Chapter Nineteen #4
“I didn’t know…I thought…damn it, I thought she was going to
talk to her. Give Olivia a piece of her mind. I didn’t know she was going to
hurt her.”
“So you saw it happen?” Ruby asked, the question yet another
trap.
Stephen shook his head. “No. Of course not.”
“Then where were you?” Morgan’s head tilted slightly. “I
heard two stun guns being fired. You tried to cover it with the music, but that
sound carries and it’s distinct. I doubt you had to hit Olivia twice.”
“I didn’t hit Olivia twice. That would mess her up.” He
slapped a hand over his mouth as though he knew he’d given something precious
away.
“So it wasn’t Scott. It was you.” Garrett had gone over this
in the car ride to the station. Ruby had shown him what she pulled up. “We have
Scott entering the store a few moments before it went down. He is obviously not
carrying a weapon of any kind.”
Ruby thought the man was looking for Olivia. He’d looked
almost frantic in the footage. It had thrown Garrett off, but he was going with
Ruby’s instincts.
“You purchased a stun gun at a shop in Tyler three days ago.
Actually, you purchased two,” Ruby said slowly.
Stephen’s stubbornness disintegrated. “It’s Jessica’s fault.
Jessica and that man she calls her boss. They said they could help me with the
store if I did this one thing for them. I helped her with…”
The GrabItQuick shared an alley with the Barnes-Fleetwood
office. It would have been easy to sneak down the alley from the store’s back
room.
“You helped her with arson?” Keane asked, his voice cold.
He was quiet for a moment, and then his eyes narrowed.
“Barnes deserves it. He’s trying to take down another small business with lies.
This is what he does. He ruins lives.”
Morgan’s head shook. “Your father wrecked his own life by
being an asshole. That big grocery was going to come sooner or later, and it’s
made things so much nicer in this town. Your father was a judgmental tyrant who
turned people away when they needed things. You are bitter and mean and you’ve
gone further than your father ever did, and that’s why you’re going to tell me
where they took Olivia or I’ll get you charged today.”
“I don’t know,” he replied flatly. “Today was the last thing
I was supposed to do. I didn’t want to know. I don’t think they want to kill
her. I think they just want to figure out what lies Jack is making up.”
Garrett’s heart threatened to stop, but he forced himself to
stay calm. “Jack doesn’t even know. Olivia found the evidence that not only was
Gladen violating his contract, he was also paying off a USDA inspector. So they
have to kill her. You’re going to be an accomplice to murder.”
That seemed to get to him. He scrambled. “I don’t know for
sure, but she’s got family out in the country. They got places all over, real
off-the-grid kind of places.”
Morgan turned to him. “He’s not wrong. The Fellows family
has property outside the county. It’s on unincorporated land, and I’m not sure
exactly where the buildings are. They aren’t approved structures, but no one
cares because they mostly keep to themselves. This could take a while. I have
to convince the sheriff we need a search.”
Ruby closed her laptop. “Don’t worry about that. I think
we’ll handle it if you would like to come along. There’s a helicopter on its
way from Dallas right now with some ex-military men who know how to raid a
place. If they can find it, and they will. I assure you by this point my partner
has called her mentor and he’s on the case. I expect a McKay-Taggart team to
hit the ground within the hour.”
Morgan frowned. “Hey, we need to do this by the book. I know
it takes time…”
“Time Olivia might not have,” Ruby argued.
Garrett noticed Keane was fumbling with his phone. Now
wasn’t the time to check his email. Actually, Keane never checked his email.
Keane frowned and stepped over to the side while the ladies
argued about whether or not a paramilitary group landing on county soil was the
best way to handle the problem.
“Hey, I was thinking. You said they were possibly tracking
her.” Keane’s voice was low. “Did you actually find the tracker?”
Garrett stopped. Keane had obviously gotten something he
hadn’t. “No, but her phone was in her pocket when she was taken. I looked
through her bag. They left that behind, but her phone wasn’t there. So it’s
either in her pocket or they tossed it.”
“Doesn’t she let her mom track her phone?” Keane asked. “I
don’t think they know we found the phone. Her parents, that is.”
“We have to do this the right way,” Morgan argued.
They couldn’t wait another minute. Garrett nodded Keane’s
way, and they both slipped out of the room.
“This is going to take forever,” one of the deputies was
saying. “If she’s not on county land, we’re going to lose the case.”
Garrett kept walking, pulling his cell out. He got to a
quiet place. “Master, I want to call Abby and see if she has her location. She
can give it to the team, but I think we should go in first.”
Keane nodded. “Gabe will come with us. Do it.”
Garrett dialed and prayed they were in time.