Page 49 of Not Our Daughter

Cole turned. Jonathan was waiting for him inside the office. Cole let out a quick breath, tried to calm himself, and stepped inside.

“Can I get you something to drink?” Jonathan offered.

“No, I’m good. But I’m kind of in a hurry, if you don’t mind. Need to be somewhere in a few minutes to pick up the kids.”

“Of course, no problem. Just need to borrow your driver’s license.”

Cole reached into his pocket, pulled out the fake driver’s license for Dillon Foster. It was one of three options he had. The license was legit. If Jonathan ran it through a verification system, Cole felt sure he’d come out clean on the other side.

Jonathan gave it a quick glance. “Arizona?”

“Yes, we just moved here from Tucson.”

“Cool! My uncle lives in Phoenix.”

Cole didn’t respond. Hopefully Jonathan would get the hint. No chitchat. The sales guy stuck the fake driver’s license in a scanner and then handed it back to him. “Now just need you to sign this release form.”

Cole reached down, wrote a fake local address and phone number, and then began to sign, before stopping himself midscribble. Out of habit, he’d started with a big cursiveC. He quickly changed course, made it into a messyDfor Dillon, and signed the document as Dillon Foster. He glanced up at the sales guy. Jonathan gave him a quick puzzled look. Cole silently cursed himself. What a stupid mistake. But hethought it best to not try to explain anything. That might only make it worse.

Jonathan stood. “All right, let me grab those keys, and I’ll meet you at the vehicle.”

Before stepping back outside, Cole watched the sales guy walk over to a big glass room where several men stood around a big counter with a huge row of file cabinets behind it. Probably the manager’s office. He watched for a moment to see if Jonathan did anything more than just grab keys. Once inside, the sales guy spoke with an older gentleman. They both gave a glance through the glass in his direction. Cole felt like he suddenly had a big target on him. Had this been a huge mistake?

It was too late now. He was fully committed. But he was ready to flee at breakneck speed if he caught whiff of any potential threat. He stepped out of the building again, moved back over to the rows of cars. Another sales guy came over and offered to help. Cole told him he was already being assisted. But the more eyes put on him, the more uneasy he felt about all this. He was ready to get the hell out of there.

Jonathan finally reappeared. Cole couldn’t tell if he had any keys on him. He decided if there were any further delays, he would bolt. He couldn’t risk someone inside the building calling the cops on him right now. But thankfully Jonathan held out the keys.

“Here you go, Mr. Foster,” he said, still showcasing his bright smile. “You want me to show you some of the bells and whistles?”

Cole took the keys. “When I get back. I want to see how it runs first.”

“Yes, of course. If you want to get out on the highway and really open it up, the closest entrance is three blocks over from here. I think you’ll be very impressed.”

Cole quickly climbed into the vehicle, started it up.

Jonathan leaned into the door opening. “Take your time. Get a real feel for the vehicle. You can even go pick up your kids in it, if you want. I guarantee you and your family are going to love it. We can wrap this whole thing up today.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

It took all the restraint Cole had left to not kick Jonathan out of the way, slam the door shut, and then burn rubber out of the parking lot. He could feel his adrenaline racing. He was only seconds away from his plan working. By the time Jonathan realized Cole was never returning, they would be well on their way to Austin. And trying to track him down with the driver’s license would prove useless.

Cole wondered how much time he would have before they called the police. An hour? Maybe two? Cole again thanked the sales guy, shut the door, calmly backed the vehicle out of the parking spot, and then eased through the lot. When he was completely out of sight of the dealership, he jumped all over the gas pedal.

Five minutes later, Lisa and Jade quickly climbed inside with him.

“I can’t believe you really did it,” Lisa said.

“I got lucky. Just hope the salesman doesn’t get fired because of it.”

“Well, we were due some good luck.”

“We’re going to make our own luck from here on out.”

Thirty-Seven

Burns was back inside El Paso’s FBI building and set up in a small conference room with his team. Three hours had already passed since his encounter with Cole Shipley, and their fugitives were nowhere to be found. And neither was the mystery guy. Security footage from other retail strips around the mall perimeter was being analyzed. But it was needle-in-a-haystack stuff and would probably take them days to wade through it all. More than a thousand people had fled the property all at once. Burns still couldn’t wrap his head around how everything had so bizarrely unfolded. If not for the unexpected appearance of the mystery cowboy, Burns felt certain they would have nabbed them at the mall.

But now he felt like they were starting all over again.

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