Hadley loaded the duffel into the Toyota’s cargo space, and they started their trip. Eddie had the rental’s satellite radio tuned to a heavy metal station, and Hadley was reminded of her sister’s head-banging phase in high school. Eddie must have sensed that the station wasn’t her first choice because he changed it to classic rock.

  They started slowly, with the city’s morning traffic clogging the highway. Eddie drove aggressively, getting inches from the car in front of him before abruptly swerving into the next lane, inviting honks. He responded with gestures, and Hadley wondered if they’d make it to Limon in one piece. She bit back her cautions and criticisms, not wanting to threaten their newly brokered peace.

  They finally passed the Denver airport, with its creepy blue horse and circus tent architecture. The traffic thinned and their surroundings transformed from metropolis to farmland almost instantly.

  Eddie set the cruise and stayed in the left-hand lane, whizzing past the slower cars on the right. It was a beautiful fall day, the sky a brilliant blue and the sun shining. Hadley saw frost clinging to the grass in the shadows, a reminder that the seasons were turning and winter would soon arrive.

  They passed advertisements for fall festivals and pumpkin patches, and Hadley felt a lump form in her throat as she thought about all the things Jonah’s family never got to do with him. She remembered what Jenny said about all of them being held captive, and the words rang true. Even if Jonah himself was waiting to welcome them into TerraPure, bringing him back now would never allow the family to recover the hay rides, corn mazes, and haunted houses that they missed. Still, it beat the alternative of never reuniting him with his family.

  “Hey, you there?” Eddie asked.

  “Sorry,” she said. “Just thinking. What’s up?”

  “I asked if you’d thought about our approach when we get there.”

  “Yeah. I think cautious is best. They probably have their guard up.” They discussed their options. They had plotted out the section of land belonging to TerraPure. As the mystery woman had said, there were no good images available on Google Earth or any mapping software they tried, so they were going in blind. They decided the best approach was to drive as much of the perimeter as possible and see what entry points they might have.

  Hadley had age progression photos from a missing child database. She didn’t know how accurate they would be. She thought Mary would be much easier to spot, and that was their goal. Find Mary, figure out how to separate her from the group, and question her about the day Jonah disappeared. If they didn’t get a direct sighting of her, the cameras and microphones would give them two weeks to identify her as a resident of TerraPure.

  They passed the exit for Hugo, and Hadley tensed, feeling that they had crossed into enemy territory. Eddie took the next exit, and they followed a two-lane highway until they turned onto a narrow, unmarked road.

  A series of turns had Hadley disoriented. They ended up on a gravel road far from the highway. They hadn’t seen another vehicle or signs of civilization in half an hour. Groups of pine trees and aspens appeared. Eddie pointed at a fence separating the detectives from the trees.

  “This is the property,” he said. “They’ve put in the trees to create a visual buffer from the rest of the world.”

  He slowed the Toyota, and they lumbered down the path, kicking up much less dust at the lower speed. He stopped when they came to a driveway leading away from the path and into a break in the tree line. A thick metal gate blocked the driveway, secured with a heavy chain and padlock. A large no trespassing sign covered the middle of the gate. On each end was a smaller sign with the word trespassing in the middle of a circle with a diagonal line slashing through it. Hadley looked closer and realized the diagonal line was actually an AR-15. The bottom of the sign read, “Property secured by the second amendment.”

  “I’m going to take a look,” Eddie said. Hadley climbed out, too, and they approached the gate. Eddie looked it over from all angles. “I don’t see electricity running to it,” he said.

  Hadley stopped directly in front of the gate, leaning the top of her body over it. She looked as far as she could in each direction. The driveway on the other side of the gate was lined with pines on either side, so there wasn’t much she could see.

  She didn’t see the camera, hidden on a branch of the tree closest to her left side. It recorded their every move from the moment they stepped out of the 4Runner until they returned.

