Not Our Daughter

Thirty-Four

Cole immediately called Lisa. They were safe and waiting for him more than ten blocks away. He caught up with them hiding in an alley between two old office buildings. He was completely drenched when he finally arrived—both from his own sweat and the steady downpouring of rain. His girls were sitting with their backs pressed up against a dingy metal dumpster and holding up a soaked cardboard box lid over them. For a moment, the dire reality of their situation hit him. Because they’d lost the van, they had no change of clothes, no dry shoes, no toiletries, no food, and no money—other than a couple hundred dollars in cash he still had in his front right pocket. They basically had nothing except the extra set of fake IDs he’d stuck in the back pocket of his jeans. However, they were alive and free. They would figure the rest out. They always did. His girls both jumped up and began hugging him.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Lisa said, burying her face in his chest.

“Me too,” Jade said, hugging him from the side.

“I’m fine. I’m glad you’re both okay, too.”

It felt surreal that he’d survived the scary encounter in the department store warehouse. But he was still jittery. Especially after what Burns had told him about Sayulita. That was something they would have to talk about. They needed a new plan. He ushered them both back under the cardboard lid, to keep from getting further soaked, and they sat together on the wet pavement next to the dumpster.

“Dad, I know the truth now,” Jade said.

Cole looked over at Lisa, surprised.

“I had to tell her,” she explained. “She saw it on the TV. Our faces are once again all over national news right now. Our story is unfortunately being retold everywhere.”

“I’m so sorry, Jade,” he said. “We hated keeping this from you. Are you okay?”

“I honestly don’t know how I feel right now.”

Cole could see the turmoil in his daughter’s eyes. It hurt. But she at least finally knew the truth. Hopefully they could rebuild from here. If they survived.

“I know it’s hard to understand, but we did this for you,” he told her. “I promise I’ll do everything I can to regain your trust.”

She nodded but didn’t say anything.

Lisa spoke up. “Cole, how did that guy find us here? And why would he try to kill us even when there were so many police officers around?”

“I don’t know. But I think we should try to go find those answers.”

Lisa’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”

“We can no longer go to Sayulita. The FBI is aware of it.”

Lisa’s eyes widened. “How do you know that?”

“I had a brief encounter with an FBI agent back there in the mall before I managed to get away. He told me this information to try to get me to surrender. But I’m not sure how they figured it out.”

“Because I told Tyler on the phone,” Jade admitted.

“What?” Cole said. “You swore you told me every detail of your phone conversation with him.”

“I didn’t want you to be even angrier with me. I guess we all lie sometimes to protect our own interests, don’t we?”

Cole studied his daughter. Her face was firm. She was standing her ground. And he was in no position to chastise her at the moment. “Doesn’t matter anymore. We can’t keep running and hiding. I think we only have two options. Go to the FBI and put it all on the table. See if we can talk our way out of this mess by telling them everything we know. Hope for the best. Or we go back to Austin, where this all began, and see if we can figure out what really happened that night. If we can somehow solve that, maybe we can finally prove our innocence and get our real life back.”

“How would we figure it out?” Lisa asked.

“Candace was clearly wrapped up in something that got her in serious trouble. Something sinister enough to get her killed. Before she died, she told me she was sorry. All these years, I thought she meant she was sorry about the custody battle. But now I wonder if she was apologizing for more than that. Maybe she was sorry for getting us involved with something more dangerous. Something big enough for them to still be coming after us all these years later. Like I said before, we’re still a threat to them somehow. Maybe whoever is behind this is afraid Candace told us something that night that left them exposed. And as long as we’re alive, we remain a threat. That’s the only reason I can come up with as to why they would still be coming after us thirteen years later. Which means whoever is behind all of this is no small-time player. They have a lot to lose. And they are also powerful enough to somehow be tethered to the FBI, which I believe is how they found us in Winter Park yesterday, and in El Paso today.”

Lisa’s forehead bunched. “If they’re connected to the FBI, we wouldn’t be safe turning ourselves into the Feds.”

“You’re probably right.”

“Then our only option is to go to Austin. Candace seemed to be close to her younger sister. She was always with her on her visitations, and her sister of course testified on her behalf. Do you remember her name?”

“Hailey McGee,” he replied. “And she’s exactly who I was thinking of going to first.”

“You think she’d even talk to us?”

“We have to try. It’s our only way forward.”

“But how’re we even going to get to Austin?” Jade asked. “We don’t have a car anymore. Are we going to walk there?”

“I’ve already been thinking of a plan for that.”