Page 11 of Not Our Daughter

“Sir, I believe Cole Shipley is onto me. He, uh—”

“Spit it out already!”

“Well, sir, I followed him into a grocery store a few minutes ago. But then I couldn’t find him anywhere. I think he intentionally ditched me. Because when I went back out to the parking lot, his truck was already gone. Not only that, but my back tire was flat. I think he somehow let the air out.”

“You’re kidding.” Burns cursed. “Where are you now?”

“Just changed the tire, about to drive back over to their residence.”

“Get there ASAP. And do not let him out of your sight again. You understand me?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I’m serious, Haskins. I’ll have your ass. This will be the end of your career.”

“I understand.”

Burns hung up, cursed again. This was so damn bad.

He turned to the driver. “Can’t you go any faster?”

“Not without flying off the mountain, sir. These switchbacks are hell.”

Davis spoke up from the back seat. “We need to call in backup, boss. We can’t chance it. If he suspects he’s found, they’ll immediately bolt. They’ve done it before.”

Burns checked his watch again. He’d originally wanted to handle this whole matter on their own without involving any local police. In his experience, small-town police could really muck up an investigation. They were too loud and obvious. They were not trained like the FBI for this type of covert situation. But Davis was right. If Cole Shipley knew he was being followed, an escape plan was no doubt already in motion. These were not dumb people. Quite the contrary. He’d found them to be incredibly smart. They could be gone in minutes. Burns could not allow them to get any kind of jump start. He had no choice right now. He needed as many local cops as possible surrounding the Shipleys’ house before it was too late. He turned back to Davis.

“All right, call local police. Get them moving!”

Nine

Cole pushed his old truck to the limit while racing home. The tires squealed at every sharp turn, and the vehicle’s whole body rattled, as if it might come apart at any moment. He was grateful the truck had started right up in the grocery store parking lot. Every second mattered. At this point, he had no idea how many Feds were already in town. Was the FBI agent alone? Was he still trying to figure out if Cole was the man formerly known as Greg Olsen? Or had that match already been confirmed with the photographs he’d taken earlier, and now the FBI agent was just awaiting the cavalry? Cole had to plan for the latter. They could take no chances. But how had they been found? It had to have been the money transfer from the offshore account that morning. There was no other possible explanation on how the Feds had shown up on his doorstep only hours later. He cursed. He’d rolled the dice and lost. And it might cost them everything.

Their two-story home was a quick drive from the grocery store in the back of a neighborhood called Grand Park. He hoped he’d just bought himself an extra five to ten minutes by jabbing a screwdriver into the FBI agent’s back tire. He pressed the gas pedal all the way down, his heart hammering inside his chest. His whole world felt like it was spinning. This was an out-of-body experience. His fingers were numb and shaking as he tried to clutch the steering wheel. He alwaysknew there was a chance they’d be found. They stayed ready. But as the years had turned into a full decade, Cole had started to believe they might be in the clear. He certainly knew Lisa felt that way. They had both been dead wrong.

He dreaded telling Lisa it was time to immediately abandon their whole lives—again. Ten years just wiped away in a single moment. And on Jade’s birthday, no less. That reality punched him even harder in the gut. Jade had been only four years old the last time they’d had to pick up and leave. She was easy to fool back then. It was a fun adventure. They’d had plenty of car games and a bagful of her favorite snacks ready. She didn’t remember much about it to this day. But this was entirely different. They had no choice but to introduce her to a frightening new reality: her parents were both wanted fugitives. There was no way to predict how she would respond, but she needed to trust them and go willingly.

Any other response from her could be disastrous.

Cole skidded around a last turn and sped down his street. He let out a quick sigh of relief when he spotted his house up ahead with no other cars parked out front. He’d feared the Feds might already be there taking his family into custody. He slammed on his brakes and parked on the street. He didn’t even want to waste time in the driveway. He planned to take off immediately after telling Lisa the brutal news. He jumped out of the truck and sprinted up to the front door. He scrambled for his keys in his pocket, quickly unlocked the front door, and stepped inside. He stopped, took a deep breath. He resisted the urge to yell out his wife’s name, knowing it would only set the whole house into panic. He needed to do this as calmly as possible in order to also keep Lisa calm.

Before heading to the kitchen, he stepped into his small study and opened the bottom right drawer of his office desk. Inside, he grabbed two cell phones. They were burner phones he kept replacing each year for this exact moment. They would need to ditch their current phones to make sure they weren’t being tracked. He could hear noise comingfrom around the corner. He took another deep breath, let it out slowly, and circled back to the kitchen, where Lisa stood over a chocolate cake. She was busy sticking colorful birthday candles into the chocolate icing and didn’t notice him at first. His wife was smiling and humming a happy song. It sounded like U2’s “Beautiful Day.” He felt sick to his stomach. It might be a long time before she smiled like this again—maybe ever. It crushed him.

She turned, spotted him standing there. Her smile grew even bigger.

“Hey, didn’t hear you come inside. Where’s the ice cream?”

He swallowed, stepped toward her. Her brow bunched at the sight of his tight face. He could tell she immediately knew something was wrong. He could never hide anything.

“What is it, Cole?” she said, suddenly alert.

But she knew. He could see it in her widening eyes.

“We have to go, Lisa,” he said, his voice shaky. “Right now.”

“What are you saying?” she whispered, barely getting the words out.

“It’s time. They’re here. They found us.”

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