Escape with Me

by Janice Sims

  Lana laughed. “Okay,” she happily agreed. He’d been so kind to her. She couldn’t get in the way of his scoring her father’s permission to invade his life for the next few months, or however long it took to produce a documentary.

  “I’ll go shower and change and wait for your call,” he said as he placed the dishes in the sink and began running hot water. “Then I’ll pick you up.” He turned the water off, and reached into his jeans pocket and withdrew a battered business card with his cell phone number on it.

  Lana accepted it. Looking into his eyes, she said, “All right. I’ll see when he’s going to be released, and give you a holler.”

  * * *

  “You’ll have less than an hour to install the bugs,” Ten told Pete Baylor, one of the three field agents on his team, over the phone.

  “I thought you said...” Pete began.

  “I know what I said,” Ten said regrettably, “but, before, I was just guessing someone was following her. Now I know someone is.”

  “That private detective you tailed name’s Terrick Simpson. He’s an ex-cop,” Pete reported. “Recently set up shop, and he seems to be a decent enough guy.”

  “Did you find out who hired him to confirm Lana’s arrival?”

  “Nah,” answered Pete. “I checked out his office myself late last night after he’d gone home. Getting into his computer was pretty easy. There was a sizable cash payment made last week. Next to it he wrote, Client X. Apparently, Client X doesn’t want to be identified.”

  “Okay,” Ten said, “so it appears that his assignment was to verify that Lana is back in town. He saw her at the airport in Norfolk, and then followed her to the hospital in Kitty Hawk and took a few photos. But after leaving the hospital he went back to the office. Whoever hired him doesn’t want him to keep tabs on her.”

  “That would be my guess,” Pete confirmed.

  “Then, last night, someone broke into Lana’s father’s house and riffled through the drawer where she usually keeps her jewelry, found nothing and was chased out of the house by the family dog.”

  Pete laughed. “Ferocious, huh?”

  “Nah, he’s a sweetheart,” Ten told him. “I’ve got to go. Be out of the house by 12:15.”

  When Ten got over to the Braithwaite house, Lana was on the beach adjacent to the house chasing Bowser who’d slipped past her when she’d gone onto the porch to wait for Ten’s arrival.

  “Come back here, you sneaky little devil,” he heard her yell as she ran after the rambunctious Labrador. She was wearing a bright yellow sleeveless sundress.

  Her natural hair bounced in thick curls as she ran and her brown skin glowed with vitality. Ten stood and watched her.

  She stopped in her tracks and bent to pick up something she’d seen in the sand.

  She turned it over in her hand. Whatever it was, its surface glinted golden in the bright sunlight. From his vantage point, Ten thought it might be a piece of jewelry.

  When he reached her side he saw that he’d been right. It was a man’s watch, a very expensive one.

  Lana looked up at him and he saw that finding the watch had unnerved her. She held it out to him. “This belongs to my husband,” she said tensely.

  Ten reached for it and she gave it to him. He turned it over, looking for an engraving. There was none. “How can you be sure?”

  Lana moved close and pointed to a small nick into the gold underneath the watch’s face. When the watch was being worn it would be unnoticeable. But off the wrist you could clearly see it. “That was made,” she told him, “according to Jeremy, by the blade of a knife wielded by a mugger who tried to take the watch from him. This watch was the first luxury item Jeremy bought when he had begun to get rich. He was not going to give it up without a fight. Stupid decision, because he got cut that night. Or that’s how he told me he got the scar on his wrist and the nick in his beloved Rolex. But that’s probably just another lie.”

  With that she turned, and began walking back toward the house. Bowser had tired of his little game and walked alongside her, ready to take his punishment. Lana was in no mood to mete out punishment to the exuberant dog, though. She just felt unbearably sad. All her fears had been realized. Jeremy’s watch wouldn’t have been on this beach if Jeremy wasn’t close by. The burglar last night had to have been Jeremy, entering her father’s house to retrieve something valuable he’d left there on one of his visits there with her. And she was going to figure out just what that was.

  Woodenly, she walked onto the porch with Bowser in tow, and locked him inside the house. Walking back down the steps, she said to Ten who was waiting there with the watch, “Jeremy was here last night. He obviously copied the key to the house Dad had given me. He probably used a Jet Ski to reach the beach last night, and had a boat waiting a few yards off shore. That’s why I didn’t hear a car. He’s alive and well and he wants something that I have. The problem is...I don’t know what it is.”

  She reached for the watch, and he gave it to her with reluctance. He wished he could think of an excuse to hold on to it for a while. He’d like to have it dusted for fingerprints. What if this watch belonged to some other rich idiot who’d lost it on the beach?

  His gut, however, told him she was right—and his hunch had been right, as well. Now all they had to do was set a trap for the rat-bastard.

  “What do you want to do, call the police and tell them you suspect the burglar is Jeremy?”

  Lana shook her head. “No, I want to catch him myself.”

  Ten opened the car door for her. “That could be dangerous,” he warned her.

  “Oh, he doesn’t want to kill me,” Lana said confidently. “If he’d wanted to hurt me he could have done it last night. He needs me. I’ve just got to beat him at his own game. He’s looking for something. I’ve got to find it before he does.”

