Page 34 of Not Our Daughter

Burns had a judge on standby tonight to swiftly issue wiretap orders and warrants. It might have just paid off in a big way. He suddenly heard the voice of a teenage girl through the laptop’s speaker. He then recognized the voice of Tyler Healey, the boyfriend they’d spoken with earlier in the night. He bolted to his feet, moved closer to the laptop, hanging on every word.

“Where are you now?” Tyler asked.

“Some random town called Alamosa, I think. We’re at a Loaf‘N Jug getting gas. This is my mom’s phone. I had to sneak off with it to call you. But Ihadto talk to you.”

“I’m so glad you did. I’ve been freaking out.”

“Me too.”

“So you really don’t know what’s going on?”

“No, my parents won’t tell meanything. It’s so weird.”

“Where are y’all going?”

“You’ll never believe this. We’re going to Mexico. They are planning to drive all the way to some beach town called Sayulita. I’ve never even heard of it.”

Burns turned to Davis. “Get someone to that gas station ASAP!”

Davis already had his phone to his ear. “On it!”

Twenty-Three

Cole shut the clerk’s laptop. Twenty-four hours after they’d bolted from Austin that night, he’d created an anonymous email account and sent the home security video of Candace McGee and the mysterious guy to his attorney. Cole had claimed their innocence and asked their attorney to share the video with the FBI. The attorney had responded within a few hours, telling him he’d turned the video over, but it had changed little. The Feds still had a murder weapon with his fingerprints on it. The attorney said the only way for them to prove their innocence was to immediately turn themselves in. The longer they hid, the guiltier they looked, which made his job even harder. Cole and Lisa found themselves in the exact same desperate spot. On the run. Willing to sacrifice their lives in order to protect Jade.

Cole motioned for the kid that he was finished. Then he stepped out of the gas station with his grocery items in a plastic bag. He needed to tell Lisa the truth about the stocky guy. But he certainly didn’t want Jade knowing anything about it. He had to protect her emotionally from an even scarier reality. If they could get to Mexico by the end of the day, the truth wouldn’t even matter. This time he would make sure no one would ever find them again. They would go so far off the grid. He paused on the front sidewalk. He could hear someone talking. But there were still no other cars in the parking lot. He moved down thesidewalk toward where the voice was coming. He could hear it more clearly now. A girl. And not just any girl. Jade. He cursed. His daughter was talking to someone on the phone.

He rushed forward, turned the corner, spotted her huddled in the dark, her back to him, a phone pressed to her ear. Everything inside him wanted to scream at her. They had clearly told her no phones. Not until they settled somewhere, which might take several weeks. It was too risky. The Feds could already be monitoring the phones of everyone they knew in town. But he knew lashing out at his daughter right now was unwise. She was fragile. He tried to be understanding. She had of course looked for an opportunity to make a phone call. She was confused and scared to death. And from the sound of it, she was on the phone with her boyfriend, Tyler. Would the FBI already know about that relationship?

Cole took a deep breath to try to settle himself, stepped closer toward her, and cleared his throat to get her attention.

Jade spun around, her eyes widening, her mouth frozen open.

“I need you to hang up, baby,” he said as calmly as he could. “Tell him goodbye and then give me the phone, okay?”

Jade swallowed. Into the phone, she said, “I have to go, Tyler.”

Then she hung up, handed the phone to him. Her eyes immediately watered. “I’m so sorry, Daddy,” she said, crying harder by the second.

He stuck the phone in his pocket, dropped the plastic bag, and wrapped his arms around her. “Baby, it’s okay. I understand. We’ve asked a lot of you tonight. I get that. And you’ve been incredibly brave. But we can’t be calling our friends right now. I know that sucks. Especially for you with Tyler. I’m sorry. But we just can’t do it.”

She pulled away slightly. “When will I be able to talk to him again?”

He pressed his lips together. “I don’t know.”

The answer wasnever, but he couldn’t bear telling her that right now.

Her emotional state immediately flipped on him. Her sobbing stopped, and she instead glared at him with narrowed eyes and hernostrils flaring. “This isn’t fair, Dad! You can’t just take me away from Tyler and all my friends. I didn’t do anything wrong!”

“I know,” he agreed. “You’re right. It’s not fair.”

“It’s not fair to Tyler, either,” she continued. “The FBI was at his house tonight.”

Cole stiffened. “What?”

“He said they were asking about me and about us.”

Panic seized him. The Feds already knew about Tyler. “Did he tell them anything?”

---