  Eddie continued to drive around the perimeter. They turned a corner, and he stopped again. A long-dead tree trunk and a pair of large rocks blocked the path. On the other side of the obstacles, grass and weeds grew over the gravel. “That barricade has been there a while,” Eddie said.

  He put the Toyota in reverse and executed a three-point turn, driving back the way they came. He passed the driveway and went as far as he could, passing the road where they’d turned onto the path. A couple minutes later, they encountered another barricade like the first.

  “One way in, one way out,” Hadley remarked.

  Eddie scowled, cut the wheel hard to the left and made a U-turn. To Hadley’s surprise, he threw the vehicle into reverse and backed into the brush bordering the barricade. The back-up camera beeped incessantly as they crunched into branches and brambles.

  Hadley climbed into the back seat and pulled the duffel bag from the cargo bay. Eddie took off his jacket, slipped on his shoulder holster, checked the .357, and put his jacket back on.

  “Want me to carry that?” he asked, gesturing toward the duffel.

  “I got it.”

  They continued on foot, going past the barricade and following the fence. Despite the abundant sunshine, the air held a chill and Hadley wished she’d brought a heavier coat.

  Eddie stopped at a spot where a stand of aspens bordered the fence. “This looks like a good spot,” he said. Hadley agreed, and he gave her a boost over the fence. He struggled to follow, eventually heaving himself over the metal bars. “This was easier when I was younger,” he remarked.

  The tree growth was not thick, and in just a few seconds they were back in the open. In the distance, they saw a row of greenhouses, with clusters of small buildings beyond. Hadley pulled the binoculars from her bag and peered through them. She passed them to Eddie, who looked for a long moment.

  “This matches the mystery woman’s description,” Hadley said. “They have the indoor gardens in the greenhouses, and a bunch of tiny houses. I’m guessing if we keep going, we’ll find the leadership compound, and there should be some kind of livestock out here.”

  “What’s the play?” Eddie asked. “We can go closer, see if we’re able to encounter anyone. Maybe we’ll get lucky and find Mary right away.”

  “I think we should go,” Hadley said. “Look how open the place is. We’re sitting ducks if we go out there. There’s nowhere to hide between the trees and the greenhouses. Let’s kill some time in Limon, and we’ll come back tonight and plant the equipment.”

  “Good idea,” Eddie said. “Take some pictures before we go, we can study the layout while we wait.”

  She took a few wide-angle shots, capturing their entire view. She zoomed in as far as she could on the greenhouses and the tiny houses. She saw a few people near the greenhouses and a couple more near the houses. She could not zoom in enough to capture their faces or even distinguish if they were male or female. She doubted they could see her and Eddie with their naked eyes, but she still felt like they should exit quickly.

  They went back through the trees. Eddie boosted her over the fence again and again had trouble hoisting himself over. “I guess this means more kale,” he said, patting his stomach as he tried to regain his breath. They returned to the car, which Hadley was glad to see remained unmolested.

  It took them over an hour to wind their way back to Limon. They stopped at a diner for lunch. True to his word, Eddie had a salad, ordering the same one as Hadley. They took their time eating, passing the camera back and forth to look at the pictures.

  “I think we target the greenhouses,” Eddie said. “If we don’t want a run-in with the residents, we can’t go any closer to the housing than that.”

  “Agreed,” Hadley said. “With any luck, everyone takes turns working in the gardens, and we’ll get some sign of Mary over the next two weeks.”

  “How close does the base station need to be?”

  “They have a pretty good transmission range,” Hadley said. “The base station will pick them up from around half a mile away. We can plant the devices first, and carry the base station back with us. I’ve already paired everything, and it has indicator lights to show us when we’re in range.”

  “With a little luck, we can plant the base station outside the fence,” Eddie said. “I’d hate to have a curious hippie find it on the property and ruin this operation.”

  After lunch, they found a Walmart, where they purchased black sweatshirts, stocking caps, and gloves. They walked the aisles, killing time, and then proceeded to the Limon library.

