Chapter Nineteen
Elle
Rebel activated the tracker on my truck while I found directions to Driscoll, Oklahoma. Google gave an ETA of fifteen minutes, putting me at the diner by 11:15. Perfect. I climbed up in my truck and started it.
Rebel walked toward me, so I rolled down my window.
“Be careful, he put his own daughter in the hospital and has evaded us for a year.” He leaned in and kissed me.
“I’ll be careful. Let’s get this bastard.”
I drove hard to Driscoll, it was 11:12 when I turned on to Main Street. Halfway down the street, I saw a sign for Millie’s Café. I parked beside three other trucks and checked my pocket for a tracker then pulled up the mug shot of Gerald, memorizing his face before I pocketed my phone and headed inside.
The place was run-down with worn chairs and faded booths. I sat at the counter because it was easier to monitor the door from there. An older lady came over and smiled at me. “You’re new here.”
I grinned wide. “Maybe not for long. I’m looking to move to a small town around here.”
“Where you coming from?” She grinned at me. “I’m Millie by the way.”
“Nice to meet you, I’m Elle. And I’m living in Dallas, but I’m tired of city life.” I opened the menu she had set in front of me. “What do you recommend?”
“The tenderloin. Clyde makes a damn good tenderloin and fries.”
“I’m sold. Give me a sweet tea too.”
Millie nodded her approval and moved off. The door opened four times but Gerald wasn’t among them.
I checked my watch—11:25. If Rebel’s information was correct, then I had five minutes until Gerald showed or didn’t.
Millie dropped off my sweet tea and lingered. “Why would you want to move away from the city? I always wanted to move there.”
Nosy people were the main reason I didn’t like small towns. “I guess you want what you don’t have, and my job lets me work anywhere.”
“Must be nice.” She blew a lock of gray hair off her forehead. “What do you do?”
Nosy had just gone personal, but I remembered my purpose before I told her to mind her own business.
“I write those For Dummy books. You know Computers for Dummies, et cetera.” I made it up on the spot.
“I need that.” She laughed. “You working on a book now?”
The door jingled and Gerald walked inside. Millie’s eyes went to him and the woman he was with.
“I’m working on Online Dating for Dummies right now. I have finished my interviews and need to start writing.” I chatted on even though Millie wasn’t paying attention anymore.
She focused back on me.
“Interesting.”
“You know any good real estate agents?” I sipped my sweet tea.
A bell rang and Millie turned and retrieved my plate. It smelled delicious. She set it down in front of me. “I’d try Nancy Phillips up in Ardmore, she’s good.”
Millie hurried toward Gerald’s table. I bit into the sandwich and almost moaned. Millie was right, it was delicious. I glanced out at the trucks lined along Main Street, focusing on the old GMC Gerald had arrived in. Where to plant the tracker? The grille would be the easiest. An antique shop was right in front of where Gerald parked, so I could always stop and window shop a moment while sticking the quarter-size device in place. Satisfied with my plan, I finished the huge sandwich and pushed my plate away. Millie dropped off the check so I left a ten on the counter and headed out the door.
I strolled down the walk, stopping to look in a shop window, starting and stopping until I was in front of the GMC I needed to mark. Tracker in my hand, I stuck it in the grille as I looked at the antique rocker in the antique shop window. Then I went into the shop to ask about it because I wanted to be sure I covered myself. The lady at the register asked me a lot of the same questions as Millie although not quite as pointed. Millie might be one of Gerald’s spies, but it was too late, he was in our net. Telling the lady I might be back after I found a house, I walked down to my truck. I noticed Millie watching out the window when I drove away.
Once I turned off Main Street, I called Rebel. “We’re a go, he’s in the restaurant now, tracker works.”
“He’s there?” Disbelief echoed in his words.
“With some woman. The owner of the diner, I’m sure she’s one of his spies, she all but interrogated me.”
“Did you pass?”
“Yup, because I planted the tracker and I’m gone, but she missed her calling as an interrogator.” I pulled into the driveway of an abandoned house with a for sale sign planted in the scraggly grass.
Rebel laughed. “Gerald’s time has run out. We were talking about the next step. Once you follow him to ground, stage a breakdown right in front of his drive, blocking his escape. I’m almost positive he’ll end up out in the country in a hunting cabin kind of place.”
“Why?”
“All our early leads pointed to those type of places but he was never where people said he’d be.” Rebel and I talked for another fifteen minutes then the app beeped, Winston was on the move.
“Gotta go, see you soon.”
“Be careful.” He hung up.
Backing out of the driveway, I drove through town where I turned onto a gravel road. I made sure to stay back, so he wouldn’t see me, even stopping once beside the road when I was afraid I might drive up on him.
Finally, the dot turned up a drive and stopped. I drove past, then did a three-point turn out of sight of the drive before I drove back, stopping in the middle of the road at the end of the drive. I dialed Rebel, my Bluetooth in my ear.
“I’m here, you got my location.”
“We do, you see anything?”
I opened my hood and loosened a battery cable just in case someone came out to help. “Can’t see his truck or the house, it’s a long driveway.”
“We’re close enough to see you, it’s a hunting cabin about a mile back. I hit this place twice but he wasn’t there and there wasn’t any sign he’d been there.”
“Did you have a tip?” I frowned down at my truck motor then went back to try the key again.
“Yup. We’re stopping about a half mile down the road, around the curve, so you can’t see the SUV. We’ll go in from the woods.”
“Got it. What do you need me to do?”
“Stay there, and stop anyone who tries to leave. I’ll let you know once we have him.” He clicked mute, I stayed on the line, ready if he needed me.
While in the truck, I grabbed my Glock from the holster under the driver’s seat and stuffed it in the waist of my jeans.
Under the hood, I fixed my cable, just in case I needed to move fast. Minutes passed, I hated waiting. “We’re going in,” Rebel said in my ear.