Jacob walked with security through the multiple doors closing off the OSI offices from even the protected confines of a military base. If there were answers to be found, he trusted they would surface here.
He would have liked to come here first, but recognized the need to go through official steps beforehand. The police needed as much information as possible. And the time he and Dee had spent speaking with them gave his friends a chance to follow up on their own leads.
Dee’s calls to check her messages hadn’t netted anything but a few telemarketing hang ups and two job offers. Pretty much what he’d expected. But he’d thought giving her something to do would help her feel more in control.
The last door hissed open as the vault door seal released. Inside waited Special Agent Max Keagan, along with a couple of crew friends—Bronco and Crusty. The two pilots, both family men, appeared solemn faced. No doubt envisioning the hell of this happening to one of their children. Jacob hadn’t spent much time with Madison, but the little angel had a way of wrapping her fingers tightly around a person’s heart.
He could only imagine what Dee was going through.
Dee looked around. “I don’t even know how to say thank you. You’ve all gone above and beyond.”
Bronco lumbered up from his chair and offered it to her. “This is what we do for each other. If you’re with Jacob, that makes you one of ours, remember? We take care of our own.”
Special Agent Keagan scrubbed a hand over his spiked blond hair as he clicked through computer keys. He held up a hand in greeting but stayed silent.
Crusty produced a box of doughnuts. “He’s been tapping into some connections at border patrol.”
“In case they went to Canada.” She shook her head as a no-thank-you to the food.
Crusty scooped up a jelly-filled pastry. “Right. There’s camera footage at those stations and satellite photos. We’re still looking into the possibility he hopped a ferry.” He downed half the doughnut in one bite. “Spike’s got all sorts of superspy tricks up his sleeve for narrowing the search.”
Keagan’s fingers slowed. Without turning away from his computer, he waved over his shoulder. “When was the lipstick-on-the-mirror incident? Exact date.”
Jacob rattled off the information then asked, “Why? We thought that was Chase causing more trouble.”
Keagan snagged a gulp from his bottled water before returning to the keyboard. “Maybe, maybe not. I’ll check around and see if Lambert’s crossing back and forth over the border. So far, though, there’s not even a peep from him. He’s not at work. No credit card activity.”
Dee started shaking again. “They’re not dead. They can’t be.”
Keagan patted the air in a calm-down motion. “I’m not saying they are. There are plenty of ways to pay for things without credit cards. Until I have definitive proof to the contrary, we’re going to keep looking for your boy. My wife and I have a son, too.” His gaze fell briefly to the photo of a newborn in blue grinning as he held a toy dolphin. “I’ll search for your child as if he were my own.”
Her hand shook as she reached to stroke a finger along the edge of the gold frame on the agent’s desk. “Thank you.”
Jacob hoped like hell that Dee was right about her ex driving off. “Would he really risk coming back here just to torment her? Why not make a clean run with Evan?”
“That would be the logical choice, but…” Keagan trailed off.
Dee’s face turned paler. “He’s not logical anymore. Or rather, he’s even more unbalanced than before, especially if he somehow found out I didn’t die that night.”
Jacob leaned forward, elbows braced on his knees. “Maybe he’s buying time while he sets up a new identity. He wouldn’t have had much warning that Dee was on to him.”
Dee’s eyes widened before blinking faster, darting from side to side. He couldn’t imagine what it must be costing her to climb inside the mind of her crooked, cruel ex-husband.
Basically all the options here stunk.
Her ex and son could be dead. Or the criminal was on the road somewhere far away with her child.
Or Lambert was close by, determined to succeed in killing Dee this time.
Dee fidgeted with her seat belt as she watched Jacob charge up the steps back into the Lodge. He was closing the place—indefinitely. He planned to hide out with Dee in visitor’s quarters on base, while sending Emily and Madison to stay with Grace and her family. Grace was already inside Emily’s room helping her pack for the baby before they would leave together.
Meanwhile, Special Agent Keagan was still working his secret ops magic to pick up her ex-husband’s trail.
She refused to consider the body in the river was Blane’s. He’d simply ditched the vehicle. He was trying to cover his tracks.
And the dead body? She said a prayer for whoever had died, because she had to believe dental records would prove it wasn’t Blane.
Everything was happening so fast. She’d known Jacob to be a man of action, yet his lightning-fast preparations left her head spinning. In his typical Jacob manner, he never seemed to hurry, yet arrangements had been made before she could blink.