Esben sent the photograph without a caption, then called before Kellan could ask for one.
“Don’t put it anywhere public.”
Kellan opened the image on the clinic’s small screen. The angle looked down across the service approach toward a fenced section near the flood controls. Three hunters stood beside equipment cases. One had turned away, leaving only a shoulder and the edge of a badge visible. The cases were a familiar industrial type used by more than one contractor.
“Who took it?”
“A man on the drainage work. He sent it to ask whether I recognized them. I didn’t. Now he isn’t answering.”
“How long?”
Esben supplied the message time and the first missed follow-up. The interval was shorter than Kellan wanted for calling someone missing and longer than he liked when the photograph concerned a place they had just asked to examine.
“He could be working.”
