Page 41 of Not Our Daughter

“But we have time right now. We’re just sitting here doing nothing.”

“I know. But your dad needs to be part of this conversation.”

Jade huffed again, stared through the windshield at the Red Lobster in front of them. “Can I run inside the restaurant real quick and go to the restroom?”

Her mom glared at her. “Are you going to try to call Tyler again?”

“How? I don’t have access to a phone.”

“That didn’t stop you before.”

Jade rolled her eyes. “I’m just going to the restroom, that’s all. I swear. You can come with me, if you want.”

“No, I need to stay here and keep watch. Just hurry.”

Jade pulled open the sliding door of the van, got out, and shut it behind her. She briskly walked toward the restaurant, weaving in andout of about a dozen other vehicles, the sprinkling getting her wet. She stepped inside and asked a hostess about the restrooms. After getting directions, she crossed through the restaurant toward the back corner. About half the tables were already filled with early birds grabbing lunch. Most were gray-headed. A couple of other people sat on stools in the bar area. The food smelled good, even though she didn’t care much for seafood. She’d eaten nothing but snacks since dinner last night and craved real food. After finding the restroom, she grabbed a stall, quickly took care of her business, washed her hands, and returned to the restaurant.

Jade froze next to the bar area in the middle that had several mounted TVs. A photo of her family was currently situated on the center screen. The sight of it shook her. She recognized the photo. It was one they’d had framed on their fireplace mantel—the three of them in Aspen last summer, standing on the sidewalk outside Hotel Jerome. She was still wearing her ugly braces. She moved closer to get a better look. The TV was tuned to a national news station. She spotted the logo in the corner. It looked like a press conference had just started. An older, heavyset, gray-bearded man wearing a cowboy hat and a black jacket stood behind a podium. A digital tag at the bottom of the screen read: Lee Jackson, chief of police, Fraser Winter Park Police Department. Closed captions scrolled across the bottom, tracking what the police chief was currently saying.

While fleeing last night, one of our fugitives, Cole Shipley, shot and killed one of our officers in an alley two blocks over my shoulder here. We are devastated. Deputy Tommy Johnson has been with our force for the past four years.

Jade’s jaw dropped. Had she just read that right? Did it say her dad had shot and killed a police officer last night? She watched as a photo of Deputy Johnson in uniform appeared on the screen. The closed captioning said he had a wife and two young children. A bartender came over to ask Jade if she needed anything, but she was in too much shock to even acknowledge him, her eyes glued to the screen. The TV went back to the police chief behind the podium, who continued to speak.

Cole and Lisa Shipley have lived in our community for the past ten years. They have a fourteen-year-old daughter named Jade. We didn’t know they were wanted fugitives on the run from the Feds for the past thirteen years until around nine o’clock last night when officially informed by the FBI.

Another photo appeared on the screen, this one of her parents when they were much younger. Her dad was heavier, with short hair and no beard. Her mom’s hair was longer and blond. She’d never seen the photo before. An older newsreel began rolling. It was from a TV news station in Austin, Texas. A woman with a microphone stood outside a nice home with a lot of police activity going on behind her. A tag at the bottom saidAustin couple Greg and Amy Olsen suspected in murder of 21-year-old mother and kidnapping of her infant daughter.

She gasped. Reading those words sent a shiver straight through her. Were her parents Greg and Amy Olsen? She’d never heard those names before. Was this real? Could her parents be murderers? Could she possibly be the baby they’d taken thirteen years ago in Texas? Was that why they refused to tell her the truth?

Jade felt her body trembling. She looked around, realized a couple of people sitting at the bar were staring over at her. This freaked her out even more. She spun, raced for the front door of the restaurant. When she hit the sidewalk, she froze again. She could see their van three rows back, sitting behind several other vehicles. Her mom was currently blocked from view by a big truck. Jade couldn’t fathom climbing back inside right now. What was she going to say to her mom? Was she supposed to sit in the back of the van and simply cross over the border with two people who suddenly felt like dangerous strangers? She couldn’t process any of this. It felt like a nightmarish out-of-body experience. She glanced over to her left at the shopping mall. She needed space to think about what she’d just discovered. She needed to be able to catch her breath and figure out what to do next. Her parents were going to be pissed, but she didn’t even care right now.

