been shot at. Nothing was marked or circled on the map.
Isaac had followed her. “There is one thing I don’t understand. If he needed Hans’s help the first time, how would he climb alone this time?”
“I’m not sure. We won’t know anything until we catch up with Duncan,” said Aubrey. “Maybe he isn’t by himself. Maybe Emily is helping him.” She didn’t want to entertain that thought for long. She wanted to think the best of her sister.
She wondered too why Duncan had the maps out if he knew where the hiding place was. Maybe he had just sent Hans up there by himself. All she knew was that they needed to catch up with Duncan.
She ran to her office and grabbed her backpack and then another from the equipment room. “He’s got at least a twenty-minute head start on us.”
She pulled the climbing gear off the hook.
“Wait a second, Aubrey. We could be facing a man who has already killed people. I can’t put you in that kind of vulnerable position.”
“If climbing is going to be involved, it will probably take two people. You know I am a good climber.”
She heard a deep unfamiliar voice behind Isaac. “I heard you two might need a little help.”
Isaac stepped to one side, so Aubrey had a view of a tall man with sandy-brown hair. A sleek-looking boxer dog stood beside him.
“Aubrey, this is Tanner Ford and his partner, Britta. He’s with the PNK9 unit as well.”
“Looks like I’m just in time,” said Tanner.
“How did you get in?”
Tanner held up a key card. “It was on the ledge by the door.”
Aubrey had been in such a hurry, she’d set her key card down and forgot to pick it up. Such an unsafe thing to do.
Tanner pointed to the climbing gear. “Looks like we’re going on a bit of an adventure.”
“Do you know how to climb with gear, Tanner?” Aubrey held up the ropes.
Tanner shook his head.
“It’s settled then. I’ll go up with you two. Tanner and his dog will be the extra protection we need.” She gave Isaac a look that indicated she wasn’t going to back down.
Isaac shook his head. He reached out to Tanner and cupped his shoulder. “You and Britta are just in time, my friend.”
“Other than the inside of the volcano, I don’t know where Duncan would be going that he needs climbing gear,” said Aubrey.
“Maybe Duncan didn’t know either.” Isaac pointed toward the maps in Duncan’s office. “Maybe he’s making an educated guess. There are some unanswered questions.”
“I feel like I lost the plot here,” said Tanner.
“I’ll get you up to speed. It’s a long hike up there,” said Isaac. “We’ve got to hurry.”
Knowing that it would be dark by the time they got to the top of the volcano, Aubrey grabbed headlamps as well.
Tanner and Britta followed in their K-9 car while Isaac made his way up the road past the viewing areas.
Aubrey could not put the puzzle pieces together as to what was going on. She pulled out her phone. “I need to talk to Christopher before we lose cell reception. He’s been here longer than me.”
She dialed Christopher’s number. He picked up after the third ring. “Christopher, it’s Aubrey. Do you know who Richard Fowler is? He might connect to the break-in and the attacks on me.”
“Not offhand. The name sounds somewhat familiar.”
“He would have worked at the foundation or done some mapping for it.”
“He’s not anyone I ever worked with. Duncan would know. He’s been there longer than even Leandra.”
“I don’t suppose Duncan ever talked about hiding places on the volcano.”
“Hiding places? What’s this about, Aubrey?”
“I’ll explain later. I need you to do something for me. Maybe there are old employment records in the storage room that’s open, or something that might tell us who Richard Fowler was and why those maps on Duncan’s desk are important.”
“You were in Duncan’s office.” A note of suspicion entered Christopher’s voice.
“Please, Christopher. My sister’s life may depend on us getting answers.”
“Okay, I’ll help you,” said Christopher. “I was just wrapping up my report on some tests I ran today.”
“I’m headed up to the site where I was attacked. Two police officers are with me. Once we hit the boulder field, cell reception will be sketchy,” said Aubrey. “I’ll try to contact you before then.”
Aubrey, Isaac and Tanner, plus their K-9 partners, arrived at the trailhead. The only other car parked there was Duncan’s everyday car. Now they knew for sure this was where he’d gone. They unloaded the dogs and slipped into their backpacks. Isaac took a quick look at Duncan’s vehicle but found it locked. He leaned close to the window to peer inside. Then turned to the other two and shook his head. “Nothing significant in there.”
Once they were beneath the tree canopy that surrounded the trail, it was much harder to see even though sunset was still a couple of hours away. They walked at a steady pace, with Tanner and Britta taking the lead.
The trail widened out, and Aubrey and Isaac were able to walk side by side with Freddy between them.
The sense of urgency and the fact that they might be facing a showdown with a man who had killed four people already made Aubrey think that time was short. What if one of them died? Isaac would never know the real reason why she’d broken up with him. She cared deeply about him. Not the eighteen-year-old Isaac still under his parents’ influence, but the man he’d become. Maybe she even loved him.
This might be her last chance to let him know what really happened ten years ago. Would he reject her anyway? Was he still too wounded to open his heart to her? He might not even believe his mother was capable of such a controlling move.
