Carla shook her head hard. “If I called him, he’d know it was some sort of a trap.”

  “You have a point.” Russ stepped back, running a hand through his hair. “We’ll have Virgil Eckles call Keenan, and tell him he doesn’t want any trouble, so he’s ratting you out to protect his family.”

  “Yeah. Yeah.” Carla gave a vigorous nod. “That should work.”

  “We were never able to find a phone number for Keenan,” Finn said.

  “He uses prepaids.” Carla fixed her rapt attention on Russ. “I have his latest number. I can give it to you, but I’m not sure if it’s still in service.”

  Russ got out a notepad and pen. “Go ahead.”

  She rattled off the number.

  Russ jotted it down and then looked up, his jaw set as he looked at Ryleigh. “Give me a minute to arrange for backup. Then we set the trap and finally get our hands on Dean Keenan and bring this investigation to a close.”

  22

  Finn paced his living room, waiting for Russ to call from the motel and say Keenan had picked up his phone. Eckles had tried to call, but got Keenan’s voicemail and had to leave a message. They couldn’t even be sure Keenan would get the message. He could very well have dumped that phone and gotten a new one.

  “You’re making me nervous with all the pacing.” Ryleigh patted the couch cushion next to her. “Come sit by me instead.”

  He didn’t want to sit, but he also didn’t want to add to her anxiety. After all, she’d come here to be with him when he’d had to take over Avery’s care. She’d wanted to stay with Russ to arrest Eckles. That had been obvious, but she’d returned to the house with him, likely to support him. He appreciated her consideration and letting everything go so they could enjoy time with Avery during dinner.

  The house still smelled like the tangy pizzas they’d each made for the delayed pizza night. Ryleigh had put her all into it, then read to Avery and tucked her into bed. He really would be blessed to have her at his side. He regretted ever breaking things off with her.

  He sat next to her and put his feet up on the glass coffee table holding a layer of dust that he never seemed to find time to take care of. The grime bugged his need for orderliness instilled in the military.

  “This is Keenan’s opportunity to find out where Carla is,” Ryleigh said. “I’d think he’d jump at the chance to call back.”

  “Maybe he knows it’s a trap,” Finn said. “I saw it often enough in ops when subjects wouldn’t bite on bait we dangled for them.”

  She looked at him intently. “You miss it, don’t you?”

  “I’d be lying if I didn’t say I did.”

  She frowned.

  He didn’t want to be the cause of her unease. Not now. Not ever. “But I’m coming to accept the change.”

  She lifted her hand as if she wanted to touch him, but then let it drop to her knee. “But accepting isn’t really living, is it?”

  “No.”

  “What do you think it will take for you to find the enthusiasm you used to have for life?” She held his gaze, digging deep. “Your passion for everything you tackled was one of the things I always loved about you.”

  Loved about me? As in loved me? He had to ignore that point for now, but he could still answer her question. “With the way Avery is starting to open up, I think it’s already happening.”

  But for how long? Would Avery shut down again when Ryleigh left?

  He clamped his mouth closed to keep from frowning at the thought of her leaving and drawing even more of her attention.

  She grimaced.

  Great. He’d failed to hide it. Big time.

  “What is it?” She leaned closer, and he caught the sweet scent of her coconut shampoo. “What’s bothering you?”

  “You always could read me,” he said, hoping to distract her to keep from answering.

  “So, what’s wrong?”

  Right. She was as tenacious as he was.

  “I’m worried this change in Avery is because of you and your family, not because she’s accepting me. So when you go…” He shrugged because he didn’t want to voice his concern, as he didn’t really want to think it could happen.

  “I think you’re worrying for nothing.” She swiveled to face him directly. “I saw Avery’s face when she gave you the bracelet. She’s smitten with the idea of you as her dad. And the nice part is you aren’t replacing her mother because you’re a guy. Avery’s always wanted a dad, and now she has one.”

  “True.” He looked at the bracelet.

  “But?”

