“The blood spots start here,” Peter pointed out to the group. Meg looked down, kneeling close. Colleen was there with her, looking at the small drops of blood. They were almost impossible to see. Without knowing exactly where to look, only Peter and a good search dog were likely to have found those spots.
Dillon spent the moments looking around the branches to see if there was any sign of someone coming out of the forest to injure the pilot.
“No sign of footprints,” Dillon called back. “And the broken branches are mostly on this path, with one off to the side, which is probably the direction the pilot came through.” Dillon looked to Peter for confirmation. Peter gave a slight nod to indicate the other man was correct.
“Do we have any way to run DNA on this blood?” Meg asked, looking at Colleen. She didn’t think that she knew anyone. Sheri might be able to find someone, but DNA took time.
“It’s probably too old,” Colleen said. “It’s been here over night between that and the contamination, I’m not sure we could get a good sample.”
“Too bad. That might tell us who the pilot was,” Meg offered. “Maybe closer to the body or certainly at the body.”
“I’m sure Rain will know someone who knows where we can run it if Sheri doesn’t,” Dillon said. Meg tried not to glare. Once again Rain was the one people went to. She shouldn’t feel too put out though. Rain was Dillon’s boss.
Meg stood up and started following behind Dillon, who led them down the nearly invisible trail the pilot had cut. Each of them looked down to see if there were more blood spots or perhaps larger ones.
“It’s too bad he didn’t have any identification on him,” Meg observed.
“It seemed a little strange,” Dillon added. “I wonder if he went out of his way to dump it.”
“Not on my land,” Peter said softly, from the back of the line. Meg saw him turn over a leaf. She raised an eyebrow. He shook his head. She could sense from him an intense interest in the leaf but it had to do with some sort of fungal thing that the plant was fighting off rather than anything to do with their case.
“You’re being awfully open and certain,” Meg observed, looking at Peter. Normally he wasn’t quite as forthcoming with answers, preferring to let others drag information out of him in a twenty questions-like game.
“I don’t like people who can move on my land with minimal observation. And they shouldn’t have Blayn G’s metal. That’s the sort of thing I’m here to guard against,” Peter said.
Meg nodded again. He went quiet then, no doubt talking to Zari A, as they moved through the wooded area. Now and then Meg could make out a larger blood stain on the ground. In one place there looked to be a good sized wet spot, that was probably blood but the dirt beneath had absorbed it.
“He probably rested for a little while,” Dillon said. “I think he was really starting to push himself about here.”
“And to the edge of my land,” Peter said. “Do you suppose there are humans who could sense me without me being aware of that?”
“Not that I know of,” Colleen said. “And believe me, if they were involved with the government there’d be rumors. Silly rumors at least, but rumors.”
“I haven’t heard anything like that either,” Dillon agreed. No one asked him where he’d hear something like that but as interested as he was in all things supernatural, he might have been seeking out others with that interest.
Meg realized she never bothered much with off Whisper rumors of strange things. She had enough stuff to keep track of in her own little town that she never bothered to check if other people might be looking for something that was novel and strange. She ought to do that.
They moved beyond Peter’s land, walking for perhaps five minutes after the large blood spot. Peter couldn’t follow them but he moved back and forth around the edges of his property, doing what he could to keep them in view. Meg could still feel him, as always hovering around in her mind, wanting to see the world through her eyes and filter it through his knowledge.
The three of them continued on, through an area where the land flattened out, although they had been trailing downward on the far side of the mountain.
Dillon started upward towards what could have been a path. A couple of narrow fir branches hanging down were broken off. One had some blood on it. The pilot had no doubt gone through here. There were more areas of dampness that looked like blood. It wasn’t dry and as the light faded it became harder to see. The forest was already heavily shaded even in the brightest of days and this was not one of those. Birds sang here, songs that seemed too happy for their mission.
Dillon moved along with a sureness that impressed Meg. She was a good hiker, but in a place like this, unfamiliar territory with no map, and only her own tracking abilities, she’d have been moving much slower. Still, given the number of blood spots, this was clearly the way the pilot had come. There was one area where things seemed to be less certain but a small arrow was lightly marked on a tree, to point the way. Again, Dillon was a smarter hiker than Meg was, not that she normally went that far off a trail without a map. Dillon wasn’t even using a compass here.
There were more shadows than sunlight by the time they got to a clearing. The scent of dampness rose to meet the scent of rain from the clouds. They were definitely going to get wet. Through Peter’s sense, Meg was aware of drag marks along the ground, as if the pilot had pulled himself from their position to a bush at the edge of the clearing. She could see the prints Dillon had left although the sizes varied. Meg realized she was looking at footprints that belonged to someone other than Dillon.
“Dillon,” she said, not too loudly, disturbed by the fact that the forest seemed a little too quiet. There were still small creatures moving around, rustling branches here and there, but the birds were gone, or at least weren’t singing.
He turned. Meg pointed out the extra footprints. “These aren’t all yours are they?”
Colleen was down there, pulling out a tape measure from a pocket in her cargo pants. Meg hadn’t ever used all the pockets but Colleen always seemed to have little things tucked away.
