Not Our Daughter

Thirty-Three

Cole fell flat on his face just inside the department store entrance. What the hell had just happened? He’d heard a loud boom in the parking lot, and then the glass door next to him had shattered. He pushed himself up, looked back. Was it lightning? That didn’t make any sense. He would’ve felt the surge of electricity. Had the police just shot at him? Did they know he was running inside the mall? He stepped back toward the broken glass door and took a quick peek outside. His eyes first went to the police scene. It didn’t look like anyone from that direction was headed his way. Then his eyes shifted left. And that’s when he felt a punch to the gut. Across the parking lot, he spotted the stocky guy. He couldn’t believe it. The guy was here in El Paso. And he was running through the parking lot, straight toward Cole. How was this possible? How had the guy been able to track them all the way here from Winter Park?

The answer didn’t matter right now. Finding his girls and staying alive mattered. Cole spun around and took off running, threading through a group of shoppers who had come over to check out the ruckus around the glass doors. While he didn’t want to cause a disturbance, Cole couldn’t get himself to slow to a brisk walk. The panic wouldn’t let him. So he just dismissed all the stares, shifted in and around the department store sections, and once again found himself entering the main mall corridor. He briefly stopped there to get his bearings. If his wife and daughter were inside the mall, where would they have gone? His only thought was they’d come inside to search for him. And if they knew he was looking to buy phones, they would’ve probably gone to the same upstairs electronics store he’d just left.

He took off down the corridor, this time trying to temper his speed; otherwise, all the stares would likely place a target on him. Would the stocky guy start shooting in the middle of a shopping mall? Cole didn’t want to find out. He reached the escalator and began impatiently jostling his way around people on the way up. Reaching the top, he turned to look down behind him toward the entrance of Dillard’s, searching for the stocky guy. There was no sign of him yet. But then he cursed. He spotted Lisa and Jade hurrying past the escalators back toward Dillard’s. They were headed straight into the killer’s path. He had to stop them. But he didn’t want to yell out and draw attention to them. He jumped onto the descending escalator and began aggressively pushing his way down, repeatedly saying, “Excuse me, sorry,” and drawing annoyed glares.

Reaching the lower level again, he hustled down the corridor after his girls. Cole grabbed both Lisa and Jade by the arms from behind, startling them.

“Cole?” Lisa said. “What’re you—”

“This way!” he said. “Hurry!”

He yanked them both to the right.

“What is happening?” Lisa said. “We have to talk to you right now .”

“Dad, stop!” Jade said, pulling back.

His wife and daughter tried to slow him down, but he resisted, nearly dragging them down a mall corridor over to the left. “I’m begging you. Run with me right now!” He locked eyes with Lisa. “He’s here. The guy who killed the cop last night.”

“At the mall?” Lisa asked, mouth dropping.

“Yes!” Cole’s eyes moved past them, and he spotted the stocky guy finally entering the main corridor. This was so bad. He had to get them moving. “He’s right over there!”

They began rushing down the corridor with him away from the stocky guy. But the guy already had eyes on them. Cole glanced back and spotted him running in their direction. They were now in a dead sprint. It no longer mattered that everyone was stopping to watch them. They had to get away. They circled around a children’s play center directly in the middle of the corridor. Cole noticed a mall security cop standing up ahead and got an idea. He ran straight up to the mall cop, who seemed frazzled by the hysteria. Cole began pointing behind him and yelled as loud as he could, “He’s got a gun! The guy back there has a gun!”

As expected, this immediately sent a ripple of panic through the entire shopping crowd. People began screaming and scrambling in all directions, trying to get away from whatever nightmare shooter situation they believed might be happening right now. Cole hoped either the security guard or the sudden chaos would somehow slow down their pursuer. They kept running down the corridor. The buzz of a shooter was rapidly expanding, and everyone in eyesight was now darting toward any exits or hiding spots they could find. They entered a huge Sears department store at the end of the mall corridor in a wave of other panicked shoppers. Cole took a right in the store, flying past perfume and jewelry counters, and stopped the three of them directly behind a clothing rack in the men’s section.

He turned to Lisa and Jade. They were all panting. He handed Lisa one of the phones he’d just purchased. “Take Jade, get out of the mall, and run as far away as you can. Don’t go back to the van. The police know we’re here. Just keep running as far as possible and wait for me to call you.”

“Dad, you have to come with us!” Jade insisted.

“I’ll be right behind you. I promise.”

It was a promise he was unsure he could keep.

“Cole, no!” Lisa added. “There has to be another way.”

“There’s not. Go! Please!”

