Free Hunted by Beverly Long

like.”
    That stopped her in her tracks. “Vanilla ice cream?”
    “Not just that. Like wild cherries with a little vanilla. I like it.”
    Ridiculous had just turned hot. He liked the way she smelled.
    “Good shampoo,” she said weakly.
    He laughed. “Well, I didn’t think it was pie filling. Let’s get going.”
    Her face warm, she pulled her loafers out of her pockets, put them on over her wet socks and started walking.
    * * *
    T HIS TIME THEY did not have the advantage of being able to watch from up high, a good distance away. To see anything, they had to get close.
    At the scene, somebody had set up three battery-operated lights. They lit up the area fairly well although the heavy snow made it difficult to see fine detail. They didn’t need that ability to see some guy dressed in a yellow rain slicker half climb, half slide down a ladder. He had a purse and a backpack slung over his shoulder.
    “Car is empty,” the man said.
    There was a general mutter of disbelief and dismay. It would be a difficult search in the heavy woods in fresh snow.
    They watched as he carried both the purse and the backpack over to a parked SUV. He reached into the purse, pulling out her billfold.
    “Guess the mystery is solved,” Chandler whispered.
    It was only a matter of time before Baker McCann knew that his little girl was missing. And Ethan knew that by daybreak, there’d be an army of volunteers in these woods, attempting to find Chandler.
    The smart thing would be for her to turn herself in now. It would save a whole lot of worry for Baker and Mack. And save the volunteers a whole lot of trouble searching the woods unnecessarily.
    “It’s not too late,” he said, voicing his thoughts.
    “I think it might be. It was too late the minute I started looking at the records of who had viewed those screens.”
    “You’re sure you can’t tell your father about your suspicions?”
    “My dad waited twenty years to remarry. He told me that he never wanted to until he met Claudia. Now I’m going to accuse her of treason? I can’t do that without proof.”
    “But if it’s true...”
    “I know I have to do the right thing. And I will. I just hope I’m brave enough,” she added, her voice full of doubt.
    “You’re brave,” he said. “Hell, you climbed out of a car that was suspended eighty feet above ground.”
    “Maybe I should join the circus,” she muttered.
    Now wasn’t the time or place to try to convince her. “So now what?” he asked.
    “I’m going back to Denver, to Linder Automation. I’ve thought of a couple more ways that I can check the computer activity associated with that particular technology.”
    “Earlier you asked about internet access. Why go all the way back to Denver when you could drive thirty miles, get an internet connection and remote in?”
    “I’m fairly confident that my username has been disabled. I won’t be able to remote in. But I actually have another username. When we do upgrades, we have to run scripts to test the new software. When I’m testing, I have a different username. It makes it easy for me to audit what I’ve tested. I don’t think they will have thought to disable my test username. But because of our intense need for data security, I never set my test username up with remote capabilities.”
    “How will you get into the building?” he asked. “I suspect you all have swipe cards to enter certain areas. If your computer access has been disabled, don’t you think it’s true that your entry access is also gone?”
    “I’m sure you’re right. I’ll just have to figure something out when I get there.”
    She was walking into danger and he was pretty sure he wasn’t going to be able to convince her otherwise. “Maybe wait a few days? When Mack hears that you’re missing, nothing will keep him away.”
    “I can’t. Every minute that I delay is another minute that my father is worried sick about me. Plus, the longer I wait, the more likely that somebody