Receipts. A folded road map. Nothing unusual. Ryan kicked the notebook toward Eric. Maybe she's writing a novel.
Eric flipped through several pages. Handwritten notes. Street names. Business hours. License plate numbers.
Officer shift changes. His smile slowly disappeared. Travis. What? This is He hesitated.
A lot of notes. Travis grabbed the notebook. The first several pages looked harmless. Look Local restaurants, church schedules, town festivals. Then he turned another page.
His expression changed. One sentence had been circled. Never confront before identifying the complete chain. No names, no agency. Just that sentence.
Another page. Document patterns, not incidents. Another. One arrest is evidence. Repeated behavior becomes a conspiracy.
Ryan looked over his shoulder. What is it? I don't know. But Travis did know one thing. Those weren't the notes of a tourist, or a traveler, or an ordinary citizen.
Someone had been studying Red Creek systematically, carefully, patiently. He slowly lifted his eyes toward Nia. Who are you? She didn't answer. Instead, she looked past him toward the convenience store.
The front blinds moved almost imperceptibly. Linda, still inside, still protecting the evidence. Nia felt a surge of relief. At least one back up source remained safe. Unfortunately, Travis noticed the glance.
He turned toward the store, then toward Ryan. Bring Linda out here. Ryan smiled. With pleasure. Marcus shouted immediately.
No! Ryan ignored him and started walking toward the locked entrance. Inside, Linda heard his boots approaching. Her heart pounded. She looked at the flash drive, then at the back exit.
It was old. Rarely used, but it still worked. She grabbed her purse, clutched the flash drive tightly, and slipped through the rear door into the narrow alley behind the building. Seconds later, Ryan kicked open the front door. The bell above it crashed onto the floor.