Ben shrugged. “I suspect she already knows. She just wants to see if you actually know.”
“Oh.” Brenda turned back to the woman whose child had played with her own on so many occasions. “Cummings works for the cartel. The same one that shot your husband and blew up the firm. The one who is threatening me and who took my daughter hostage.”
“You can’t prove any of this,” Lena argued.
“I can’t,” Brenda admitted. “But I’m sure Detective Shelton will figure it out while he’s investigating the man’s murder.”
This time Lena grabbed at the door facing as if the news had shaken her balance. “What’re you talking about?”
“The man who called himself Agent Jarrod Cummings is dead, Ms. Jenner,” Ben warned. “If the people who sent him couldn’t protect him or turned on him for some reason, how do you know the same thing won’t happen to you?”
“If you know anything,” Brenda urged, “about who took my daughter, you need to tell me. Please.”
“I don’t know anything about your daughter.” Lena turned to go back into the garage.
Ben walked to the door, picked up the last of the suitcases and joined her. “You won’t be able to get away from them, Ms. Jenner. These aren’t the sort of people you can outrun.”
Brenda waited at the door, listening to the exchange in hopes Lena would break down and say something helpful.
Lena stared at Brenda as Ben put the suitcases in the back of her SUV. “You don’t understand,” she argued. “You have no idea what I had to promise them…what I had to do to protect my son.”
Her eyes widened as if she’d only just considered that she hadn’t seen or heard him in several minutes.
“He went upstairs,” Brenda explained.
Lena glared at her. “You need to leave.” She turned to Ben. “Now.”
Ben walked toward Brenda. “She’s right. We should go. She can’t help us.”
Brenda wanted to argue, but defeat had punched her hard in the gut. She took one last long look at Lena before walking away.
Before they reached the front door, Trek rushed down the stairs and headed to the kitchen. Brenda fought back the tears.She refused to cry right now. She had to be strong. She had to find Janey.
Ben said nothing as they walked back to his car. She waited while he performed the necessary check before getting into the passenger seat. A whole minute of painful silence elapsed as they drove down the twisty mountain road.
When she couldn’t take it anymore, Brenda asked, “Why didn’t we stay and follow her or something?”
She didn’t want to be disappointed in the decision Ben had made, but she was. She was certain Lena knew more than she had shared.
He slowed near the guard shack to wait for the gate to open, and then at the traffic signal he stopped. He picked up his cell and opened an app. A map appeared with a red dot blinking in the center of the screen. “That,” he explained, “is the tracking device I placed in her vehicle. We’ll wait in the parking lot across the street and follow her.”
Brenda wanted to hug him. The relief gushing through her almost made speech impossible. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”
“We’ve got this, Brenda.”
For the first time since this nightmare started, she thought they just might.
Target Parking Lot
Carl T Jones Drive
Huntsville, 10:20 p.m.
Ben shut offthe engine. The headlights went dark, leaving only the streetlamps scattered across the parking lot to chase away the darkness. Brenda needed Lena Jenner to lead her to wherever Janey was being held. Maybe she was a fool to believethat was a possibility, but she was desperate. They were out of options.
There was no one left to turn to.
If Scott was still alive—despite what Lanier had said—and wasn’t actively helping with the search for Janey…
