Chapter Twelve
Over the next couple of days, more information emerged about exactly how Frank had been tracked down. Via his arranged delivery of newspapers to the mailbox outside the abandoned ranch, they discovered a few more details that had been published with regards to his case.
Frank had to wait until dark to sneak out and get it, just to make sure he wasn’t seen by anyone, knowing the police were still scouring the area and would be hot on their heels.
Sammie waited anxiously at the bottom of the ladder, staring up at the open entrance for him to return, worried that he might have gotten caught.
“Hey.”
She nearly jumped half out of her skin as he suddenly arrived at the top of the entrance, grinning down at her. He tossed the newspaper down, then turned around and climbed inside quickly, closing over the trap door behind him.
“You OK?” she gave him a quick kiss on the lips then hugged him.
“Yeah, fine.”
“Did you see anyone?”
“No.” He picked up the newspaper then went to sit down on the couch, Sammie joining him to read it over his shoulder.
“Anything?” She asked as he opened it up.
He gasped slightly. “Shit, look at this.”
She rested her chin on his shoulder and her eyes widened as they both read the article together.
Kevin and Carol.
It was Kevin and Carol.
It turned out that Kevin had been an undercover cop all along. Because of Frank’s history, criminal record and known association with that specific gang of people – his ‘buddies’ as he called them – they had suspected from the start that he was involved in the robbery, but had no evidence to arrest and charge him with it.
Kevin had followed him from New York, and had moved into the ranch nearest Frank at almost the exact same time.
Everything that Kevin had told him, at told Sammie too, had been a lie, aside from his marriage with Carol. Every single thing had been a cover story, so that he could keep a close watch on Frank, waiting for the right moment, waiting for him to slip up or for his gang mates to snitch on him, the police obviously putting pressure on them to do just that, so they could move in and arrest Frank.
“That was why there were no pictures of their kids!” Sammie gasped, things starting to make sense now.
“There weren’t?” Frank glanced at her.
“No! Not a single picture, and there was no evidence of kids, or anyone in fact, having stayed in any of the rooms.”
“You snooped round their rooms?” He raised an eyebrow and chuckled.
She blushed a bit. “Well uh…yeah. It was kind of an accident though.”
“Maybe there were no kids.”
“Probably not! They were just lying to us that whole time! That’s awful.”
“Yeah…” He frowned and shook his head. “Worse than what I did, right? I mean, I never lied about anything I just…kept secrets.”
“Yeah, they out and out lied.”
“Then when Bobby snitched and admitted that I was involved, they knew exactly where to find me. Because Kevin told them.”
“Makes sense,” she nodded.
“Wow…” Frank sighed and shook his head. “I should have known…Kevin’s hardly a cowboy name, right?”
At that, they both giggled, and Frank tossed the newspaper away, lifting up his arm and wrapping it around her shoulders.
She sighed and leaned into him, closing her eyes.
“Let’s get out of here tomorrow, Sammie,” said Frank.
“Where will we go?”
“I’ll get us a car and we’ll drive. Just keep driving. Find somewhere else to make a home. There’s loads of wide open spaces in the States. That’s one of the advantages. It’s a damn big country. Loads of places to hide. And when you cross state lines it makes things so much harder for the cops to track you.”
She nodded silently. “I should…probably contact my grandma at some point.”
“We can do that. But we need to be careful our phones aren’t traced. We’ll ditch our current phones and get new ones, babe, okay?”
“Mmhm.”
“I’m sorry to drag you into all this. I…never intended to make you a fugitive, or a criminal.”
She frowned and shook her head, leaning up to kiss him on the cheek. “Frank, it’s okay. I mean…it’s totally not okay but…it also is. I’ve…accepted it. Because I love you and you know what, I don’t care. I just wanna be with you.”
“Me too.” He smiled and turned to look at her.
They gazed into each other’s eyes.
“We can be like Bonnie and Clyde,” she smiled. There was definitely a part of her that found this pretty exciting.
“You know they got caught and shot to death, right?” He raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah but…they did kill people. We haven’t done that. We haven’t…done anything really bad.”
“You haven’t done anything bad at all, babe,” he whispered and brushed his thumb over her lips. “Except aiding and abetting a known fugitive. I mean, you can totally get done for that but…we’ll be fine.”
“Yeah. Yeah, we’ll be fine.”
She said it confidently, because she had to believe it was true.
She didn’t know what the future held for them, and neither did Frank.
All they knew was, they loved each other, and whatever life decided to throw at them next, they would get through it together, as husband and wife.