by Jenna Night
Daisy turned to Martin, hoping to see whether or not he believed Robbie’s story. Because she’d believed Robbie earlier today when he was lying to her. Maybe he was lying to her now. Normally, she trusted her gut. But right now she didn’t. What if all of this was just another, more elaborate lie? What if she acted on it and it led to an ambush?
Martin met Daisy’s gaze and raised his eyebrows slightly. She knew Martin well enough to read the expression. He questioned what Robbie said, but hadn’t completely decided that he disbelieved him, either.
“Why go through this elaborate process to get them out of town?” Millie asked Robbie. “Why didn’t Daltrey and Bunker just hire Tony Valens to drive them out of town? Or hire you to drive, for that matter?”
Robbie shrugged.
“Maybe they don’t trust anyone other than their mob friends,” Daisy said. “Daltrey and Bunker were found when they were hiding near Atlanta. Maybe they were afraid to leave a trail and get found again.” She turned to Robbie. “When was all of this supposed to happen?”
“They mentioned Tuesday,” Robbie said. “Maybe they meant tomorrow Tuesday, but I don’t know for certain.”
“We’re going to need to tell the sheriff about this so she can set up countermeasures,” Daisy said to Millie.
“If you’re going to tell the cops so they can sweep in and bust everybody, you might as well paint a target on my back,” Robbie said. “If Beau Daltrey and Ivan Bunker get captured by the police after their organized buddies fly into town, one or both of them will eventually remember seeing me in Tony’s apartment. They’ll put everything together and figure out I was the one who ultimately got the information to the police. Even if they’re locked up, they’ll get the information to their bosses and then the mob will come after me for revenge.”
Justine burst into tears and stood up to wrap her arms around her son.
Martin moved to Daisy. “Maybe we can figure something out. Find a way to capture Daltrey and Bunker without there being dozens of law enforcement officers in place after their criminal friends arrive at the airport so it isn’t so obvious that Robbie informed on them. He and his mom will still have to ultimately face up to what they’ve done, but that way they won’t be targeted by the mob and they won’t have to pay for their bad decisions with their lives.”
Daisy nodded. She was still angry, but she knew that eventually, with prayer, she would get her emotions sorted out. She could do her job and still show mercy. Because mercy had been shown to her so many times in her life. Granted, her mistakes hadn’t been as extreme as what Robbie and Justine had done. But she was still imperfect, like anyone else.
“I think it’s time for you to call in your reinforcements at Rock Solid Bail Bonds,” she said quietly to Martin. “We’re going to need more bounty hunters.”
“I’ll call Harry and Leon tonight.”
Daisy took in a deep breath and blew it out. The time to get this case wrapped up might finally be at hand. She just hoped that everyone working the case would live through it.
TWELVE
“The plane has been parked at the gate for fifteen minutes,” Martin said, with a glance at Daisy sitting beside him in his truck. “Passengers should be getting off and walking through the terminal doors any minute now. If our targets aren’t on this flight, then we know that Robbie’s tip didn’t pay off.”
Jameson’s small regional airport had only two scheduled inbound flights per day, both of them small commuter planes arriving from Seattle or Portland. The morning flight had been nearly empty, and no one who deplaned had fit the profile the bounty hunters were looking for. So now, twelve hours later at seven in the evening, they were back watching the arriving passengers again. They were also watching the parking lot for Daltrey and Bunker, just in case they’d decided to show up at the airport even though, according to Robbie’s story, that wasn’t part of the plan. The two bail-jumping hit men had been unpredictable from the beginning. There was no reason to assume that would stop now.
“Get ready,” Martin said into his phone.
“I was born ready,” the deep voice of Leon Bragg came back through the speaker. “I’m ready while you’re still sleeping.”
Daisy turned toward Martin, rolled her eyes and laughed.
Leon Bragg and Harry Orlansky, Martin’s fellow bounty hunters from Stone River, had arrived at the Peak Bail Bonds office well before sunup this morning. Right now they sat in a pickup truck parked near the lot’s exit, ready to follow the decoy mob men. The feds were already watching flight manifests in an attempt to find the fugitives. Since there was currently a regional manhunt underway for two hit men connected to the Miami mob, the bounty hunters assumed that local law enforcement would be alerted by the feds when the decoy mobsters arrived. And that local law enforcement would follow them in hopes of being led to fugitives Daltrey and Bunker. Leon and Harry were going to tail the decoys, as well, just in case that assumption was wrong, or law enforcement ended up needing some extra help.
Since the decoys were intending to attract the attention of the law, they would probably try not to blend in with everyone else. They’d probably look like stereotypical mob guys—heavily muscled, stylish clothes, maybe some flashy jewelry. Or something equally obvious. And when the bounty hunters saw them, they’d know to also look for the more understated man-and-woman team who were really there to extract the fugitives. Daisy and Martin would be following that team.
People began to exit through the terminal doors. Two men walked out who fit the profile of the obvious mob decoys, right down to the leather jackets and gold chains.
“Think they’re overdoing it a bit?” Martin asked.