  He shrugged again. “I guess since I’ve never been a parent before, I’m uncertain about everything when it comes to Avery. Like what does this bracelet mean? Is it as important to her as it is to me or is it just some craft project?”

  “I think it’s very important to her,” Ryleigh said. “I’ve never been a parent either, so take my words for what they’re worth. I suspect the way you feel is the way every new parent feels, whether their child is a day old or seven years old, like Avery.”

  “You think so?”

  “I do. And I know if I became a mom right now, I would feel that way.”

  Oh, wow. That gave him so many visions of a future with her. But they’d never discussed kids. “How do you feel about becoming a mom? Do you want kids?”

  She narrowed her eyes. “Yeah, sure. I’m just not sure how many. Or when.”

  Like maybe not now with a seven-year-old.

  He’d been thinking so much about getting back together with her, and thinking the only obstacle to overcome was her wariness after the lame way he broke up with her, and that they lived in different towns. But the real obstacle was much bigger. Huge, in fact. How had he missed it?

  He was a dad now and anyone he dated would have to become an instant stepmother.

  He couldn’t ask that of Ryleigh. Could he actually ask it of any woman?

  The single moms at school came to mind. They’d been interested in him. Almost acting desperate for a suitable match. They were already mothers and didn’t seem to mind that he had a child. So maybe that was his future. Taking on a wife who came with her own child or children.

  Another wrinkle to get over. To live with, not in. No point in really thinking about any of it. He wasn’t in the market for a wife. At least not one other than Ryleigh Steele, and she sure wasn’t shopping for him.

  “You’re lost in thought,” she said.

  He waved a hand. “Nothing important.”

  She opened her mouth to say something, but her phone rang, and she grabbed it. “It’s Kelsey.”

  Ryleigh tapped her phone. “Finn is with me, so I’m putting you on speaker, Kelsey.”

  Ryleigh set the phone on her knee nearest to Finn.

  “We have the victim’s DNA results back,” Kelsey said. “And got a hit in CODIS.”

  “That’s odd.” Ryleigh looked at Finn. “CODIS is the FBI’s DNA database, but Gates doesn’t have a record.”

  “At least not that we uncovered,” Finn said, his mind racing with how this could be true.

  “Nick and Russ were thorough and would’ve turned up a criminal record for Gates if he had one.” Ryleigh peered at her phone. “Wait. The database isn’t just criminals, so why was his DNA in it?”

  “I don’t know if it is,” Kelsey said.

  Ryleigh’s head popped up, and she blinked her long lashes. “But you said Gates’s DNA matched a record in CODIS.”

  “No,” Kelsey replied. “I said the victim’s DNA matched the database, but Uri Gates isn’t the victim.”

  Not Gates? How can that be?

  Ryleigh’s heart pounded as she watched Finn’s mouth drop open. She let her gaze wander the room as she tried to process the shocking news.

  Finn leaned closer to her phone. “Say that again, Kelsey.”

  Yeah, he didn’t believe it either.

  “The victim isn’t Uri Gates,” Kelsey said. “The DNA matches to a Dean Keenan.”

  “Keenan?” Ryleigh whipped her gaze to Finn, her heart thundering now. “It’s Keenan. He died in the bomb.”

  Finn nodded. “No wonder he’s not returning Eckles’s phone call. But why was he wearing Gates’s boots?”

  Yeah, why? “Maybe he didn’t want to get his other boots dirty. Or if Keenan set the bomb, he wanted to put Gates’s boot prints at the scene to cast the blame on him.”

  “Maybe Gates knows the answer to that question,” Finn said. “We have to find him. Find out if Keenan is our bomber, and he didn’t get out in time.”

  Ryleigh planted her shaking hands on her knees to stem her eagerness to figure this puzzle out. “He could only be responsible for planting the first bomb, but since a photoelectric cell was found at both locations, maybe the same person made both of them.”

  “Could be. And if Keenan set bomb one, we must have a second bomber. He could be getting ready to strike again, and we have no clue as to his ID.”

  “So who is he?” Ryleigh asked.