They listened and continued to flee in the growing crowd of other runners. It was like watching dominoes fall as the madness picked up speed across the mall. But Cole couldn’t go with them. He couldn’t chance that the stocky guy might somehow catch up to them. The thought of a bullet piercing his wife or daughter was terrifying. If necessary, he would take the bullets for them. But that didn’t mean he wanted to get caught. Stepping back into the aisle, he looked over toward the entrance to Sears, and waited to see if the stocky guy entered. He didn’t have to wait long. The guy stormed inside, his head on a swivel, a gun clearly on display in his right hand. Cole didn’t hide. He waited until the two of them locked eyes across the store. And then he took off running again. He zigzagged like crazy through the various clothing sections, tucking in behind every wall he could find, circling, ducking, and making his way to the back of the store completely opposite from the direction his girls had gone.

Cole entered an appliance section with refrigerators, washers and dryers, and dishwashers, and that’s when he heard the first gunshot from behind him. It sounded the same as it had back in the alley last night. Thump! A store display right beside him exploded. Cole ducked even lower, darted behind another display, and then spotted a stockroom door behind the appliance section. He pushed through the swinging doors. He immediately entered a large warehouse section, with forklifts parked all about and several rows of two-story industrial shelving storing various heavy appliances. There weren’t any employees around. They’d probably all bolted like the others. Cole shifted to his right, passed by several rows, trying to find a back exit out of the warehouse. He then noticed an open oversize garage door for loading and unloading at the end of the rows and took off toward it.

Reaching the garage opening, he momentarily paused to gauge the drop to the concrete below. Probably eight feet or so. He needed to be careful, as to not blow up his knee again. But he didn’t get a chance to jump. He heard the double doors push open behind him. Cole froze, listened. When he didn’t hear the casual movement of shoes on the concrete floor or hear anyone talking, he knew it had to be the stocky guy. He felt trapped. If he went for the jump now, he’d be a sitting duck. The guy would probably pick him off before he was even back on his feet again. He had to hide. And there was only one place to do it. He began quietly climbing up onto the sturdy warehouse shelf right beside him, reached the second level, and then squeezed in between several washer and dryer boxes. Peering through the boxes, Cole stared down at the open warehouse space in front of the garage door.

He heard the shuffling of shoes coming down the same aisle he’d just chosen. He tucked back a little, into the shadows, tried to measure his labored breathing. The stocky guy came into view directly below him, gun held out in both of his hands, and then peeked out the garage opening. Cole prayed the guy might assume he’d already jumped out and would choose to follow. But that unfortunately didn’t happen. Instead, Cole heard the double doors to the warehouse push open once again. Whoever had just entered the warehouse also did so with measured steps. Cole carefully watched the stocky guy, who shifted away from the garage opening, then hid behind the aisle directly beneath him. If Cole sniffed right now, he was a dead man.

Then an unexpected voice boomed out from a couple of aisles over. “Cole Shipley? This is Special Agent Mark Burns with the FBI. I know you’re in here. Come on out now so no one gets hurt.”

Cole was shocked to hear Agent Burns. Was the FBI agent unaware the stocky guy had also entered the warehouse behind him? Cole wasn’t sure what to think. On one hand, an FBI agent with a gun might save him from taking a bullet from a killer. But he also knew he would immediately feel the tight grip of handcuffs and most likely never see Lisa and Jade again. He didn’t like either option, so he just remained completely still. So did the stocky guy standing below him, although he kept his gun ready. Cole heard Burns begin walking toward the garage opening. He was getting close to them.

“There’s no use hiding, Cole. The police are everywhere. There’s nowhere for you to go. So don’t do anything stupid. Just calmly come out so we can talk. I’ve waited a long time to have this chat with you.”

Cole saw Burns appear from the end of his aisle, gun in his hands, and step up to the open garage door. He was only ten feet away now. Cole peered straight down, swallowed. It looked like the stocky guy beneath him was getting ready to make his move on the FBI agent. The killer took a silent step forward. Then a second one. Then he raised his gun. The next step would be a kill shot. Cole felt dread stir up inside him. Was he really going to stay hidden and let the guy kill an FBI agent? That was unsettling. How much was he willing to sacrifice to get back to his family? The police officer getting killed last night in the alley was not his fault. He’d had no clue what was happening in that moment. But this would be real blood on his hands.

Cole felt his adrenaline racing. He couldn’t allow that to happen. Even if he somehow got away and made it to Sayulita, he would never be emotionally free. He would live in a different kind of prison. He shifted slightly around the boxes to give himself more clearance to jump. When the stocky guy fully turned the corner and aimed his weapon at the back of Burns’s head, Cole dived headfirst from the second level. His arm and shoulder landed square in the back of the killer’s head, sending both of them straight into Burns. They collided like a three-car pileup: Cole into the stocky guy, the killer bashing into the FBI agent, and all three of them toppling hard to the floor. Cole heard metal clank on the concrete and figured someone had lost their weapon. Cole was up first, since he was the most prepared for the tumble. When the stocky guy tried to stand up right in front of him, Cole charged. He again put the full force of his shoulder into the man’s chest—like a linebacker crushing a wide receiver—and sent him tumbling backward, straight out of the garage door opening, where the guy fell hard to the pavement eight feet below.

