Chapter Twenty-One
Tanner walked into Micky’s, one of the two bars in Risk Peak. He’d had his first legal drink here when he turned twenty-one. It was only right that he’d have his last drink as a single man here also.
Noah would be buying him both.
“Marilyn and the kids okay?” he asked Noah as his brother joined him at the booth. “Can’t blame Marilyn for being nervous after everything that’s happened in the last week.”
“Yep. Kids were sound asleep.”
Tanner took a sip of his beer. “The way Marilyn looked when that alarm went off about Jared’s monitor... I wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d taken the kids and fled the country.”
“I’m trying to give her whatever she needs to work through this at her own pace.” Noah spun his beer around between his fingers. “But believe me, it’s only out of respect for you that this situation hasn’t already been completely handled.”
“Let the justice system work its process.” But Tanner grimaced even as he said it.
“What was that look for?”
“In some ways I would totally approve of you handling it yourself. I got the case files. I know Marilyn told us some about what Ellis did to her, but it’s bad, Noah.”
Noah stared down into his beer. “She’s told me a little. Sick stuff. The physical abuse was what got him arrested, but the other stuff he did to her...” He trailed off. “And I don’t even think she’s told me all of it.”
“Then I’m sure most of it isn’t in the police report either. But hell, what is in the report is bad enough. Jared should be looking at eight to ten years.”
Noah shook his head. “Not long enough, if you ask me.”
“It’s too bad we can’t pin the stuff in the wilderness on him. Whitaker is still looking into that. He’s gotten warrants to go through Paul Wyn and George Pearson’s phone records and texts. If he can tie it to Jared, you know he will.”
“Good. Accessory to attempted murder is going to hold a much longer sentence, I’m assuming.”
“Yeah, and that would be much better because I really don’t like how Oscar Stobbart seems so confident about the case. That Jared won’t see jail time.”
“That’s his job, right? Hell, someone who’s as good at this sleazy lawyer stuff as he is knows that the appearance of confidence can get them a long way.”
“I thought that too. But it’s almost like they have a plan. They aren’t worried at all. And that worries me. I know confidence is his business, but I have no idea how Oscar can look at this evidence and be so sure Jared’s not going to jail.”
“Maybe they plan on paying off jurors or something. I know most of Jared’s accounts are frozen, but you know he has to have stuff stashed away somewhere.”
“Yeah, I’m sure he’d be great at finding the weakest link in jurors.” Tanner took a sip of beer, another thought coming to his head. “Or maybe they don’t plan on going to trial at all.”
“You mean making a run for it?” Noah’s eyes lit up, and Tanner knew he relished the chance to go after Ellis if he ran.
Tanner shook his head. “He would have to go before the trial, but the ankle monitor is unhackable. Bree would’ve found it. You saw how quickly her program worked to let us know Jared had even messed with it tonight. There are no weak links in the computer system.”
Damn it. Of course not. Jared knew that.
Jared wouldn’t be looking in the computer system for weakness. He’d be looking for weakness in people.
At the end of the day, Jared Ellis was a bully. He wouldn’t try to buy people off when attempting to get them to do what he wanted them to do. He would use what he knew worked best. Force.
Tanner pulled out his phone and hit Send on the last call he’d made.
Noah had already noticed Tanner’s tension and was pushing his drink to the side. “Who are you calling?”
“A hunch. It may not lead anywhere.”
Noah just nodded.
The call went straight to voice mail. Tanner tried it again, but the same thing happened. Sowers wasn’t answering.
“Adam Sowers, the guy who was checking on Jared, isn’t answering.”
“You think that means a problem?”
“I just don’t like it,” Tanner said. He tried one more time for good measure, but still nothing.
His next call was to Marshal Brickman to see if Sowers had checked in.
“Dempsey. I don’t have any new information for you. I assure you, as soon as I have info, you’ll be the first to know.”
“Marshal, has Sowers checked in? I just tried to reach him on his phone and there was no answer multiple times. I was wondering if you’d heard from him.”
“I personally haven’t. Hold while I get in touch with the appropriate person.”
Tanner pushed his beer to the side as he waited for the marshal to come back. He’d definitely lost his taste for it.
“Nobody has heard from him. I’m sending someone over to Ellis’s house right now.”
But if Jared was doing what Tanner was afraid he might be doing, sending more officers to the town house wasn’t necessarily going to help.
“Instead of sending someone to Ellis’s place, will you send someone over to check on Sowers’s wife and baby?”
There was silence from Marshal Brickman for a long moment. “What exactly do you think is happening?”
“I’m just wondering if maybe Jared Ellis didn’t find a weakness none of us were considering.”
“Adam Sowers is a good man. A good cop.”
“Everybody has their weakness. We all know that’s true.”
Marshal Brickman muttered a curse. “Fine. I’ll keep you posted if we find anything of interest.”
Noah was already paying for the beers by the time Tanner disconnected the call.
“This all may be nothing,” he told his brother. “I could be grasping at things that aren’t there.”
“Until we know that for sure, I think we need to head back to New Journeys. No harm in checking on Marilyn and the kids and standing guard there until we have multiple eyewitness accounts that Ellis is, in fact, still in Denver.”
“I don’t want to get Marilyn nervous if there’s no reason to.”
Noah shook his head. “Believe me, I don’t want to either.”
They rode together in Tanner’s SUV to New Journeys.
Both of them were checking the darkness for anything unfamiliar, person or otherwise, as they walked to the door.
Tanner rang the bell, keeping his face clearly in range of the security camera so whoever was checking it would know it was him.
Within just a few seconds the door was opening.
“Hi, Tanner,” Francis said. “Bree isn’t here.”
He smiled. “I know. Actually, we’re looking for Marilyn and the kids.”
“She’s not here either.”
Noah’s head shot around. “What? I just brought her back over here myself not even an hour ago.”
The woman shrank back a little at Noah’s tone. Tanner provided his most reassuring smile. “How about the kids? Are they here?”
Had they misread Marilyn? Had she decided to make a run for it since it looked like Jared might have made progress in attempting to escape his monitor?
“Yes, they’re both in bed asleep. Marilyn went back out to see Bree. Said something about how she wasn’t a marmot and that a good bottle of wine was a terrible thing to waste.”
“That’s good.” Tanner smiled again, and the woman relaxed just a little bit. “It’s good for Bree to have someone hanging out with her the night before her wedding.”
Francis nodded. “That’s what Marilyn and I thought too. Is everything okay?”
Tanner nodded. Noah had already gone back to staring out at any possible shadows in the darkness. “Yes, everything’s fine. Just do me a favor. Call it prewedding jitters or whatever, but just don’t open the door to anyone you don’t know personally, okay?”
Francis smiled. “Trust me, I never do. But I’ll make sure.”
“I’ll see you at the wedding tomorrow.”
The door closed and locked behind him as Tanner turned and walked back toward his SUV with Noah.
“Maybe I’m looking for trouble that’s not there. Maybe—”
The phone rang in his hand. “That’s probably Marshal Brickman now. Telling me that Sowers requests that I stop being such an overprotective jackass and let him do his job.”
Tanner pressed the receive button. “Marshal. I’m sure I probably owe you an apol—”
Brickman cut him off. “Dempsey, you were right. Ellis had someone holding Sowers’s wife and baby hostage. Ellis is gone.”
Brickman kept talking, but Noah and Tanner were already sprinting for his car. Jared was out and no doubt wanted to get his hands on Marilyn. And Marilyn might have led him straight to Bree.