Screw them. Screw the FBI. Screw everyone.

Twenty-Eight

Lisa started to get concerned when ten minutes had passed and Jade had still not returned from the restaurant. What was she doing? Was she lying about trying to call Tyler? Could she have disobeyed again and borrowed a stranger’s phone inside the restaurant? Annoyed, Lisa opened her door, stepped out into the drizzle, and hurried through the parking lot over to the front doors of the restaurant. She entered, looked around, but didn’t spot her daughter anywhere. She walked through the main dining room and found the restrooms tucked away in the back corner. She stepped inside, but they looked unoccupied. She didn’t see or hear anyone.

“Jade?” she said.

No response. She took a quick glance beneath two closed stall doors and didn’t spot any shoes. She opened the first stall. Empty. Then the second. Also empty. What the hell? Where was Jade? Lisa left the restroom, crossed back through the dining room, and walked up to a young hostess near the front.

“Did you see a fourteen-year-old girl wearing a Taylor Swift sweatshirt come in here a few minutes ago?”

The hostess nodded. “Yes, she asked for the restroom. And then she stood over there in the bar for a few minutes watching the TVs.She just ran out of here a minute ago like something was wrong. She looked really freaked out.”

Lisa turned, stared over toward the bar area. Her eyes went straight to the middle TV, because she immediately spotted an older photo of her and Cole currently being shown on the screen. It was a picture from when they were back in Austin. Lisa felt her heart racing.Oh no!Had Jade just seen this? Was that why she had freaked out? She hurried over to the bar and moved as close as she could to the TV. A female reporter was holding a microphone, and it looked like she was standing on the sidewalk in front of a familiar Winter Park restaurant: Deno’s Mountain Bistro. They dined there at least once a month. Lisa closely followed the closed captioning at the bottom of the screen.

Around nine thirty last night, here in Winter Park, police say a wanted fugitive named Cole Shipley shot and killed a police officer in this alley directly behind me. We’re told Cole Shipley and his wife, Lisa, have been on the FBI’s most wanted list after disappearing from Austin, Texas, more than thirteen years ago. Known then as Greg and Amy Olsen, they were suspected of murdering a twenty-one-year-old woman named Candace McGee and then kidnapping her baby. The woman had also been pregnant at the time. The case has been cold for years. But not anymore ... Police and the FBI are still searching ...

Lisa stared wide-eyed as more and more photos began popping up on the screen. Both from the present and the past. Jade was in several of them. Lisa thought about what the reporter had said about Cole shooting and killing a police officer. The FBI thought her husband had pulled the trigger? It ripped the breath out of her. He was innocent. Just like he’d been innocent back in Austin. How could this be happening again? Her mind returned to Jade. Had she just seen all this?

Lisa suddenly felt fully exposed. She was standing in the middle of a restaurant with dozens of people around, and her face matched the one being shown on the TV screen. Had anyone noticed her? She looked over to her left. A male bartender was staring right at her. His eyes bounced over to the TV, then back to her, and narrowed. Lisaswallowed, feeling even more panic shoot through her. She quickly turned around, kept a steady pace as to not look even more suspicious, and left the restaurant. Had the bartender put it together? Would he call the police? This was so bad. They needed to get away from here ASAP.

She hustled over to the van, praying the whole way that Jade had climbed back inside while she was in the restaurant. She slid open the back door. No Jade. Lisa cursed, feeling her world spiraling out of control. Where was her daughter? She spun around in the parking lot, looking everywhere. Her eyes settled on the mall. If her daughter had run, she had to have gone into the mall. That was the only thing that made any sense.

Lisa shut the van door, sprinted in that same direction.

She needed to find Jade, then her husband.

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