The other agents on with us that night were Roger Nielsen, Charles Powiesnik, and Michelle Bugliarello. Powiesnik was the special agent in charge. I wasn’t really sure where I fit in, but they all knew I’d been sent by Washington, and by Ron Burns himself.

“The good Dr. Taylor is going out. Could be interesting,” Katz and I heard over our two-way late that night. We couldn’t actually see his house from where we were parked.

“He’s coming your way. You pick him up first,” said Special Agent in Charge Powiesnik.

Katz turned on the headlights, and we pulled up to a corner. Then we waited for Taylor to pass. His Toyota 4Runner appeared a moment later.

“He’s going out toward I-89,” she reported in. “Proceeding at about forty-five, keeping within the speed limit, which makes him suspicious in my book. Maybe headed to his farm in Webster. Kind of late for picking tomatoes, though.”

“We’ll have Nielsen precede him on I-89. You stay behind. Michelle and I will be right with you,” said Powiesnik.

That sounded familiar to me, and apparently to Agent Katz, since she muttered, “Right,” as soon as she signed off.

Once he exited 89, Taylor made turns on a couple of narrow side roads. He was doing close to sixty.

“Seems to be in a little more of a hurry now,” Peggy said.

Then Taylor’s Toyota veered off onto a drive that appeared to be dirt. We had to stay back or be spotted. Fog lay low over the farmlands, and we proceeded slowly until we could safely park on the side of the road. The other FBI cars hadn’t arrived yet; at least, we didn’t see any of them. We got out of our sedan and headed back into the woods.

Then we could see Taylor’s Toyota parked in front of a shadowy farmhouse. A light eventually blinked on inside the house, then another. Agent Katz was quiet, and I wondered if she’d been involved in anything quite as heavy as this before. I didn’t think that she had.

“We can see Taylor’s Toyota at the house,” she reported to Powiesnik.

Then she turned to me. “So now what?” she asked in a whisper.

“It’s not up to us,” I said.

“If it was?”

“I’d move in closer on foot. I want to see if that missing kid from Holy Cross is in there. We don’t know how much danger he’s in.”

Powiesnik contacted us again. “We’re going to take a look. You and Agent Cross stay where you are. Watch our backs.”

Agent Katz turned to me and sniffed out a laugh. “Powiesnik means watch our dust, doesn’t he?”

“Or eat our dust,” I said.

“Or suck hind tit,” grumped Katz.

Maybe she hadn’t seen any action before, but she apparently wanted some now.