Jane’s dad sat beside her in the SUV with his military-grade laptop tracking his state-of-the-art Newham drone. Reid sat in the back so her dad could direct Jane. ATF hadn’t arrived yet, and there had been no roadblocks set up between her dad’s compound and Pelican Harbor.
She’d left Parker shut in her dad’s house for now. She might not be able to protect anyone else, but she could protect her dog.
Charles peered at the screen. “They’re still on Bon Secour Highway. About four miles ahead of us.”
“Stay with them.” Jane’s biggest fear was they’d make it to I-59 and disappear in the heavy summer traffic. A white vehicle wasn’t the easiest to track. Gulf Shores would be teeming with white cars today.
“Let’s think ahead,” Reid said by her ear. “What would be the easiest way to escape?”
She thought for a minute. “Out on Fort Morgan Road. There are a lot of private docks. They could slip into a driveway and escape by boat if it was preplanned.”
“I hope that’s not the plan,” her father said. “The drone won’t be able to see the vehicle through the trees. Some of those places are heavily wooded.”
“If they go that way, we could take the drone out past the trees to Mobile Bay where we could watch for boats.” She tossed her phone to Reid in the backseat. “Please text Augusta and Jackson and ask them to bring a boat out to the Mobile Bay side of the peninsula.”
“I’m on it.”
Her father never lifted his gaze from the computer screen. “As long as there aren’t multiple boat launches occurring, we might track them. If the boat we’re following doesn’t dock in two hours, I’ll have to bring back my drone so there’s juice for it to land.”
She turned on the lights and siren, pressed hard on the accelerator, and maneuvered around cars that pulled over ahead. “Let’s just get to them and take them into custody.”
“There are three of them, and they are professionals,” her dad pointed out. “And we don’t want that dirty bomb detonating. We have no idea if they had time to arm it or not.”
“And there are three of us, and two of us are law enforcement,” Jane snapped. “If you’re afraid, I can let you out.”
Her dad shot her a searing look that made her close her mouth. “Sorry, Dad. But we can do this.”
“I’m not saying we can’t, but we might need backup. They could have automatic weapons for all we know.”
“We sure don’t want a shoot-out,” Reid said. “And I think if they’d armed the bomb, they would have left it in your bunker.”
Cars still moved to the right and let her pass. “How far ahead now?”
Her dad hadn’t taken his gaze from the laptop. “They’re merging into traffic on 59 and going south. I suspect you’re right, and Fort Morgan Road is their destination. We have to be careful we don’t push them into doing something stupid that might kill people. Stay far enough behind that they don’t hear your siren. There are a lot of vacationers out here. We don’t want any of them harmed.”
While Jane knew the counsel was wise, she wanted to slam into that vehicle and force the men off the road. Her cooler head prevailed though.
“Where’s the ATF?” Reid asked. “Have we heard any more from them?”
“I haven’t,” Jane said. “Didn’t they tell you they’d be right out?”
“Yeah,” Reid said. “But their idea of right away must not be the same as ours.”
“The men will be to Fort Morgan Road before the ATF could arrange a roadblock,” her dad said. “If we can overtake them on the peninsula, we’ve got them. Traffic is light out there, and Jane can force them to stop.”
Jane drummed her fingers on the steering wheel as traffic in front of her didn’t seem to notice her bubble light. When the clueless driver still didn’t move, she “yelped” the siren a moment until he moved over.
She zoomed past. “Now how far?”
“About two miles ahead of us.”
It felt an eternity as the minutes ticked by with her dad giving occasional updates. She had to get that bomb back.
“They’re on Fort Morgan Road. Go get ’em!”
Jane accelerated as fast as the vehicles ahead would let her. Once she got close enough for them to hear the siren, they’d speed up too. She prayed she could make up some of the distance before they realized they were being pursued.
“They’re speeding up. They’ve heard us back here,” her dad said.
She nodded and gripped the steering wheel with both hands as her SUV careened around a curve. Where was the white SUV? The curvy road blocked her view of the other vehicles up ahead.
“Where are they?”
