Not Our Daughter

Thirty-Five

Burns huddled with Davis inside the Cielo Vista shopping mall security office. They stood behind a mall security guard, who was currently at a desk working a keyboard. Several TV monitors situated in front of him showed security camera feeds placed throughout the mall. Twenty minutes had passed since a rookie cop had found Burns and finally cut him free from the stupid duct tape his fugitive had used to immobilize him. The whole thing had left him feeling humiliated. But he was also thankful to be alive. He’d never seen the unidentified man coming at him from behind with a gun. It had all happened in a flash. If not for Cole Shipley, Burns’s daughter, Izzy, might be fatherless right now. But the whole thing had left him perplexed.

Outside of the security office, the entire mall was currently on lockdown. What felt like half of the El Paso police force had surrounded the property and were going store to store. It was a mess, but Burns appreciated the support. And yet there was still no accounting for their fugitives. If they got out, like he expected, Burns had absolutely no clue where they would go next. He felt certain he’d squashed their plans to head into Mexico. Cole would be an absolute fool to try that now. Just in case, they still had all border crossings covered. Desperate people sometimes do dumb things. But that wasn’t the biggest thing occupying his mind at the moment. Who was the mystery guy with the gun? He’d had his team try to find the guy in the mall parking lot with no success.

“Right here,” the security officer said.

He pointed at the middle TV screen. It was video from one of the main mall corridors from approximately thirty minutes ago. Burns could clearly see Cole, Lisa, and Jade Shipley running through the center of the mall. The security officer paused it on them.

“No, let it keep going,” Burns instructed.

The guard pressed play again. Seconds later, Burns spotted the same guy who’d been inside the warehouse with him. Stocky, thick beard, blue jeans, cowboy boots, probably late thirties. He was running a hundred feet behind them. It looked like he already had a gun in his hand. Burns had been inside the mall when it all happened. He’d spotted Cole and his family from the upper level while looking down over the railing below. He’d pursued. But he’d never realized another individual was also involved until it was almost too late.

Burns leaned in and pointed. “Can you enhance it on this guy right here?”

The guard paused it, enlarged the image, and focused on the man in question.

Burns cursed. Cole hadn’t been lying. It was indeed the same guy from the home security video taken thirteen years ago. What the hell?

“It’s definitely him,” Davis said. “He looks like a cowboy. But Myers still hasn’t been able to ID him yet.”

“Well, he wasn’t helping Cole. At least, not this time around. Based off this mall footage, he was clearly hunting him down when I showed up.”

“And Cole claimed this guy shot the police officer last night?”

“Yes.”

“He offer any proof?”

“Didn’t really have a chance to get into it. He had a gun in my face.”

“Right. So what do you think?”

Burns frowned. “It’s troubling. Who is this guy? And what’s he doing here? Let’s get this image over to our team and have them cross analyze any security camera footage we have from the sidewalks outside of the alley where the police officer was shot last night. See if this guy shows up anywhere.”