  “That’s the million-dollar question,” Kelsey said.

  “Along with what happened to Gates.” Ryleigh let everything they’d learned so far run through her brain but didn’t come up with an answer as to where the guy might be.

  “Maybe he was involved in setting the bomb,” Kelsey said. “Maybe even set them both, and no one was supposed to die, but when Gates heard about the body, he went underground.”

  Finn nodded. “Sounds possible, but why leave his vehicle behind?”

  “It’s a very distinct model,” Ryleigh said. “Maybe he ditched it to fly under law enforcement’s radar.” She looked at her phone. “Kelsey, have you called Russ with this information?”

  “I tried,” she said. “But got his voicemail and had to leave a message to call me. Oh wait, he’s calling me back now. Got to go.” Kelsey ended the call.

  Finn jumped up and started pacing. “Okay, so Keenan is dead. How do we start looking for Gates or an unknown bomber?”

  Finn’s fidgeting made Ryleigh nervous, and she got up too. She strode around the room pondering the leads. A few minutes of pacing and she stopped next to Finn. “My first thought is the video footage.”

  “But Russ reviewed all of it, and there wasn’t anyone who didn’t have a legit reason for coming to the office.”

  “True.”

  “Then do we need to start looking at people who had a legit reason for being there or just focus on Gates?” Finn asked.

  Ryleigh’s phone rang. “It’s Russ.”

  She answered. “I assume you talked to Kelsey.”

  “I did,” he said. “With Keenan dead, there’s no point in hanging out at the motel, so I’ll send Carla to lockup until we can figure this all out and head back to my office.”

  “Shocking news, right?” Ryleigh asked.

  “Yeah. If Gates isn’t our victim, he could be our bomber. I put out an alert on him, but without his current vehicle, it’ll be like finding the proverbial needle in a haystack.”

  “We should’ve done a better job,” Ryleigh said. “We thought we knew where he was so we haven’t been looking for him. That stops now. We can have Nick and Colin try to find credit card activity for him. Maybe for a hotel or rental car. Or maybe he owns another vehicle.”

  “I just ran his particulars through DMV,” Russ said, his radio squawking in the background. “Only vehicle registered to him is the Jeep Gladiator, but I’ll text Colin and Nick to start looking for other details.”

  “Let’s hope they find something soon.” She looked at the clock and the time was nearing eight p.m. “We only have about twelve hours before you have to call in the feds.”

  “Don’t count us out yet.” His intensity and determination flowed through the phone. “We still have time to find a last-minute lead, so let’s get after it.”

  23

  Finn couldn’t take any more of sitting and looking at a computer. He and Ryleigh had dug into the Sovereign Earth members provided by Colin. For a solid hour they’d reviewed internet articles, trying to find out who could be behind the bombs. Ryleigh was in her element, but he was an action guy, not a sit and ponder guy. He’d been spoiled by analysts who’d done this work for his team—presenting him with the problem and the details behind it. Then his team formed a plan and executed it. The exact opposite of this drawn-out investigation without many leads.

  “I can’t sit here anymore.” He got up to pace, instantly releasing tension with each step.

  Ryleigh peered at him over the top of her laptop. “There’s got to be a lead in here somewhere.”

  He spun to face her. “But where? We’ve looked at each ecoterrorist on Colin’s list and none of them give us any reason to believe they would suddenly become bombers.”

  “Doesn’t mean they didn’t do it.” She crossed her arms as if for emphasis on her statement’s validity. “I think it’s time to have Nick and Colin switch their focus to a nationwide search of Sovereign Earth members who embrace any type of violence.”

  More research, but at least Finn didn’t need to do it. “Agreed, but it feels like we’re starting over.”

  “Not totally.” She shook out her arms. “We’ve eliminated a lot of things, but I get your point.”

  He went back to the table and rested his hands on a chair back. “More research will take time. Time we don’t have. I know Russ hoped to resolve this by morning, but doesn’t look like that’ll happen.”

