Burning Ember

Chapter 9

Spencer had called. It seemed Gabriel's search in Maine wasn't over, despite the misleading trail we'd set, going as far as planting documents to fake her move to Wisconsin, then updating her mailing address to a deserted property near Minocqua. His determination was stronger than expected. Spencer had been tracking his every move, yet Gabriel had managed to slip away. Arriving at Spencer's place, I found him hunched over a bank of monitors, street surveillance feeds live on each. His fingers flew across the keyboard, almost ablaze with speed. His short brown hair stood in disarray, jostled by the bulky headphones on his head, while the screen's glow danced across his the lenses of his glasses.

"You really need to clean this shit up," I said as I walked in, kicking empty soda cans across the floor.

Spencer huffed as he pulled his headphones from his head, "Like I've had time. Between you running me ragged and everything else I've got going on, I'd be better off hiring a maid."

"Really? You're going to let someone in here and touch your stuff?" I challenged, knowing that he would never.

"Maybe." I walked over and picked up a figurine on his desk that had been knocked over by a cluster of papers. Spencer snatched it from my hand as he said, "Hey, don't touch. Laura Croft is not meant to be handled."

"You're just proving my point." Snickering to myself, I sat on the faded orange sofa that always reminded me of something out of the seventies. Crossing my ankle over my knee, I leaned back and said, "So, where exactly did you lose him?"

"Right, okay. So yesterday, I was able to pull up the footage from when he entered your mom's store. See here's him walking back out," Spencer said as he pointed to the top left screen. "Here," pointing to another camera angle, "we can see him getting into a white escalade, though I don't think it's a rental. I 'm going to run the plate to be sure. Anyway, tracking his path when he leaves, it shows him traveling to Guilford. He does the same shit there as he did in Dover, going place to place. He takes twenty-three toward Dexter, but then nothing. I checked all the local cameras that I could get into though a lot of the privately own business have their own servers that I can't access as easily. He had to have turned off somewhere in between."

"Listen Spencer, you need to do whatever you have to in order to find that escalade. Track every damn road that connects to twenty-three," I said, clenching and unclenching my fists.

"Chill, bro. I'm already on it. We're going to find him."

I got up and paced the small, cluttered room. "Do you have anything for me? I gotta do something, I feel like I'm crawling out of my fucking skin. I have to protect her, and he wasn't even supposed to get this close."

"Damn, you got it bad. I haven't seen you worked up like this before." Cutting my eyes over to him, he brought his hand to his mouth to mimic zipping it shut. A good thing too, because I was in no mood for his teasing nature. "Here's a list of a few. All pretty bad if you ask me, but this one here," he said pointing to the second name on the list, a man by the name of Brandon Costavo. "He's a real piece of work. Multiple charges of breaking and entering, assault, assault on the elderly, rape . . . it just goes on."

I took the list and shoved it into my pocket. Starting toward the door, I turned back and said, "Call me the second you find him." Spencer threw his hand up in a slight wave without turning from the screen as I walked back out. When I got home, I pulled up all the information I could find on this Brandon Costavo guy. As always, Spencer was right. This guy was a habitual offender. I took down his last known address as well as a couple others he had been known to frequent and set out. It was still early enough in the day that if things went smoothly, I should be able to take care of him and get back to Ember's by dinner.