Page 76 of Benjamin and the Thief

Nervously, Benjamin clenched and unclenched his fist. Catalina would have never escaped jail, no matter how good she was at picking locks. She wasn’t a hardened criminal. Hell, she wasn’t a criminal at all! Somebody had tricked her into leaving in the middle of the night.

“There!” Anita exclaimed.

He stared at the screen and saw a dark SUV leave the parking lot. The license plate was clearly visible.

“Run the plate,” Benjamin said.

He watched Anita switch to a database and enter the license plate number. It took only seconds for the results to populate the page. He read the name the car was registered to and felt the blood in his veins turn to ice.

Anita looked over her shoulder, and their eyes met.

“This is not good,” she said.

Benjamin pulled his cell phone from his pocket and tapped on Nicholas’s number. Even though the phone rang only once before his friend answered, it felt like an eternity. Because right now, every single second mattered.

“Nicholas, triangulate Judge Norton’s cell phone. He has Catalina. We’ve gotta find him before he hurts her.”

Because if he did, he would rip Tylor Norton’s heart out of his chest while it was still beating.

33

The humming of the SUV’s engine could have easily lulled her into sleep, had she not been curious about what Judge Norton had found that could exonerate her brother. It was still dark around them. Another hour and the sun would be up. Catalina was exhausted, but she forced herself to keep her eyes open, and the hope that Santiago would be free soon filled her with just enough strength to stay awake.

“What did you find?” she asked, turning her gaze away from the street.

Judge Norton kept concentrating on the road.

“It’s difficult to explain, but it will be clear when you see it.”

It had to be something big, or why else would the judge who presided over her brother’s trial go through all this trouble to get her released from jail in the middle of the night?

“Do the police know about it? And the public defender? Has she seen the new evidence?”

“You’re the first to see it,” he said.

His voice was smooth and confident. She glanced at him from the side and noticed a sheen of perspiration on his face and neck. It wasn’t warm in the car. In fact, she shivered slightly. So why was the judge sweating? The car turned left into the next street, going slightly too fast. In a different car, the wheels on one side might have lifted at that speed.

“Is everything alright?” she asked. “Why are we speeding?”

“The evidence… we need to get there quickly, or it might get destroyed.”

“Oh.” She felt anxiety settle in her gut. “Maybe we should call the police as backup to send them ahead. Where are we headed?”

“It’s not far now.”

Why wasn’t he answering her question? Something wasn’t right. The more she thought about it, the more worried she became. What judge would contact the sister of a man he himself had convicted to show her new evidence in the middle of the night? If the public defender suddenly showed up, it would make more sense. Or even a police detective. She wouldn’t question their motives, but the judge? What was his motive?

She felt her palms become damp.

“Can we stop here? I’d feel much better if we got the police involved,” she said, trying to speak as calmly as she could.

“We don’t need the police.” He cast her a quick glance. “They screwed up your brother’s case in the first place. And now you trust them?”

His question sent another warning signal to her brain. Her sixth sense was finally kicking in at full force. She had to get out of this car. If she had her cell phone on her, she would call 9-1-1 now, but she didn’t know where she’d left it. Had the police taken it when she’d been arrested, or had she left it at Delilah’s house? It didn’t matter now. She had to find another way to alert the authorities.

She stared straight ahead at the traffic light. It was just switching from green to yellow. Ahead of the SUV was an old Toyota.

Please stop, she prayed, hoping for the Toyota driver to stop at the light rather than gun it, which would mean the judge had to stop too. The Toyota’s brake lights flashed. He was stopping. She sighed with relief. A moment later, the SUV came to a halt behind the Toyota, the engine idling, the judge impatiently tapping on the steering wheel.