Chapter 0 : 6

The call came at 03:12, dragging Nora out of a shallow sleep in the chair beside her desk.

"Ma'am." Okafor's voice was tight. "I found him."

Nora was on her feet before the word finished. "Where?"

"Airport in Charleston. He used his credit card to book a rental car under his own name — not smart for a man trying to disappear." A pause. "I checked the GPS on the rental. He's driving north into the mountains. Western North Carolina."

"Give me an address."

"I'll text it to you. Ma'am, the GPS shows him slowing down and stopping at a cabin off a county road. Near a town called Ashville." A pause. "It's a long drive, ma'am. You want me to come with you?"

"No." Nora pulled her boots on, reaching for her cover. "This is something I have to do alone. You stay here and watch the perimeter. If anyone calls asking where I am, you don't know."

She drove through the pre-dawn dark, the rental sedan eating up the miles of empty interstate. The dashboard clock read 04:40 when she turned off the main highway onto a two-lane road that wound up through pine forest. The headlights carved a path through the mist, and the air smelled of wet earth and sap.

The cabin was a small, weathered structure at the end of a gravel drive, the porch light glowing yellow in the gray pre-dawn. A rental SUV was parked outside, dust on the wheels.

Nora parked behind it. She sat for a moment, collecting herself. Then she got out and walked up to the porch.