“About half a mile ahead. Oh, wait, the vehicle disappeared!” Her father made some adjustments. “I still don’t see it. The trees overhang the road, and there are several tracks they could have taken out to the water. Let me see which ones have boat launches.” He messed with the computer some more. “All three have boat launches, and all three have boats moored at the docks.”
“Keep watching and see where the SUV breaks through the trees.”
“We’ll have to make a decision to turn down one of the tracks.” Her father stared ahead, then back to the screen. “Nothing yet. Take the first driveway up ahead.”
She nodded and did what he suggested. The drive was barely wide enough to get down. “I don’t think this is it.”
“You’re right. Back out and try the next one.”
Brush scraped at the sides of her SUV as she maneuvered back to the road. Several cars delayed her swerving onto the road, but she was finally able to go forward and turned into the next lane. This one was wider and looked well used.
“I see it! We’re on the wrong track. Turn around. It’s the next driveway.” Her father ran his finger over the trackpad. “They’re getting on the boat.”
She turned her siren to the yelp sound as she reached the end of the drive. But the sinking sensation in her stomach told her they were going to be too late.
* * *
Reid hung on to the door as Jane turned the SUV into the narrow gravel drive. She was a maniac behind the wheel. Thick brush scraped by the side of the vehicle, and large water oak trees blotted out the sunshine. She gripped the wheel and maneuvered around a big pothole.
“I think they’re heading for Dauphin Island,” her dad said. “I’ll have to bring back my drone or it will be lost at sea.”
“It’s only money, Dad! We have to get that bomb.”
“I don’t care about the money, but my drone doesn’t have enough power to continue to track them to Dauphin Island. It will fail no matter what. I’ll take the drone down to just above the boat to see if I can find the name so we can track it on the island.”
They broke through the brush into clear blue skies by a dock. The white SUV was parked there.
She parked her SUV, and Reid got out to rush to the dock and stare out over the whitecaps at the boat zooming away from them. Jane and her dad joined him. In the distance the escaping boat kicked up foam. Farther out were oil platforms and barges carrying coal. The drone was a black dot that zoomed down to hover over the boat.
Reid tipped his head to one side. What was that noise on the wind? The other two hadn’t reacted, so maybe the sound was his imagination.
He put his hand on her shoulder. “Was that a gunshot?”
“I didn’t hear it.”
The retort of a gun repeated, and the drone plunged from the sky and dove into the waves.
“They shot my drone!” Her dad slammed his laptop shut. “We’re helpless.”
Jane clutched her hands together and went to the end of the pier where she stared at the disappearing boat. “They’re getting away!”
Reid’s phone vibrated in his hand. He glanced at the message from Augusta, then handed Jane the phone. “You got a text from Augusta. They’re on their way, but ETA isn’t for about thirty minutes.”
“Oh man. Not good. That’s plenty of time for the men in black to disappear.” She glanced back toward the white SUV. “Maybe there’s something inside the vehicle to help us know where they’re heading.”
She ran back along the dock to the grass and tried to open the door. “It’s locked. I’ll get my Slim Jim.”
Stepping to the back liftgate, she got inside her vehicle and returned with the unlocking tool. Within moments she had the door open and was inside. She unlocked all the doors with the button on the driver’s side.
“Reid, you look in the backseat. I’ll see what I can find in the passenger seat.”
Reid ducked inside the back and felt under the seat and along the side of the door. Nothing. He looked in the pocket on the far side and found an assortment of pens and paper along with napkins and a few receipts. Nothing helpful.
“Nothing in the glove box but vehicle registration and the owner’s manual.” Jane flipped down the visor, but it held only the mirror.
Her dad approached the car with his laptop. “I got a snapshot of the name of the boat before he shot the drone down. It’s the Westwind.”
“That’s Gabriel’s boat. I’ll tell Augusta.” So maybe her mother had been wrong and Gabriel was more of a threat than she’d realized. Jane activated her phone and placed the call to Augusta. Voice mail, she mouthed. She left a detailed message. “Call me back when you get this.”
Reid lay on his side and looked under the seat. A wooden object caught his eye, and he pulled out a hand-carved pipe. It still held traces of tobacco. Something about it felt familiar, but he couldn’t place it.
