by Lisa Harris
“Which makes sense,” Jonas said. “He didn’t expect anyone to connect him to Phelps, or for us to find his body anytime soon, so he thinks he’s in the clear for now.”
“Exactly.” Madison nodded, knowing she needed to channel her anger into action. Barrick might have won the round, but they were going to take him down. “So he thought he was safe and used the man’s phone. Who did he call?”
“A woman by the name of Mary Margaret Parker in Stanley, Wyoming.”
“Where is that?”
“About fifty miles from Casper.”
“Do you know anything about her or the town?” Jonas asked.
“A quick search didn’t come up with anything.”
“I don’t remember seeing her name in any of the files,” Jonas said.
“I don’t either.” Madison turned to Jonas. “We need to go there ourselves. Like you said, Barrick has no idea Will saw the car he stole, or that we can connect him to Ryan Phelps. This gives us a small advantage. And if he doesn’t think we can connect him to Mary Margaret, he thinks he’s going to someone totally off the grid.”
Jonas didn’t look convinced. “All we know is that he called. We can notify local authorities, but there’s already a BOLO out on him.”
She hesitated, understanding where he was coming from, but she was still convinced this was the right next move. “What do we have to lose? An hour if we fly? In the meantime, we keep following up with everyone he knows and might go to. One thing we do know is that he’s long gone from here, and this is our best lead at the moment.”
“Okay.” Jonas shoved his hands into his pockets. “I trust your instincts, and you do have a point. In the meantime, we don’t want to tip anyone off that we’re looking there.”
“Agreed.” Madison turned to the sheriff. “We need to keep the discovery of Ryan Phelps off the news cycle for as long as possible. If Barrick gets even a hint that we’re on his trail, he’ll change course and we’ll lose him again. And if we don’t hurry, he’ll find a way to disappear for good.”
This had become a game of cat and mouse. Chasing the fugitive who had managed to stay a step ahead of them so far. Anticipating his next move was the only way of winning. And something told her that Mary Margaret was the key.
“The quickest way out of here is a chartered plane.” Sheriff Hill pulled out his phone. “If you’d like, I can try to arrange a flight with one of the locals, but it will probably be hard to get out before morning. You can fly into Casper and rent a car. If Barrick’s driving there, it will take him a good nine or ten hours, so you wouldn’t be far behind him.”
Madison nodded. “Let’s do it.”
At seven in the morning, they were at the airstrip ready to go. She and Jonas had stayed up late, poring over the information they had on Barrick, until he’d insisted they both needed a good night’s sleep. He’d been right. Six hours of sleep and a double espresso from a local coffee shop this morning, and she was ready to go.
She stared out the window as they flew over tens of thousands of acres of forested land. She’d visited Wyoming once with her family as a child and still remembered visiting Devil’s Tower National Monument and the Grand Tetons. The scenery below them, with the Rocky Mountains to the west and the High Plains to the east and a sprinkling of ranches in between, almost made her want to leave Seattle’s traffic and crowds and settle down on a piece of land out here. But the remote location of much of the area also made it the perfect place to hide.
By nine thirty, they were driving their rented car into Stanley. Wood-planked sidewalks reminded her of the history of the hundred-plus-year-old town and made her feel as if she’d stepped back in time. But if Barrick had come here, he wasn’t going to sightsee and wouldn’t be found here in the middle of town. There would be too many possible witnesses. No. More than likely he’d have set up a place to meet Mary Margaret outside of town. What they would have to find out was where.
The sheriff’s office sat on the edge of Main Street, invoking memories of episodes of Longmire she used to watch with her father, with its old-fashioned brick façade and frosted windows. They introduced themselves to Sheriff Fischer, who was sitting behind the desk, giving out strong vibes of reservations at their arrival.
“We don’t get a lot of law enforcement around here from out of state, though from your earlier call, I understand you’re not here to visit our gorgeous scenery.”
“Unfortunately, no. Like we said on the phone, we’re looking for our fugitive, Damon Barrick, and we believe he might have come here to visit Mary Margaret Parker.”
“Now, that’s where we might have a problem.” The man scratched his beard and stood up. “I saw the name on the information you sent, and I have to say I think you’re chasing the wrong person. I can personally vouch for her.”
“We’re not here to stir up any trouble,” Madison said. “But we do need to talk with her. Can you tell me where we might find her?”
“She works at one of the town’s local diners as a waitress, but I’m telling you, Mary Margaret’s a decent kid. I say kid, but she’s twenty-nine. Honestly, though, I can’t imagine her getting hooked up with someone like Damon Barrick.”
“Unfortunately, you can’t always judge a murderer by his looks,” Madison said. “Barrick’s charming and persuasive from what we’ve learned, but he’s also on the run. He’s killed at least four people now, and we think there’s a good chance that he’s already here. Phone records say he called Mary Margaret, and the only explanation is that he needed her help.”
“What can you tell us about her?” Jonas asked.
