The Escape

by Lisa Harris

  “Where did you meet him?”

  “At the Perry Rest Area, north of Salt Lake.”

  “What was he driving?”

  “He wasn’t. Said he was waiting for a ride.”

  “And the cabin? What were you doing there?”

  Charlie let out a sharp breath. “Mary Margaret asked me to take a few things from Barrick there for a friend who was planning to stay there.”

  “So Barrick was never here?”

  Charlie shook his head.

  “One more thing I need to know. Where was Barrick heading?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Charlie—”

  “I swear I don’t know.” The man’s jaw tensed as he looked straight at Jonas. “We didn’t say more than a dozen words to each other.”

  Jonas stepped out of the ambulance and headed back toward Madison. “Mary Margaret lied to us.”

  “What did he say?” she asked.

  “You know why it’s felt like Barrick’s been one step ahead of us this entire time? He was never here. Mary Margaret sent Charlie to set things up. To make us believe Barrick had been here. And giving him time to get away.”

  Madison rubbed her eyes. “It would explain why my challenge coin was here.”

  “Charlie planted it in that cabin to make it look like he was here. To keep us running in the wrong direction as long as possible.”

  Jonas ran his hands through his hair. The longer they spent chasing nothing, the farther away Barrick could run.

  “That’s when Mike saw him,” Madison said. “When he was back at the cabin, planting evidence.”

  “If your author friend hadn’t recognized him, they probably would have gotten away with it, and we’d still be looking,” Jonas said, smirking. “You just might owe him that interview now.”

  “Very funny.” Madison rolled her eyes at him. “But if Charlie is involved, then it looks like Barrick was never headed here, but instead to Salt Lake City.”

  Jonas’s phone rang and he pulled it out of his pocket. “Sheriff?”

  “I just heard from my deputy back at the office. Mary Margaret bought a burner phone from a gas station about five miles outside of town yesterday.”

  “We’re on our way back to the sheriff’s office now.”

  Bingo. Damon Barrick had just made what Jonas hoped was a fatal mistake.

  Nineteen

  Madison walked into the sheriff’s office with Jonas, furious that the last several hours had led them farther from Barrick. But while Barrick might have convinced Mary Margaret to cover for him, they were going to have to convince her that she was playing on the wrong side.

  Besides a confession, what they really needed was the burner phone she’d bought. With the number Barrick was using off the call log, assuming he hadn’t dumped the phone, they’d be able to pinpoint his location. But she’d been searched when they brought her in and there had been no sign of a second phone, and no communication with Barrick on her personal cell.

  “How do you think we should play this?” Madison asked. “Though I’ll tell you right off, I’m in the mood to play bad cop.”

  Jonas grinned at her. “I think I’ll let you, though I’m thankful I’m not the one on the other side of that interrogation table.”

  Sheriff Fischer walked in behind them. “Your best angle is to use her brother against her.”

  “Meaning?” Jonas asked.

  “They’re pretty close. She does everything she can to keep him out of trouble, but he’s already been arrested for two felonies. A third one would get him up to fifty years, and she knows that.”

  “Then that’s the leverage we need,” Madison said. “We let her know we’ve arrested Charlie, and that we have proof of him aiding an escaped felon. See if that’s enough motivation to get her to tell us what we need to know. Because without some kind of deal, he’s going away for a long, long time.”

  Jonas nodded. “She just needs to know that the only way to help her brother is to cooperate.”

  “That’s what we’ll count on.”

  “How is Charlie?” the sheriff asked.

  “He’s pretty banged up. Broken rib, fractured wrist, and a bunch of bumps and bruises, but he’s lucky. It could have been a whole lot worse,” Madison said. “I do have one more question before we go in there. When you went to the diner to bring her in, did Mary Margaret ever have any time alone?”

  “You mean time alone to ditch a phone?” the sheriff asked.

  Madison nodded.

  He tilted his head. “I had to wait for her to grab her stuff in the back.”

  “How long was she gone?”

  “I don’t know. A couple minutes. I didn’t think it was a problem at the time. It’s not like she was under arrest.”

  “I want you to go back to the diner,” Jonas said. “See if you can find a burner phone she might have ditched. Inside the restaurant, the back dumpster, her car . . . I don’t know where it is, but I need you to find it.”

  “Will do.” He headed out the door.

  A minute later, Madison was watching Mary Margaret through the one-way glass. She could see the fear in the woman’s eyes as her fingers drummed against the desk in the interrogation room. Madison had felt sorry for her at one point, but her frustration had grown as they learned more about the case. Barrick had never been in that cabin. That was clear now. But they still needed Mary Margaret to tell them where he was going.

  “You ready to go in?” Jonas asked. He held up a Coke and a candy bar from the vending machine. “I figured if I’m supposed to be the good cop, and the candy bar worked with Will . . .”

  Madison chuckled. “That’s not a bad idea, though I might be the one who needs chocolate right now.”

  “My grandmother used to say if she was going to die of something, it might as well be from eating too much chocolate,” Jonas said as they approached the room. “She always insisted Belgian chocolate was the best, but she’d eat anything dunked or covered in chocolate.”