“Big-city people assume small-town folks are dumb.” Daisy shook her head. “This will just make it that much sweeter when we take them all down.”
“I’m convinced these are our guys,” Harry Orlansky said over the phone line they’d kept open.
“I can’t help thinking that if we put a leather jacket on you and some gold jewelry, you’d look like a mobster, too,” Martin responded.
On the other end, in the background, he could hear the deep sound of Leon chuckling.
“Me?” Harry said. “What about Leon? He looks more like a thug than I do.”
“Okay, I think these two are the actual extraction team here to get our fugitives out of town,” Daisy said to Martin.
A man and woman walked out of the terminal and, like the mobster decoys who were not far away from them, they stood on the sidewalk looking around like they were trying to get their bearings. Each of them toted just one small piece of carry-on luggage.
There was a rental car counter in the terminal that stayed open for a couple of hours around the time that flights arrived or departed. The vehicles they rented out were parked in ten marked stalls on the north end of the airport parking lot. The mob guys walked in that direction and the couple headed that way, as well.
As they got into respective rental cars, the woman and one of the decoy mobsters glanced over at one another. In Martin’s opinion, they held the glance a little longer than anyone would who was simply looking around. Bounty hunting was all about judgment and making calls when you didn’t have much in the way of irrefutable facts.
The decoys backed their car out first and made the turns that would lead to the service road and ultimately to the highway.
“We’re ready to roll,” Harry said over the phone. He and Leon stayed in place as the mobster car drove by. They waited a few minutes before pulling out into the traffic that was exiting the airport and beginning to follow them.
“Keep an eye out for the unmarked cop cars that should be tailing them,” Daisy said into the phone. “And maintain your distance. You don’t want to get in their way.”
“Copy that,” Harry replied. “We’ll maintain a low profile.”
“And we will do the same,” Marti
n replied as the mob couple backed their car out of the parking spot and headed toward the service road. He waited a couple of minutes before starting to follow them. “Pay close attention to what I do. You might learn something,” he said to Daisy. They picked up speed as the mob couple got onto the highway headed toward town and started accelerating.
Daisy made a loud scoffing sound. And while Martin couldn’t see her rolling her eyes, he knew she was doing it. “That’ll be the day,” she said, barely keeping the laughter out of her voice. “But we do make a good team,” she added a minute later.
Yeah, Martin thought. We really do.
“Our mob guys are turning off the highway at the edge of town,” Harry said over the open phone line. “It looks like at least one unmarked cop car is following them.”
“Good,” Daisy said. “Meanwhile, our couple is staying in the inside lane, so I guess we’re going to pass by the exit you’re turning off on and we’re going into the center of town.”
“Well, it looks like Daltrey and Bunker aren’t hiding at Pearce Park anymore,” she said to Martin a few minutes later as the mob couple passed the exit leading to the park and kept on going.
“Our mob guys went to the old Safari Motel,” Harry said over the phone line they were still keeping open. “They’re going straight to a room without stopping by the front office. Looks like they’re meeting somebody here.”
“What about the vehicle you thought was an undercover cop car?” Martin asked.
“It’s here. They’re actually in the parking lot. We’re across the road.”
“Stay back and stay cautious,” Martin said. “I hope you aren’t being led into a trap.”
“I hope we aren’t being led into a trap, either,” Daisy said as they continued down the highway. They were now passing through the center of town, and the mob couple they were following showed no signs of slowing.
They’d driven a couple of miles with no one talking, and then the muted sound of voices came through the phone they’d been using to stay in touch with Harry and Leon. One of the voices did not sound at all like either of the two bounty hunters. And then the call dropped.
Martin’s heart started hammering in his chest. He reached for his phone, but Daisy beat him to it. Since the phone was already on speaker, he could hear as she tried to reconnect the call, but the phone went to Harry’s voice mail instead.
“They might not be in trouble,” Daisy said calmly. But she kept redialing. She was worried, too.
Martin’s thoughts raced as he started to imagine what could be happening. Harry and Leon were more than just fellow bounty hunters to him. They were like family. “They can handle themselves,” he said, more to calm himself than to impart information to Daisy. Still, there was a real possibility that they were in trouble. Serious trouble.
Daisy kept tapping the screen, trying to reconnect with the bounty hunters. Martin was at the point of telling her to call 9-1-1 when Harry finally answered. “The cops are here,” he said.
The relief Martin felt nearly made him slump over the steering wheel.
“The undercover cops spotted us and wanted to know who we were. Told us to turn off the phone.” He blew out a breath. “They got a lot of backup and then gained entrance to the motel room with the mob guys. No one else was in the room, just the two men we saw at the airport. Some of the cops are questioning them about their connection to Daltrey and Bunker. The rest are checking all the rooms to see if the fugitives are here somewhere.
“Mostly likely, as you and Daisy suggested, all of this was meant to divert the cops’ attention while the mob couple hooks up with the fugitives and they all hightail it out of town.”
