The major frowned as he stepped further into the building and scanned the nearest cell. “There sure used to be. Admittedly I’ve been offsite for the last three quarters of a year, and I haven’t so much as looked inside here for a couple years before that, but back then, yeah, these rooms had doors.” He shrugged. “I can check and see if maybe something happened that caused them to be taken off. Is it important?”

Nate ignored the question. As he ran his fingers along the door frame again, some of what he had taken as a scorch mark fell to the floor. Grabbing his tweezers, he picked up the shriveled remnants of… burnt hair? He dropped it into another evidence baggie.

He proceeded through the remaining rooms. In some, he found more bits of hair. Mostly dark brown, always short, and all found only on the edge of the doorway. Almost as if wild animals had scraped themselves against the door frames.

The medical examiner had said the dead Marine had been bitten by a wild animal. Was there any connection?

Nate turned to the major, who was watching with curiosity but was showing great restraint by not asking questions. “Can I talk to some of the contractors that were here during the fire?”

The officer shifted uncomfortably. “I’m afraid not. When I heard you were coming and why, I went to talk to them myself. It seems that shortly after the fire, before I arrived, all the contractors assigned here were replaced by the contracting service. I was not given a reason why.”

Nate stared at the man, not believing his ears. Something was definitely going on here, and by the look on the major’s face, he’d figured that out as well. Or already knew. Was this whole thing some black op that nobody was supposed to know about? Had the Marine stumbled into the middle of it—and perhaps learned too much?

Nate had the feeling he’d only begun to scratch the surface of the Marine’s death. There was something going on here, and it was way bigger than it first appeared.

Chapter Four

Juan’s frustration grew as Steve inched the car along through the pouring rain. They were almost to the airport, but only after being stuck in traffic for nearly an hour.

Steve tapped his fingers impatiently on the steering wheel as he stared at the traffic ahead of him. “I honestly don’t think they could have picked a more heinous time to have you go to the airport.”

Juan glanced at his watch. “I’m sorry this took so long. I should have just called a taxi.”