He again thought about the FBI agent. Had she gotten a good look at his face? He had duct-taped the front doorbell camera before taking care of Steve Kingston. But were there back patio cameras? Didn’t matter. They were leaving and not looking back. He gave his mother no choice—they were going to Mexico. Eddie planned to be across the border before midnight tonight.
Eddie didn’t bother knocking. He just swung the trailer door open. The old lady was scrambling to pack her things in a suitcase.
“We have to go, right now!” Eddie yelled.
“I’m not ready yet!”
“Damn it, Mom, we don’t have time. Get in the truck!”
“What about Beth?”
“She’s going to meet us over at the barn. We’ll leave together from there.”
“You tell her about Steve?”
“No. She’ll fall apart. I’ll tell her later, when we’re on the road.”
Eddie walked over to the window, peeked through the blinds. He wanted to make sure no police cars were suddenly showing up. He turned back around. His mother was still sorting through a dresser of clothes.
“Mom . . . now!”
“What about all my picture albums?”
“Leave them. The police ain’t going to let you take picture albums to prison with you. Which is where you’re going if we don’t get the hell out of here.”
Eddie grabbed her suitcase, zipped it up. His mother snagged two bottles of Jim Beam from a cabinet on the way to the truck. Eddie threw her suitcase in the back beside his bag, and they both climbed inside. Seconds later, they were tearing out of the trailer park. The barn was at the back of Eddie’s uncle’s property a couple of miles away. His uncle was a drunk just like his mother. The man never stepped foot in the old barn anymore—he mainly just sat in his beat-up recliner, watching old Westerns. His uncle lived off a settlement he’d gotten after an injury working on an oil rig. He had no idea Eddie was currently using his building for a kidnapping.
“You sure about this, Edward?” the old lady asked.
“What? The girl?”
“Yeah. Let’s just leave her and go.”
“Hell no! I already made a call. We’ll be able to live off the money we can get for her down there for a long time. I ain’t going down there to be broke.”
“All right. I’m just nervous about the border.”
“We’ll hide her on the floor in the back seat. I ain’t worried.”
Eddie pulled off the main paved road and found a dirt driveway on a wide-open property. There was a little white house off to the right where his uncle lived. But Eddie kept straight on a dirt road that led to a couple of acres behind the house where a big metal barn stood. He pulled up to the barn, and they both got out. After sliding open a barn door, Eddie and the old lady went inside.
The barn had six stalls for horses, an open space in the middle, and several storage rooms along the right side. There were no horses. His uncle had stopped caring for horses a few years back. The barn mostly sat empty. The girl was locked in the last storage room, where she’d been kept for the past several hours.
The old lady sat on a bench and opened one of the bottles of whiskey. She quickly downed a big gulp. Eddie had no doubt his mother would be passed out for most of the drive south. That was probably a good thing. He didn’t want to listen to her yap at him about how badly he’d fouled all this up. She’d started off that way when he’d first called her but quickly shut up when he threatened to leave without her. He knew she would eventually start back up again.
“You tell Beth to hurry?” the old lady asked.
“Yeah, but you know Beth. Still, I told her we would leave her if she didn’t get her ass here on time.”
“We ain’t leaving her.”
“I know that. I just needed her to get moving.”
Eddie thought he heard movement outside the barn. Was Beth already here? He was going to be shocked if she’d packed and gotten her things here so quickly. Eddie walked over to the barn door and pulled it open. When he did, he stared directly into the long barrel of a gun with a silencer. He didn’t recognize the guy holding it. Small in stature, black ski cap, gray running suit. There was no way this guy was with the FBI or the police. He was clearly not there to arrest him.
He was there to kill Eddie.
And probably the old lady, too.
It was over.
THIRTY-EIGHT
Dani followed Lars Kingston’s black Bentley away from Zilker Park, where he’d privately met with lawyer Nelson Wyatt. Then she trailed him for about an hour as the wealthy man made several peculiar stops. First to a flower shop, where he came out with a bouquet of pink roses. Then a jewelry store, where he walked out with a small package. Finally, Dani trailed him on foot into a Whole Foods grocery store, where he purchased an assortment of chocolates and cookies. Dani wondered what the hell he was doing. Lars had to know by now that his youngest son had just been shot and killed. The police were beginning to notify the family when she was leaving the crime scene earlier. But instead of heading over in that direction, Lars was running around town and buying gifts like it was Valentine’s Day. Who was this all for? His wife? Someone else?