Rob sighed. “I was afraid you were going to say that.”

  The man looked disappointed, but it couldn’t compare to how Spencer was feeling. His heart sank as he began to wrap his head around what this meant. Then a flicker of light through the rear patio door, where the fallen palm tree had peeled some of the hurricane shutter away from the rear entrance, caught his attention. And just like that, Spencer’s hopes of finding Kate at the house were torpedoed, and so were his aspirations for making this extraction a quick and painless process.

  There were looters inside the house—of that he was certain—but what had become of Kate and her parents? It was a question he could only hope to answer by going inside the house and taking a look around.

  “Come on.” Spencer tapped Rob’s shoulder as he headed for the side of the house, kicking up ash with every silent step muffled by the half inch of fallout covering the ground. The house next door hadn’t been so lucky, and from the looks of things, when the place burned down, the tremendous heat left behind a solid coating of soot on this side of Tom and Debbie’s. Spencer tried to pick at the charcoal-like crust that had fused itself into the gaps around the shutters but was unable to break through the hard, black coating with his finger.

  “This is crazy. I’ve never seen anything like it.” Rob ran his hand over the exterior wall next to them, feeling the tacky, creosote-like substance.

  Spencer continued down the right side of the house, confirming that all the windows here were sealed shut.

  “We could try to get in through the roof in the back,” Rob suggested.

  “We’ll make our way around and see if we can’t find an easier way in. If not, the hole in the roof will be our last resort.” Spencer figured whoever was in the house had found a different way in, especially if their intention was to carry out stolen goods.

  “If they’re not here, is it worth going inside? We could just leave,” Rob suggested.

  “I’m not going anywhere without Kate,” Spencer snapped, barely managing to keep his voice to a whisper. He hadn’t gone through the last couple days of hell just to turn around now. With or without help, he was leaving here with Kate—or knowledge of where she went.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  “I didn’t mean we should give up and leave Stuart. I just meant go look somewhere else,” Rob explained.

  “Sorry.” Spencer apologized for letting his frustration show.

  He was hot, tired, and irritated about their discovery, not to mention terrified that his odds of finding Kate had just taken a nosedive.

  “Look where, though?” he finally responded. “No, we need to get inside and look around. Kate wouldn’t go anywhere without leaving a note. I know that much.”

  “So we deal with these guys,” Rob stated.

  Spencer turned to look at him. “If you want to head back to the boat, that’s okay with me. Leave me the radio and I’ll call you to come get me when I’m ready.”

  “No way I’m leaving you here, man. I’m with you. Let’s do this.” Rob jerked his chin in agreement.

  “All right.” Spencer turned his attention back toward the street, checking to make sure there weren’t any looters out front. He noticed right away that there had been an attempt made to open the garage door. Deep gouges in the doorjamb along the weatherstripping indicated a crowbar had been forced between the overhead door and the trim piece. The left-front corner of the garage door was damaged as well: a series of small holes punched through the lower panel, possibly with a sledgehammer. But overall, the door remained intact, and none of the holes were large enough to fit a person. With his eyes, Spencer followed a set of tire tracks in the ash that ran from the garage out to the street and beyond. He dropped to his knees and tried to look inside the garage through one of the sledgehammer-sized holes. He didn’t dare use his headlamp but was able to determine that the garage was empty.

  Tom had taken the girls somewhere in his 1961 Ford F-100. The antique of a pickup was a project he’d recently completed, although last time Spencer was here, it was on blocks in the garage. And as discouraging as it was to know Kate and her parents weren’t here, the missing truck was cause for optimism—unless that had been stolen, too. But Spencer couldn’t allow himself to think like that.

  At the front of the house now, they started to catch glimpses of the neighborhood down the street between drifting smoke clouds. It was as bad as Spencer had expected based on what they’d seen since arriving in Stuart. There wasn’t much left of the small, gated community except a handful of homes—and by the grace of God, Kate’s was one of them.

