Not Our Daughter

Eighteen

They were stopped in the car line at the blocked pass.

Lisa anxiously scooted up toward him. “Are they searching vehicles?”

Cole watched closely. “Yes, sort of. Just quick looks with a flashlight.”

“Can you turn around before getting up there?” Lisa asked.

He shook his head. “Not without drawing attention to us.”

“Maybe Jade and I should climb out the back. You could pick us up on your return.”

He glanced in his rearview mirror. “How’re we going to explain that to the row of cars building up behind us? It would be like shining a huge spotlight on ourselves.”

“So what do we do?”

“Get under the blankets. Don’t move. Don’t make a sound. I’ll handle it.”

Lisa squeezed his arm, then moved into the back again. Cole felt his heart racing as he drew even closer to the police officer. They were five cars back. He racked his brain for any alternative to having a flashlight beam hit his face but couldn’t come up with anything. The officer turned a Jeep Wrangler around. Four cars now. In the back, Lisa grabbed two thick blankets they’d stored in the van. She handed one to Jade. Cole watched his daughter’s face in the rearview mirror and could see it growing paler by the second.

“Everything will be okay,” he said, trying to reassure her.

“Right,” Jade muttered. “This is completely insane.”

But she did what she was told. Both now had blankets over them. The cargo area of the van was dark. They were three cars back. Cole kept reminding himself to breathe as normally as possible. He couldn’t look uneasy right now. He had to find his poker face. He wondered if the officer would want to examine the back of the van. To this point, there had been only cars and trucks turning around in front of him. The officer had not searched the trunks of any cars, but a van might be a different story. Two cars back. He watched as the officer shined his flashlight inside a Jeep Cherokee. Just a pop of light at the male driver in the front. The officer then did a quick glance at his cell phone. He said something to the driver, who quickly turned his vehicle around in the street and headed back toward Winter Park. The officer clearly had photos of them on his phone. Cole was about to find out if his dramatic makeover would work. He hadn’t expected to test it so soon.

The small car in front of him got a quick scan. It looked like a lady with curly hair was driving. The officer smiled at her and waved her around into a U-turn in the road. They were next. He eased the van forward. It was go time.

“Not a peep,” he whispered to the back.

The officer stepped up toward the driver side of the van. He looked to be about Cole’s age, with slightly graying hair. Cole felt his heart pumping so fast he wondered if the officer would be able to notice it from the outside. He took one last deep breath, let it out slowly, then smiled wide as he rolled down the van’s window. He felt the flashlight beam hit him square in the face, blinding him for a moment.

“Evening, officer. We got an accident or something?”

“No, sir. Just a police emergency. Pass is closed.”

The flashlight remained on him for a few very uncomfortable seconds. It felt like forever. Was the officer putting it together? Was he a dead man? If the officer asked him to get out of the van, Cole knew he’d have no choice but to aggressively react. His plan was to punch the gas while doing a swift U-turn, hoping the officer would feel compelled to protect himself and get out of the way. Cole would then speed back down the street and out of view, pull off somewhere short of town near the ski resort, and immediately ditch the van. From there, he wasn’t sure. They might be forced to run deep into the woods of the mountains and hide out for the night until he could figure out their next move.

He hated the plan and quickly prayed he wouldn’t have to utilize it.

The flashlight finally left his face, hit the passenger seat.

“Who you looking for?” Cole asked, as casually as possible.

“Couple of dangerous individuals.”

“Really? Here in the valley? That’s crazy.”

“You don’t even know the half of it. I need to peek in the back, if you don’t mind.”

Cole felt fear grip him. He set his foot lightly on the gas pedal and squeezed the steering wheel in his right hand. Thinking fast, he said, “Sure. But just to warn you, it’s disgusting back there. Had to deal with the worst sewer backup situation I’ve ever seen this evening. Spent three hours up to my ankles in poop water. Worst part of the job.”

The officer flashed his light on the side of the van. “You work for Teddy Gunderson?”

The van had previously belonged to Gunderson Family Plumbers. He went with it. It was a last desperate effort to keep their feet beneath them. “Yep.”

“I thought he closed up shop years ago.”

“He did. But we’re up and running again.”

The officer nodded, pressed his lips together. “Well, tell the old man I said hello. He and my pop used to go hunting together back when I was a kid. Teddy’s a good man.”

“He is a good man. I will definitely tell him.”

“All right, you have a good night now.”

