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I don’t like this. I don’t like it one bit.
Then again, we haven’t even gotten close enough to Daniel Madison to even make an arrest, so this specific scenario is still pretty far away. Nevertheless, it’s the kind of bridge we need to be mindful of in order to make sure there aren’t any nasty surprises farther down the road for Avery and her daughters. My heart aches at the thought of losing her. Luke is on point, regardless. I’ve caught feelings. The kind of deep feelings that may take a lifetime to heal from if we lose her. I don’t want that to ever happen, she and the girls mean too much.
They’ve become an integral part of my existence in such a short time, it’s almost baffling. I have to make sure I come through for this woman without destroying my own career in the process, though. I’ll need my sheriff’s badge when things inevitably go south with my parents, too. I’ll need the full force of the law behind me. It’s a tight corner that I find myself wedged into.
I must be wise in every step I take from here.
22
Fallon
Today is not a good day.
Yesterday was even worse. Seeing Avery unravel the way she did shook me to the fucking core. Even in the hardest of times since she’s been with us, she’s been able to keep it together for the sake of her girls. I know Kellan is slightly skeptical about whether Avery even saw Daniel, but I’m certain that she did. Her reaction, the horror in her eyes, the tremor in her voice… all of it was real. Real enough to her to make my blood run cold.
I wish I could do more to make her feel safe but we’re already stretched pretty thin. Our clients require a majority of our armed agents in the field, and Kellan’s department has requested the remaining available operatives from Wolfhound Security to join his deputies in combing the whole of Lincoln County until they find Daniel. We’ve got two men watching the girls while they’re at school, and another two with eyes on Avery while she’s at the Masons’ place. We keep waiting for that prick to show up.
And speaking of pricks who fail to show up, Randy hasn’t come to work today. It’s pissing me off. I’ve got back orders for parts that he needs to deal with, and a Buick I’m still working on. I need him here.
“Where the fuck are you?” I growl into the phone as I leave yet another voicemail for him. “This isn’t looking good, buddy. Call me back.”
I put the phone down and look around at the garage. It’s a mess.
Randy was supposed to clean up yesterday evening but that got pushed aside when my car wouldn’t start and he ended up driving me home. After our conversation yesterday, I expected he would have come early in the morning to complete the task. Something is going on with this fella, and, I don’t have the patience to put up with it. I’ve got enough on my plate as it is, especially since Luke worries that Avery might run away with the girls if we don’t catch Daniel soon.
I’m restless, frustrated, and downright pissed off.
I try to do some work on the Buick, but I can’t focus. The constant clangs and clatters of my wandering mind have me taking a couple of steps back and a deep breath before I decide to call it a day. I leave a written note for Randy on the main work bench.
You’d better be in by the time I get back, or consider yourself fired, I write.
While I understand matters of the heart and the difficulties of life, I need people that I can rely on to work with, people who will show up when they’re supposed to show up. Someone who, if they can’t make it in, they let me know so I can plan the rest of my day and workload. I gave Randy a chance, took him at his word. I’m greatly regretting that now.
This whole Avery situation is already taking up too much bandwidth, and I’m starting to think it’s going to get worse before it gets better.
I need to do something. I don’t know what exactly, but I can’t be here anymore.
A short drive later, I’m back at the house. Luke is in one of the main briefing rooms, barking orders at six of our operatives from the computer forensics department. His jacket rests on one of the chairs, and he has removed his tie. The top two buttons of his shirt are loose. I rarely see him like this in the middle of the day. It’s a sign of stress and chaos for a man who usually has everything under control.
“Go through every single fucking second of the past thirty hours,” he says. “Focus on that street and the entire block if you have to. Match the timing to the call we got from Avery and see if there was somebody standing just outside the café. Get a jacket color, pants color, hair or hat color, and check other neighboring video feeds. If that fucker was there, he walked off somewhere. There has to be one camera that captured a better view of him, or at least enough to give us a clue.”
“We’ll input his height and weight into the search algorithm,” one of the operatives says. “If he’s careful to hide his face from the cameras, his height and weight should help us narrow down the possibilities.”
“Precisely. Go all in, guys and gals. Avery needs us,” Luke says. “Meeting adjourned. I need a report before midnight.”
“He’s paying double for the overtime,” I quip in a poor attempt to lighten the mood.
The entire place is immersed in a sense of high stress and urgency, and I can tell it’s taking a toll on everybody, not just Luke. The operatives give me faded chuckles and smiles as they excuse themselves and leave the meeting room, each of them determined to get to the bottom of this. At least we’re fortunate enough to have some of the country’s sharpest minds at work here.
Once they’re out of the room, Luke lets a heavy sigh roll from his chest as he collapses into one of the chairs and closes his eyes for a moment.
“What are you doing here?” he asks me. “Aren’t you supposed to be at the shop, working on that sexy Buick you’ve been droning on about for the past week?”
“Randy’s AWOL, and I don’t have the patience to deal with anything shop-related right now,” I reply bluntly. “I figured the Buick can wait, hoping I can be of more help here. Avery is trying to keep busy with the Masons’ house, the little ones are still in school and I’m fucking lost.”
“You and me both,” Luke says. “I don’t understand how Daniel got so smart at avoiding the cameras. According to Kellan, Lincoln County is one of the safest in Nebraska precisely because of the closed-circuit systems installed in every single fucking town. And yet, Daniel Madison managed to elude every single camera and continues to do so. It boggles the mind.”
I let out a heavy sigh and take a seat next to him. My shoulders hurt, tension gathering just under the back of my neck. I haven’t felt this way since the Navy—right before the ship blew up. “I have a feeling Daniel knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s clever and conniving. It would make sense that a narcissistic control freak like him would know how to avoid being seen everywhere.”