“They’re different sizes,” Colleen announced. Meg had been fairly certain that was true just by looking.
“Men or women do you think?” Meg asked.
“Hard to say. This one is narrow so it could be a woman but it could also be a man with a narrow foot. The size is either a small man’s foot or a large woman’s.” Colleen pulled out her phone and snapped a couple of shots. One without the measure and one with.
“There’s not enough definition in them to get any sort of shoe imprint,” Dillon said, as he crouched in his area. You can see where I walked. My shoes have a definite pattern to the bottom. These appear to have had one but they don’t sink in as much as mine.” He got up and looked back at Meg’s. “Or even yours. And you’re pretty light.”
“I’m carrying a pack though,” Meg said, “Which adds to the weight. I wonder what my footprints look like when I’m not?”
From Peter, she got the sense that she probably made a deeper imprint even without a pack than whoever had worn those shoes.
“Could the shoes be worn out?”
“Why’d you go hiking way out here with worn shoes?” Dillon asked.
“And how did they get here?” Colleen added, looking around. Their voices must have scared off the last of the small creatures because the area was becoming even more silent.
“Were any of these here last time?” Meg asked.
“I don’t think so,” Dillon said. “Although I was really focused on the drag marks so I couldn’t be sure. Still I think I would have noticed if there were multiple sets of footprints at any point in the trail.”
Meg nodded even as Colleen did the same. “Where was the sun when you tracked him here last time?”
“Pretty high up in the sky,” Dillon said. “Better light than now, so I’m guessing that I couldn’t have just missed them in the shadows. It wasn’t like I had anything else
to be looking at.”
Dillon moved the branches where the drag marks led. He pulled them aside. “The body was under here. I could just see the feet when I pulled these away.”
This time there were no feet. Meg walked closer as did Colleen. Meg went down on her hands and knees, letting Peter see what she saw. The drag marks were deeper as if something had been pulled out again, as well as having crawled in.
“He’s gone,” Meg said. Peter was still pushing his consciousness forward, looking around with every sense she had. Meg felt the faint metallic tang of old blood hit her nostrils more strongly and more consciously than it had before. There were creatures moving around in the forest but they were all small and their sounds all indicated they were moving away. The dirt beneath her fingers was warmer than the air. It was slightly damp, particularly near the tip of her index finger. She inadvertently dug her finger in, feeling the wetness increase and the smell of blood waft out. The pilot had lain here long enough for his blood to seep deeply into the ground.
She could feel Peter straining her senses to their edges. It was like she was pushing herself to see beneath the earth but that was beyond her. Still, she understood from the feel of it that no one had buried a body there. The branches didn’t indicate that.
Meg moved back out, looking around. Dillon was already across the small clearing area looking at branches. Colleen was down on the ground looking to see if she could make which direction the other tracks came from.
“Who would have taken him?” Meg breathed.
Meg moved slowly, a fraction of an inch at a time to her right. She saw nothing, even as Peter heightened her sense. As the sun slid down farther behind the mountain and pushed the little area into further darkness, Meg was aware that there were no signs of anyone else coming into their little area. That lack surprised her when she felt Peter pointing it out. The unfamiliar shoe prints began and ended in the clearing.
Rain
I was starting to gather my stuff so I could go home when Zari told me that she and RaeLynn were looking for the pilot.
“Haven’t we always been doing that?” I asked, continuing to move around the office, packing up and picking up. I put some notes I’d been jotting down in a ‘Work In Progress’ bin I had sitting on the shelves next to my desk.
“RaeLynn is getting me into several agencies that have lists of pilots. Right now I have not found one with easily accessible pictures, but we are sorting through men that fit the profile of this pilot and are cross referencing them by their driver’s licenses. I think we are getting closer.”
“That sounds like a lot of work,” I said, thinking of the numbers that could be involved. I wondered how many licensed pilots there were. Additionally they wouldn’t have to be located in Washington, so that made the search even broader. If at least half of the licensed pilots were men, which was a good guess, that likely didn’t narrow things down much. Zari was fast, but even with her speed this could take a long time.
“Are you saying I should stop packing and perhaps call in for dinner?” I asked. Zari readily agreed.
Sitting back down at my desk, I considered where I could call. Zari had had tuna last night but I was thinking sushi was my main choice. Pizza would have been easier, but since being attacked by a vampire after eating at Capriole’s, I’d not been very excited about going there, although Peter still enjoyed it. Zari A, would, of course, prefer the sushi.
I stuck my head in Kyle’s office, telling him what I was up to and what Zari was doing. “You want to add anything?” I asked.
He grinned at me. “I’m always up for sushi if you’re paying. Spicy tuna?”
I nodded. “Naturally.”
“Tiger Roll?”
“I’ll add it to the list.”
“Gyoza?”
“Do you think one order is enough?”
“Get two. RaeLynn and I both really like it and so do you,” Kyle said. Both RaeLynn and Kyle had been known to fight over the last dumpling on other occasions when I’d ordered in.