Cole didn’t watch to see what happened next. He scrambled to his feet, spotted the garage door opener button on the wall, and began punching it as hard as he could with his palm. The oversize garage door quickly rumbled to a close. Looking down near his feet, Cole noticed a gun on the floor. He reached down, grabbed it, and came back up with it pointed directly at Burns, who had just found his footing again. It was clearly the FBI agent’s gun, because Burns immediately lifted two empty hands in front of him.

“Take it easy, Cole,” Burns pleaded.

“Don’t move,” Cole warned, his voice shaky, not even sure what to do next. He had to get out of there. But he had to somehow make sure Burns couldn’t follow.

“What the hell just happened?” Burns asked.

“I saved your life.”

“Okay. So who was that guy?”

“He’s who you should’ve been searching for this whole time. He’s the guy who shot and killed the police officer last night. And he’s the man who I believe killed Candace McGee thirteen years ago, when she showed up on our doorstep already bleeding out. My lawyer sent you the video. But you did nothing. You’ve been wrong about all of it.”

“Okay, put the gun down and let’s discuss it.”

“I wish I could. But like you said, the police are about to show up.”

“You can’t keep doing this, Cole. You can’t keep running. We know you’re attempting to cross the border to get to Sayulita right now. You can’t hide from us in Mexico. You can’t hide from us anywhere. So just put the gun down. And you can tell me all about how I’ve got this whole thing wrong. I’d love to hear it.”

Cole was shocked to hear mention of Sayulita. How did he know? Where would they go now? There was no backup plan. He felt a measure of despair press in on him he hadn’t felt in a long time. But there was no way he was going to put the gun down. Not with Lisa and Jade still out there on their own. Not with the stocky guy still a threat to all of them.

“Take off your jacket,” Cole instructed.

Burns slowly took off his FBI jacket.

“Toss it here.”

Burns did as told. Cole quickly slipped it on.

“Start walking,” Cole said, gun aimed.

Cole quickly guided him over toward the front of the warehouse and began looking around at various tools and supplies stacked up on a small table against the wall. He spotted black duct tape and grabbed it.

“Turn around and put your hands behind your back,” Cole ordered.

When Burns did, Cole pulled off the end of the duct tape with his teeth. While keeping the gun ready in one hand, he quickly wrapped the agent’s wrists together like makeshift handcuffs. He then told Burns to sit down. Once the agent was sitting on the concrete floor, Cole wrapped his ankles so he couldn’t stand. It was the best he could think of in the moment to immobilize the agent.

“Listen to me, Cole,” Burns said. “This isn’t smart. Think about Jade.”

“Are you kidding me?” Cole hissed. The agent had no idea what he was saying. The sacrifices they’d made. The lengths they’d gone to. “Jade’s all I’m thinking about. She’s all I’ve ever thought about from the moment we left Austin.”

“You keep running, she’s going to get hurt. And that will be on you.”

Cole’s eyes narrowed. “You have a daughter, don’t you? A teenager?”

The agent seemed surprised to hear that. “Yes. Why?”

“What would you do to protect her from danger?”

Burns took a moment, then said, “Whatever necessary.”

“You’re damn right.”

Cole then put a final strip of duct tape over the man’s mouth. Returning to the double doors, he peeked out and cursed. As expected, he spotted several police officers scrambling around the department store. Cole noticed someone’s black ball cap sitting on a shelf right next to the double doors, grabbed it, and pulled it low on his forehead to hide his appearance as much as possible. He said a quick prayer and then stepped out into the chaos. He tried to move with a calm purpose, keeping his face as steady as possible, like he was an FBI agent on the job. He even held the gun out in front of him like an FBI agent would, although his fingers were clearly trembling. Two cops rushed straight toward him, their guns drawn, sending a chill up his spine. Would they immediately recognize him even while wearing the ball cap and the FBI jacket? Cole took a quick breath and willed himself not to panic. He spoke before they could speak to him. He was the FBI. He was in charge.

“Any sign of them?” Cole said, his brow stern, his voice firm.

“No, sir,” answered one of the officers.

“What about you?” asked the other officer.

“Me neither. I’ve searched this entire side of the store. There’s no one here. I don’t think they came this way. We should head back inside the mall. Let’s go!”

Both officers thankfully spun around and raced back toward the front of the store. But Cole didn’t follow. He instead turned and rushed to another back exit from the department store. Before stepping outside, he dumped the FBI jacket and the gun into a trash can. He then pushed through the door and sprinted into the parking lot. The rain was coming down hard again. Small crowds of people had huddled in spots around various rows of cars. But thankfully no police. Cole quickly made his way into the crowds, just another shopper running for safety, but kept moving until he was clear of the mall property.