“She’s lived here her whole life. Married a local, Tom Parker. She volunteers at our local food bank and runs a reading program at the library in the summer. All I’m saying is, she isn’t exactly the kind I can see having an extramarital fling.”
“Has she had any problems with her husband?” Madison asked, still not convinced.
“What couple doesn’t have problems?” he said.
“We’ll need to keep this quiet, but she’ll have to come in for questioning,” Jonas said.
The sheriff looked back and forth between the marshals, then sighed. “Then let me bring her in.”
Jonas glanced at him. “That’s fine, but if you see any sign of Barrick around, call us in before you do anything. The man’s armed and dangerous.”
“Nothing I haven’t dealt with before.”
Madison ignored the comment. “In the meantime, if you’d have one of your deputies check local stores and find out if she bought a burner phone here in town in the past twenty-four hours, we’d appreciate it. They’re going to need a way to communicate.”
Sheriff Fischer grabbed his hat off a hook on the wall, then headed for the door. “Can’t say that I’m happy about this, but who am I to argue with a US Marshal.”
Mary Margaret didn’t look a day over twenty-one with her platinum-blonde hair and pink diner uniform. She sat down across from them in one of the back offices of the sheriff’s department, clearly wanting to be anywhere else but there.
“Mary Margaret, I’m Deputy US Marshal Jonas Quinn and this is my partner, Deputy US Marshal Madison James.”
“I don’t understand what’s going on. The sheriff wouldn’t tell me anything.”
Madison slipped a photo across the table. “We’re looking for this man. His name is Damon Barrick, and we believe you’ve spoken with him recently.”
She sat back in her chair and folded her arms across her chest. “I’ve never seen him before.”
“We have information that says otherwise. Phone records that say he called you yesterday.”
“Then you must be mistaken. I don’t know him. Maybe it was a wrong number.”
“Except it wasn’t,” Jonas said. “He called you yesterday afternoon, and you spoke for three minutes. That’s not a wrong number.”
Mary Margaret shrugged. “I’m sorry, but I can’t help you. And I really need to get back to work.”
“I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“How about the truth.” Madison slid a second photo across the table. “Look at this photo. This is Ryan Phelps. It was his phone that Barrick used to call you. Ryan had three kids. A teenage daughter and twin boys. They were on vacation for a week, and Barrick killed him because he needed his car to leave Idaho. We need to know where he is and what his plans are before he kills someone else.”
Mary Margaret turned her head away from the photo.
“What did he ask you for?” Jonas asked.
Tears welled in the woman’s eyes as she shoved the photo back across the table. Maybe they were getting somewhere. “I told you I don’t know who he is.”
Jonas stayed silent, looking directly at her. Finally he spoke. “The law is very clear on what happens to someone who helps a felon evade detection or even escape. Charges can be brought against you. The only way out of this for you at this point is if you help us find him.”
Mary Margaret stared at a chip on her fingernail.
“We can protect you,” Madison said, “but you’re going to have to tell the truth.”
A clock on the wall clicked by the seconds. Ryan Phelps’s vacant stare seemed to fill the room. They were right. Madison knew it. At the very least, the woman had spoken with Barrick. More than likely had seen him as well, which meant he was here.
Mary Margaret shifted in her seat. “I had completely severed ties with him, but then he called me yesterday.”
“What did he say to you?”
“That he was in trouble. That he’d been framed. He didn’t want me to believe what I was going to see on the news. Said that the couple they say he killed—he didn’t do it. He was set up.”
“Say you are right and he’s innocent. Protecting him won’t help either of you. He won’t be able to keep running. We need to know where he is right now.”
“I don’t know where he is. He didn’t tell me. He wanted to protect me.”
Madison leaned forward. “That isn’t true, is it?”
The woman’s jaw tightened as she avoided looking at them. Whatever Barrick had told her, she clearly believed.
Jonas signaled Madison to step into the hallway with him.
“She’s stonewalling us,” Jonas said the moment they were out of earshot.
“She’s trying to protect him.”
“And herself. What’s her husband going to think when he finds out what she’s been doing?” Jonas sighed. “She’s our best lead right now, but if she won’t talk, we’re back at square one.”
“She could be telling us the truth. Maybe she really doesn’t know,” Madison said.
“Either way, he called her for a reason. He needed something from her, and we need to find out what that was.”
Madison leaned against the wall. She almost felt for the girl who’d clearly been conned by a man who probably didn’t care what happened to her.
“Let me talk to her again,” she said. “Alone. She’s in love with him. Maybe as a woman I can get through to her the importance of telling us everything.”
Jonas nodded. “You were pretty good with Will. Go talk to her, and I’ll see if I can get on the sheriff’s good side.”
A minute later, Madison set a coffee down in front of Mary Margaret. “Can I get you anything to eat?”
“I’m not hungry.”
“I know this has to be hard on you, and I’m sorry.”
“I’ve never had to talk with the police before. Never seen a dead body . . . Damon didn’t kill those people. I know he didn’t and one day, the truth will come out.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“Do you?”
Madison nodded, then sat back down across from her. “Can you tell me where you met him?”