The officer stepped back, casually waved Cole to turn around. It seemed the small connecting point was enough to keep him from getting the back of the van searched. Cole quickly turned the vehicle around in the street, eased forward back toward town. He didn’t take another breath until he was a hundred yards down the road.

“You can come out now,” he said, exhaling.

He watched in his rearview mirror as both Lisa and Jade pulled the blankets off them.

“That was way too close,” Lisa said, matching his shortness of breath.

“Wow, Dad,” Jade interjected, a touch of excitement in her voice. “You were so cool under pressure back there.”

“Well, it wasn’t my first time.”

Jade tilted her head. “What do you mean?”

“We were just fortunate.”

“So where to now?” Lisa asked, her voice rising. “We’re going to have to get off 40. I presume they’ll have the other way blocked by now as well. And maybe even the side roads. There are not a lot of routes out of this area, Cole. We could be stuck in this valley.”

“We have to find a way.”

“Any ideas?”

“Not yet. Let me know if you spot a helicopter somewhere.”

This time she didn’t offer him a smile. He couldn’t blame her. This was a dire situation. They drove all the way back through Winter Park, again slowing in traffic around the park, before eventually reaching the other side of town. Cole then passed through Fraser and got out onto the open highway again. He passed by a couple of isolated county roads he knew would get them through the mountains and out safely on the other side. But as expected, both were now blocked by police officers. They crossed all the way through the town of Granby, and then he noticed traffic beginning to slow up ahead. A major roadblock on Highway 40. Two police vehicles. Instead of getting in line again, Cole quickly turned into a gas station parking lot. He stopped the van at the edge and tried to give himself space to think.

“This is bad, Cole,” Lisa said, up next to him again.

There was so much desperation in her voice.

“I know,” he agreed. “I didn’t expect them to be able to block the roads so fast.”

“Maybe we should hide out somewhere overnight. Hope they clear the roads in the morning. Try to make our way out then.”

“We can’t do that, Lisa. The police presence here in the valley will continue to grow. The longer we’re here, the more likely we’ll be found.”

“Okay, then what?”

“I could try to talk my way through a roadblock again.”

“No way. We got lucky the first time. We can’t risk it twice.”

“You’re probably right. Dammit.”

They both ducked down when another police vehicle with red and blue lights blinking sped past the gas station on Highway 40. Grand County Sheriff’s Department. The police were even coming in from Hot Sulphur Springs. That made him think of his friend, Jacob, who worked Animal Control for the sheriff’s department over there. He was a good guy. They’d fished together several times. An idea suddenly materialized in his head.

He quickly pulled back onto Highway 40 and drove the opposite direction.

“Where are you going?” Lisa asked.

“Fishing.”

“What?”

“Give me a second, and I’ll show you.”

Five miles up the road, Cole again passed a stationary police vehicle blocking a county road intersection. A hefty cop was currently talking to someone in an old truck. About two hundred yards down from the intersection, Cole pulled off onto a gravel entrance in front of wide-open ranchland. He stopped in front of a cattle gate and quickly got out. He needed to be quick, as to not be spotted from the highway. The ranch belonged to the wealthy father of one of his former students. It had a huge, stocked fishing pond on the property. Because he was a favored teacher, Cole had been invited to use it whenever he wanted—which he did quite often. There was a combination lock on the cattle gate. Cole had stored the number code in his old cell phone, but he’d have to somehow pull it from memory now. He spun the lock back and forth. Pulled. It stayed locked. He tried another set of numbers. It remained locked. He tried a third time without success. And then a fourth. Dammit! He had so many numbers running through his cluttered brain right now.

He looked back over to the van, where both Lisa and Jade watched him closely through the windshield. He could see the hopelessness in Lisa’s eyes. He had to remember this damn code already. It might be their only chance to escape from here. He studied the small lock, wondered if he could somehow break it off the gate with a rock or something. Not likely. He ran a hand over his shaved head, stared across the vast property. Come on, Cole. Think hard. Then another number set entered his mind, and he went back at it again. Bingo! He exhaled. After pulling open the gate, he got back into the van.

“Where are we?” Lisa asked him.

“The McNallys’ ranch, where I fish all the time. They have about five hundred acres here. I just remembered there’s a back entrance at the other end of the property. Cutting through the ranch will allow us to bypass the police roadblock.”

“Really?”

He nodded. “We’ll be able to get back on the county road on the other side.”

“And where will that take us?”

“All the way over to Parshall. Thirty miles away.”

“Thank God,” she whispered. “Let’s get out of here.”