Chapter Thirty-One
Logan was having a particularly pleasant dream while wrapped around Ava when his phone rudely interrupted his beauty sleep. Without opening his eyes, he reached behind him and felt around on the bedside table until he located the offending piece of technology. Ava stirred in his arms but he gently kissed her cheek. It was time to get up anyway. The twins would be anxious for breakfast in about half an hour.
“Go back to sleep, baby,” he murmured in her ear. “It’s my phone. Probably work.”
She seemed to understand and simply wound up more tightly in the blankets. Slipping out of bed, he placed the phone against his ear and hurried out of the bedroom hoping his wife would easily go back to sleep. The screen displayed a photo of his partner Jason who must have been having another bout of insomnia.
“You better have a damn good reason for calling me this early in the morning.”
“Sadly, I do. Sorry about waking you up but I knew you’d want to know right away.”
Dressed in only his boxers, Logan headed straight for the kitchen and the coffeemaker. He and Ava had a busy day ahead of them and caffeine was going to be a requirement.
“Know what? Is everyone okay?”
It was rare but sometimes a consultant was injured while working a case.
“Everyone’s fine,” Jason assured him. “But I just got a call from an old buddy, a journalist. I used to help him out on occasion and this morning he returned the favor. It hasn’t been made public yet, and officials are trying to keep it quiet, but Wade Bryson broke out of prison last night. There’s a massive manhunt underway. It’s going to make the news eventually, of course, but they’re hoping to catch him quickly and quietly.”
Logan had to replay Jason’s words in his head several times before he could make heads or tails of them. He’d had no coffee and was still half asleep but the words Wade and broke out of prison had been said in the same sentence.
Words he’d never thought he would hear, frankly. He’d sort of assumed Wade was tucked up safely and would never see freedom again. He was someone they didn’t need to worry about. Out of the equation and very much not Logan’s problem.
Logan finally found his voice. “Broke out of prison? How the fuck did he do that? No, wait. Don’t tell me. He just waltzed out in front of God and everybody. That would be just his way.”
Jason chuckled on the other end of the line. “That would be just his way, wouldn’t it? But that’s not quite how it happened. Right now, they think he snuck out inside a supplier’s truck.”
“Don’t they fucking count heads or something? Didn’t anyone notice he was gone?”
Having visited that prison twice in a short period of time, Logan could attest that the security measures appeared solid but then he’d only seen a portion of them.
“He was supposed to be in a session with the prison shrink last night after he mouthed off to a guard during dinner. That’s the last he was seen.”
Logan heartily wished that the coffeemaker would hurry the hell up. “Are you telling me that Wade Bryson has been on the run since last night at dinnertime? And they’re trying to keep it quiet? Christ.”
“He has, and they won’t be able to keep it quiet much longer. I think they’d hoped to catch him quickly, but it didn’t happen and now they’ll need the public’s help to spot him.”
His brain was already working on the practicality of Wade’s situation. What would he need and when would he need it? And where would he go to get it?
“Wade is smart but I doubt he did this alone,” Logan said. “He had to have had some help.”
“According to you, he doesn’t have any help on the outside,” Jason pointed out. “You didn’t see anything in the letters and he didn’t have any visitors.”
That was true.
Except…Wade was seeing the prison psychiatrist regularly. Several times a week, in fact.
And he was supposed to be with her last night when he disappeared.
Dr. Bartlett.
“Maybe his help wasn’t from the outside,” Logan replied, pissed off at himself that he hadn’t seen it long before. “Maybe it was from the inside.”
“The inside? You mean a guard helped him?”
Logan had always trusted his gut and it was speaking loud and clear at the moment.
“Jason, try your source again. See if Dr. Marilyn Bartlett showed up for work this morning. My bet is she didn’t. She’s probably already cleared out her bank accounts and she’s on the run. With Wade. I’d also bet money that she’s the reason he didn’t get put in solitary for mouthing off at the guard last night. That’s what would normally happen. I bet she intervened and they were so sick of Wade’s shit they let her deal with it. Or she might have even paid off the guard.”
Logan wondered whether this had been planned for a long time or if his visit yesterday had prompted the two of them to make a move.
“Jesus,” Jason breathed. “You have got to be kidding me.”
“Wish I was but I think I’m right. Can you get me into her home? I want to search it. It might hold a clue as to where she and Wade ran off to. I’ll also need Jared to start digging up anything he can get on her. It might help us find him.”
There was a small silence before Jason replied. “Technically, it’s not your problem.”
“True,” Logan conceded. “But I put him behind bars and that’s where he needs to be. Believe me when I say that he’s up to no good outside. He’s not going to lay low and become a model citizen. He’s always believed he was wronged when he was convicted and he loves to kill. It gives him a rush and he hasn’t had that for a long time. He won’t be able to help himself, especially once he gets started. He could go on a spree and then he’s everyone’s problem.”
I might be the one person in the world who can get inside Wade’s head. Scary as shit.
“Let me make some calls. Get a shower if you haven’t already had one because I think today is going to suck. I’ll call you when I have more details. Logan, I hope you’re wrong about the doctor.”
“I hope so too, but I’m not.”
He just hoped that she was still alive, because Wade wouldn’t hesitate to kill her when she’d outlived her usefulness.