“At the diner, actually. He loves this part of the country and does a lot of hunting up here. At least he did before he got arrested. There was something different about him. Something about the way he talked to me and looked at me. It was always like I was the only one in the world.”
“How long ago did you meet?”
“A couple years.”
“And you had an affair.”
She let out a sharp breath, then nodded. “Damon showed up at a time when Tom and I were first having problems in our marriage. He came up here to go hunting, and I don’t know. We had a lot in common and hit it off right away. We’d slip away to a cabin for a few hours. I know it was wrong, but I don’t want my husband to find out.”
“Then why did you do it?” Madison asked.
“I don’t know. Sometimes I felt—feel—so empty. I’ve lived my entire life here. I love this town and the people, but I’ve always felt like I’m missing something. Damon seemed to be that missing piece.” She fingered the edges of the photo that still sat on the table in front of her. “He was handsome, charming. Made me feel beautiful and smart. I’d never really felt that way before.”
“And when he was arrested?”
“He swore to me that he didn’t do it. That he’d been in the wrong place at the wrong time. I wanted to help him, but I didn’t know what to do. He didn’t want the police to know I knew him.”
“I know you want to help him,” Madison said. “And I understand you’re wanting to do that now, but in the end, you’re only hurting him.”
Mary Margaret looked up at her, eyes wide. “How can I be hurting him? You want to send him back to prison, but he’s innocent. He doesn’t deserve to be there.”
“Then that’s all the more reason he needs to come in. What we want is the truth, but the evidence—”
Mary Margaret cut her off. “The evidence is tainted. Don’t you get it? And besides that, do you really think they’re going to just let him go? They needed someone to take the fall for those murders.”
“If he’s really innocent, like you believe, then he’ll be acquitted.”
“But you don’t think he’s innocent.”
“His innocence isn’t up to me to decide. My job is simply to ensure he’s brought in and gets a proper trial. The alternative is that he has to run the rest of his life, and that can’t be what either of you want.” Madison met the woman’s gaze. “Not if you really care for him.”
“He’s running because he doesn’t think anyone will believe him.”
The tension in Madison’s shoulders and neck tightened. They were going in circles. Maybe talking to her was futile.
“At least tell me what he wanted from you.”
Mary Margaret chewed on the chipped fingernail before answering the question. “He asked me to get him some money.”
“How much?”
“Three thousand dollars and my grandmother’s ring. He promised he’d pay me back.”
“Where are you supposed to meet him?”
She avoided Madison’s gaze.
“Mary Margaret, please. Trust me. If you really want to help him, you’ll tell me where you were planning to meet him.”
“There’s a cabin about fifty miles from here near Hickory Lake. He used to stay in it when he went hunting up here. We’d go there sometimes. I’m supposed to meet him there at noon.”
“Thank you.” Madison patted her hand. “You did the right thing.”
“Did I?”
“Yes. You did.”
Mary Margaret looked up at Madison, clearly not convinced. “Can I come with you?”
“You’ll need to stay here.”
“Can I see him when you bring him back?”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t make any promises.”
Madison left her in the room and went to talk with Jonas and Sheriff Fischer. “She was planning on mee
ting him in a cabin near Hickory Lake. She was going to take him cash and her grandmother’s ring.”
“You were right.” Jonas turned to the sheriff. “Can we borrow a couple of your deputies?”
“You can have whatever you need.” He glanced at the back office where Mary Margaret was still waiting for them. “I guess I was wrong.”
Jonas nodded. “She completely believes he’s innocent, but we don’t know what kind of lines he’s feeding her. Based on what she’s already done, she’ll do whatever he asks.”
“And based on what he’s done,” Madison said, “he’ll kill anyone who gets in his way.”
Sixteen
Five minutes later, they were headed toward their vehicles with the sheriff and four deputies.
Sheriff Fischer stopped beside their rental car. “I had one of my men talk to the owner of the cabin before we left, like you asked, and he just called me. He said that the cabin was a last-minute rental for a week by Mary Margaret. The owners know her and didn’t think anything about it. She said she was arranging the stay for some friends who were coming in from out of town.”
“I guess she failed to mention that her friend had recently escaped from prison and was currently on the run.” Jonas laughed.
The sheriff smiled. “That probably didn’t come into the conversation.”
“What can you tell us about the cabin?”
“There are dozens of them scattered around the area. Most of them are short-term rentals for vacationers, and others are used exclusively by the owners. This one in particular is pretty isolated. According to the GPS it’s the last cabin on a dead-end gravel road, so you’re not going to get people just wandering by. Basically, it’s off the grid. There’s no cell or Wi-Fi service. Sounds like a landline is the only way to communicate. We’ve got roadblocks set up both directions leading out of town in case he decides to run, though it sounds like he’s gotten past them before.”
“Sounds good,” Jonas said, unlocking their vehicle with the key fob. The last thing he wanted was someone else getting hurt, but they’d done everything they could at the moment. Now it was just a matter of catching Barrick off guard and bringing him in.