SUV.
When the others reached her, she explained, “This is Jack Lineberry’s Porsche. I rode in it to lunch with him. Danvers was driving and Straub was in the passenger seat.”
“So he is here,” said Wallis, trying the driver’s-side door. Only it was locked.
Blum called out, “Look at this.”
She was staring through the rear glass. They gathered there and she pointed out some flower petals that were on the interior carpet in the cargo area.
“I recognize them. The Quarleses have those flowers in their backyard.”
“They must have been stuck on Jenny’s shoes when Straub snatched her,” said Laredo.
Pine broke up the grounds into three sections and assigned the two men one each. “Carol will go with me. See anything, call. Okay, let’s move out.”
They all headed out in separate directions.
As Pine and Blum headed into the grounds, Blum looked around. “Why would he bring her here, in broad daylight?”
“I don’t know, Carol. But he is here. I’m sure of that. And from the petals you saw in the Porsche, so is Jenny.”
The stockade replica was empty, as was the POW Museum. There was one employee on duty, but she had seen nothing and seemed put out that she was missing the reenactment.
They left there and started hurrying along the rows of graves.
“My God,” exclaimed Blum. “I have one son in the Army. And if we get into another war? I’m not sure I could bear the thought of losing him.” She looked around. “But every one of these young men had a mother who had to suffer that loss, that grief.”
A change came over Pine at her friend’s words. Her gaze darted around. “Mother!”
“What?”
“Mother!” She started sprinting away.
“Agent Pine,” Blum called after her. “Where are you going?”
Pine didn’t answer. She ran as though a life depended on her. And it clearly did.
* * *
When Pine reached the statue erected by the state of Michigan in honor of its fallen soldiers and sailors, she stared up at the grieving woman the park ranger had told her was informally known as “mother.” She had feared she would see Jenny’s body in her doll costume lying across the marble at the woman’s feet, but there was nothing like that there.
How would Straub get the body here without anyone seeing him? He couldn’t exactly carry the girl in his arms. Even as Pine looked around, she glimpsed a couple of park visitors well off in the distance.
Placing a body in a public area in broad daylight was incredibly risky. She wondered how Straub was planning to manage it.
What would I do?
An answer struck her:
You would blend into the background, but also make it seem that you belonged here. So that if anyone did see you, they wouldn’t think it unusual.
She saw the building in the distance. The Park Service office building. She sprinted in that direction. As she ran, Pine pulled out her phone and called Laredo, telling him where she was going and why. He said he was on the way and would phone Wallis and tell him. Wallis was already in that section.
As she drew closer to the building, she saw a man dressed in khakis and a light-colored shirt with a straw hat on come around the side of the building pushing a wheelbarrow. There was a blanket over whatever was in the wheelbarrow.
The next moment, Max Wallis hustled around another corner of the building. This put him within a few feet of the man with the wheelbarrow. Wallis was breathing hard and looked like he might keel over.
“Hey, you!” cried out Wallis to the man. “Stop right there.”
Pine saw it before Wallis did.
She aimed her pistol but the man in the hat had already fired at Wallis. The round thudded into the detective’s chest and he dropped where he stood.
“Straub!” screamed Pine.
Before she could fire, he stooped down behind the wheelbarrow, lifted the blanket, and pulled something out.
The something was Jenny. She was limp.
With his free hand, Straub held the gun that had just shot Wallis.
“Straub, put her down and throw your gun away,” called out Pine.
His answer was to fire at her.
She ducked down but didn’t return fire because he was holding Jenny in front of him. Pine didn’t know if she was alive or dead, but she couldn’t take the chance.
Straub ran to his left and disappeared around the corner of the outbuilding, with Jenny over his shoulder.
Pine rushed forward and knelt down next to Wallis. She felt his neck for a pulse and found none. She rolled him