  Spencer pushed his way through the landscaped plant bed bordering the front walk, knocking ash off the broad tropical foliage as he went, including the dying bird-of-paradise that Debbie was so proud of. The plant, with its sprawling plume of green fronds budding with orange and purple flowers, was no longer vibrant but barely standing, a wilted and gray version of its former self.

  Spencer followed the curved entry to the covered front porch, where he found a disturbing sight. Bullet holes peppered the hurricane shutters covering the oversized front doors. Most of the shots were concentrated around the hinges and hardware, while one corner of the shutters had been peeled back like the lid on a can of sardines, but only by a foot or so. Spencer felt the crowbar pry marks on the doorjamb, then noticed some of the bullet holes had been made from the inside.

  Tom or one of the girls had shot back, and that was probably the reason whoever had been prying off the shutter had given up. The dried blood on the pavers under Spencer’s feet told him that Tom had won this round, but apparently, the victory was short-lived; otherwise, they would have still been here. Another volley of gunshots filled the air, standing out from the crackling and popping that had by now become familiar in the background.

  “That sounded a little closer.” Rob moved into the shadows of the covered porch, crouched behind a large planter, and faced the street.

  Spencer tried to ignore the not-so-distant gunfire for the time being and continued looking for an access point.

  “There.” He stayed low while moving to a large front window that led into Tom’s office. The hurricane shutters had been breached right behind an eight-foot-tall fan palm that made the break-in hard to spot initially. The triple-wide window unit was a weak spot in the shutter system due to its wide span, and the looters had capitalized on the vulnerability, prying it open from the middle.

  The glass was busted out of the center panel, and Spencer had to wonder if that was the noise they’d heard. Had they really been unlucky enough to arrive here at the same time as the looters? If so, that could play to their advantage. Whoever was inside the house was probably busy looking through the place. He and Rob needed to act fast if they were going to get the jump on the looters.

  “I think they just got here.” Spencer moved aside as Rob joined him behind the fan palm to inspect the opening while they both kept an eye on the street out front.

  Rob peered over the windowsill and ducked down a split second later as another crash sounded from inside the house. “Now what?”

  “Now we go in. If they just got here, they might be too busy to notice us.” Spencer knew that was weak reasoning, but he couldn’t stand the thought of strangers going through the house like they owned the place. And he was quickly running out of patience with a world that seemed intent on dealing them blow after blow. Besides, if Kate had left something behind—a note, a clue, whatever—the looters might ruin his chances of finding it if they continued to ransack the place.

  The window was only two feet off the ground, and Spencer was able to step over the sill with little effort. It took more skill to avoid the broken glass on the floor than it did to get inside the house. Spencer moved some of the larger pieces of broken glass with his hand, setting them aside so Rob wouldn’t step on them when he came in.

  “Watch your step.” Spencer pointed out the mess in Rob’s way and then moved through the office to the door, listening to the looters turn the place upside down while Rob climbed inside.

  “At least they left on their terms,” Spencer remarked.

  Rob’s brow wrinkled. “What do you mean?”

  “The gun safes are open and empty. That’s Tom’s doing. And it means they left on their terms and took whatever they wanted with them.” Spencer ran his hand along the edge of the safe door. “See? No pry marks. Not that a crowbar would have worked on these anyway.”

  “Well, that’s good news. So we know Kate and her parents aren’t tied up in there or something,” Rob stated.

  “No. Tom’s got an old truck. I saw the tracks. They’re gone.”

  “So let’s deal with these guys and find out where Kate and her parents went.” Rob nodded. “I’ll follow your lead.”

  Spencer swallowed hard and took a deep breath. Don’t think, just do what you know. The last time Spencer had crept around a dark corner with a carbine in his hands, he was a hundred miles offshore of the Yucatan Peninsula in the belly of a commercial fishing vessel, conducting a search with his law enforcement team. He never imagined the skills he’d learned in the Coast Guard would be put to use so soon.