He got out when Jane did and saw the droop of her shoulders. He started toward her to show her the pipe, but her dad got there first.
Charles put his arm around her. “You did everything right, Jane. The guys had a plan. I wish I’d gotten a look at their faces.”
“I did snap some pictures.” She opened her phone and called up the pictures she’d taken in the woods. “Have a look.”
He took the phone and swiped through the pictures, pausing at the last one. “Something about that guy . . .”
Reid peered over Charles’s shoulder at the burly figure. Something about his stance triggered a sense of familiarity. It took a second for it to register. “He walks like you.”
Edward.
Jane stared at her dad. “I’d suspected Edward, but why wouldn’t he tell Gabriel about all he was doing? I’ve been trying to figure out why on earth you would be the target of a dirty bomb. It seems extreme, but Edward hates you.”
Charles pressed his lips together and stared at the photo. “Let me enlarge this last picture.” He used his thumb and forefinger to blow up the image of the man’s face, and though the picture was blurry, Reid inhaled at how much it looked like Edward.
“It’s my brother.” Charles rubbed his head. “And it makes a twisted kind of sense. I destroyed his family, so he plans to destroy mine. That’s why he implicated Will in Lauren’s death. He wants to punish me through Will.”
“How did you destroy his family?” Jane asked.
“I sent his boy to jail. Colton. You might remember him, Jane. The two of you used to be inseparable.”
She wished she could remember.
“He ended up just as bad as his dad. You were in college, and I’d decided to go see my brother. Try to connect again.” He shrugged. “Stupid idea. When I arrived in town, I spotted a punk with a gun shaking down an old woman. I intervened, but the poor old lady was shot before I could stop him. I tackled him and called the police. My testimony sent him to prison. It was Edward’s boy, Colton. He died in prison during a yard fight.”
“And Edward never forgave you,” she said.
Reid looked down at the pipe in his hand, and the sudden realization of where he’d seen one like it hit him. At the compound in Kentucky. “Look here, guys. I found this under the SUV’s backseat. Edward had one like it that nearly fell out of his pocket when we spoke to him.”
Charles took it and turned it over in his hands. “He started carving these when he was fifteen.”
“Any idea where he might go in this area?” Jane asked.
Charles shook his head. “I haven’t spoken to him in years.”
Reid ran his fingers through his sweaty hair. There was something just out of the grasp of his memory. His eyes widened, and he put his hand on Jane’s shoulder. “Didn’t Edward say something about Fairhope when we saw him? Remember? He told you to go back to Fairhope.”
She nodded. “I’d thought it was a slip of the tongue, but maybe it’s more than that. It’s the only lead we have. Let’s head there.”
The three of them ran to the SUV and buckled up.
“It’s normally an hour to get there from here, but I’ll use my siren and lights.” Jane flipped on both, and Reid saw the speedometer hit seventy by the time she was a mile out on the road back to town.
“Where might they go in Fairhope?” Reid asked. “Does Gabriel have any known contacts there? All I know about Fairhope is that lots of artists live there. And it’s cute.” Its reputation as the cutest town in the South was well deserved.
“Maybe just a change of vehicles,” Jane said. “If we can get the police out there, they might find someone waiting in the parking lot by the pier.”
“Lots of well-known people have homes there,” her dad said. “Ball players, authors.”
Jane hunched over the steering wheel, and the speedometer zoomed higher. At times she was doing ninety on open stretches on I-98 when traffic was light.
Her phone sounded, and she glanced down at the console where it lay faceup. “It’s Augusta.” She touched a button on her steering wheel to answer. “Any news?”
“I got someone down to the Fairhope marina, Chief. He found the boat, but no one was there. We were too late.”
“Thanks for trying.”
Jane pulled to the side of the road and beat on the steering wheel. “Too late! Now what?” Her phone dinged, and she glanced at it. “Nora just sent over the picture of the man in the backyard of Lauren’s house. Let me take a look at it before we go.”
“Okay.”
He watched as she opened the file and enlarged the picture. The color drained from her face, and she handed her phone to Reid without a word.
He stared at it. “That looks like . . .”
“Edward,” she whispered. “Dad, look at this.”
Confirmation Edward was in this up to his white hairline.