  “You’re probably right,” she said. “But as much as I want to help Russ avoid the feds, it’s more important that this bomber is caught before he strikes again.”

  “Of course.” Finn pulled out the chair and sat. “So let’s get back at it.”

  “Thank you.” She smiled at him. “I know sitting around is hard for you.”

  “With my job change, I need to get better at it.”

  “You will.” She gave him an encouraging smile. “If my family of former law enforcement officers has managed it, I think you can too.”

  He took a good look at her, applying evaluative skills he’d learned as a SEAL to read people and digging deep into her eyes. “Do you miss being an agent?”

  “Yeah, sure, but I chose to make the change. It wasn’t forced on me like your change. It’s not as big of a deal for me.” She tilted her head and watched him. “Anything that’s forced on us is harder to deal with than things we choose for ourselves.”

  Wow, so simple but so perceptive. She really had a good head on her shoulders. Lived her faith. Was a role model for him. He wasn’t looking for more reasons to fall in love with her, but she just kept revealing them, and he was now finding her to be nearly irresistible.

  “But if we remember that God only allows things in our lives for our own good,” she continued, “then the unexpected can be easier to deal with too.”

  “Easy to say.” He tried not to sound negative and to embrace her positive comment, but he wasn’t quite there yet. “Hard to live.”

  “Oh, I know.” She waved a hand. “I can preach it with the best of them, but living it? I’m not so successful a lot of the time. You know me. Impulsive. Act quick. At first, I don’t always think to pray before I act. That usually makes it harder.”

  Oh, yeah, he knew her. And remembered some of the crazy predicaments she’d gotten herself into when they’d been together. The memories brought a smile. He could get used to a lifetime of rescuing her from similar comical situations.

  A knock sounded on the front door.

  Finn shot a look in that direction. “Who could that be at this time of night?”

  Ryleigh cast a tight-eyed look in that direction. “Only one way to find out.”

  He went to the door and looked through the peephole. “It’s Tobias.”

  Finn pulled open the door.

  Tobias stepped in, slapping a newspaper against his hand. “This! I didn’t think about this!”

  He pushed past Finn into the family room and tossed the paper down on the table. “I forgot about this guy’s grudge.”

  Finn picked up the nightly edition of the local paper and read the main story.

  Ryleigh looked between them both. “What’s this about?”

  “Title reads Local Hero Celebrated,” Finn said. “It’s about a guy named Barney Vick who rescued an autistic child who slipped unnoticed into the Oregon Caves and got lost.”

  She looked at Tobias. “And what does that have to do with the bombing?”

  “Barney blames me for his father’s death.” Tobias plopped onto a chair. “His dad died nearly eight years ago, and I’d put it out of my mind. Barney’s a real conspiracy theory nut, and I figured this was just one of his rants because I had nothing to do with the death. But now that I think about it, he might want revenge.”

  Finn’s interest was piqued now. “How did the man die?”

  “Prostate cancer, which Barney claims his dad got on the job.” Tobias shook his head.

  “That’s absurd, right?” Ryleigh asked.

  “To you and me and most reasonable people—but not to Barney.” Tobias rubbed a hand over his tired face and then down his long beard. “Since I never heard from him again, I assumed he’d learned to deal with the loss, let it go.”

  “And now?” Ryleigh asked.

  “I dunno.” Tobias shrugged one shoulder. “I’m wondering if maybe I was wrong.”

  “But why wait eight years to exact revenge?” Finn asked.

  “Yeah, that doesn’t make sense.” Tobias sat back and planted his hands on his thin knees. “I don’t know. When you called earlier to say Keenan died in the bombing, I wondered if we’d gotten it wrong. That maybe we shouldn’t be looking at ecoterrorists. Just a thought.”

  “And one worth looking into,” Ryleigh said. “Thanks for bringing this to our attention.”

  “I’ll see you to the door,” Finn said, eager for Tobias to leave so they could get over to this Vick guy’s place.

  Tobias turned back on the porch. “Promise you’ll let me know what happens with this.”