She was willing to take that chance just to tell the truth. “Isaac, all those years ago when I broke up with you...”
Isaac stared straight ahead. “That was a long time ago, Aubrey. The past is the past.”
His answer was abrupt, seeming to indicate he had no desire to talk about what happened ten years ago. She wasn’t going to give up that easily.
“We could be walking into a firestorm here. One of us might not make it.” She grabbed his sleeve, forcing him to stop and face her. “I want you to know why. The night after we announced our engagement, your mother came to my room and said that if I went forward with the marriage, I would be robbing you of your potential and future.”
Isaac stared at her for a long moment but didn’t say anything. It had grown too dark for her to read his expression clearly.
“She said I wasn’t the kind of woman who would be an asset to someone like you. I guess I still saw myself as the poor little orphan girl back then. I believed what she told me. I thought I was doing what was best for you.”
“Aubrey, I had no idea my mother had done that. All I got was a breakup text.” His voice was raw with emotion. “You put my life into a tailspin. It took years to recover.”
“That wasn’t my intention.” Though Isaac kept his voice level, she could feel his ire. Her voice grew softer. “I thought I was helping you.”
Isaac stared at her for a long moment before speaking. “You waited all these years to tell me that.”
“At that time, I thought your mother was right. That I would just hold you back from the life you deserved. I thought you would meet someone else who would fit in with your family better. I assumed that had happened. I wouldn’t have come back and interfered with your marriage.”
“Well, I didn’t get married to someone else, did I?”
Isaac was still upset. She wasn’t sure what she could say or if she needed to. She had done her part; she’d told him the whole story.
“Hey, guys.” Tanner stood at the top of the trail, a silhouette in the dimming light. Britta took up a position next to him. “Come on, double-time. I was told this mission was time sensitive.”
The tension from the moment hung in the air with no sense of resolution for Aubrey. She’d taken the risk and let him know why she had so abruptly exited his life. It was up to Isaac to decide what to do about that.
The emotion she heard in his voice conveyed that he had not healed from the old wounds.
Isaac resumed some small talk with Tanner. He spoke to Aubrey only to warn her about a tree root on the trail.
Aubrey’s phone rang. “Christopher, what did you find out?”
“Richard Fowler and Duncan were work colleagues before you or I ever came here. There’s no work records or anything, but I found a photo of them in a newspaper article in one of the file cabinets in the storage room.”
“Good job, Christopher. That took some digging. I wonder if Richard Fowler’s primary job was mapping the volcano inside and out.”
“I’ll let you know if I find anything else out about who he was,” said Christopher. “I’ll snoop a while longer and then I got to get some dinner.”
“Thanks, Christopher. I’m about to go out of cell range once we hit the boulder field. Text me anything you find.”
She pressed the disconnect button.
The trail narrowed, forcing them to walk single file. Tanner and Britta stayed in front, and Isaac let Aubrey get in front of him so she would be in the middle, which probably provided her with a degree of protection.
There was no telling what kind of danger lay ahead.
They didn’t know if Duncan was at the top of the volcano or waiting along the trail somewhere, ready to ambush them if he saw he’d been followed.
* * *
Isaac tried to keep his mind on the task ahead of them, uncertain of what they faced. What Aubrey had told him, the reason behind the breakup, wrecked him all over again. It didn’t surprise him about what his mother had done. Though he knew his mother had loved him and only wanted the best for him, Susan McDane had always been fixated on a life that reflected wealth and success and wanted the same for her sons.
What bothered him was that Aubrey had not fought for their relationship or at least told him why they couldn’t be together. He had never thought of her as somehow less than because of her background. From the moment he’d met her, her sense of adventure and the clarity she had about what she wanted to do with her life had energized him.
It was only when he joined law enforcement that he realized that the profession where he felt most at home was different from what his parents had envisioned for him. They had not been happy with his choice but came to accept it before their untimely deaths.
His steps held an intensity that matched his thoughts. The trees thinned as they encountered more lava rocks.
A noise that sounded like a breaking branch caused Isaac to spin around while his hand hovered over his gun. His heartbeat drummed in his ears as he stared at the trees below.
“Did you hear that?”
“Yes,” said Tanner. Britta licked her muzzle and let out a tiny whine.
Aubrey turned as well and peered over his shoulder. “There’s lots of wildlife and nocturnal critters out at this hour.”
He waited a moment longer, satisfied that the noise was just something that belonged in the forest.
As the boulder field overtook the trees, the hike became more strenuous. Aubrey took up the lead with her headlamp on to light the way. She forged a path that took them through the least treacherous route. If Duncan was looking over his shoulder, the light would give them away, but traversing the field in the dark would only cause injury.
Britta had the climbing skills of a mountain goat. Though Isaac had brought the carrier for Freddy, it was just as easy to lift his light body over the larger boulders.
When the boulders gave way to the ash beach, they pulled out their poles from the backpacks and lengthened them.
He studied the area up ahead, not seeing anything that would indicate where Duncan had gone. “Let’s move toward where Aubrey was attacked. But keep the use of the light to a minimum.”
