“Police still have no leads as far as suspects are concerned and have been, as yet, unable to find the murder weapon.”
Jennings knew they would not find a murder weapon.
Eventually, they would make the connection between the dead man from Jennings’s home and Townsend’s murder, with a little suggestive assistance from him of course. The case would be open and shut before the end of the week.
The reporter was going on about Townsend’s career and his meteoric climb through the ranks until his appointment to the new agency in charge of corruption. It was mostly stuff that news teams always reported when someone important or famous died. A quick bio and then on to sports.
He wondered why they hadn’t mentioned Starks’ murder yet but figured he’d either missed it or no one had discovered the body. It had surprised him a little that Townsend’s corpse had been discovered so soon but that was the way things went sometimes.
Soon enough, he would get a call asking if he’d heard about Emily’s untimely death and how weird it was that her and Sam were killed on the same night. He would play sad and confused for a few days and then move on. No one would know a thing.
Chapter 63
The SUV bumped and rolled its way along an old path that cut through the forest. Any signs of a road had long since been left behind. There wasn’t much to tell that a road or a trail had ever even been there except the odd lack of trees and plants.
Hunter had stopped just outside a small village about twenty minutes before and asked for help from a few of the townspeople. He showed them the map and pointed at the dot where the two lines merged. Most of the people had turned their heads away and went back inside their buildings. It had been an odd thing, like they knew where it was but weren’t going to tell him. That or they thought they’d seen the devil himself. Every single person he’d come in contact with had been full of smiles and very friendly until he showed them the map. Finally, he found a boy who looked to be about twelve, playing with a makeshift soccer ball in the street. When Hunter Carlson showed him the map and asked in Spanish if he knew where it was, the boy nodded happily. For a young one, the kid was extremely detailed about the directions. He’d basically walked them to the location in his mind. Carlson figured that he’d been there before, though he couldn’t figure out why. Surely it wasn’t for the same reason they were headed there.
Tommy had remained silent in the passenger’s side the entire journey. Will was in the back, tied up so he couldn’t cause any problems. It was, no doubt, an uncomfortable position probably made infinitely worse by the bumpy road trail that jostled everything in the vehicle.
“Who are you?” Tommy said, breaking the silence for the first time since they’d left the village.
Carlson smiled out of the corner of his mouth. He’d not felt like making small talk with someone he was going to end up killing. He learned a long time ago not to get to know your victims. It wasn’t that it made things much harder when it came time to pull the trigger. But it certainly did make it easier if you knew the person had a cat at home. It was just simpler to not know personal stuff. “I’m just a guy,” Carlson said plainly.
“Who do you work for?” Tommy persisted. He watched the driver with every bit of focus he could muster.
“Ah,” Carlson raised a finger. “Now that is a fascinating question. You see, I don’t really know who I’m working for. I just know these two guys needed me to do this job for them. They said there’s a bunch of treasure and that I’ll get a healthy cut of whatever I find. Plus, they gave me money up front. Hard to turn that down.”
“Do you even know what you’re looking for?” Tommy asked in a condescending tone.
“Some kind of ancient vault. Gold, I’m assuming.”
Hunter stopped the truck at the end of the trail under the shade of a large, leafy tree and turned off the engine. He opened his door and motioned for Tommy to do the same. “Looks like the end of the line for driving. Guess we have to hike our way in from here.”
Schultz said nothing but obeyed and exited the vehicle.
Carlson motioned towards the thick growth of trees. In the direction he was pointing, Tommy could make out a thin trail. It was barely visible but he could tell at least some kind of animals had used it in the past. “Let’s get moving,” Carlson said.
“What do you mean?” Tommy protested. “What about Will? You’re not just going to leave him there in the back of the truck.”
“I cracked a window,” he replied as he pointed at a small sliver of space at the top of the window. “Besides, it’s not hot out here. He’ll be fine. For now.” The last two words carried a sinister threat.
“Now move.”
Tommy knew there was nothing he could do to change the man’s mind. He refrained from arguing and started trudging off into the woods. Carlson followed close behind, holding the gun tight and aiming it right at the small of Tommy’s back.
Sean stopped the vehicle in a small village about forty minutes outside of Cuenca. He had left Mauricio behind in the city to deal with the situation that had escalated the night before. He’d wanted to go with Sean but if he didn’t stay and take care of things, matters could get out of hand. Sean understood. His stout friend may not have been of any help on their search anyway. He hoped that Delgado wouldn’t find himself in any legal trouble, though he doubted that would be an issue. Mauricio had many friends in many important places.
Adriana had noted that Mauricio never revealed much about himself during the time she’d seen the man. She had asked Sean about Mauricio, but he offered no information, merely stating that, “He’s a man of many resources.”
A few chickens ran here and there on the dirt street. The place seemed like somewhere time had forgotten. There were a few electrical lines that ran along the road but it was doubtful the area had many other amenities.
An old woman was walking along the street and looked at them with a peculiar stare.
“Buenos Dias, senora,” Sean greeted the woman.
She was mumbling something to him that he couldn’t quite pick up. However, Adriana was on the driver’s side of the truck and was able to hear the conversation.
“The woman is saying how odd it is to see the same car twice in an hour with different people driving it.”
Sean’s eyes grew big. “They came through here?” he asked in Spanish.
Instead of giving an answer, she just walked away, seemingly angry at something.
Wyatt was confused.
“What did I say?” he looked at Adriana for an answer. She shrugged and said nothing.
Sean noticed a young boy in the street ahead, carrying a soccer ball. “Let’s ask him.”
The homing device was working perfectly. Angela had it planted on Wyatt’s vehicle during the night, making it easy to follow her prey without the risk of being noticed. Effectively, she could stay right on his heels yet out of sight.
When the dot on her tracking screen came to a stop, they pulled off to the side of the road just after entering the small village. The little town was dirty, third worldly.
She just couldn’t believe that some people were still essentially, savages, living like animals in some places.
The blinking dot on the screen started moving again and Angela was about to tell the driver to get going too but it stopped suddenly.