Raindrops began to fall on the windshield. The weather was already cold. If the temperature dropped much more, the rain would turn to snow. The mob couple exited the highway.
“What’s going on with your end of the chase?” Harry asked. “Do you have any information for me to pass on to the cops?”
“Not yet,” Martin answered. “We don’t know our mob couple’s ultimate destination, and if there are suddenly a lot of cop cars in their vicinity, they might get spooked and run. If that happens, we’ve lost everything.”
He glanced at Daisy, who nodded in agreement.
“Why don’t you and Leon start heading in our direction,” Martin said. He gave them the street they were now on and the direction they were headed. They disconnected the call.
The mob couple suddenly sped up. This stretch of road had some businesses plus the entrance to a small industrial park, so Martin could keep up with them without being too obvious. But just a few miles ahead, town ended and countryside began. If the mob couple went much farther, Martin’s truck following them in the dark would be much more noticeable.
They were heading up a hill. Without signaling, the car made a sudden sharp turn onto a side street.
“Do you think they’ve figured out we’re following them?” Daisy asked.
“I don’t know.” If Martin made the turn directly behind them, he’d show his hand. But if he didn’t make the turn, he risked losing them.
“Go straight,” Daisy said as she turned in her seat and craned her neck to look back at the car. There was a vacant lot on the corner so she could see them driving for a short distance. “They aren’t driving fast now,” she said. “If they were worried about being followed, I don’t think they’re worried now. Turn right on the next street and circle back. There aren’t a lot of roads up here. There aren’t that many places they could go.”
Martin made a right turn. And then another. He was quickly within the general area of where the car should be. But it was nowhere in sight. His heart sank. They could not lose these people. They were part of the Miami mob, an organized crime syndicate looking for revenge. What if they got away, teamed up with Daltrey and Bunker, and the four of them joined forces to kill Daisy?
* * *
“Let’s drive around and look for them,” Daisy said.
The mob couple’s car had disappeared down a street in the industrial park. The expansive property was a patchwork of warehouses, vacant lots, manufacturing businesses and storage buildings. Martin drove down a street that turned out to be a dead end. He made a U-turn, quickly backtracked and then turned down another street.
Daisy scanned the cars parked at the curb, in the lots adjacent to the businesses and moving in traffic, desperately trying to find where the couple went. “They could have pulled into a building with a delivery bay and pulled the door closed,” she said. “If they did, we’ll never find them.”
“You think they have a connection with a business out here?” Martin asked.
“I have no idea.” Daisy shook her head. “But it’s not going to help if we get stuck overthinking things. What do we know?”
Martin turned onto another street while Daisy looked around.
“We know they aren’t from around here,” she said, answering her own question. “Assuming that the couple in the car are who we think they are and we didn’t make a colossal mistake.”
“Where are you going with that train of thought?” Martin asked.
“If they didn’t disappear into one of these buildings, we might still be able to find them. Even with GPS, they could be lost if they aren’t from around here. Maybe they’re supposed to meet up with Daltrey and Bunker and they don’t have a specific address. Maybe they have a general idea of where they’re supposed to be but they’re confused.”
“Okay, well, we’ve driven down every little road in this industrial park,” Martin said. “Now what?”
“Maybe the turn into the industrial park was a mistake. Let’s get back onto the main road and follow it until it turns into countryside. Maybe that’s where they were headed. It’s worth a try.”
Martin returned to the main street, following it as the businesses on the side started to thin out u
ntil there was only farmland alongside the road and forest on the surrounding jagged hills. Traffic was nearly nonexistent, but there were moving headlights in a field in the distance.
Daisy grabbed the night-vision binoculars Martin kept in the truck and held them up to her eyes to get a better view. “I think it might be the same car the mob couple was driving,” she said. “I can’t see the license plate to be sure. It looks like they turned off onto some farm access road.”
“Daltrey and Bunker have been out of sight for the last three days,” Martin said. “They could have found a place to lie low out here in the country. Maybe a farmer rented them a couple of rooms or something.”
They reached the farm road and Martin killed the headlights on his truck before making the turn so the bad guys wouldn’t see them coming. This wasn’t Daisy’s first time barreling down a road in the dark in pursuit of fugitives, but the experience was still unnerving. The light rain was still falling and the road was turning boggy. She kept the binoculars to her eyes, but it was hard to see detail with all the jostling.
“Tell me if there’s a big rock or pothole or animal I need to see,” Martin said. “Or if you see anybody hidden by the road waiting for us.”
“Right.” That was always a concern when pursuing someone. That they might have lured you into a trap.
They passed through a cluster of trees lining the road. Beyond that point the road curved to the left. There was another cluster of trees up ahead and beside them were a barn and a shelter next to it with a tractor parked underneath. This late in the year harvest was wrapped up and there would be no pressing reason for a farmer to be out here after dark in the rain.
“There they are,” Daisy said after they drove a little farther.
Martin tapped the brakes. The mob couple’s car was in front of the closed-up barn, engine idling, raindrops visible in the beam from the headlights shining on two men. One of the men carried a duffel bag.