I went back to my office and called in the order. They knew it was me when I ordered a bit of the sashimi tuna without any rice. That was for Zari A. They told me they’d add in some tempura mushrooms at no charge. I thanked them and paid with a credit card, leaving a tip over the phone. I’d add in some cash when the delivery person got here. Given how much Zari enjoyed this treat, I wanted to be sure I kept the business happy.
“Do you suppose the pilot is a contractor or a standard employee?” Kyle asked standing in the door.
“Could be either I suppose, why?”
“Well, if RaeLynn downloaded the employee files from Langea, we could start by finding out who has a pilot’s license and rule them out first. We could cross reference other pilots against anyone employed by some sort of local aviation business that we can find. It seems like our best chances are if the pilot is local, don’t you think?”
“It seems like a way to narrow things down,” I agreed. I heard a murmur from Zari, which suggested she agreed, although she sounded rather distracted.
“I think Zari’s going to do it,” I said.
Kyle nodded, thinking. “How big is this company?” he asked.
“Not very. I was looking through their financials and what not and they’re pretty small. Why?”
“Well if they are that small, how are they masterminding this? It seems like a big cover up of some sort, where you have test pilots afraid of getting caught after crashing. There’s the potential government involvement as well. It doesn’t quite add up for me, if you know what I mean.”
“I keep getting the sense that this is a company designed to stay under the radar,” I said. “Almost as if they were a front.”
“And if they are, could the big things, like the pilot, be hired out to a larger company? Or even be paid through a larger company?”
“We might be able to find that out once we find the pilot. Zari has several of Dillon’s photos enhanced by Peter’s images, so even if the pilot image online is a poor match, she’ll get it.”
Kyle nodded, although he seemed hesitant about it.
“Langea paid our machinists.” I made a note on a pad of paper of things to research. I wanted to ask Kyle about his hesitation but wasn’t sure I wanted to add another worry or another way of searching to Zari’s list.
“Once,” Kyle said. For someone who wasn’t on this case, he was frighteningly astute. He had to have been working on this while he was at his desk. Well, he was Meg’s employee, not mine, so she would be the one to challenge him on what he was doing.
“So you think that might have been an oversight of some sort?”
“Maybe. Or maybe they did just use them once, but it might be worth looking into the types of jobs Taylor and Sons did in general. See if there’s anything that could suggest Langea used them before, but paid them from an account that went through a parent company. I’d concentrate on planes and stuff like that.”
“RaeLynn has notes that the police aren’t finding your lab tech. We can add him to our list of disappearances,” I said, looking at my stuff. The guy who had worked with Blayn G had been Kyle’s idea to check on. Now he was missing too.
Kyle nodded making a note to himself.
I made a few notes of my own. If Zari wanted to keep working later on into the evening I could be her hands. RaeLynn would need to go home and rest. Likely she would dig into some of these questions in a way I wasn’t able to after she went home to relax. She enjoyed her computer sleuthing way too much.
Meg
Meg, Colleen and Dillon set up camp on the other side of some trees, putting them a few minutes closer to Whisper. They could hear a few animal noises. Soon, Meg knew, the larger predators would start moving around but their group was big enough that those creatures weren’t likely to mess with them.
“This is a little closer to where the pilot disappeared than I’m comfortable with, but we should be safe enough here,” Dillon said. When Meg pointed out what s
he noticed before the sun had set, he had led them through a rather circuitous route to the place they were now.
“I wonder what happened there,” Colleen murmured, even as she pulled a sleeping bag apart to lie down under a tree. She hadn’t brought a tent. None of them had, but fortunately they all had well insulated sleeping bags.
Meg felt a few drops of rain hit her face. They were lighter than she expected, but that would probably change in a very short time.
“Any ideas about how someone could have moved the pilot away from here?” Meg asked. She and Dillon were working on setting up a lean-to to keep rain off the fire. Colleen had already cleared the area and lined some stones so they would be able to start a fire soon enough. There was a small pile of firewood, which Colleen covered when she felt the rain start.
“Well,” Dillon suggested, “He could have been infected with a zombie virus and walked off on his own.”
Meg glared even as he chuckled at his joke.
“The way the tracks disappear, it seems like an air insertion and removal,” Colleen said. “The trees are tall enough to be problematic though.”
“What about something weird that we don’t know about?” Dillon asked. Since meeting Peter and seeing what the earth spirit was capable of, he was not only willing, but almost eager to find out what other unbelievable things seemed to exist. Meg wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.
“I’d think that Peter would have mentioned anything clearly supernatural,” Meg said. “It might not be on his land, but he’s not completely blind to us here. I think he can pick up things. It’s more like hearing the neighbors in the next apartment and knowing enough about them to have an idea what’s going on even if their voices aren’t clear.”
Dillon nodded thinking about that.
“Would he notice a helicopter here?”
“Air stuff is harder,” Meg said. “But I’ve asked him to talk to Marcus, who can probably get a fix on that.”
“It’s a good thing the military doesn’t know about Peter and Marcus,” Colleen commented. “They’d be trying to figure out how to use them and all the other creatures to their advantage.”
Down in Whisper Page 11
