Page 67 of Mountain Shadow

Fuck.

Get your head out of your ass or you won’t get her back.

Jens put the phone on loudspeaker. “Please tell me you have something, Alex.”

“I do. Would you like the good or the bad news first?”

The man in him wanted to hear the good news. But the soldier in him knew the bad news was what he needed to prepare against.

“Give me the bad news first,” he all but growled.

“Sarah’s phone is somewhere in the house with you. There’s only one cell tower within reasonable distance of your place, and the phone—”

“What about Kat’s phone?” Jens interrupted rudely. He wasn’t in the mood to listen to a lecture on cell phone triangulation.

Alex’s voice remained steady. “That’s where it gets interesting. Her phone connected to several cell towers in the last couple of hours. That doesn’t tell us exactly where she went—a phone can be standing right under a cell tower but connected to another one five miles away, or even connect to multiple towers at once. But using that information, I was able to identify two cell towers that Kat shouldn’t have been anywhere near.”

Jens felt hope bloom inside him for the first time.

“Where are those towers? We can split up.”

“I’ll share the coordinates. But it’s not an exact science, Jens.”

“I know, I know. Thank you for doing this, Alex.”

“We’re working here on our end as well. Beau is speaking to airport officials. If this man flew into France in the last few days, we’ll find him.”

“Thank you, Alex.”

As he disconnected the call, something grazed his leg. Jens reached down to touch Bailey’s dark head—of course, the Dutch shepherd would have recognized his agitation immediately. And though he knew it was impossible, she looked at him as if she knew exactly what was going on.

Damien was already updating Hiro and Gael on the latest facts. They crowded around the table, looking at the two locations Alex had shared. One was close to Vallorcine. Jens’s stomach clenched as he remembered the dinner they’d enjoyed there.

Was it just last night?

The second location was higher up the mountain.

Though he recognized the importance of following up on every clue, Jens knew, without a second’s hesitation, that he wanted to take the second location.

“I’ll take this one,” he said.

Damien nodded. “Gael, you and Jens go together. Hiro and I will take the other one. We’ll connect in an hour.”

Too long.

Sarah and Kat had been missing for close to two hours already, and every second counted.

21

Sarah

As night fell, the temperature in the room dropped fast. Sarah fought off her growing claustrophobia—it felt to her as if the walls were closing in on them. Where the wood and stone in Jens’s house had always felt warm and welcoming, this room felt exactly like the prison it was.

The single yellow light bulb made it difficult to tell whether Kat was actually as pale as she looked, but there was no mistaking the pained grimace that crossed the woman’s expression every few minutes.

Kat was putting on a strong front, but Sarah could feel the woman’s fear.

Sarah tried to recall everything she’d ever heard about pre-term labor. She wished Jens were here. He would know whether the cramps Kat was describing were cramps, or rather contractions. He would know what to do to help her.