  Spencer moved silently toward the living room by way of the kitchen, stopping at the center island to make sure Rob was close behind.

  “Living room.” Spencer motioned with his hand toward the doorway he intended on using to exit the kitchen and confront the looters. From the sounds of things, there were two men in the house, and they were back in the bedrooms. If he and Rob could get set up in the living room, they could ambush the looters when they came out. Spencer wasn’t exactly sure what they’d do then, but he promised himself before leaving the trawler that he wouldn’t hold back. He couldn’t play by a different set of rules than everyone else, not if he wanted to find Kate. He’d witnessed the cold, hard truth of it all in Marathon and had seen enough to know hesitation could get both him and Rob killed.

  The looters chose to break into this house, and they knew the consequences of getting caught. For all Spencer knew, the two guys tearing the place apart right now could be the same guys responsible for driving Kate and her parents to flee. It would take more than a few attempted break-ins to get Tom to abandon the house. So Spencer had to assume these guys were armed and dangerous. The bullet holes in the shutters by the front door were a testament to the measures they’d taken to gain access to the house, and if nothing else, it proved Spencer and Rob were dealing with individuals who had no problem killing to get what they wanted.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  Spencer moved through the kitchen and had Rob wait at the doorway to the living room. He took a position behind the L-shaped couch and listened as the looters continued searching the bedrooms. Spencer was about to wave for Rob to join him but stopped at the sound of footsteps on the tile flooring.

  Two dark figures emerged from the hallway.

  One of the men pulled his mask down. “At least there’s nobody around this time. The last place turned into a real mess.”

  “You’re the one that shot the guy. I played it cool.” The other man inspected a nearby shelf full of pictures and collectibles with a flashlight.

  “He was going for his gun.” The man with the mask around his neck continued moving, making his way into the dining room, where he searched the buffet table with the help of a headlamp.

  “It was a knife. And thanks to you, we couldn’t get the combination for the safe out of him,” the man with the handheld flashlight stated.

  “He wasn’t the first, and he won’t be the last,” the looter in the dining room responded.

  “You’re sick. You know that?”

  “You ain’t exactly innocent, you know. And you don’t have to worry about that here. The safes have been cleaned out,” the man in the dining room said.

  “That’s because they knew we were coming back,” the man by the shelf shot back.

  “Another bust.” The guy in the dining room turned and briefly illuminated his friend with his headlamp.

  “Thanks, genius. Now I’m blind.” The man by the shelf returned the favor with his flashlight.

  The juvenile behavior was enough to allow Spencer to see that the man by the shelf had an AR-15 slung over his back and a semiautomatic pistol on his hip. The other guy was toting a pump-action shotgun in one hand and a crowbar in the other.

  “Found the liquor cabinet.” The man with the shotgun set the crowbar down, pulled a bottle of something from the cabinet, and took a swig.

  “We’re looking for food and valuables. If you go around drinking everything you find, you’ll be worthless, again, like last night.”

  “Relax. We can do whatever we want.” The man took another drink from the bottle, slamming it down hard on the bar top when he’d finished.

  Spencer was struggling with a moral dilemma and was undecided on how to proceed. He was inclined to shoot them both where they stood without warning but wasn’t sure he could actually do it, although the looters had just made a compelling argument as to why they deserved to die. These men were killers, and whether or not they were the same ones who’d been here before, he’d just heard them admit to doing some terrible things.

  “I’m gonna search the room with the safes, where we came in. Maybe they missed something.” The man with the AR-15 started for the front of the house and the doorway Rob was crouched in. Spencer glanced over at Rob’s location and saw Rob get to his feet and begin to move out of the looter’s path. But instead of making a silent retreat into the shadows, Rob clumsily bumped a shelf above him with his shoulder, lifting one side off its bracket and dumping Debbie’s collection of antique glassware and ceramic juicers onto the floor. The delicate assortment of glassware hit the tile with a deafening crash, but Spencer had seen it coming.

