“Yes. He’s not here.”
“Stay by your phone.”
One of Logan’s strongest points was his calm in the face of chaos and danger, but he’d never been in a situation like this that involved his father. He had to force the pounding in his head to relax, and cage his emotions so they wouldn’t overtake him.
He called Ruth back, and had her do a similar check on Harp’s phone. It was sixty miles east of Braden, seemingly stationary, just off the interstate. But that wasn’t the worst part.
The phone in Paskota’s car-Logan’s phone-was traveling down the freeway off-ramp at the very same exit where Harp’s phone was located.
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
“No,” Richard said. “There’s no way to know that for sure. We stick to the plan, leave him here, and get you someplace safe.”
“But what if he’s right?” Sara asked.
They were parked behind the Grand Canyon Camper Village at the north end of Tusayan. Dev had pulled up several minutes earlier, but sat waiting in the El Camino. Logan had spent the time laying out what he had in mind. Now it was up to them to decide. He already knew what he would have to do, one way or another.
“And what if he’s wrong?” Sara’s brother retorted. “Or maybe it’s a trap just to get you.”
“Richard!
Richard clenched his jaw. “I don’t like it.” He looked at Diana. “You don’t like it, either, do you?”
Diana closed her eyes and massaged her right temple. When she opened them again, she gave her brother a halfhearted smile. “It doesn’t matter what we think. It’s up to Sara. But if it were my call, I’d probably say we have no choice.”
“To get out of here,” Richard stated.
She shook her head. “No.”
“But-”
“Richard, our family is bigger than the three of us now. Remember that. There’s Emily and Alan, too.”
He grimaced. “Alan’s not-”
“Yes, he is,” Sara said. “He’s my husband. Your brother-in-law.”
She stared at Richard, challenging him to contradict her. As much as he looked like he wanted to, he didn’t.
“So?” Logan asked.
“Yes,” Sara said.
Logan nodded. “Give me a minute.” He got out of the car and stepped over to the El Camino.
Dev rolled down the window. “Well?”
“Follow us out of here,” Logan told him. “Once you’re on the interstate, I want you to push it, go as fast as you dare. If you get pulled over, that’s fine. But if you don’t, you’ll be able to get there fast. We’ll be coming behind you, but will stay at traffic speed. I can’t afford to have us both delayed by cops. Here.” He handed Dev a piece of paper with a number on it. “That’s Barney’s cell. Call him, and tell him and Pep to be ready to leave in the next thirty minutes. Tell them I’ll call when it’s time. I’m going to keep tabs with Ruth. If possible, I want to time things so that Pep and Barney get on the road just ahead of the doctor and her people. She’ll probably be traveling pretty fast and will overtake them at some point. When that happens, they need to try to stay with her.”
“Pep should drive.”
“I agree,” Logan said. “If they’ve forced my father to tell them where Alan is, they’ll be heading straight to Riverside. We’ll know that soon enough. Callie’s getting Alan and Emily out of town as we speak, which means the house will be empty. I’m hoping we can trap the woman there, and get my dad away from her.”
“And then what? Call the police?”
Logan looked back at the Grand Prix. “If I can convince them of that.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
Harp kept his eyes closed, hoping the others would think he was asleep. It wasn’t that he had some elaborate plan for escape. That was something his son might think up, not him. He just didn’t want to talk anymore.
It wasn’t fair. He was a nearly eighty-year-old man, whose son was the only family he had left. Once threats were made about Logan, Harp hadn’t stood a chance, and he’d talked. He hated himself for it, but what else could he do? He couldn’t run. He couldn’t fight. He couldn’t call anyone even if they hadn’t taken his phone away.
Harp could hear other vehicles entering and leaving the truck stop. Most sounded like regular, family-sized cars, but every so often there were low rumbles and vibrations of big rigs pulling in to fill up.
Once he’d tried to signal a passerby, but his interrogator had simply reached over and slapped his hand down. If he tried again, he was pretty sure he’d get more than a slap.
As soon as they had stopped, the driver had made a call, told the person on the other end their location, and hung up. The two men then took turns going into the station to use the facilities. Harp, though, was not offered the same opportunity.
Finally, his mind started to drift. His body, on edge since the moment he’d been taken, felt suddenly drained and useless. If he were lucky, soon he wouldn’t just be pretending to sleep.
A phone rang, loud and jarring.
Harp’s eyes sprang open, his breath catching in his throat, as whatever adrenaline he had left shot through his system.
“Hello?” the driver said into his cell. He listened, nodding, and hung up without saying anything else.
“Well?” the man in back asked. He was the one who’d introduced himself as Leon Clausen at the hospital cafeteria.
“Almost.”
They fell into silence again.
He didn’t have long to wait for his answer. Only a few minutes went by before a gray sedan with a blonde woman behind the wheel pulled up next to theirs and stopped.
“We’re switching to the other car,” Clausen said to Harp. “Don’t do anything dumb.”
Dumb was getting out of bed that morning. Dumb was offering to get water for Pep by himself. Dumb was telling the men where Alan and Emily lived. Trying to get away from men with guns would be colossally idiotic.
Harp moved over into the gray sedan without a fight. The man who’d been driving took over the same duties in the new vehicle, and soon they were back on the interstate.
Once they had settled into a steady speed, the woman twisted around in the front passenger seat and looked at Harp, studying him.
“I see the resemblance,” she said. “Your son has your eyes, and your…ears, I think.” Her smile sent a chill through Harp. “But I’m glad to hear his stubbornness didn’t come from you.”
Harp said nothing.
“I advise you to continue to be cooperative, Mr. Harper. If I get the feeling that you’re not, you become unnecessary, and I don’t keep anything unnecessary around.”