  Ten saw the calculating gleam in her eye and knew, no matter what he said, she was determined to have her way. She climbed into the car, and he shut her door and jogged around to the driver’s side. Once he was behind the wheel, he turned to her. “What can I do to help?”

  She gave him the most brilliant smile he’d ever seen since they met. “I’m not done figuring out my next move,” she told him. “But I’m sure I can come up with something you can do to help bring him down.”

  Ten smiled. He liked the steely tone of her voice. This was a woman with a purpose—to nail her lying, thieving husband to the wall.

  He liked her more and more.

  Her strength and resilience in the face of great odds made him feel guilty for having to deceive her. She had already been devastated by her husband’s deception. He reminded himself that he was only doing his job. When this was over, she would understand that his actions had been dictated by the need to apprehend a fugitive.

  Still, he couldn’t shake the strong desire to somehow be the hero that she deserved.

  * * *

  Officer Edwards was in Aaron’s hospital room discussing the break-in when Lana and Ten arrived. Lana went right in, and kissed her father’s cheek.

  “Officer Edwards,” she said in greeting.

  “Mrs. Corday,” he acknowledged with a nod. “Your father was telling me it’s been a long time since he changed the security code at his house. I suggested he get in the habit of changing it periodically.”

  “Good advice,” she agreed wholeheartedly.

  Ten and Officer Edwards nodded at each other without a word passing between them. “How are you, sir?” Ten asked Aaron.

  Aaron was already dressed and ready to roll. He couldn’t wait to blow this joint. He explained that the hospital staff had tried to feed him breakfast earlier but he’d refused to eat another tasteless meal. But his stomach was growling now because of it. “I’ll feel a hundred percent better once I’m home,” he said.

 
“Then let’s go,” Lana said cheerily. She regarded Officer Edwards. “That is if you’re finished with my father.”

  “Yeah,” he said. “Thank you for your time, Mr. Braithwaite.”

  “Thank you, Officer,” Aaron said with a smile.

  In Officer Edwards’s absence, Lana let out a long breath, and said, “Good, he’s gone. Daddy, I’ve got something to tell you but I think it’s best if we wait until we’re in the car. Let’s get out of here.”

  Aaron’s curiosity was instantly piqued. Her excitement was contagious. Something had happened to buoy her spirits between now and the break-in at the house. His gaze traveled to Ten. Ten’s placid expression gave him no clues as to what that might be.

  Before they could make their escape, however, a nurse, moving as if she were on speed, strode in pushing a wheelchair. “Here we are, Mr. Braithwaite. If you’ll sit down, I’ll escort you out.”

  She picked up a large plastic bag with a cloth drawstring that had the hospital’s logo on it and put it in Aaron’s lap after he sat down.

  Lana and Ten followed the nurse as she pushed Aaron to the elevator. Aaron looked up at Lana and rolled his eyes. He was definitely not enjoying this. He was polite to the nurse, though. Lana had never known him to be rude to someone who was just doing her job. When they got outside into the bright sunshine and the nurse retreated back into the building with the wheelchair, Aaron took the bag, which contained no personal effects and threw it into a nearby trash receptacle.

  “It’s not as if I’m ever going to use this stuff again,” he mumbled.

  Lana laughed. She went and put her arm about his shoulders as they stood there waiting for Ten to bring the car around.

  In the car on the way home, Lana told Aaron who she suspected the burglar was. Something else had occurred to her, too. “Jeremy probably saw you set the alarm several times over the years. His con-artist brain is like a steel trap. He wouldn’t forget something like that,” she said aloud.

  Lana sat in the back while her dad rode shotgun. “I told Officer Edwards I couldn’t think of anyone who would know the code besides the security firm personnel,” Aaron said.

  “That’s good,” Lana said, “because I don’t want the police involved in this right now. Their presence would scare him off, and I want him to feel confident that no one suspects the truth.”

  “Now wait a minute, Lana Jo...” Aaron began.

  “Lana Jo?” said Ten.

  “My middle name’s Josephine after my grandmother,” Lana told him. “And I don’t want to hear any jokes about it.” She met his eyes in the rearview mirror, but hers were smiling regardless of the rigid tone in her voice.

  Ten laughed. “Hey, I don’t have a leg to stand on with a middle name like Magnus.”

  Lana guffawed. “Magnus! Your parents really were running out of ideas when they named you.”

  Aaron laughed, too. “Can we get back to the subject? Lana Jo, you’re not thinking of trying to catch Jeremy on your own, are you?”

  “Yes,” Lana said without hesitation. “I’m going to trap him, hogtie him and hand him over to the FBI. You can’t tell me he doesn’t have it coming.”

  “Oh, he has it coming, all right,” her dad said, “but you’re not the one who should be dishing it out. The man’s obviously desperate. Why else would he risk capture by breaking into my house and going after whatever he was after? His getaway cash is running low. Don’t think that because you were married to him he won’t turn on you violently to get what he’s after. No, I forbid your getting involved. Call the FBI, and tell them what you know. Don’t you agree, Ten?”

