All He Has Left(13)

“He ran?”

“Yep. Faked out one of our officers and just took off. We’re still in pursuit of him, but he seems to have momentarily given us the slip.”

“Damn. You get his name before he took off?”

“Hell, I’ve got his entire wallet.”

He took a brown leather wallet out of his jacket pocket and handed it to Dani. She opened it to examine the driver’s license and stiffened. She closely examined the man’s face and couldn’t believe her eyes. Jake Slater?

“Everything all right?” Kramer asked her.

She nodded, swallowed. “Yeah, he just, uh . . . It seems odd that he’d come back here, give you his ID, only to take off running on you.”

“Yeah, totally bizarre. Plus, he was making claims that this guy he said was inside the house when he got here had taken his daughter.”

“Are there security cameras here?”

Kramer shook his head. “No cameras. The victim had just moved in this past week. Her father said they hadn’t had a chance to get a new security system up and running yet. And we haven’t found anything useful as far as neighbors’ cameras up and down this street.” His eyes narrowed on her. “You sure you’re all right? You look a little pale.”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Dani lied, trying to hide the shock she was feeling. “Just a little queasy. Shouldn’t have had those spicy wings tonight, you know what I’m saying?”

“I do. My stomach can’t handle the hot wings anymore.” He grinned. “The crazy thing is that our runner actually is a relative. He’s the victim’s uncle. The family says his daughter was with the victim earlier this evening.”

“Do they know where his daughter is now?”

Kramer shook his head. “They’re concerned. We have a search out with her name and photo. Nothing has turned up yet, but it’s early.”

“So it could be true? Someone else could’ve been here.”

“I suppose. But then why the hell would he run?”

She shook her head. “Doesn’t add up.”

“Plus, the family says there have been major issues going on between this guy and the victim’s family. The grandfather of the victim claims that our runner was angry at the victim for her role in a custody battle for his daughter earlier this year. He seems to believe the guy was capable of pulling the trigger.”

Dani couldn’t believe that—or maybe she just didn’t want to believe it. The Jake Slater she knew, and once loved, would’ve never been capable of such a thing. But then, it had been fifteen years. People change. She definitely had. Still, walking up onto a crime scene to find out a man she’d once believed she’d spend the rest of her life with was a likely suspect in a murder was a total shocker. She wasn’t even sure what to do with the information at the moment.

“We’ll be aiding in the investigation,” Dani stated. “We have to make sure this isn’t connected to our office in any way.”

“Of course. We could use your resources.” Kramer looked beyond her and suddenly cursed. “Just great.”

Dani turned, followed his eyes toward the street. A local news van had just pulled up. Two guys hopped out, one clearly the on-air talent with his perfectly sculpted hair and impeccable suit. The other guy wore camo pants and scrambled to grab camera gear from the back.

“That was fast,” Dani said.

“The victim comes from a prominent local family.”

“Yeah, I heard about that.”

“This is going to turn into a three-ring circus real quick. You want to handle it? You’d look much better on camera. My wife says I look fat on TV.”

“No, thanks. I don’t play nice with the media.”

“Too bad. Wish me luck.”





EIGHT


Jake made a trek in the shadows along the bank of the river for over two miles before finally crossing a walking bridge to the opposite shoreline. Shivering in his wet clothes, he now stood in front of Stephen F. Austin High School, where he used to coach. The big parking lot outside the school was mostly empty. It was Saturday night. No one should be around. But the parking lot was still well lit, which left him feeling exposed. Because running across the parking lot might make him stand out even more, he walked as quickly but casually as possible, hands in jacket pockets, just some guy out for a late-night stroll—not someone the police were looking for right now. He still couldn’t believe he’d somehow managed to evade them. Thankfully, he hadn’t seen a police car since he’d climbed out of the water about thirty minutes ago.

As he walked, Jake pulled out his phone, which was water resistant and still seemed to be operating OK. Unfortunately, there had been no further communication between him and Piper. He had tried calling her back, thinking that even if whoever held her captive answered, Jake somehow might be able to reason with them. Maybe offer them money—anything for them to release her! But his calls only went straight to her voice mail. Her captors had likely turned her phone off or maybe even destroyed it entirely. Again, he tried not to think about how Piper was feeling right now: scared, vulnerable, and all alone. He just had to keep moving forward until he found her.

Jake approached a back entrance to the high school near the athletic offices and locker rooms, where he used to go in and out all the time. There was a bulletin board hung up on the brick wall outside the back door that held various school flyers and announcements. Reaching behind one corner of the board, Jake began feeling around until his fingers settled on something very familiar. He felt a wave of relief pour through him. The magnetic key box was still there. When coaching, he used to always forget his key to the school. So he’d hidden a spare back there a while ago that had repeatedly saved him.