  “I think I would have liked your grandmother.”

  Once inside, Jonas set the drink and candy bar in front of Mary Margaret, then sat down. Madison took the chair next to him.

  “How are you doing?” he asked.

  Mary Margaret frowned. “I’m tired and don’t understand why I’m still sitting here. I’ve told you everything I know.”

  “That’s because you haven’t told us the truth,” Madison said.

  “What do you mean?”

  Madison tried to keep the anger out of her voice. Playing the part of bad cop wasn’t hard, but she had to remember that this wasn’t personal. Mary Margaret hadn’t exactly been honest, but their main job was to find Damon Barrick. “You lied to us. In fact, you’ve been lying to us this whole time.”

  “No. I haven’t—”

  “It’s over, Mary Margaret.” Madison leaned forward. “Your brother was involved in an accident this afternoon.”

  “What?” Her face paled.

  “His truck flipped while he was trying to evade us. And in the process of finally questioning him, we learned that Barrick was never here. We know you played us—keeping us distracted—so he’d have a chance to get as far away from here as possible. Lying about the cabin—”

  “No, wait”—she ran her hands through her hair—“you said Charlie was in an accident.”

  “It looks like he has a broken rib and a broken wrist, but he’ll live,” Jonas said. “The problem right now is that he’s in a lot of trouble. Both of you are.”

  Madison continued. “He already has two felonies on his record, which unfortunately for him means that this could put him in prison for up to fifty years—”

  “Fifty years? No. You don’t understand.” Mary Margaret clinched her fists together. “He didn’t even know what was in that package, or who he was meeting!”

  “So you admit to helping Barrick.”

  “Yes . . . no—”

  “Which is it? We have evidence Charlie was in
Salt Lake, and on top of that, we have a confession from him. He recognized the man he met with as Damon Barrick, and by the way, he also helped himself to some of the cash you sent with him.”

  “I didn’t think he’d get in trouble.”

  “I’m not sure what you thought might happen, but there’s another problem. We also know that you’ve been communicating with Barrick. We know you recently bought a burner phone at a gas station up the road.”

  “There’s no crime in that.”

  “No, but it is—as we’ve made clear to you before—a crime to help an escaped prisoner,” Madison said.

  “He told me he was innocent.” Mary Margaret sat back in her chair, her resolve to protect Barrick clearly slipping. “He said he needed my help. My marriage is falling apart. It seemed like an option.”

  “Does your husband know about any of this yet?”

  “No. Not that he would care. He’s out of town for a couple days for his job. Like always.”

  “I don’t know about your marriage, but do you really think it will be that easy to start over? Barrick’s either going to be running or he’s going to get caught. That is his life from now on.” Madison caught her gaze. “Tell us where he is.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Stop lying, Mary Margaret.”

  “I’m not. He really didn’t tell me. Just that he would get in touch when he was ready for me.”

  “Do you have a passport?”

  She nodded. “I got one last year when I went to Mexico with my husband.”

  “So you’re just supposed to wait for him.”

  She was afraid. Madison could see it in her eyes. She could also tell she was beginning to waver. But there was also a chance that she really didn’t know where he was.

  “Always on the run from the authorities is no life, Mary Margaret. You have to know that.”

  She just shrugged. “Can’t be any worse than a loveless marriage.”

  Madison felt some of her anger melt. The woman was so unhappy she actually thought living on the run would be better than the life she had. But whatever she was thinking was nothing more than a fairy-tale dream that could never have a happy-ever-after ending.

  “I know you don’t believe us,” Jonas said, “but he used you. He needed someone who would keep us busy while he runs. Nothing more.”

  “You’re wrong.” Mary Margaret’s voice sounded almost faint. “He told me I just had to be patient and wait for him.”

  “And while you wait, the DA is going to come in and charge you as an accessory to murder.” Madison shoved a picture of Phelps in front of her. “Remember this photo? We know Barrick killed him. He had a wife and three children.”

  “No, I never meant—”

  “It’s too late for what you did or didn’t mean to happen,” Madison said. “Where was Barrick heading?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve told you everything I know.”

  There was a knock on the door.

  Madison stood up. “We’ll be back in a minute.”

  Out in the hallway, the sheriff stood waiting for them.

  “I’m not sure we’re going to get any more out of her,” Madison said.

  “Maybe it doesn’t matter.” The sheriff held a phone in a clear evidence bag. “We found this in a dumpster behind the diner. We got Barrick’s number off it.”

  “You’re sure it’s hers?”

  The sheriff nodded. “Thought you might want to look at it, though it doesn’t give us much to go on.”

  Madison scanned through the texts while Jonas read over her shoulder.

  The police are here. Somehow they know.

  Don’t panic. Remember what we talked about if something goes wrong.

  The cabin.

  It will give me time to get away.

  Where are you going? I

  could meet you somewhere.

  Too risky. I’ll be in touch.

  “Maybe she really doesn’t know where he is,” Madison said, turning to face Jonas.

  “It’s looking like that,” he said.

