Say Goodbye (Romantic Suspense #25) - Karen Rose Page 0,24

fear being found out.”

“I’ll ask them to take it down,” Cameron said. “Or should you do it?”

“If we do it, they’ll know they have a story,” Tom said. “Best you do it. Or we can do it together.”

“Because you want to make sure I’m not going to say anything stupid,” Cameron muttered.

“Partly,” Tom admitted. “Mostly because I need to be able to trace every piece of Eden information out there.”

Cameron nodded once, mollified. “Jeff says you’re all right. I’m going to have to believe that, because I don’t have another choice.”

Jeff had gone very still. “Are you worried that someone from Eden will come after Cameron if they see the article in the paper?”

Cameron’s face drained of color. “Me?”

Tom sighed, wishing Jeff weren’t quite so quick on the draw. “Well, yes. I might have approached that more delicately later, but since you’ve let the cat out of the bag—yes. Cameron could be in danger if Eden learns that he knows about them.”

Cameron’s Adam’s apple bobbed nervously. “They’re that bad?” he asked hoarsely.

“Yes,” Croft said. “They’re that bad. Not trying to scare you, kid. Just want to keep you safe so that your Jellybean will have a mom and a dad.”

Cameron’s lips lifted at the mention of his daughter. It had been the exact right thing to say and Tom was grateful that Croft had said it. “Thank you,” Cameron whispered.

Tom turned to Jeff. “How did you find Cameron’s article? I have alerts set for Eden articles as well, and nothing pinged for me.”

Jeff looked a little proud. And smug. “You might only be getting feeds from the big-city newspapers, or if you’ve got a broad enough net, you’re getting too many hits. I’ll show you how to set up your search to be more inclusive and discerning.”

Tom had to laugh. The kid reminded him of himself at that age. “You little—” He cut himself off, but not before Jeff’s eyes sparkled.

“Admit it, Big T,” Jeff said, using Tom’s nickname from when he’d played professional basketball. “I am the master.”

“Gentlemen,” Croft warned, but she looked amused as well. She sobered as she met Cameron’s gaze. “We will make it our top priority to find Eden and bring Hayley and her family home. Thank you for coming in this morning. I know you must be exhausted. Can we drive you somewhere to rest before you start for home?”

Jeff and Cameron exchanged weary glances. “We can’t go back until Zoya gets home from school,” Jeff said. “And she’s going to be tired, too. She’ll need a nap. If her parents let her take us back,” he added when Tom lifted his brows.

“I can call my father,” Cameron said. “He’ll come get me when he gets off work. He won’t be happy to make the drive, but he will be happy that someone is finally looking for Hayley. Jellybean’s gonna be his first grandchild.”

Croft patted the boy’s hand. “Call your dad. We’ll get you a ride to Jeff’s house and you can sleep till your dad arrives. For now, sit tight here. I need to confer with Agent Hunter, but we’ll just be out in the hall.”

“Well?” Tom asked as soon as they left the room and closed the door behind them.

“If this Graham kid is as tech savvy as Cameron says, he would know how to find their coordinates if he’d managed to hack into their computer to send a message.”

Tom nodded. “But Cameron only found forest. The coordinates in the e-mail aren’t anywhere close to any of the Eden sites. Eden could have set up a VPN or anonymity software like Tor to redirect their ISP and mask their location.”

“To hide,” Croft translated dryly.

“Exactly. We know DJ Belmont is the runner for the cult. We also know he sells drugs for a living, because we found traces of psychedelic mushrooms in the truck that Amos Terrill stole when he escaped.” They’d also found evidence of the cult’s drug operation when they’d searched their most recent location. “If he was using the computer to communicate with customers, it’s likely he’s using Tor to get on the dark web. He could easily fake his location that way. He wouldn’t want customers to know where he was. I wouldn’t, if I were him.”

“We know where the cult was when Hayley sent the message, because it was their most recent site, most recently vacated. Can you back-extrapolate or triangulate or whatever to find them?” Croft blew out a frustrated breath. “Does that make sense?”

“It does. It’s