to trace your location. Pass on any information from this group and we’ll find you.
The next thing to pop up was an image of herself, staring down at her laptop.
A horrible feeling pooled in the pit of Charlie’s belly. Could he find her? Would he really come after her?
Suddenly the dead bolt locks didn’t seem to be enough protection against whoever was at the other end of the computer messaging.
Charlie grabbed her phone and dialed Kevin’s number. Yeah, it was after eleven o’clock, but she needed to hear the sound of someone’s voice.
“I got it,” Kevin’s wife, Misty, answered with a groggy voice. “Hello.”
“Misty, it’s Charlie.”
“Charlie. Good to hear from you. But what time is it? Oh, my, it’s almost midnight. Is anything wrong?”
Charlie hesitated, feeling foolish, but unwilling to end the call now. She squared her shoulders. “I need to talk to Kevin.”
A moment later, Kevin’s voice sounded in her ear. “Charlie, what’s up?”
She drew in a deep breath and let it out, willing her voice to quit shaking as she relayed the information. “I was surfing the Free America social media site and found something. I’m not sure it’s anything, but it set off alarm bells in my head.”
“Shoot.”
She told him about the message and waited for his response.
“Doesn’t sound good. Got anything else?”
“I looked, but couldn’t find anything detailing a specific location or government facility.”
“I don’t like it, but I can’t get a search warrant if I don’t have a name or location.”
“That’s what I figured, but that isn’t all.”
“What else have you got for me?”
“While I was searching through the social media site, a message popped up.”
“A message?” he asked.
Charlie read the messages verbatim from her laptop. “He has my picture.”
“Hmm. That he was able to determine you were looking at the site and then able to take command of your laptop long enough to snap a picture has me concerned.”
“You’re not the only one.” She scrubbed a hand down her face, tired, but too agitated to go to sleep. “I was using the library’s Wi-Fi. He won’t be able to trace back to my computer.”
“That’s good. More than likely he’s near the state capital.”
“Are you willing to bet your life on that?” she asked.
“My life, yes.”
“What about the life of your son or daughter?” Charlie asked. She knew he had two kids, both under the age of four. “Would you be able to sleep knowing someone is threatening you? And by threatening you, they threaten your family.”
“Look, can you make it through the night?” Kevin asked. “It’ll be tomorrow before I can do anything.”
“I’ll manage.”
“Do you want me to come over?”
She shook her head, then remembered she was on the phone. “No. I have a gun. I know how to use it. And I really don’t think he’ll trace me to my home address so quickly. We don’t even know if he has that ability.”
“He snapped a picture of you,” Kevin reminded her. “I’d say he’s internet savvy and probably pretty good at hacking.”
“Great.” Charlie sighed. “I’ll do okay tonight with my H&K .40 caliber pistol. But tomorrow, I might want some help protecting my daughter.”
“On it. I’m expecting reinforcements this week. As soon as they arrive, I’ll send someone over to assess the situation.”
“Thanks.” Charlie gripped the phone, not in a hurry to hang up. As if by so doing, she’d sever her contact permanently with the outside world and be exposed to the potential terrorist on the other end of the computer network.
“Look, Charlie, I can be there in fifteen minutes.”
“No, really. I’ll be fine.” And she would be, as soon as she pulled herself together. “Sorry to bother you so late.”
“Call me in the morning. Or call me anytime you need to,” Kevin urged.
She ended the call and continued to hold the phone so tightly her fingers hurt.
What was supposed to have been an easy way to make a little extra cash had just become a problem. Or she was overreacting.
Just to be safe, she entered her bedroom and opened her nightstand where she kept the pistol her father had purchased for her when she’d graduated college. She could call her parents, but they were on a river cruise in Europe. Why bother them if this turned out to be nothing?
She found her pistol beneath a bottle of hand lotion and a romance novel. The safety lock was in place from the last time she’d taken it to Deputy Frazier’s ranch for target practice six months ago. She removed the lock, dropped the magazine full of bullets and slid back the bolt. Everything appeared to be in working order. She released the bolt, slammed the magazine into the handle and left the lock on. She’d sleep in the lounge chair in the living room so that she would be ready for anything. She settled in the chair, her gun in her hand, hoping she didn’t fall asleep, have a bad dream and shoot a hole in her leg.
She positioned herself in the chair, her gaze on the front door, her ears tuned in to the slightest sound. Not that she expected anyone to find her that night, but, if they did, she’d be ready.
* * *
JON “GHOST” CASPAR woke to the sun glaring through his windshield on its early morning rise from the horizon. He’d arrived in Grizzly Pass sometime around two o’clock. The town had so little to offer in the way of amenities, he didn’t bother looking for a hotel, instead parking his truck in the empty parking lot of a small grocery store.
Not ten minutes after he’d reclined his seat and closed his eyes, a sheriff’s deputy had rolled up beside him and shone a flashlight through his window.
Ghost had sat up, rolled down his window and explained to the deputy he’d arrived later than he’d expected and would find a hotel the next day. He just needed a few hours of sleep.
The deputy had nodded, warned him not to do any monkey business and left him alone. To make certain Ghost didn’t perform any unsavory acts, the deputy made it his sole mission to circle the parking lot every half hour like clockwork until shift change around six in the morning.
Ghost was too tired to care. He opened his eyes briefly for every pass, but dropped back into the troubled sleep of the recently reassigned.
He