Aubrey switched off her headlamp.
The path led them along the side of the volcano with the crater in the distance. They came to the place where they had found the thumb drive. Isaac had marked it with a flag.
Isaac turned a half circle.
“There. I saw a flash of light up by the peak,” Tanner said.
Isaac looked where Tanner had indicated but didn’t see anything. “Lead the way,” he said.
They increased their pace. The terrain turned rocky again, which was easier to navigate than the pumice beach. Isaac kept glancing toward the peak, hoping to see what Tanner had spotted.
They were moving at an incline with Tanner hiking at an intense pace. The dogs kept up with them.
Tanner stopped, out of breath, and pointed up. “I think I saw the flash of light right about there.”
They were still about a hundred feet from the peak. The night had grown dark, and the rock was black. He couldn’t see anything. Isaac had no choice but to take out his flashlight. He stepped forward and then glanced over his shoulder. “Aubrey, move in closer to Tanner.”
Aubrey obliged. She understood the risk. If Duncan was up there, if he had a gun, they would be in a vulnerable position. Isaac unclipped his holster strap and moved closer to where Tanner had pointed. Something metal caught the light.
He moved up even closer, hoping for the shapes to become more distinct. The metal was a carabiner used for climbing. He could just make out the yellow of a climbing rope that had to be draped down the interior of the crater.
Aubrey and Tanner had both moved closer to him, so they saw what he had shone the light on. “Do you think Duncan is down there?”
“I don’t know,” said Isaac. “Not sure how steep the interior of the volcano is. I imagine it’s pretty precarious. Climbing solo would be a bad idea. Safer to have someone to belay you.”
“Let’s get as close to the peak as we can,” said Tanner. “Britta and I will stand watch.”
“Freddy will go with me in the carrier. There were plenty of electronics in that research room. If there is anything like that down there, Freddy will find it.”
Isaac removed his duty belt knowing it would be too cumbersome to climb with. He placed the gun in his waistband, then moved to pull his carrier from the backpack that he’d thrown on the ground.
He laid the carrier down so Freddy could step into it. “Come on, buddy, you know the drill.”
Once Freddy was secured, he lifted the carrier and pulled the straps over his shoulders with Aubrey’s help. Freddy gave a grunt as he faced forward.
They trekked the remaining distance to the peak, where the other climbing equipment had been abandoned. Isaac held out a protective hand, indicating Aubrey should stay back. He pulled his gun from his waistband and peered over the edge, letting his eye go where the rope dangled. He expected to be shot at or to see Duncan’s broken body lying on a ledge. Instead, all he saw was the jagged lava rock. “He’s not down here. Not that I can see.”
Aubrey moved closer to him. “Maybe we scared him away.” She turned, staring out into the darkness.
There were plenty of rocky hiding places. “Maybe he already got what he wanted. He could return to his car and not be seen by us if he stayed off the trail.”
“It seems like we would have heard him at the point we crossed paths. Plus, Tanner thought he saw lights up here,” said Aubrey.
He shone the light again, seeing several ledges. “I don’t know why, but I was expecting a boiling cauldron of fire down there.”
“All the activity is taking place beneath the surface of the earth in this part of the volcano. Other parts have steam eruptions and gas escaping. Those parts are closed to the public. Trust me, Mount St. Helens is a busy volcano.”
“Belay Freddy and me down. If there is anything electronic down there, Freddy will be a big help. I haven’t done this in a while,” said Isaac. “I might be a little rusty.” He grabbed the flashlight from his duty belt and put it in his jacket pocket.
When they were dating, climbing had been one of their favorite things to do together. Aubrey had taught him how to climb. It was an exercise in trust to have your partner control the rope while you rappelled down a mountain.
Isaac hooked into the climbing harness while Aubrey secured the ropes.
“Ready?”
Their heads were only inches apart. Though it was too dark to see her face, he could smell her floral-scented perfume.
“Ready,” he said.
Aubrey let out the line as his feet sought a secure hold. His body was at a forty-five-degree angle as he climbed down for a few feet. “I’m going to try to hit that first ledge.”
With springlike action, he pushed off the wall of the mountain. The rope made a zinging noise, and he sailed down. He turned his head to get a bead on where the ledge was. He could feel the warmth of Freddy’s body as the dog remained still.
His feet found the ledge, which was maybe three feet at its narrowest. He stepped toward a wider part. The harness would keep Isaac from falling, but a leash would be the only thing securing the dog once he was not in his carrier.
Isaac took a deep breath and moved to release Freddy from the carrier. “Okay, partner, let’s see what we can find.”
SEVENTEEN
Isaac lifted the carrier off his shoulders and laid it on the ledge. After unzipping the back, he let Freddy step free of the leg holes. He snapped the leash on the beagle and gave the command to search. The dog put his nose to the ground. The ledge was at least ten feet long. If Freddy did fall on the narrower part of it, Isaac might be able to save him by pulling him up with the leash. Still, the situation was precarious.
