Agent 34 (Book 1)

30. I know someone out here

Everly's POV

The truck was exactly where Eric had said it was. In fact, it was in an even less obscure place than the last vehicle. If anything, it looked as if the vehicle had been abandoned in a hurry. The doors were still open, as well as the bed of the truck.

There were also a couple of deputies walking around the car. I left Noelle to deal with them. She flashed them her badge and told them that they were no longer needed.

It looked like they had wanted to protest until she named their Sheriff by name and told him they were free to call and verify with him if they really wanted to waste his time. They both had said nothing and had instead gotten back in their patrol car and driven off.

We'd all watched silently until they were completely out of sight. More than likely they'd still be calling this in to Sheriff Thompson, but considering he was otherwise occupied and it would take quite a bit for him to get all the way out here, we had time. As soon as they were completely gone from sight, we went to work.

"What do you think they touched?" Tessa asked as she pulled on a pair of latex gloves she'd taken from the SUV.

I shrugged. "Hopefully nothing," I replied as I slipped on a pair of my own gloves. I turned to Noelle. "Can you call this into Zero and ask him to send some crime scene techs down here?" I asked her.

She nodded. "They're likely not going to be able to be here for a few hours though, at least."

"I know," I replied. "But it's better than nothing."

"There's definitely blood," Alejandra called out and we turned to her as she was crouched in the bed of the truck.

I walked up to the truck and looked in, noticing that there was actually a fair bit more blood than I was expecting. I had expected a few drops, a few splatters. But there was an entire streak across the bed of the truck.

That didn't bode well to me.

Alejandra looked from the blood to my face and she seemed to be able to tell where my thoughts were going. Tessa also seemed to figure the same.

"If they spent so much time cleaning up the other vehicle to the point where there wasn't even a speck of dust, why they'd leave this?" Tessa asked. Speaking aloud what we were all thinking.

"They were being followed," Noelle suddenly said.

We turned to face her as she stood beside the SUV, pointing at tire tracks in the dirt.

"Our tracks," She said as she pointed to one set before pointing to another. "The patrol car. The truck, and then there's one more set that crosses over the truck's tracks but is underneath ours and the patrol cars."

"How do we know that wasn't just the car they switched to?" Tessa asked.

Alejandra shook her head. "There are footprints leading from the truck out into the forest behind us. They were running from whoever was in the other vehicle. Someone was right behind them."

I rubbed at my forehead. "This doesn't make any sense."

"It could have just been other law enforcement following them," Noelle said.

I shook my head. "They wouldn't have left the truck here. They would have had it towed. Of course, for that matter, we have no way of knowing for certain whether or not this truck even belongs to the mercenaries or just some other random criminals."

"Pretty big coincidence," Noelle replied. "for just some other random criminals."

"It's the mercenaries."