“Remember, she has tricks.” Matt looked up at the ceiling. Nothing seemed disturbed, where anything could fall on Nathan. Still, he said, “Nathan, stand in the far corner.” The boy complied. Matt slowly opened the door.
Nothing happened.
“Okay,” he said.
Nathan ran out and hugged his mom. “Can we go?”
Lily looked at Matt. “You can find my husband? Have someone protect him?”
“Yes,” Matt said. “First, let’s disable all the cameras upstairs. And let me look at your phone. Even if she cloned it, I can communicate with my team through a message board or app. I’ll find a way.”
“And she won’t know?”
“She might. But we have to try. Where is he?”
“We live in Jacksonville, but the case she wants him on is in Flagler.”
Kara caught Matt’s eye. “He’s defending Garrett Reid,” she said.
“Why would they want a civil lawyer for a criminal case?” Matt wondered.
“Whoever he’s working for, he’s out on bail,” Lily said. She handed Matt her phone. “She sent me a photo of her and Franklin at his office. As proof that she was with him.”
“How do you know he’s out on bail?” Kara asked.
“She told me when she brought us here that as long as Franklin got her husband out of jail, he’d be alive and she’d let me know. If he didn’t get him out, he’d be dead on Monday. And I got that picture Monday evening.”
“Well, shit,” Kara said. “They released Garrett Reid. How did the case fall apart? How did he have the money for bail? Husband? They’re married? How did we not know that?”
Matt shook his head. Obviously, he couldn’t know the answers, either. He said, “Lily, trust me. I will reach out to my team. I won’t call or text them so hopefully she won’t see what we’re doing. This is the way we save your husband. Give me his full name, home and work address, all his phone numbers. We’ll get him protection and let him know you’re safe.”
“Are we safe here?” Lily said.
“I don’t know, but Kara can’t walk far.”
“I can,” Kara insisted.
“Right now, we’re safe here. We can hear a vehicle long before they arrive. I’m going to send the message and then we’re going to cut the power. That should disable all the cameras, even the ones we can’t find.” He looked at Lily. “May I?” He held out his hand.
She reluctantly handed him her phone. “Please, Franklin is a good husband, a good father. I could not bear if he dies because I didn’t listen to that woman.”
“I will do everything in my power to make sure he’s safe.”
34
Catherine sat across from Garrett and Franklin in the sitting area of the hotel room. Garrett was not happy about this, and told Franklin he had nothing to say.
“That’s fine,” Catherine said, “but I have something to tell you. You’re going to want to hear it.”
Garrett stared at her, mouth set, but she saw the curiosity in his eyes.
“I know you’re married, Garrett. We executed a search warrant on the residence of Hope Davidson. We know her name was Audrey Dolan when you married her because we found your marriage certificate. You may or may not know, but her real name is Clara Dolan. And she is a suspect in the disappearance of Becca McCarthy.”
At the mention of his ex-girlfriend’s name he flinched, a tiny crease popping out on his forehead. But he didn’t speak.
“I don’t know when exactly you met Clara, but it was in the months before Becca came home from graduate school for the Christmas break. You went over for dinner one night. Her family likes you. You and Becca talked. She told her sister and her parents that she planned to visit you in Scottsdale, because you were taking a job at a resort there. She thought that maybe you both had grown up enough where you might have a relationship again. Driving back to school, she disappeared.”
“I had nothing to do with that,” Garrett said flatly.