  Eddie settled into the reading room with a stack of magazines. Hadley went to the reference area and found printed archives of the Limon Gazette, a weekly newspaper. She selected several random months worth from the previous 15 years and began paging through, looking for any sign of TerraPure or Mary Taggert. She kept an eye out for Jeremy Costas, too; his real estate transaction still puzzled her.

  It did not take long for her to realize she was searching for needles inside mountains of haystacks. The Gazette did not run much hard news. The papers featured plenty of coverage of local events, farmers markets, and little league games, but there had been hundreds of issues in the past decade and a half; it would take her a year to work through every issue.

  Finally, the sun dipped in the sky and the shadows grew longer. They changed into their sweatshirts in the restrooms and started the drive back to the TerraPure property. Eddie had to drive much more slowly than in the morning; the little roads were unlit, and he had to rely on the GPS to announce when a turn was coming.

  When they approached the gravel path that skirted the property, Eddie killed the lights completely. Hadley gripped the armrest; Eddie seemed comfortable driving blind, but it made her nervous.

  He turned left onto the gravel and found their parking place from the morning. “I should have asked for a black or green car,” he said, “but they didn’t have many SUVs on short notice.”

  “We’ll be fine,” Hadley said.

  They donned their caps and gloves. Hadley retrieved the duffel bag, and Eddie adjusted his holster over the sweatshirt. “Do you want me to give you a boost this time?” Hadley asked. Eddie glared at her without answering.

  Once in the trees again, Hadley added a night vision attachment to her binoculars and scanned the area. “I don’t see anyone out and about,” she said. “We’ll be quiet and quick.”

  There were three greenhouses. They wanted to put a camera on the back of the furthest greenhouse from them and another on the front side—facing the houses—of the one closest to them. They’d plant microphones near the front doors of each greenhouse, with the final one on the back of the middle structure.

  “There’s an adhesive on the back,” Hadley said, handing the microphones to Eddie. “You just peel the backing and stick it someplace inconspicuous. We’ll do the back side first, then move to the front.”

  Eddie accepted the devices and they ventured out of the trees. They took a few cautious steps and paused. There was no sign of anyone watching them. They took a few more steps. “We’re clear,” Eddie said. “Let’s go.”

  They jogged toward the greenhouses. Hadley worried about Eddie, who was already breathing hard, and how he’d do if they had to outrun anyone.

  They reached their target without encountering anyone. They stood along the back wall of a greenhouse, catching their breath. Satisfied that they were safe, they went to work. Eddie had it easier with the microphone. The bottom of the greenhouse had a slight overhang above its concrete slab, so he stuck the device underneath.

  Hadley did not see a perfect spot for the camera, and finally decided on the eave just above the back door. If she could get to the top, she could point the camera at an angle and capture a wide view of anyone approaching the back doors. She motioned Eddie over to give her a boost.

  She had to stand on his shoulders. He wobbled underneath her, and she worried she’d lose her footing. She put the camera gingerly between her lips and used both hands to grab the roof and hoist herself up, using her forearms to support her.

  She pulled off a glove, threw it to the ground beneath her, and affixed the microphone in a gap where two shingles met. Fortunately, the microphone was similar in color to the roof, and she didn’t think it would be noticeable. She lowered herself so she was hanging from her fingertips before dropping to the ground.

  “Let’s do the camera on the front first,” she said. Once I get positioned on the roof, you can start doing the microphones.”

  They slunk from greenhouse to greenhouse and crept around the side of the first one. When they reached the front corner, Hadley held up a hand in a stop motion. She looked through her optics at the housing. She saw movement around a few of them, people walking from the small houses to a larger building. Probably going for dinner in the common kitchen building, she thought.

  “There are people out,” she said. “But, they aren’t looking at the greenhouses. Let’s be fast.”

