The Rogue Hunter (19 page)

While Sam was busy signing papers, Mortimer excused himself and stepped outside to call Decker. It was nearly nine o'clock and still light out, but it was the gray light of dusk. He wasn't surprised, however, when the phone was answered. The men were probably waiting to hear back from him, he thought as he recognized Decker's voice.

"Is Bricker nearby?" Mortimer asked at once, not bothering with a hello.

"Yes, do you want to talk to him?" Decker asked, sounding surprised.

"No. Yes, but to both of you at once," Mortimer explained. "Call Bricker into the room if he isn't there and then put me on speakerphone."

"He's here," Decker said, and then a click sounded and he asked, "Can you hear me?"

"Yeah," Mortimer assured him.

"Hey Mort. How's it hangin'? Are you getting any or is Sam playing hard to get?" Bricker teased, letting him know he was there.

"Bricker?" he said grimly.

"Yeah?" the younger man asked, his smile evident in his tone of voice.

"I will remember this and repay you accordingly when you finally meet your life mate," he said silkily.

"I think you've pissed him off, Bricker," Decker said with amusement.

Mortimer just shook his head and launched into a quick rundown of what he and Sam had found at the Latimer cottage.

A prolonged silence followed when he finished, and then Decker said, "You're thinking it's our rogue and that he's gone beyond just biting now."

"What?" Bricker said, sounding surprised over the phone. "How do you figure that? I mean, yeah, the cottage being in tip-top condition and the food left out and door open might suggest an immortal's involvement, but the Latimer cottage is in Minden, a good two hours from us here in Magnetawan. Are you two thinking we have more than one rogue, or what?"

Mortimer frowned. This issue hadn't occurred to him. Two hours
was
quite a distance for the rogue to go. It made for a large feeding ground. Perhaps he'd been influenced by a wish to stay with Sam and built a whole scenario that was—

"The bite marks weren't just spotted here in Magnetawan," Decker said, interrupting his thoughts. "There were reports in Huntsville, Bracebridge, and Gravenhurst. Minden isn't that far away."

Mortimer's eyebrows rose at this news. "I didn't know the bites had been spotted anywhere but Magnetawan."

Decker gave a dry laugh. "Then Uncle Lucian's slipping. But then he's a little distracted by wedding plans and Leigh at the moment and not as efficient as usual."

A smile curved Mortimer's lips at the mention of the head of the Council and Leigh, his life mate. Mortimer and Bricker had been there when Lucian had first encountered the woman. Neither of them had any idea then that the two would end up life mates. Of course, she'd been unconscious at the time. On the second occasion that they'd seen them together, however… Mortimer's smile widened at the memory. He'd never seen Lucian act as he had around Leigh. It had been easy to tell they were meant for each other.

"Uncle Lucian couriered the full report when he realized he hadn't given it to you and Bricker. It arrived today," Decker added.

"I see," Mortimer murmured slowly. "Are they still thinking one rogue or a group of them now?"

"One," Decker responded. "The reports of bite sightings are far enough apart in both time and distance that they think it's one. And whoever it is obviously isn't surviving off biting mortals alone unless there are a hell of a lot that aren't noticed or reported."

"Or that just go missing and aren't recognized as one of his victims," Mortimer said quietly.

"Yeah," Decker muttered, sounding unhappy.

Mortimer considered what he'd just learned and then said, "It might help us out to contact Bastien and have him make the boys at the Argeneau Blood Bank send us a list of anyone they deliver blood to up here. It will give us a short list of immortals in the area that we can question. Our rogue may be one of them."

"Good thinking," Decker said. "I'll call Bastien about ABB as soon as I get off here. Do you want Bricker and me to come down there to help with the search for this Latimer girl?"

Mortimer frowned as he considered the situation, and then said, "No. This looks like a rogue's involved,
but
may not be. Until I have a little more evidence one way or the other I'd rather not pull you two off our original grid search or the area. You two keep on with that, and Sam and I will look for Cathy."

"Okay," Decker agreed.

"Yo, hey Mort?" Bricker said just as Mortimer opened his mouth to say good-bye.