  Ten was in an untenable position. This case was progressing in a haphazard manner. He felt as if he were losing control of it. Lana was behaving irrationally, almost high on the notion of giving her husband some payback. Also, it appeared that Aaron was on the brink of revealing his identity. And his was the worst point, because at that moment Ten wanted to tell Lana who he really was and that if they all remained calm they could work together to bring Jeremy to justice. If he did that he’d be going against the rules because he was supposed to get permission before blowing his cover.

  Ten noticed that it was only eleven forty-five. The team had been told they had until twelve-fifteen. “Why don’t we stop for lunch and discuss it?” he suggested.

  Aaron was all for that. “There’s a steakhouse on the right.”

  “As long as you restrict yourself to the salad bar,” Lana put in.

  “My doctor said no butter or lobster,” Aaron defended himself. “He didn’t say anything about filet mignon.”

  “In your dreams,” Lana countered.

  “I’m turning in,” Ten said as he steered the car into the steakhouse’s parking lot.

  Before long they’d been seated, and Aaron had begun to devour a small flank steak and a big salad. Lana had ordered the roast chicken and Ten had the T-bone, which Aaron kept looking at as if he coveted it. “It’s dry,” Ten told him, steadily slicing into the juicy steak and chomping on it with strong, white teeth.

  “Yeah, you’re eating it like it’s just awful,” Aaron said sarcastically.

  Lana watched both men with a smile on her face. It was obvious that her dad liked Ten. The two of them shared an easy repartee, often one-upping each other. Which made her wonder why earlier Ten had expressed a fear that her dad would not allow him to do the documentary. It seemed to her that it was a done deal.

  “Back to our discussion,” she said as she put down her fork. She looked into her father’s eyes. “I feel empowered for the first time in a long time. Let me get him, Daddy. I want him to know he didn’t break me.”

  “When the FBI has him in custody, you can visit him in jail and let him know that” was Aaron’s only reply.

  Ten put down his fork, too, and regarded both of them from his side of the table. “I’m probably going to get fired for doing this, but you two are the most infuriating people I’ve ever met.” He paused. “Lana, you’re already involved in a scheme to capture Jeremy. I’m with the FBI, and your father went into the hospital for tests in order to lure you back home. I’m sorry we had to resort to this but even though we’ve been able to track down some of the funds Jeremy stole, there is still over two hundred million unaccounted for.”

  Aaron picked up his fork again, and continued eating. “I’d better finish this since it’s probably going to be my last meal.”

  He looked Lana in the eye. She was furious.

  Chapter 6

  Lana regarded Ten, her expression implacable. She held out her hand, palm up. “Give me your keys.”

  “I’m not...”

  “Keys!” she demanded, not raising her voice but not backing down, either.

  Ten gave her the keys.

  She palmed them, then gave her father and Ten a sweeping look of disgust. “I’m going for a drive. I might just drive to the airport and catch the first flight heading west. You two can find another way home.”

  She spun on her heels and marched out of the restaurant. Ten got up to follow, but Aaron reached up and pulled him back down. “Give her some space, son. She’s got a temper like her mother. When that woman was on the warpath, I took cover. She didn’t get mad often but when she did there was hell to pay.” With that said, he continued eating. “You know, this flank steak isn’t half bad.”

  Ten took his cell phone out, and dialed Pete Baylor’s number. He had to make sure Pete and the other agents were out of the Braithwaite house. He doubted Lana would go directly home but he couldn’t take the chance.

  “No problem,” said Pete. “We’re clear and heading back to the van.”

  Ten hung up, and continued eating his meal.

  “I should be feeling some remorse for taking part in this right about now, I’m sure,” said Aaron as he speared
some spinach salad with his fork, “but I don’t. Lana Jo’s back. You can’t imagine how worried I was about her. For months she didn’t even sound like herself on the phone. The life had gone out of her. She’s got her spark back. And I have you and the FBI to thank for it.”

  “Save your thanks for later,” Ten said. “I don’t know if this operation can be salvaged or not. I’m holding off phoning my supervisor until I know what Lana plans to do with the information I just gave her.”

  “You did the right thing,” Aaron told him. “We couldn’t have Lana acting like an amateur sleuth. She’ll come around. Give her a few hours to cool off.”

  Lana was on Highway 12, the main highway that connected the Outer Banks to the mainland. The SUV handled like a dream, and she had it above the speed limit, heading nowhere in particular. She just wanted to drive and keep on driving.

  She should have known Ten was too good to be true. A sensitive filmmaker who loves books? He sounded more like the hero from her favorite romance novel.

  Her cell phone rang. She slowed down. She didn’t want to wind up a statistic. A quick glance at the display told her it was Grant phoning. Deciding she needed to take his call, she slowed further, and turned into the parking lot of a strip mall. Parked, she answered, “Hello.”

  “Lana, I’ve got good news. Your divorce has been granted. They tried to hold it up by insisting that you needed to show proof that you’d made an effort to locate Jeremy but I reminded them who Jeremy is. If the FBI can’t find him, what makes them think you can?” He laughed. “Am I right?”

  Lana managed to let out a soft laugh. “Thank you, Grant. This is the cherry on top of a truly weird day.”