“Looks like three sets,” Joule pointed, glad she was looking at the marks with her own eyes now. The sun had come up just enough that she didn't even need the light from her phone if she kept her gaze directly in front of her.
No word had come from Gisela and Brooklyn in the car, but they probably had hours of images to search. Who knew if they'd find anything?
“They aren’t large,” Kathryn said, looking up at the others.
It was Kayla who caught on first. “You think it might be the three who went back for the ATVs.”
“They're aimed in the right direction,” Turning, Kathryn pointed back the way they'd come.
“Then we follow them backwards,” Joule said, ready to move.
She felt her energy kick up again. It was difficult not to run, but that was a bad idea. The group did pick up their pace though.
They weren't even twenty minutes further along when the marks changed.
“Something happened here.” Joules eyes were still aimed straight at the ground. In the dim light she saw a mess indicating people had been down on the ground and wiggling around, then getting up and walking different directions.
“There were more than just the three here.” Kathryn stated.
“Do you think this is where they split up?” Joule asked, just as Kayla cut in.
“Guys?”
“It looks like some went that way.” David still managed the drone as he pointed to a set of tracks, some smaller, one larger.
The larger set was deeper, the smaller ones tucked right beside it. She was no tracker, but it looked to Joule as if the smaller ones were supporting the larger person in the middle.
“Guys,” Kayla said again.
“Still not as many people as Cage told us about.” Katherine pointed again. “Three that way, maybe four or five that way.”
“Guys!” This time Kayla spoke with a staccato that Joule knew meant business. “There’s a body right here.”
“What?”
They all turned.
How had they missed that? But there was scrub brush all around. Occasionally rocks. The body had been rolled over facedown. An empty water jug was crushed nearby, so the white of the shirt wasn’t shocking in itself. A bag rolled across the sand a few feet away. And the sun wasn't up high enough for them to see more than four feet in front of them.
“Is he actually dead?” David asked, for once stepping back.
Was he squeamish around dead bodies?
“It doesn't look like he's been here very long,” Joule said. He didn't look anything like the body that she'd found before.
With David hanging back, the three women gathered around, Kathryn the first to nudge at his hand with the back of her fingers.
When he didn’t respond, she pulled back. “I don't have any hand wipes or . . .”
“I have hand sanitizer,” Joule volunteered and rummaged in her bag for it.
Kathryn reached around the wrist and checked for a pulse. Apparently finding none she moved the arm back until the body flopped over, revealing red stains down the front of him.
“There was blood on his back, too,” Joule told her, “But I didn’t recognize it because the sand had blown up into it and stuck.”
“When it was wet,” Kayla added and they noticed how the sand had clumped along the front of the shirt, too. This had been enough blood to soak through, though. Enough to leave a soaked spot on the desert floor.
“He's not cold,” Kathryn said.
“Would it even get cold out here?” Kayla asked.
“At night, yes.”
“You have a body?” Dr. Murasawa exclaimed through the open line.
“Just found it. In the middle of a scuffle.”
“Kathryn.” Jacob’s voice came over the line next.
“You didn't hear anything, Jacob. You can find this one later and call it in then.”
“I have to call it in!” he almost yelled it.
Kathryn shot back, “You're not even in jurisdiction!”
Joule held her breath, waiting for the siblings to come to a conclusion. It didn't sound like Kathryn would stop her from tracking farther. Even if Jacob did come out here and turn this into some kind of federal crime scene, Joule could be gone before he got here.
Though, hell. The only agency she hadn’t crossed yet was the Rangers, so why not get them involved, too?
The conversation stopped as Gisela’s voice popped up. “Hey, guys?”
“Jacob,” Kathryn drew out his name, making Joule believe that Kathryn was definitely the older sibling.
“Fine,” he replied, giving up.
“Guys?” Gisela’s voice came through again.
This time, Joule thought she might listen, “What is it?”
“Three large black SUVs just squealed up in front of the house. People are getting out.”
“How many?” Jacob pressed.
“We don't know because we slid down into the footwell so we're not being seen,” Brooklyn said, punctuating each word.
That was smart.
“How many doors slammed?” Jacob again. Smart question.
“Hold on.” A short wait later she announced, “Five, at least.”
So, there were at least five of them. That could not be good.
“Ivy? Amber?” Jacob asked, always the one to check in and make sure his people were still in place. Joule appreciated that.
“All good. Heard the cars but don't see anybody yet,” Ivy was nearly whispering from her roughly hidden spot behind the houses with Amber.
“They're going in the front of the house—for God's sakes, Brooklyn! Don't peek!”
Joule could practically hear Gisela winding her fingers into Brooklyn’s shirt and pulling her down.
Joule’s entire group had stopped where they were, waiting, tense, until Ivy said very, very softly, “They're coming out the back of the house. Do not answer me. No noise . . . They're armed, heavily . . . One of them just got out his phone. He's tapping on it.”
Joule wanted to ask if he was calling someone and how could they find out who? Did Jacob or Kathryn know a way to trace the number? Hell, maybe David did.
Ivy spoke again. “He didn’t put the phone to his face. He's messaging someone or checking something.”
Just then Joule’s phone pinged. Frowning, she pulled it out of her pocket. She must have gone pale, because Kathryn looked at her and asked, “What is it?”
“I didn't think this could happen.” Her chest clenched. She’d made a horrible error.
Kathryn stepped in close, her presence demanding an answer.
“I didn't delete the tracking app. I just turned it off.”
The look on Kathryn's face told Joule exactly what she had just learned. That wasn't enough.
Kathryn stared at her and asked, “It just pinged, didn't it?”