drained out of my face. “Somehow he’s blaming me for what’s happened to his daughter!”
“I’m sorry, Jack, but I gotta go,” Carrie said, taking back the phone. “Don’t do anything. I’ll call you later, and when I do, I’m gonna be able to prove it. I give you my word.”
“Carrie, listen to me, please. This guy-”
She disconnected the line, her face clouded with both resolve and worry.
“You have proof?” I asked.
She nodded, though a little tentatively. “I can get it.”
“A couple of hours from here.” She started up the car again. “We’re going to see a guy about a gun.”
Chapter Fifty-One
Carrie’s face went pale. She looked at me, her blue eyes wide, starting to put it all together.
“That’s what I wasn’t able to tell you,” I said. “Why I can’t turn myself in. He told me if I did, or if I happened to get caught, or if the news somehow got out about Hallie being kidnapped-he’d kill her! Just like he killed Mike and Martinez. He called me on Hallie’s phone-she was away at school-and he put her on. She’s terrified, Carrie! You can imagine! She’s sure he’ll do what he says.”
“That’s what I tried to say when I first called you. When I asked about your son. And why I couldn’t just give myself in. Any more than I can now. No matter how much evidence we have.”
“Why do you think he’s so determined to ruin your life?”
“I don’t know why! Maybe his daughter came to one of my clinics. You need to have a scrip for Oxy, or be evaluated with a set of X-rays by a doctor, but I don’t know, I can’t completely control where these things might end up. You know what’s going on out there.”
“We have to tell Jack,” Carrie said firmly. “You can’t keep this to yourself any longer.”
“We have to. This is what they do. They’re professionals at this. We’re just… You can’t get her back by yourself.”
“Can you promise me that word won’t get out the minute the JSO finds out I’ve turned myself in? My name is already on every newscast across the country! You’re saying they won’t go public when I land in the hands of the FBI? They still think I’ve killed one of their own! They’ll think I just made this whole story up, to shift the blame. I can’t live with what might happen!”
“I’m sure I can get Jack to keep it under wraps. These people aren’t savages. They’ll know what to do. What other possibility is there?”
“I know who it is now. He’ll contact me. It’s me he wants! Me he’s put in this rat’s trap. Not Hallie. He’s just using her to lure me.”
“He’ll kill her too,” Carrie said, steadfast. “You know he will. You’re playing with fire.”
I brought my hands up to my forehead. I didn’t know what was right. Or maybe I knew what was right, I just didn’t want to lose control. Now that I was finally so close.
“Once he tells me where he is, then I can call in help.”
“And what if he never calls. What if that phone never rings again. And that’s his revenge. How will you live with
I didn’t answer.
“We need to get the proof,” Carrie said, letting her words sink into me. “Once we can prove it’s Hofer who’s behind it, then you have to let me bring in Jack. Or whoever his team is. I won’t walk away from you.” She clasped her hand over mine. “I promise. I won’t! But this is the only way I can go on with you. This is a murder investigation. I can’t withhold evidence. Not if I know-
“You’ve done everything you possibly can. You found out who it was! But you can’t get her back…” She shook her head. “Not by yourself. You trusted me enough to tell me this, now you have to trust we can work out the rest of it. It’s the only way.”
I think the only thing that scared me more than the unknown surrounding Hallie was the thought of what I was capable of doing to get her back once I had the proof I needed. I also knew it wasn’t all my call. Liz had a say as well, and I knew exactly what she’d say. She’d agree with Carrie in a heartbeat.
I nodded, about as halfheartedly as I ever had in my life.
Carrie blew out a breath and nodded too. “We get the proof it’s Hofer, and then I call Jack. He’ll get her back for you. Are we all right?”
I slowly nodded again, and Carrie squeezed my hand one last time. And I squeezed hers back.
She smiled. “Now let’s go see a man about a gun.”
Chapter Fifty-Two
We doubled back to Orangeburg and picked up Interstate 77, which headed north. It was only a couple of hours straight up to Charlotte.
To Bud’s Guns. In Mount Holly, North Carolina.
I leaned back and shut my eyes for a while. For the first time in ages I actually didn’t feel freaked out. No one would be looking for us in Carrie’s Prius. No one had any idea where we were headed.
In a matter of hours, we’d have the proof that Hofer was setting me up.
Carrie turned on the news, and a troubling report came on: I’d been spotted in Orangeburg at the diner. Apparently the waitress, Nanci, had recognized me, after seeing a newscast that evening, and once word got out, the night clerk at the motel did too, and they had found the Lexus I’d stolen.
The report also said that I’d been spotted with a woman. And might be heading north.
Carrie’s name would eventually come out.
“Congratulations.” I turned to her. “You’ve graduated from Community Outreach. You’re now an accomplice.”
“Hopefully not for very long.” She smiled at me through her sunglasses. “I intend to set the record straight on that in a matter of hours.”
“I’m sorry to have gotten you into this,” I said.
“You didn’t get me into it. I got me into it. And you know what?”
“What?” I shrugged.
“Whether it’s crazy or not, I’m glad I’m here.”
“I’m glad you’re here too,” I said. “Your brother, Jack, however, may not be equally ecstatic when he hears the news.”
“I can handle Jack,” Carrie said, pressing her lips together. “I always have. Now my dad, the ex-police chief, he’s a completely different story…”
I dozed for a bit, and when I came to we were on the highway, doing seventy.
“You were out for a while.” Carrie smiled, glanced over.
“Guess something’s been keeping me from getting my usual eight hours lately,” I said back. “Can’t imagine what that is…”
I looked at Carrie, her pretty blue eyes firm with both determination and resolve, and I suddenly felt something
