“Yeah. More than a little creepy. Haven’t seen one out here so far.”

They were following a narrow path into the mountains at the northern end of the valley, just entering the area that Finn and Bishop had marked on the map Quentin carried. They didn’t have long to search before darkness made it impossible, but all of them had chosen to get out here and begin looking for any sign of Cole Ainsworth or his captor.

But there were thousands of acres of mountain slopes, never mind the sprawling valley. It was a huge haystack.

Like the others searching, both wore their weapons openly on their hips, jackets unzipped despite the chill, making them obvious. Quentin also carried a sat phone on his belt; one member of each team did, earlier tests showing that the powerful phones worked at least passably well. So far.

“I wonder why they were all downtown like that,” Diana said. “And why we haven’t seen any out here. I wonder if any of the others have.”

Their still-new and somewhat experimental earbud coms that worked quite well in some places and with some members of the unit had been worse than useless here, emitting only a buzzing sound. Those of the team who could carry cell phones had found the same interference. So the sat phones were the only way they could reliably keep in touch while the teams of agents and Finn’s deputies roamed about the mountain slopes.

It was ironic but a fact of their complicated lives that they often struggled to communicate over any distance, despite the abilities they possessed. The Universe, as Quentin had more than once noted, never made things easy.

“I also wonder about the significance of them being in town,” Quentin said.

“Maybe Nellie? They tend to gather around her, don’t they?”

“Have in the past. But you heard Finn, right? He said Nellie had been keeping her distance and so had the crows. Since what happened back in January. Still, they seemed to be gathered in the area of the Cavendish bank.”

“Definitely creepy,” Diana said. “Reminds me of that old movie.”

“Same here.”

Diana was scanning the area as they moved through, looking for a sign she was half-afraid she wouldn’t recognize when she found it. If she found it. Changing the subject, she said, “Hollis didn’t seem to be sure if the victim actually reached out to her. Or to anyone.”

“Well, Finn said that Cole Ainsworth doesn’t have the Ainsworth clairvoyance, assuming it is him we’re looking for.”

Steadily, Diana said, “So Hollis felt it because the victim she sensed was so afraid and in so much pain, not because he was psychic.”

“Probably.” Quentin reached for her hand.

“We don’t know if the unsub is psychic.”

“No. But probably not wise to assume he isn’t.”

“And with all the psychic abilities here the only thing we can be fairly sure of is that he isn’t a medium because that’s the one ability no one in Salem has ever had. Right?”