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“Hi, Jessy. It’s Quint,” he said when she came on the line. “I thought I’d check to see if anything is happening that I should know about.”
“No. Why?” She sounded both surprised and puzzled.
“Because something’s in the wind down here, and it has Rutledge’s thumbprint on it.”
“What do you mean?” Jessy asked, then immediately added, “Wait. Trey just walked in. I’ll put you on the speaker phone.” An instant later, in a voice that had that hollow sound of distance, she said, “Go ahead.”
“A sheriff’s deputy pulled Dallas over on her way back to the ranch from the university. He told her an inmate had escaped from jail and asked to search her vehicle. She got suspicious when he started asking a lot of questions about where she’d been and why. When she told me, curiosity kicked in, and I checked. There is no escapee on the loose. Now Empty showed up with a similar story, except the two men who searched his truck weren’t officers.”
“And you think Rutledge is behind it?”
“It’s possible.”
“But what were they looking for?” Trey asked, his voice instantly recognizable to Quint.
“That’s what has me puzzled. Trey, I don’t know. It crossed my mind that it might have something to do with Sloan.”
“I don’t know how.” Trey’s tone seemed to dismiss the idea.
“Neither do I,” Quint admitted. “But it doesn’t seem likely that Rutledge did it just to harass us. There has to be more to it than that—something or someone that he doesn’t want to reach us.”
“Somebody who works for him, maybe?” Trey suggested.
/> “Could be. Maybe you’d better alert Walters. His investigators might be able to eavesdrop on some crosstalk among the guards stationed at the Slash R.”
“We’ll give him a call right away,” Jessy told him. “In the meantime, you be careful.”
“I—”
Trey interrupted before Quint could finish. “If it’s someone who works for Rutledge, he wouldn’t be trying to contact any of us unless it had something to do with Sloan or Jake. And it would have to be damned important for him to take that risk.”
“I’m with you,” Quint said and took that half-formed speculation to the next. “And if it’s important, then it’s time-critical.”
“I can think of only one reason that time might be a factor,” Trey said. “If Sloan planned to take Jake and leave the country before the custody hearing next week.”
“Now you’re thinking like Rutledge,” Quint said in approval. “Call Walters and get his men on it right away. If that’s the plan, she won’t be leaving on any commercial carrier. Rutledge will fly her out of the country on one of his private jets.”
“I’m on it.” Trey reached over and severed the connection. Before he could ask, Jessy supplied him with the phone number for the Walters agency. Even as he punched the numbers, he muttered, “Subpoenas and court orders are nothing but pieces of paper to Rutledge. I should have realized Sloan wouldn’t honor them any more than he does.”
The buzz of the intercom had Rutledge reaching for the phone. He punched the blinking light and demanded, “Did you track down that cab driver?”
“Yes, sir. The description of his passengers fits Mrs. Calder and the baby,” the agent confirmed.
“Where did he take her?”
“The house belongs to Tara Calder.”
“Tara.” Max cursed himself for not thinking of her. Then he remembered, “She was spending the winter in Europe. Is she back already?”
“Evidently, although we couldn’t get any information from her butler. Her chauffeur, however, told us that he’d just taken his employer back to her plane, along with a young woman and a baby. According to him, they were flying to Tara Calder’s summer home in Montana, but he couldn’t give me the name of any town.”
“It doesn’t matter. I know where it is,” Max replied and calculated his chances of reaching the private airstrip next to Tara’s luxurious stone cabin.
“Do you want me—”
“I need to know how long ago her plane took off—and I need to know it now. Get on it, and quick,” he ordered and hung up.
No one had to tell Rutledge that he had only a slim chance of intercepting Sloan before she made it to the Calders. But as long as he had a chance, he had to take it. With any luck, he could convince Sloan that she misunderstood the phone conversation she had obviously overheard. If not, there were other means he could employ to bring Sloan and the baby back to Texas with him.