  They scrambled to the front and repeated the process of boosting Hadley to the roof. As she affixed the camera, Eddie scurried from building to building, planting the microphones. She lowered herself once again, arms extended, then dropped back to the ground, trying to keep her knees unlocked to cushion the landing.

  They moved back to the corner of the first greenhouse. Hadley removed the base station from her bag and powered it on. A series of lights flashed in amber. “It’s searching for signals,” she said. One by one, the indicators turned solid green until there were six dots beaming up at them. “We’re good,” she said. “I’ll watch this as we go back. We’ll take it as far as we can with the lights still on.”

  They crept to the back of the greenhouses and began their return trip. They went at a fast walk, rather than a jog, so Hadley could stare at the indicators. They had almost reached the trees when the world lit up from behind them.

  CHAPTER 25

  Hadley looked back and stared into the headlights of a pair of ATVs coming toward them and closing the distance fast. She thought about the sign on the gate: “Property secured by the second amendment.”

  “We need to get to the trees,” she gasped at Eddie. She grabbed his arm and pointed him toward where she wanted to go, a 45-degree angle from their current course. She hoped they could enter the trees, get over the fence, and get to the car without giving away its position.

  “Stay where you are,” came a voice from behind them. It sounded like the speaker was using a bullhorn. “You’re trespassing on private property.”

  Hadley and Eddie continued to sprint. The trees weren’t far, maybe 50 yards. The ATVs separated, one moving above them, the other moving below. The drivers were trying to sandwich them, but Hadley didn’t think it would matter if they could lose them in the trees.

  They pushed forward, the engines of the ATVs growing louder as the trees grew closer. They reached a group of pines and ducked between them. Eddie took Hadley by the shoulder and pointed her in a diagonal line, going toward the car. She followed him for several yards. They both stopped and leaned against a tree trunk.

  “Quiet,” Eddie whispered. “Listen for them.”

  At least one ATV rumbled in the distance, and footsteps rustled through fallen leaves. Hadley looked over her right shoulder and saw a beam of light sweeping through the trees. She nudged Eddie, and he nodded that he saw it, too.

  She looked to the left, but did not see additional flashlights. She wondered if the other ATV driver, or drivers, she didn’t know how many people it held, stayed at the tree line in case they tried to loop back toward the property.

  Eddie elbowed her and pointed in the other direction. The flashlight beam had changed course, and was going further into the trees in the wrong direction. “Now’s our chance,” he said.

  “Wait,” Hadley said. She felt her stomach knot and thought she would be sick. “I don’t have the base station. I must have dropped it.”

  “We have to leave it. Let’s hope it can transmit from wherever it is.”

  “No. This is our one shot at doing this.”

  She heard Eddie sigh. She looked back in the direction they’d come from. She saw tiny green indicator lights on the ground where they’d first stopped.

  “I see it,” she said. “You go to the fence. I’ll grab the base station and come over after you.” She handed him the duffel bag and took off before he could say anything. She tried to walk softly, not wanting to give away their position. She heard Eddie’s heavier footfalls and hoped the others were too far away to notice.

  She reached the base station and checked it. The indicators all held at a solid green. She heard a thud and knew Eddie had just dropped to the other side of the fence. She decided to go directly to the fence in front of her, get over, and find Eddie on the other side. As she stepped forward, a flashlight beam cut through the trees and illuminated her. She stepped back but heard steps running toward her.

  She moved back toward the trees where she’d left Eddie, hoping that in the dark and with all the obstacles, her pursuers would not be able to find her. She crouched against a tree trunk, making herself as small as possible and listening for footsteps. She kept a white-knuckled grip on the base station.

  “Do you see them?” a man’s voice asked. It sounded much closer than Hadley expected.

  “No. They must have gone back the other way,” a second man said, his voice nasal and whiny.

  She heard the static of a radio. The first man said, “Tony, have they come out of the trees yet?”

  “Negative,” yet another man responded. “They haven’t been this way. They’re either in the trees or over the fence.”

 

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