Read Online Killing Game (Veritas Book 2) by Chandler Steele - Free Book Online Page B

that another armored-car robbery had occurred in Jacksonville late yesterday afternoon. This time, one of the robbers had been caught and it was the addict, Craig Bettis. While it was good news he was off the street, it was bad news for Brannon. Clarke wouldn’t have ratted him out, probably because he feared Ellis more than he did the FBI. Bettis would crack once he went into withdrawal. It was only a matter of time before he fingered Brannon for the earlier robbery.
    The third e-mail said that the team at Veritas was still working on the background dossiers of his fellow campers, based on the photos he’d sent them last night. The Jeep belonged to Caitlyn Landry, the sedan to a Wiley Davis, last known address in Alabama. Had one of the campers borrowed it from a friend or a family member? And if so, which one? The remainder of the cars were rentals, like his. Those would take longer to track down.
    Brannon quickly e-mailed back what he’d learned about the Marine, her time in the military. That’d make the process a little quicker, at least in relation to her. He requested further info on her, but also Keith and Susan’s bios. Something about both of them twitched his antenna.
    He finished his e-mail in time to get a cup of coffee and listen to the secretary chatter about how hard it was to sleep because it was so quiet, and how disappointed she was that no raccoons came to visit them.
    Finally, James crawled bleary-eyed out of his tent. He accepted the coffee Preston handed him, took a sip, and then strolled to the toilet. When he swung the door open and found it empty, he looked back at the group, confused. Searching faces, he frowned. “Where’s Patti?” he asked.
    Cait came to her feet. The girl’s tent flap was open. “Patti?” she called out. There was no reply. She walked out into the woods and called again. No reply.
    On a hunch, Brannon went to the far side of the platform, where the canoes were tied off. He did a quick count. “We’re missing a boat,” he announced.
    “Ah, hell. Is she crazy?” Cait said, shaking her head.
    “She had to have left in the middle of the night,” Brannon said.
    “Yeah, sometime between three and five, when I was asleep.” She grabbed up her rucksack and hastily repacked it. “Preston? Can you take these folks on to the next platform? I’ll go find her and make sure she’s okay.”
    Surprisingly, the assistant didn’t give her any lip. “No problem.”
    “I’ll go with you,” James offered.
    “It’s best if you stay here.”
    “No,” the young man protested. “She’s my . . . girlfriend and—”
    “You’re staying here,” Cait insisted. “This might require some serious tracking skills if she went off the main canal.” She looked over at Brannon now. “You game?”
    He nodded. “Let me pack my gear.”
    *~*~*
    Cait used every curse word she knew and invented a few more as she and Brannon paddled their canoe back the way they’d come the day before. Leaving in the middle of the night was an insanely stupid move, especially if the girl had still been stoned. If she got lost, headed in the wrong direction, God knew what might happen to her. She could tip over her canoe and end up in the water. They’d never find a trace of her if a gator found her first.
    At least by sending Preston and the group to the next destination, he could check if the girl had gone that way. Unlikely, though, unless Patti go turned around. Cait’s guess was that she was headed back to the tour headquarters, especially after James announced his car keys were missing. Somehow, Patti managed to lift them out of his pack, probably when he’d made a toilet run.
    “You keep thinking that hard for too much longer and your head’s going to start smoking,” Brannon called out from the back of the canoe.
    “Just wondering if I screwed up somehow.”
    “Why would you think that?” he asked, as their oars dug into the water at twice the speed of the day before.
    Cait