“No.” The truth comingled with a sharp stab of panic behind Roland’s rib cage. He hadn’t heard from Eve since her escape. If she were any other woman, he might believe she had elected to hide for the remainder of her days.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t someone who looked for the easy road or backed down when she believed an injustice had been committed. No, she hadn’t tucked tail. Nor would she stay on the run indefinitely. Quite the opposite. She was gathering her strength and courage. She would come for them. All of them. It was a matter of when—not if.
“What about friends?”
“None that I’m aware of.”
“Staff?”
“I believe she has a receptionist at her clinic.” Silence burned across the line and Roland feared for the young man employed by Eve. Unbeknownst to him, the assistant now carried a target on his back. Vonn would stop at nothing to eliminate any danger to himself, and that made him a danger to everyone around him, including Bryan. To protect his son, Roland had to act quickly now.
Years in the making, the time had come to activate the exit strategy he had in place.
“You’ll call when you hear from her.”
He noted the order in the detective’s tone, and to deflect suspicion, his reply came out conciliatory and automatic. “Of course.”
In an attempt to flush her out of hiding, Eve’s disappearance and the subsequent murders of Yolande Seguin and her boyfriend were about to become national news. The entire country would be on the lookout for her. A mentally unstable, unpredictable, and violent woman wanted for a double homicide in Mexico.
The idea had been Vonn’s. An ill-conceived notion to locate the one person who presented a threat to his freedom and ability to kill at will. For Roland, it amounted to nothing more than a smoke screen. A convenient and necessary diversion to give him the opportunity to get his son away from the serial killer, out of the country, and safely situated before the truth came out.
“Make sure you do. I’d hate to think we’re not together on this. Imagine what might happen to Bryan in police custody if we don’t get to her first.”
The bold threat made him bristle. Vonn should know better. Roland had spent the last ten years protecting his son. He wasn’t about to let his guard down now. “While I appreciate your concern, let me reassure you, Bryan will never be within a hundred feet of a police station, never mind see the inside of one. Keep your focus on finding Eve,Detective.I’ll take care of the rest.”
He ended the call, set the phone down on the workbench, and covered it with a rag. An older model, the Nokia flip phone fit in the palm of his hand. Aside from his fingerprints, there would be no way to trace the device to him. Regardless, he’d sat the bench long enough to know better than to leave any evidence behind.
He found a ball-peen hammer at the bottom of a tool chest in the back of the manor’s garage. By the time he finished his two-handed smashing, the largest remaining piece measured no bigger than a penny.
Communication with Detective Vonn effectively severed, phase one of his contingency plan was complete. He swept the debris into the bucket of turpentine dissolving any evidence from Bryan’s knife and set them aside to dispose of both later.
Next, he removed the paint-splattered coveralls protecting his casual clothes and balled them into the trash bag containing the last of the used painting supplies. These he would toss in a random dumpster at one of the many construction sites downtown.
With the concrete shelter beneath his feet stripped, scrubbed, and coated in fresh paint, nothing remained to hint at the atrocities that had taken place in the tiny prison. Once again, it was little more than a cold storage room.
Shame and regret weighed down each step and his weary muscles protested as he passed by the GTO Eve had inherited from her father. Although he never imagined a scenario like the one unfolding, due to his advancing age, Roland had always known this day would come.
For his own safety, and the safety of every woman around him, Bryan needed to be in a long-term care facility where he would be under constant supervision. Roland had made the necessary provisions years ago. Finally, the time had come to take the trip that would sever the tie between parent and child.
An old man, and a tired one, Roland no longer cared about his own ending. Someday had arrived, and he had no desire to live the life he and Beverly had envisioned. There would be no happy retirement. No days spent on the golf course. No family dinners on the manor’s brick patio. No grandchildren to spoil. No wife with whom to share his golden years.
There remained only his son. A twenty-eight-year-old man, who would always be a boy.
His boy.
His last act as a father would be to see Bryan safe, tucked away in an upscale institution on the opposite side of the world. What came after mattered not at all.
CHAPTERTWENTY-NINE
“Your father leftyou in charge of the JTT for a reason,” Diane Heughan said, music blaring in the background. “He didn’t trust anyone else to complete this mission, and neither do I. You need to step up and fulfil your duty.”
It had taken longer than expected for Jay to connect Adam to the deputy director of the CIA. She’d refused to speak to him on her secure phone and instead had insisted the connection be routed through a landline located at a dive bar in Washington’s Foggy Bottom district.
The subterfuge meant she didn’t have any confidence in the CIA’s secure networks. Smart move considering they didn’t know who in Washington’s political scene backed Johnson’s bid to win the election. Smarter still if she had crossed the line and turned into the threat the colonel had been trying to eliminate.
The index finger on Adam’s right hand twitched twice against the wooden desk located in the small office off the kitchen. “I’ll need more than that if you want to work together, Diane.”
“I can’t give you more than that until I know if you’re fully on board. You’ll just have to trust me.”
