“I hope you’re hungry,” Andrea said. “We picked up burgers and a loaded pizza.”
“Oh, God, yes,” Sam said. “We’re starving. Let me help.”
Cameron looked at Tori. “You want to see my computers?”
“The ones you don’t know how to use?”
Cameron scowled. “I know how to use most of them.”
“I know you want to show off your toys,” Andrea said with a smile, “but can we eat first?”
“Of course,” she said. “That pizza’s been calling my name.”
“I know it has,” Andrea said as she opened the bag of burgers. “Sam, if you could get the fries out of the oven. I put them in there to keep warm.”
“What can I do?” Tori asked.
“Grab us a beer,” Cameron said as she bit into a piece of pizza before putting a burger on her plate.
The motorhome was a little crowded with all four of them, but they soon settled down to eat. Cameron sat in her recliner and Tori took the love seat. Andrea and Sam sat at the small dinette.
“Excellent burger,” Sam said. “I didn’t realize how much I missed real food.”
“I still can’t believe you ate a squirrel,” Tori said.
“Angel caught a trout too. That beat the hell out of the beef stew he served.”
“MREs?” Cameron asked.
“Yes. The powdered eggs for breakfast kinda grew on me though.”
Cameron decided now was as good a time as any to question Sam. She thought it would be less of an interrogation this way. She decided to start at the beginning.
“Did Angel say anything to you when he first…well, when he abducted you?”
Sam nodded. “Yes. When I asked him what he wanted, he said a hostage. He said in exchange, he wouldn’t cut Leslie’s throat,” she said with a quick glance at Tori.
“Did he say why he needed a hostage?”
“He said it was to prevent you from coming after him with guns blazing. I think those are the words he used,” Sam said. “I told him it would be a lot quicker for him to disappear without me slowing him down, but he didn’t go for that,” she added with a smile.
Cameron was surprised by her composure. She wasn’t certain what she’d been expecting, but Sam didn’t appear to be any worse for wear after her ordeal.
“Did you try to escape?” Andrea asked.
Sam shook her head. “No. Well, I mean I thought about it several times. But what would I do? He could outrun me. He had a gun. He had a knife. My hands were bound at the wrists for the first two days. I was tied to him with a rope.” She paused. “Well, at first. I guess after the mountain lion scare he thought it was a pretty safe bet I wouldn’t make a run for it.”
“What mountain lion?” Tori asked. “You didn’t say—”
“No, I mean he said if I ran off a mountain lion would have me for dinner.” Sam smiled again. “Every noise I heard, I imagined it was a mountain lion stalking us.” She looked directly at Cameron. “I must sound pretty pathetic for a cop. I mean, I didn’t even try to disarm him.”
Cameron shook her head. “Angel Figueroa is an expert in martial arts. He knows every trick in the book on how to kill someone. You could not have disarmed him, Sam.”
Sam’s gaze never wavered from hers. “How do you know him?”
“We served in the military together. We were on the same team for a while.”
Sam nodded. “You were a sniper too?”
Cameron was surprised she knew that. Apparently the look on her face said as much.
“We talked,” Sam said. “He told me what he did in the military.”
Sam took another bite of her burger, and Cameron wondered if it was to allow her time to collect her thoughts. After a moment, Sam took a swallow of beer, then let out a rather heavy sigh.
“At first, he wouldn’t tell me his name. He just kept reiterating that when he had no more use for me, he would kill me.” Sam looked quickly at Tori. “And I believed him. And I knew that I needed to become more than only a nameless hostage to him. So I talked. I told him my name, I told him about Tori. I told him that I was a cop.” She shrugged. “He finally told me his name. I asked him a ton of questions, most of which he ignored. At first.” Sam looked at Cameron again. “When we didn’t hear helicopters searching, he assumed you thought we were on the highway and that you had roadblocks set up. When we finally heard the helicopters, he thought it was because the roadblocks hadn’t panned out.”
Cameron glanced over at Tori with raised eyebrows, and Tori laughed.
“Okay, fine. You were right.”
Cameron grinned. “Of course I was. You should never doubt me.”
“Right about what?” Sam asked.
“They had a little argument over whether or not they should send helicopters out right away,” Andrea explained. “Cameron wanted to wait, hoping it would confuse Angel.”
“And Tori wanted to send out the National Guard to look for me, no doubt,” Sam said with smile.
“That I did,” Tori agreed.
Cameron got up and grabbed another slice of pizza. “So did he tell you what he’d done? I mean, did you know why he was running?”
“He eventually told me, yes. I mean, I knew he’d killed that girl. He told me he’d killed her family. He said he needed a distraction,” Sam said.
“You know about the money?”
She nodded. “The money wasn’t a part of the hit. One of the guards was his target. He said the money was for his retirement.”
“I don’t suppose he said where he stashed it?” Andrea asked.
“No.”
“He killed his team,” Tori said. “There were three guys with him.”
“Actually, there were four others,” Sam said. “Three guys went in with him. He had another guy waiting at the car where they transferred the money.” She looked over at Cameron. “Two of the guys were ex-military. He said they tried to take the money for themselves so he killed them.”
“Their bodies were found south of Taos,” Cameron said. “We only knew about three men. Are you saying there’s another guy out there?”
Sam shook her head. “No. He said he killed them all. He said they were behind schedule and there were cops everywhere. He said he needed a distraction, but I got the impression that he intended on eliminating his team all along. He didn’t go into details though. I assumed the distraction was the family.”
Cameron shook her head. “There was a multicar accident on the highway. Some of the drivers had been shot. One was recognized as the fourth member of his team. He killed the family when the sheriff’s department was all out investigating the accident.”
“Which is why Tori and Casey were called to that scene,” Sam said.
“Yeah.”
“Well, he didn’t—”
But Cameron’s phone interrupted and she held her hand up to Sam. It was Murdock. She stood quickly. “Excuse me. It’s the boss.” She walked into the bedroom, giving herself some privacy. She’d talked at length with him earlier and was surprised he’d called back. “Ross. What’s up?” she asked as Lola squeezed through the door before she could close it.
“How’s the debriefing going?”
“It’s going,” she said. “Samantha seems very forthcoming with information, but we’re just getting started.”
“Well, I guess you can stop. They picked up Angel about a half hour ago.”
“Are you kidding me? They found him? Where?”
“They’re holding him in Taos. He drove right into a checkpoint, if you can believe that. At Angel Fire Resort. Kinda ironic, don’t you think?”
Cameron shook her head. “He’s smarter than that, Murdock. He could recognize a checkpoint.”
“You’d think, right? Reports are they roughed him up pretty good though.”
“Can’t blame them. He’s left bodies all over the county.”
“Yes, I know.” Murdock paused. “He offered up a proposition.”
“Is he in a position to do that?”
“He’s got three million dollars hidden somewhere. He’s offered to give up the location.”