Dead Certain - Mariah Stewart [111]
“You can help me find him. You can help me bring him to trial, to put him back in prison.”
“I will do whatever it takes.” Even through tears, Dolores was pure steel. “He killed Connie. He didn’t have to kill her.”
“Let’s talk about where he might have gone. You said he worked. You know where?”
“He said he owned his own construction company.”
“Know what it’s called?”
“Daniels Construction. But I don’t know where they were working.”
“That’s okay. We can check to see if he’s applied for any work permits lately. Know if he had any friends in the area, anyone he socialized with? Did he mention the name of anyone who worked for him?”
“No. He never mentioned no one.”
“What is he driving, Dolores? What kind of car?”
“Lincoln town car. Black. Not real new. I don’t remember the plate number.”
“That’s all right. We can get that. Now, how about Archer Lowell? Did you ever hear him mention the name Archer Lowell?”
“No.”
“How about Channing? Curtis Channing?”
She shook her head. “Sorry. I’m sorry. . . .”
“Hey, it’s okay. We’ll find him. One way or another, we’re going to find him.”
“I just hope he doesn’t find me first.”
“He’s not going to. We’ll keep you safe, I promise you. For as long as it takes.” Sean took one of Dolores’s hands and said, “I know how frightened you must be, and I realize this is hard for you. . . .”
She looked up at him, one eyebrow raised. “Hard for me? He killed my best friend. I’ll watch that bastard burn in hell and I will smile the whole time. Just what about this do you think is hard for me?”
Sean pulled out his wallet and took out the card with Evan Crosby’s number on it. He punched in the numbers and when Evan picked up, he said, “I think you’re going to want to head on back to Broeder. I have a surprise for you. And tell Anne Marie we’re going to need her people a little sooner than we’d expected.”
CHAPTER
TWENTY-EIGHT
“She just waltzed away from him”—Anne Marie shook her head in disbelief—“and waltzed herself right on in here. Incredible that she would do that. Do you have any idea how rare this is?”
She closed the door behind the departing Dolores, who, along with Cujo, would be housed in a motel in the company of Officer Dana Burke until the FBI could send an agent to protect her.
“She is one very scared and very angry woman,” Sean told her, “but I think it’s the anger that gave her the strength she needed to do what she had to do. She wants to see him burn in hell.”
“Don’t we all?” Evan said. “Any thoughts on how you’re going to find him?”
“So far, there’s no sign of him. His car was found abandoned in a parking lot behind a bar in Carleton about an hour ago. The police down there have searched the room he was renting, but of course he hasn’t been there. They’re getting ready to put him on the wires, put out an APB—”
“Don’t,” Anne Marie said.
“Don’t what?” asked Sean.
“Don’t put out the APB, not yet.”
“Why not?”
“Because if he thinks everyone in creation is looking for him, he’ll run, and it could take years to find him. Amanda will have to be looking over her shoulder every day of her life until we find him, or he finds her.”
“And Mara, too,” Evan noted.
“Once he’s done what he thinks is his duty—killing Amanda—he’ll most likely turn on my sister soon enough, yes. We need to outsmart him. Make him relax, make him think we’re focused someplace else.”
“Fine, but we have to get him now.” Sean ran a hand through his hair, wondering how they were going to do that. “If he’s ditched the car, he must still be in the area. He hasn’t had time to go too far. My guess is that he’s hiding out someplace close between Carleton and here.”
“Then we’re going to have to smoke him out.” Anne Marie stated the obvious.
“Use the girlfriend, maybe?” Sean wondered aloud.
“He doesn’t care