"Yeah?" he asked warily.

"What about clothes and blood and stuff? You want us to bring you supplies?"

Mortimer hesitated; he hadn't considered that. But it was a two-hour drive and he'd be dragging the two men away from their own search…

"We're kind of headed down that way anyway," Decker announced suddenly, and then explained, "We marked all the reported bite sightings on a map of the area and then found the center. For some reason Bricker thinks that's most likely where the rogue's home base is."

"I saw it on a cop show on television," Bricker said defensively. "Or maybe it was a movie. Anyway, if you work out the center, that's usually where the bad guy lives."

"And where's the center?" Mortimer asked, half amused and half curious. While the idea sounded nuts, it just might work.

"The middle of Cardwell Lake," Decker answered.

"You think he has a home or cottage there?" Mortimer asked.

"Maybe," Decker admitted. "Stranger things have happened. We're going to check that out tonight. We were going to wait for your return, but now we'll probably head right out after I call ABB for that list you suggested. Bricker could throw some clothes and blood together for you while I make the call, and you could meet us at Cardwell Lake. It would cut your trip in half."

"And I could jog next door and see if Sam's sister's can throw some clothes together for her too," Bricker put in.

"Good thinking," he agreed, and then added, "All right, I'll take Sam back to the Latimers' and then meet you two at Cardwell Lake. I'll call your cell when I get there so you can let me know exactly where you are."

"Sounds good," Decker said.

"To me too," Bricker agreed, and then asked, "Is there anything special you want me to pack for you? Something Sam will think is sexy?"

"Bricker," Mortimer growled in warning.

"Oh, you don't have anything sexy, do you," the younger man went on, ignoring him. "I could loan you something."

"Justin," he snapped.

"You'd look good in my black leather pants," Bricker continued blithely, and Mortimer could hear Decker chuckling in the background. "They might be a little tight, but they look best that way anyway, and—Oh hey! I just got this new zebra-striped thong before the trip. It's never been worn; you could—"

Mortimer snapped his cell phone closed, cutting off his annoying partner, but a smile was also tugging on his lips. A zebra-striped thong? Dear God! Although the leather pants might not have gone amiss… he
had
noticed the way women looked at Bricker when he was wearing his leather pants, and wouldn't have minded Sam looking at him that way.

Sam paced the small front room of the Latimers' guest cottage, and then paused at the window to peer out over the dark landscape. All there was to see was inky blackness. Anything could have been standing cloaked in darkness on the other side of the window and she wouldn't know it. She should have been used to that from her own family's cottage, but this wasn't her family's cottage. This was one of the Latimers' guest cabins, and Sam wasn't terribly comfortable in it. She was very aware that Cathy Latimer had gone missing from the main house not a hundred feet behind the cabin she was in. That knowledge was creeping her out. What if Cathy had been kidnapped? What if whoever had taken her was still around? What if—?

She stopped that train of thought at once, knowing it couldn't lead anywhere good. It didn't stop her wishing that Mortimer would hurry and get back so she was no longer alone. He'd brought her directly here after leaving the OPP station. They'd arrived to find Sergeant Belmont standing around with a couple of his constables, looking officious but not actually doing anything useful.

The man had admitted that the situation appeared fishy and promised that he'd look into the matter. He'd then been reluctant to hand over the keys to the property. Sam had been forced to call her boss, and have him call the Latimers in Europe, to have
them
call Belmont on his own cell phone, to tell him they wanted her to stay there and he had their permission to give her the keys.

Martin Latimer had then apparently asked to speak to her. Tight-lipped, Belmont had handed over his phone and stomped off to kick at rocks and branches a little distance away. Mr. Latimer had thanked Sam for what she was doing and assured her she was welcome to use anything at the estate while there. In the meantime, he was working on arranging a flight back. He hoped he and his wife, Trisha, would be able to return to Canada the next day and be up at the cottage by evening.

