Chapter 23: A Troubling Discovery
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"Someone's been here," he said, his voice low and dangerous. "Recently."
"What do you mean?" I asked, suddenly nervous.
He parked a distance away from my car and turned to me. "Stay here."
Before I could protest, he was out of the truck, moving silently toward my vehicle. I watched as he circled it, examining something on the ground, then checking the car itself. When he returned, his expression was grim.
"Someone's been tracking you," he said. "There are boot prints around your car, and they've placed something under it."
"What? Like a bomb?" I asked, alarmed.
"A tracking device," he corrected. "Small, sophisticated. Not something an ordinary person would have access to."
My mind raced. Who would want to track me? And why?
"I removed it," Liam continued. "But this is concerning. Has anyone been asking about your research? Where you go during the day?"
I shook my head. "No one knows I'm working in the forest except my department head, and I told her I was studying moss samples for my dissertation."
Liam's eyes narrowed. "What's your full name?"
"Charlotte Hayes," I replied, confused by the question. "Why?"
"Hayes," he repeated, something like recognition flickering in his eyes. "Any relation to Richard Hayes?"
The name meant nothing to me. "Not that I know of. I was adopted as a baby. I don't know my birth family."
Liam stared at me for a long moment, his expression unreadable. "We need to be more careful," he finally said. "Someone is taking an interest in you, and by extension, potentially us."
"What should we do?"
