She took a slow, deep breath, trying to calm her racing heart. Her blood pressure was surely skyrocketing, which was not good for the baby.

But then, absolutely none of this was good for the baby.

With the deep breath came a scent that tickled at her memory. Her sense of smell, she’d noticed, had heightened in the last few weeks, which was one reason she’d vomited after smelling the moldy cottage cheese.

This scent was subtle. Lingering.

Recent.

She searched her memory, and then it hit her. At the quarry with Jae, when he’d taught her how to shoot her new Glock. Burnt gunpowder.

Had someone fired a weapon in this room recently?

She wanted to voice the question, but made no sound as instructed.

Instead, she took another breath and searched for other scents that would offer information. A faint whiff of singed electronics. A metallic smell that she didn’t think was blood. Plus something acrid, like epoxy or another adhesive.

All this led her to one conclusion: someone had made something here. Recently. In the hours after Jeb was murdered.

Were they still here? Was that what Xavier had sensed?

He had night vision goggles. He could see, while she was limited to using her sense of smell.

After a long stretch of the only sound being rain tapping on the metal roof, he cursed softly. His voice came from across the room. How had he moved without her hearing a scrape of footstep or rustle of cloth?

She turned toward the sound, bumping into a high stool as she did so. It didn’t make a racket, but it was loud enough. Fear jolted up her spine as her stomach roiled. Had she just endangered them?

“It’s okay,” he said softly. “Someone’s been here recently. I wanted to check out the truck, make sure they weren’t hiding in the cab. I should have searched there before doing anything else.”

She heard more movement and guessed he was searching the one cupboard that was big enough to hide a person. From what she’d seen before he doused the light, the room mostly had open shelves. No doors. No closets. Just one large bay.

Finally, he said, “We’re clear. No one is here. But I’m leaving the light off. If someone is in the vicinity, I don’t want them to see the red glow.”

“I smell gunpowder,” she said. “And something metallic, and epoxy or something equally stinky.”

“You’ve got a good nose. There are several containers of black powder on the workbench. Looks like they were tossed aside after they were emptied. There are metallic shavings farther down on the bench—my guess is detritus from drilling a hole for a fuse.”

“For a fuse?”

“Probably a pipe bomb. Jeb has a large supply of pipes and caps along with his stockpile of black powder.”

“Is it legal? Black powder, I mean?”