“What do you have for me, Ben?” I stared into the monitors with the sat phone connection crackling in my ear. While he spoke, I paged through the reams of information in government databases

“We found a fingerprint on one of the letters.” My ears perked up at this. “We got lucky,” Ben continued. “Leo was determined to find something, and when he printed the backside of the flap of one of the envelopes the letters came in, he found a partial print.”

“Tell him good work for me.” I wished I was back at headquarters, I felt antsy stuck here. I couldn’t really do anything productive.

“I will, but man, there is print dust everywhere in the conference room.” Ben griped. “He could at least try and clean up.”

I chuckled, ignoring Ben’s complaint. Leo was one of the smartest men I knew, but he was a total slob. None of his girlfriends would ever stay the night at his place. They claimed it was a nuclear disaster. “What did you find out?”

“We ran the print through a dozen databases and contacted the local police departments for every city Maggie has been to on her tour. We finally got lucky and got a hit.” I could hear him shuffling papers in the background. “The print belonged to a guy picked up for a DUI in a small town just outside of Memphis. He spent the night in jail and then never showed up for his hearing.”

“Who was it?” I pulled a notebook toward me, flipped it open to a clean page, and started making notes. Sketching a crude map of the U.S., I marked each city where the incidents occurred and connected them with dotted lines.

“The arrest record was a dead end,” Ben said. “The asshole apparently uses multiple aliases. We picked up a trail in several other cities. In Baton Rouge, his prints matched a report for resisting arrest for a broken tail light. In Minneapolis, they matched a lewd conduct arrest. Each place took his prints, bonded him out, and he skipped town. We did a search, but every name was a dead end.”

“Somebody has to have a record of him somewhere.” I dropped my pen on the desk and leaned back, digging furrows through my hair with my fingers.

“Well, I do have some good news.” He paused.

“Spit it out Ben. What did you find?”

“We connected him to a sealed juvie record. We’re checking his last known address now… someplace in Alabama. I’m not real hopeful. It’s twenty years old.”

“Where?”

“A small town in Eastern Kentucky. Somewhere in the mountains of Apalachicola.”

“Send out a team,” I ordered. “See what they can find. Maybe someone there will know where he’s gone. What did his juvenile record say?”

“Turns out this guy was quite the delinquent. Public indecency, stalking, you name it, he did it. They locked him up until he was 21 for rape. He was fourteen. Then he raped a nurse on the inside.”

“Keep digging and update me when you can.”

“Will do, boss.”

“Thanks, Ben. You and Leo are in charge while I’m gone. Send me what you have. It may be time to call in a favor. My contact in the FBI may be able to find something we missed.”

“Roger that. Local law enforcement didn’t make the connection. The towns were too small to be online with AFIS for stuff that small.”

“This guy is smart. Thanks for the info. I’ll keep Maggie here until we find him.” We ended the call, and I shut down the secure phone connection. Clicking several buttons, I went online to access Scorpion Security’s encrypted servers and downloaded Ben’s email. My mood darkened as I started reading through the files he sent.

I flopped over in bed and yawned deeply. I stretched, my body deliciously exhausted. I knew Liam thought I was sleeping, but my mind was abuzz with ideas.

Propping myself up on my elbows, I looked around for something to write with. I wanted to get the melody in my head written down before I forgot it. I slipped out from under the covers and padded naked over to the dresser where I rummaged around on top for a something, but I could only find a busted ink pen.

I turned, hands on my hips, and looked around the room. I didn’t bother with clothes; I didn’t plan on being out of bed long. I stuck my nose out the bedroom door, looking left and right down the hallway. There was a room I hadn’t been in across the hall from mine. Maybe I can find a pencil in here.

I hummed as I darted across the hall, turned the knob, and jiggled it a bit when the door stuck. It finally opened, and I danced inside. My good mood came to an abrupt halt when I saw where I was.

Realization washed over me like a bucket of cold water, and I slowly backed out of the room, shutting the door quietly behind me before Liam could catch me. I went back to bed, closed my eyes, and hid under the covers. I wanted to be a thousand miles away from everything I had just seen.

I scrunched the blankets up around my neck and curled up in a ball, trying to make myself as small as possible. Tears welled in my eyes. Big gut wrenching sobs soaked the pillow under me and shook the bed. My chest heaved as I gasped for air, my ribs hurting from the effort. My wounded shoulder ached and burned.

“Are you alright?” Liam blasted into the room and sat on the bed next to me. Gently, he pulled me into his arms. “What happened? Are you hurt? Is someone else here?” He looked around frantically, his outline barely visible through the tears clouding my eyes.

“I- I-” I hiccupped, unable to get out a complete sentence.

“Maggie, what’s wrong? Talk to me?” He tucked my head up under his chin, rocking me back and forth.

“I—” I sniffed, wiped my running nose on his shirt, and blinked the tears out of my eyes. “It just all hit me at once. I might never get to go home.”

“You’ll go home,” he whispered. “Just wait. My team is tracking this guy down. As soon as they catch him, you’ll go back to your life. It will be like this never happened.”

“But, but… I could have died,” I wailed. “I could have gotten you killed!”

“I’m pretty hard to kill, Maggie. A lot have people have tried, and a lot of people have failed.”

I rest my head against his chest, and in his arms, my tears slowed. The hiccups came further and further apart. Liam continued to rock me, and I calmed in his soothing embrace. I drifted to sleep, lulled by his rocking and the steady thumping of his heart.