  The sheriff glanced up. “That’s the end of their conversation. Looks like she dumped the phone, then hurried back into the diner.”

  “What about a trace on the phone?” Madison asked.

  “I’m already on it,” the sheriff said. “You guys have some pretty sophisticated ways of tracking people. I spoke with your boss and he was able to accomplish in a matter of minutes what would take me days.”

  “And?” she said, trying to hurry the man along.

  “Unfortunately, Barrick’s long gone. He dumped the phone. But we can confirm he was outside Salt Lake City.”

  “With Charlie.” Madison frowned. “We need more.”

  “His options are limited,” Jonas said. “He’ll never get on a plane without ID. Or rent a car, for that matter. Denver would be his best option. He lived there. Knows the area. Would probably know who to go to.”

  “So his options?” Madison asked.

  “He could steal another car, but if I were him, I’d be wary of any attention if something goes wrong,” Jonas said.

  “Agreed.”

  “There’s an Amtrak station, along with a bus station, that both have routes to Denver,” the sheriff said. “But how easy would it be for him to buy a ticket?”

  “With Amtrak he’d have to use a ticket counter if he didn’t buy one online,” Madison said. “But again, he’d still need to use an ID.”

  Jonas shoved his hands into his front pockets. “We’ve already got a BOLO out on him. I think the next step has to be going through security footage of both the train and bus stations in Salt Lake and searching through his file for contacts that might help him.”

  Madison nodded. “If he doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life looking over his shoulder, he’s going to have to disappear.”

  Twenty

  Jonas managed to get a few hours of sleep before they met back at the sheriff’s department early the next morning. They’d discussed the option of heading for Salt Lake the previous night, but they knew Barrick wasn’t planning to stay. By the time they could get there, he was more than likely going to be long gone.

  But where, was the question.

  Jonas stared at the US map hanging on the back wall of the office they were using. They had to move quickly, but he had no desire to spend another day on a wild-goose chase. They needed something concrete. Disappearing in the US might be doable, but it wouldn’t be easy. Avoiding leaving a digital footprint was almost impossible, and he would need cash—far more than the three grand Mary Margaret had given him.

  If he was planning to leave the country, Barrick was going to need someone who could get him across the border with a passport that would pass the inspection of border patrol. No doubt he could have made connections while in prison.

  Jonas glanced at Madison, who was wading back into the files they had on Barrick. She was both determined and focused, but he was still worried about her. There was a fatigue in her eyes that the past few days had brought on. Normal for what they did, but that didn’t make it easier.

  He had a feeling she’d argue with him, but he couldn’t help but wonder if he should order her to go home. He was impressed with her focus despite the situation, but not worrying about her family was impossible. She’d called her sister again last night, wanting to make sure that the plan to move to a safer space had been implemented, but she wasn’t able to get through. He knew it had her worried.

  She’d told him she felt like she had to stay, but he wondered if she wasn’t regretting her decision not to get on the next flight back to Seattle. If anything happened to Danielle or her family because of her work, he knew she’d blame herself, no matter what the circumstances. But the truth was, sometimes, even if you were right, there was nothing you could do.

  He pushed away the thoughts and focused back on their work. The most likely place Barrick would go was back to Denver where he had friends and contacts—and right where they wante
d him.

  Jonas stood up, needing to stretch his legs, and walked across the room to where there was a pot of coffee. He poured the thick sludge from the bottom of the pot into a Styrofoam cup.

  “Reminds me of our training,” Madison said, stepping up next to him. “I never understood who put Rob in charge of the coffee, but it looks like he might be working here.”

  He took a sip. “It does have the same bitter, metallic, stale taste.”

  Madison laughed. “I think I’ll avoid the risk and try the tea instead of a second cup.”

  “That’s probably not a bad idea, though I could go for a double shot of caffeine,” Jonas said, grimacing as he took another sip. “Find anything?”

  “I did, actually. Two things.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “I’ve been going through Mary Margaret’s phone records.”

  “And?”

  “A couple hours before we picked her up, she made a call to an area code in Salt Lake City. I traced the number and it belongs to a Chris Matthews—who just happens to have a criminal record. I contacted the marshals out that way and they’re going to bring him in. They’ll let us know what they find out.”

  “So Barrick might have been on his way there to try and pick up a new passport.”

  “That’s what I’m thinking.” She dunked her tea bag in the hot water. “I’ve also been tracking Barrick’s mother’s cell phone, and a few minutes ago, she got a call from a burner phone. Call lasted three minutes.”

  “That has to be him.”

  “Agreed. He’s taking a risk, but if he’s headed to Denver, he has to reach out to someone.”

  “Maybe he simply called to say goodbye.”

  “Maybe, but we need someone to talk with her. To see what was said.” She yawned, then took a sip of her tea. “I’m also putting a track on the number that called her, though based on his past actions, he’s going to use it and dump it.”

  Jonas set his coffee on the counter, then studied her face. “Did you get any sleep?”

  “Probably about as much as you did.” She shrugged. “To be honest, I’m worried about my sister.”