Chapter 14
Mac raced through the hotel to get to Ellie’s room, Sloan and Moto on his heels.
Please be there.
Please be there.
Please be there.
He pounded on the door. No answer. “Ellie!” he yelled, pounding again. “Ellie, open up. It’s Mac.”
The next door down opened, and Lewis stuck his head out. “What the hell are you doing? If she wanted to talk to you, she would answer the door.”
Mac turned to Sloan. “Get in this room, any way you have to.” He turned to his son and strode toward the boy. “Have you seen your mother?”
“Not since dinner.”
“What about Turner? When’s the last time you saw him?”
Lewis crossed his arms. “Maybe they don’t want to be found. Did you ever think about that? Maybe you don’t get to win this time, Mac.”
The boy’s use of his first name for the second time in two days grated on Mac’s nerves, but he didn’t have time to deal with it. “Turner isn’t who he says he is. I’m afraid your mother’s in danger.”
“Isn’t who he says he is? What’s that supposed to mean?”
Sloan’s shoulder went full-force into the door to Ellie’s hotel room, but it didn’t budge. Mac turned back to Lewis. “He isn’t even a cop. He’s an ex-con who knew Godak from prison.”
The first visible signs of panic graced Lewis’s expression. “Oh, my God. You’re sure?”
“I am.”
Another loud noise was followed by a pop. “We’re in,” said Moto.
Mac headed for Ellie’s room, followed by Lewis. The entire place was empty, the bed neatly made. “Where would she go?” Mac asked Lewis.
“I don’t know.”
“Was Turner staying in here, too?” asked Sloan.
Lewis shook his head. “He was across the hall.” He pointed to the door directly opposite Ellie’s.
Mac and the others shifted their attention to Turner’s room. Sloan was able to get into this one on the first try, but it was Mac and Lewis leading the group inside. Turner’s bed was also made, the remains of a clamshell package open on the bed. Mac picked it up. “Cell phone signal jammer.”
“Computer,” said Moto, sitting himself down at the desk and opening a laptop. “I’m on it.”
“Did your mom have a car here?” Sloan asked Lewis.
“No. I drove Callie and Turner drove Mom.”
“Let’s see if Turner’s car is here,” said Mac, heading for the door.
“Wait.” Lewis pulled his phone out. “I can track her with the app on my phone.”
He pushed a couple of buttons, and waited. And did it again. “That’s weird. It’s showing she was at the mall fifty-seven minutes ago, but it won’t refresh with her current location.”
“She must still be there,” said Sloan.
“The only time I’ve seen it do this before is when it loses a signal inside a thick brick building, like a school.”
“So we go to the mall. If he’s taken her somewhere, that’s the last place we know she was. We start there.”
The men started for the door when Lewis spoke up. “Is there a dog racing track around here?”
Mac cocked his head. “I don’t know. Why?”
“Something Turner said back when we still lived in Mobile. My uncle Roger had this dog, an old German Shepard. Turner used to yell at it, said you had to be mean to dogs or they would never respect you. I got mad at him, and he told me all about how he used to race dogs for money when he was growing up, near the Georgia border.”
Moto’s fingers were flying across the keyboard.
“Ernesto Montalbano Raceway. Thirty-five miles from here. Closed in 1985, scheduled to be demolished at the end of the year. Checking search history.” Mac held his breath as he waited for Moto to do his magic.
“Got it,” said Moto. “A search for Montalbano Raceway was made from this machine two days ago.”
Mac clapped Lewis on the back. “Good going, son.” He turned to Sloan and Moto. “Let’s go.”
“I’m coming with you,” said Lewis.
Mac shook his head. “It’s too dangerous. We have no idea what we’re up against.”
Sloan and Moto squeezed past them and out the door, the latter carrying Turner’s laptop.
“You might need me,” said Lewis. “Maybe I can help some more.”
Suddenly, he wasn’t a twenty-two year-old man. He was a ten year-old kid, desperate for Mac’s attention and begging to come to go to the bar with him. Mac hesitated. “Okay, but if I tell you to stay in the car, you stay in the car.”
Lewis agreed, and the O’Brady men headed out of the hotel room and into the humid night, in search of Turner and the only woman Mac had ever loved.