Sam had assured him she'd do what she could until they arrived, but couldn't offer much reassurance to the man. He wouldn't be reassured until his daughter was found safe and sound. The moment the phone call had ended, Sam had approached Belmont and traded the mobile phone for Cathy's keys. At least most of them. He'd kept the key to the house, claiming it was a crime scene and she couldn't enter. The man and his officers had left shortly after.

Once they were gone, Mortimer had joined her on a tour of the three guest cottages on the property, holding her arm to steady her as they traveled the paths in the darkening evening. He'd stayed until she'd decided which cabin to use and then had headed back to Magnetawan. But he was returning. Mortimer was only heading back to get them both a change of clothes and some groceries to last them a day or so, and then he was making the long drive back. Sam had assured him that wasn't necessary and that she'd manage okay without his going to so much trouble, but he'd waved her words away, assured her he'd be back as quickly as he could, and driven off.

Sam had been pacing ever since. She turned now and walked the length of the small room again, her gaze moving absently over the furniture and accessories. It was very nice as guest cottages went, she supposed. At least everything was expensive-looking, but it was also tiny, with two well-appointed but small bedrooms taking up the back of the cottage and this room in front with a kitchenette on one side and a sitting area just big enough to hold a couch and chair on the other. It was also the cottage closest to the lake. By then she'd known Mortimer intended to return, however, and the two bedrooms were really why she'd chosen it.

Not that her sisters expected them to use both rooms, Sam thought dryly as she recalled the phone call she'd made as soon as Garrett Mortimer left. Bricker hadn't yet arrived at the cottage in search of clothes for her, so she'd gotten to break the news of what was happening to them. Both Jo and Alex had been up in arms about her staying until they'd heard the part about Mortimer staying with her. Suddenly they hadn't minded at all. That was when the sly suggestions and innuendo had started. She'd been relieved to end that conversation as well.

Sam paced the room once more, again pausing to peer out into the darkness. There was still nothing for her to see. There was also nothing to eat, and nothing to do in the cottage, and this endless waiting was driving her crazy. The heat wasn't helping. The cottage had been tightly closed up and was terribly warm inside despite the overhead fans being on for the last… Her gaze slid to her watch to see that it had been almost four hours since Garrett Mortimer had left her.

Four hours. She bit her lip and glanced outside again, but there was no sudden flash of headlights on the trees announcing his return. Sam knew she was expecting too much to even hope for that. She probably had another hour wait before she could expect him back, Sam realized and grimaced, unsure she could bear another minute there, let alone sixty.

The sound of a boat engine drew her gaze to the lake, and Sam saw the bow light of a boat cruise slowly into view. She stood still, watching it move by. The light was nearly out of sight before she heard the sound of the water washing up on the beach.

The sound made her think of how cool the lake must be and how lovely it would feel on her overheated skin. She then wondered if Jo and Alex were taking a night swim that very moment. When the sound of the boat engine died in the distance, Sam turned to grab the flashlight, one of the first things she'd looked for after Mortimer had left. She went into the tiny bathroom that ate up a corner of the sitting area and grabbed a beach towel from the rack before flicking on the flashlight and moving back across the room.

Sam paused at the screen door, suddenly nervous about stepping out into the darkness, but then remonstrated with herself over being a coward and shone the light on the ground before stepping outside.

She'd just go for a quick swim. Just a dunk, really, Sam assured herself, enough to cool off, and then she'd return to the cabin to wait for Mortimer. It was better than pacing a rut in the hardwood floor of the cottage.

Sam shone her flashlight over the sloping land between where she stood and the beach. She then shifted the beam to her left and then her right, telling herself as she did that she wasn't
really
looking for kidnappers or even serial killers lurking behind trees.

It was hard to fool oneself, however, and Sam rolled her eyes at the yellow streak she'd apparently developed as she turned the light forward once more and started cautiously off the porch. The fifty feet to the Latimer dock were the longest Sam had ever traversed. Between her repeated stops to shine the flashlight over the surrounding trees, her own inability to maintain her balance as she glanced nervously around at every tiny rustle of sound, and then the need to pick herself back up off the ground each time she lost that balance and fell, the walk probably took five times as long as it should have.