“Yeah, I don’t see what could be in it for him, if there’s something else going on. This late in the game, with the virus pretty much unstoppable, it’s not like a few cops are going to further his cause. I’d bet he’s telling the truth.”
“Let’s get inside, then. I told you everything he gave me, and crazy as it sounds, if it’s true, we’ve got to get moving.”
“Roger that. I’ll keep the radio open in case we get some more volunteers.” Officer Garcia paused, then met Wardley’s gaze. “If I don’t see you on the other side, man, take care.”
Wardley knew what he meant, but he corrected him anyway. “If we go anywhere, we’ll be on the same side, Garcia.”
Garcia chuckled. “Hopefully it’s the good side, then.”
Wardley rolled his window back up and accelerated. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Garcia do a quick cross sign with his fingertips, then accelerate his own vehicle to follow behind him.
He hoped Bennett was right.
They needed him to be right.
Chapter Fifty
“Ben, what are we looking for?” Julie asked. They’d now been in the truck for almost two hours, first heading toward the massive lake that made up the central area of Yellowstone National Park, then back toward the edge of the park where a string of campsites sat.
Julie’s back hurt, and she shifted in the seat and tried, in vain, to get comfortable again. She felt like she’d never spent so many hours in one place, much less in a vehicle. Never a fan of driving, she was growing more and more annoyed with every passing minute.
But every time she opened her mouth to complain about a speed bump, pothole, or razor sharp turn that Ben forced them over much too fast, she remembered why they were here. What they were trying to accomplish.
A little discomfort in exchange for fixing this terrible massacre.
It was a fair trade, she decided.
Ben hadn’t answered, and she repeated the question. What was he thinking about? They’d left the lake shore fifteen minutes ago, and she saw the signs for the campground announcing their impending arrival. Why was he so driven now and acting so strange?
“Ben,” she said again. “What’s up?”
He finally glanced over, but only for a brief instant before he realized he’d need to focus on the road if was going to maintain their current pace.
“Sorry,” he said. “I–It’s just…” he frowned.
“What?”
“Nothing… I mean, I don’t know yet. I have a theory, but I need to check some of these campsites first.”
He said the words flatly, almost commanding, as if he felt the conversation was over.
Julie felt the opposite. Why did they need to find a campsite? What was the theory? And why was it important enough to abandon their plan to find the bomb?
She didn’t ask any more questions. She’d never seen Ben focus so intently on his goal, and she didn’t want to distract him. She examined the man sitting next to her. His forehead glistened with sweat, even though the cab was icy from the blasting air conditioning. As they drove, Ben pulled up an internal list of registered campers who’d booked a campsite for that week, using his phone. He scrolled through a few pages, then clicked off the screen, satisfied.
They reached the first of the line of campsites spread around both sides of the road, each marked with a short driveway and a wooden sign with a number painted on it. These sites, Julie realized, were meant for what Ben had called “luxury camping.” People who thought roughing it meant sleeping in a pop-up trailer or RV, spending the evenings by a controlled fire inside a ring of rocks, with running water piped in through the park’s small but reliable water supply. Many of these sites even had electricity, meant to plug the RVs into a power source that didn’t need to run on batteries.
Julie wasn’t much of a camper, and it looked like it would have been rough enough for her, even with the RVs and pop-ups. Ben wasn’t like most people. He would have been happy sleeping on a bed of pine needles.
Ben slammed on the brakes in front of the first site, then hopped out of the truck. The tree cover cast shadows over the road and campsites, making it nearly impossible to see far into the sites. He ran to the fire ring, spinning in a circle as he searched for whatever he was looking for.
Julie opened the door to help, but Ben was already running across the street to check the second site.
“Ben, what are you looking for?” Julie asked. She knew better than to expect an answer, but was surprised when he yelled back to her.
“Anything. I’m looking for anything that doesn’t belong. In these first three sites.”
She shrugged and ran to the third site. I can find that.
The third site was different than the first two, and she noticed it right away. Here, the driveway had tire tracks in it from a large vehicle. She wasn’t nearly good enough to tell what kind of vehicle, but she could easily see that the car or truck had exited the driveway quickly. The tracks widened as they hit the street, a sign that the vehicle had slid on the loose gravel and dirt as it sped up and turned. She investigated the tracks for a few more seconds, then looked up at the rest of the site.
The ring of rocks at the center of the site was a deep black, as if smoke had blackened them as a fire inside died out. There were no coals or bits of wood, but she thought she could smell the faint scent of charred ash from a recent fire. She walked over to it, examining everything in sight.
There.
“Ben,” she called out. She stepped around the ring and walked toward a picnic table that sat at the far side of the campsite, right where the site ended and the line of thick pines began again.
She heard footsteps behind her and turned to see Ben running toward her. She pointed at the picnic table.
He nodded, continuing past her, and stopped at the bench of the table. Sitting atop the two planks of wood was a small picnic cooler.
“Were you able to talk to Randy?” he asked.
She was surprised by the question — they were searching for something in the campsites, and he wanted to know about Randall Brown? She’d called just after they left the lake and left a message.
“Yes, he sent me a text a few minutes ago. He said he’s fifteen minutes from here, and he’s got the maps.”
Ben whipped around to look at her. “What? He’s here?”
She nodded. “I guess he wanted to help…”
He stiffened a bit but didn’t say anything. Julie guessed the thoughts that were going through his mind — they were the same ones that she had been struggling with when she got the text. Why are you coming to a highly contagious outbreak area, risking your life to find something we don’t even understand? Not to mention the bomb…
But she knew Randy well enough to know that he couldn’t sit back and watch as the world came down around him. He’d stepped up before for far less important cases. Julie knew his wife would be beyond upset with his rash actions, but she also knew Randy wouldn’t take no for an answer.
If he said he was coming to help, they’d better be ready for him to help.
Ben focused again on the cooler. He slowly stepped toward it. She saw his chest rise and fall, breathing heavily. Julie wondered if it was due to the exertion of running around the campsites or from something else.
From something inside the cooler.
“Ben,” she said, then stopped. What was she going to say? “Be careful?” What did she expect to find in the cooler? A bomb?
He ignored her and slowly unzipped the lid. The cooler was like one of the small six-pack coolers that Julie owned, with a zippered lid and a few pockets around the sides.