Bell’s phone rang. He answered and spoke for a minute then hung up. Walked to the map. “They’ve got the roadblocks set up. Garrett and Amelia might move inland here to get around them”—he tapped Location M-10— “but from where Mason and Frank are they’ve got a good view of this field and they’d be seen.”

Rhyme asked, “What about that railroad line south of town?”

“Not used for passenger travel. It’s a freight line and there’s no set schedule for the trains. But they could hike along it. That’s why I set up the block at Belmont. My bet is they’ll go that way. I’m also thinking Garrett might hide out for a while in the Manitou Falls Wildlife Preserve—with his interest in bugs and nature and stuff. He probably spends a lot of time there.” Bell tapped spot T-10.

Farr asked, “What about that airport?”

Bell looked at Rhyme. “Can she hot-wire an airplane?”

“No, she doesn’t fly.”

Rhyme noticed a reference on the map. He asked, “What’s that military base?”

“Used it to store weapons in the sixties and seventies. It’s been closed for years. But there’re tunnels and bunkers all over the place. We’d need two dozen men to search the place and he could still probably find a nook to hide in.”

“Is it patrolled?”

“Not anymore.”

“What’s that square area? At spot E-5 and E-6?”

“That? Probably that old amusement park,” Bell said, looking at Farr and Ben.

“Right,” said Ben. “My brother and I used to go there when I was a kid. It was called, what? Indian Ridge or something.”

Bell nodded. “It was a re-creation of an Indian village. Went outa business a few years ago—nobody went. Williamsburg and Six Flags were a lot more popular. Good place to hide but it’s in the opposite direction of the Outer Banks. Garrett wouldn’t go there.”

Bell touched spot H-14. “Lucy’s here. And Garrett and Amelia’d have to stick to Harper Road in those parts. They go off the road and it’s swampland filled with clay. Take ’em days to get through it—if they survived, which they probably wouldn’t. So. … I guess we just wait and see what happens.”

Rhyme nodded absently, his eyes moving like his friend—the skittish fly, now departed—from one topographical landmark in Paquenoke County to another.

… chapter twenty-five

Garrett Hanlon led Amelia down a wide asphalt road. They were walking slower than before, exhausted from the exertion and the heat.

There was a familiarity about the area and she realized this was Canal Road—the one that they’d taken from the County Building that morning to search the crime scenes at Blackwater Landing. Ahead she could see the dark rippling of the Paquenoke River. Across the canal were those large, beautiful houses she’d commented on earlier to Lucy.