  He was already behind his carbine, and his canted sights were set squarely on the man by the shelf, who already had his pistol drawn from its holster.

  Crack, crack.

  Spencer laid into the man with two rounds, both striking his chest within an inch of each other. One of the bullets penetrated all the way through his body, painting the wall behind him with blood.

  But Spencer had no time to make sure the man was down. There was still another looter to contend with. By the time Spencer had a bead on his number-two target, the remaining looter had his shotgun pointed at Rob.

  Crack, crack. Boom. Crack.

  Spencer got two rounds off before the shotgun erupted. A blast of flames and burnt powder illuminated the entire room for a split second before Spencer followed up with a third shot. The shotgun blast took a chunk of drywall from the doorway less than a foot from Rob’s head.

  Boom.

  Before Spencer realized what was going on, Rob’s gun went off and hit the man by the shelves, who was trying to raise his pistol as he bled out. At just ten feet away, Rob’s double-aught buckshot didn’t even slow down as it ripped through the man’s torso and embedded itself in the wall beyond. The looter’s body was blown backward several feet, bouncing off the walls in the tight hall like a pinball, and eventually landed in a crumpled mess on the tile floor.

  Rob and Spencer stood motionless for a while and didn’t say a word. Spencer wouldn’t have been able to hear anything anyway after the handful of explosions in such a confined space. The ringing in his ears was proof that what had just happened was real, but he couldn’t accept it yet.

  “You okay?” He was finally able to bring himself to speak.

  “I’m good, I think.” Rob patted himself down as though he expected to find a few holes.

  “That was close.” Spencer made his way to the body in the dining room and kicked the shotgun from the dead man’s grip.

  “Too close.” Rob waved at the air with his hand, trying to clear away the cloud of drywall dust while eyeing the crater in the wall.

  Spencer took the headlamp off the man in the dining room and turned it off, then turned his own headlamp on, utilizing the red light to see what he was doing. The man in the hall had dropped his pistol after being shredded by Rob’s shot, but Spencer made sure to retrieve his AR-15, although there was zero chance the guy would ever use it again. The puddle of blood expanding under his lifeless body and flowing along the grout lines in the tile was proof enough of that.

  “Not exactly how I saw that going down, but at least it’s over,” Rob said. “And we’re still here.”

  “Barely.” Spencer glanced at the divot in the wall near Rob.

  “Should we move the bodies?” Rob wandered over to the dining room and stared down at the man who’d tried to kill him.

  “No time. Besides, I don’t see us coming back here. And Tom and the girls have already cleared the place out of anything worthwhile. What we need to do is look around for a note and then get out of here.” Spencer wasn’t overly concerned about the shoot-out drawing attention, not with all the activity outside.

  Rob pulled the radio from his belt. “You mind if I check in with Nat and let her know what’s going on? I don’t know if she heard that, but with the gunshots we’ve been hearing outside, I’m sure she’s plenty worried.”

  “Yeah, of course.” But Spencer was only half listening as he began his search for a note or a clue from Kate.

  He left Rob to his call and headed for Kate’s old room, doing his best not to get blood on his sneakers. The looters hadn’t spared anything, unfortunately; there wasn’t a drawer in the room that hadn’t been opened and emptied onto the floor. The sight was disheartening. He’d never find anything in this mess.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  Spencer went straight to Kate’s nightstand, where she confessed to keeping her diary when she was younger. Spencer thought she might have left a note in there detailing what had happened and where she and her family had gone, but he came up empty. With each passing minute, Spencer was more certain that the looters had ruined any chance he had at finding whatever information Kate had left him. He and Rob should have entered the house immediately and stopped the two thieves before they had a chance to tear the place apart. The disorder they’d created in the short time they were inside was hard to fathom, but that didn’t change Spencer’s predicament. He took one more look around the disheveled room and decided to look elsewhere.