She caught glimpses of Frank walking from the kitchen to a gun case. Opening a drawer.
Then she too heard the noise that would have alerted him, a snap.
She walked to a window and gasped.
The figure was pushing through the tall brush that bordered the side of the house.
“Frank!” she called. “Outside!”
57
Your mother and Marty Harmon hired me to find you,” Colter Shaw said to Allison Parker.
When he’d arrived at Villaine’s property, outside the small town of Greenville, Shaw hadn’t known if the Twins—as he called the pair of hired thugs from Sunny Acres—had gotten here before him. So he had parked on a side road and hiked in through the woods. He’d surveyed the house and then done a quick and silent surveillance. When it was clear there were no hostiles inside—Parker, Hannah and Frank Villaine were eating lunch—he’d walked from the side yard to the front, rung the bell, stepped back and kept his hands in plain sight.
Villaine had greeted him with a pistol. Parker had barked an astonished gasp and said, “No, no, Frank. It’s okay. I’ve met him. He recovered a reactor part that was stolen from the company.” To Hannah she added, “He’s the one I told you about.”
Now that identities had been verified, Shaw pulled out his phone. Parker eyed it warily. “Could Jon track it?”
“It’s a burner I haven’t used before. And I don’t think a Verizon or Sprint technician’ll risk going to jail for an ex-cop.”
She considered this and reluctantly nodded. Shaw called Marty Harmon.
“Colter.”
“I’m with them both.”
A sighing voice: “Oh, God. And they’re okay?”
“They are.”
“Merritt’s still at large. The police don’t have any leads. Is there anything I can do?”
“Not at this point. I can’t talk now. I just wanted to let you know. Call Ruth.”
“Of course.”
“I’ll call when we’re someplace safe.”
“Colter—” The man’s voice broke. “Thank you.” He disconnected.
Frank asked, “You’re a private eye?”
“Like that.”
“How did you find me?”
Shaw said, “Marianne Keller—”
To Frank, Parker said, “My boss’s assistant.”
“She was helping Marty’s head of security track down people you might’ve been close to in the past but Jon probably wouldn’t know. Frank’s name came up. He lived north—the direction you’d been driving. I thought it was a sixty percent chance or so you’d come here.”
Frank asked Parker, “But what’s the danger? Jon doesn’t know about me.”
“Maybe not. But he ransacked your house. Would there be anything there with Frank’s name and address?”
She closed her eyes briefly. “I don’t think so but maybe. Oh, Frank, I’m so sorry...”