Back inside her car, Dani followed Lars out of the grocery store parking lot. Her phone buzzed with a new text message. Her boss, Simon. I’m sorry for the way this went down today. Maybe the time off will be good for you. And for us, too. Dinner tonight? She sighed, shook her head. Unbelievable. Simon was probably not going to want to still have dinner with her when he found out she’d disobeyed his direct orders.
Lars drove all the way through downtown proper and then pulled off in a parking lot under Interstate 35 near the river. He parked his Bentley all the way up under the highway bridge in the darkest part of the lot. Dani pulled her Mazda to the edge and watched from a distance. The parking lot was mostly empty. Only a few random vehicles. There were several dirty camping tents around where the homeless had set up shop nearby. What was Lars doing here? He did not get out of his car. A few minutes later, a black Ford Taurus pulled into the same parking lot and settled right next to the Bentley. Lars immediately jumped out of his car and rushed over. The back door of the Taurus opened, and a young girl got out.
Dani’s jaw dropped. Piper Slater. Jake’s daughter. What the hell? The girl and her grandfather immediately embraced. The Taurus then quickly backed out. Dani took a quick mental snapshot of the license plate. As the sedan passed by her to exit the parking lot, Dani got a good look at the face of the driver. Logan Gervais. Dani cursed. Did the hit man have Jake’s daughter this whole time? That didn’t make any sense. Gervais hadn’t even arrived in Austin until this morning. Could Lars have somehow been behind Piper’s disappearance? She didn’t think so—not from the look of relief that poured across his face when his granddaughter appeared.
Lars opened the passenger door on his Bentley and helped Piper inside. The gifts were clearly for his granddaughter. Piper looked to be OK. No visible physical injuries, from what Dani could tell from this distance. Where had she been? If Gervais was involved, did that mean someone else was now dead? Someone Lars had discovered had taken Piper? How was this connected to Steve and the shooter at his house?
Dani’s first instinct was to stop Lars from leaving and start asking questions. But Lars could have already been informed that she’d been removed from the case. She probably wouldn’t get very far. He’d just ignore her. She decided to keep following him instead. While Piper was likely safe with her grandfather, Dani had this growing sense that everything was about to go down. Jake was looking for his daughter, and now she was under the care of Lars Kingston.
Could Jake be very far behind?
Could his own daughter be used as a trap against him?
THIRTY-NINE
Beth Spiller lived in a small but picturesque yellow house surrounded by an eclectic mix of other colorful houses in a funky part of South Austin. Jake pulled up in his truck just in time to find Beth outside in the short driveway, frantically shoving suitcases in the back of a white Ford Explorer that was parked under a carport. Beth was clearly on the move. She was getting out of town. Had her brother told her what had happened with Steve?
Jake figured he had two options: Stop her from leaving and threaten her until he got some answers. Or follow her and hope she might take him directly to Piper. Both carried risk. If he confronted her, Beth might shut down and not give him anything. And it was not like Jake had a gun where he could threaten violence if she wasn’t helpful. But he might somehow lose her out on the streets if he tried to follow her. Then he’d be left with nothing. Jake had to make his decision right now. Beth was getting into her Explorer and getting ready to leave. If he was going to stop her, he needed to pull into her driveway right now and block her. He decided not to do that, with the hope that Beth might lead him straight to Piper. That’s all he wanted right now. To find his daughter and get her back.
Jake ducked down in his seat as Beth backed into the street and then drove away. Then he popped up, did a quick U-turn, and closely followed her. He could not worry about being noticed. It was riskier to get caught at a red light. Beth was driving fast. She was clearly in a hurry. Jake had to do some quick maneuvering in and out of traffic along South Congress to keep up with her. Then she turned onto Highway 71 and headed east. Was she going to the airport? He would have to stop her before she got on a plane. But she did not turn into the airport. She kept going on 71 until she pulled off and started following a couple of lonely, isolated ranch roads on the outskirts of East Austin.
Beth was driving over eighty miles per hour now. She was quickly zipping around slower cars. Jake had to be careful, keeping up but not being so close that Beth might notice he was behind her. He didn’t want to tip her off. A few more turns here and there, and then Beth was driving onto a property with a long dirt driveway leading up to a small white house. Jake slowed along the main road. Beth did not pull up to the house; instead, she followed the dirt driveway around back to where Jake spotted a big metal barn. His heart jumped. Piper! She had to be inside the barn.