Agent Williams barely gets in the room and I can tell he is really pleased with himself.
“We found a print! It matched a name in the system and I’m waiting for the file to be sent over.”
I hadn’t realized I was holding my breath until it comes out heavy.
“What is the name?” Agent Parker asks.
“Daniel Sanders.” He looks at each of us. “Do you know anyone by that name?’
No one answers.
“Is that Thomas’s real name?” I ask. It sounds so…ordinary.
“No. The age isn’t right, but I believe this person can lead us to Thomas. This is the best break we’ve gotten. They didn’t have his picture uploaded in the system so we’re waiting for a copy to be sent over.”
“What is the plan?” Agent Parker asks.
Agent Williams drops down in the same chair he occupied last night. He looks exhausted.
“We’re going after Daniel Sanders and will hopefully have him in custody within the next forty-eight hours.”
Dad doesn’t look as confident. “How can I trust any plan that involves your agency? You think there’s a mole in your program, Thomas came in and out of here without anyone seeing him….”
“Valid points, Richard. I’m not going through my agency on this. I can’t say any more than that but I have full faith in the people I’ve entrusted with this information. I’m trying to figure out what to do with all of you, though. I want you tucked away somewhere safe while this goes down, but I don’t want to use any of our safe houses since, like you say, we still have not identified Agent X.”
I don’t want to leave, even if it is “just for a little while.” That’s what they told me when we left Scottsdale. The suits are known for telling you what you want to hear to get you to do what they want. “Agent Parker, what do you think about this?” I ask. She’s been quiet and her expression is not overly confident.
She takes a minute, as if she’s really thinking about how to answer me the right way in front of her boss. “Finding a print is wonderful news. I agree with Agent Williams that there is an agent passing sensitive information to Thomas and I think it is a good idea that you are out of the line of fire.” She takes a deep breath and glances at Agent Williams before adding, “But I worry about doing any operation without the full support of the agency.”
Dad surprises me when he asks, “Where doyouthink we should go?”
“I’ve been thinking about that. We need to be somewhere fairly close so we can get you there quickly but somewhere tucked out of sight. If Daniel Sanders is connected to Thomas in any way, he will go to great lengths to stop us from getting to him. Thomas went through this house so I don’t feel comfortable leaving you here for now. I can’t figure out what he wants. I don’t think it’s the journal, or he would have never given it back to Anna to begin with. For whatever reason, Anna is back on his radar and I just don’t want to take any chances.”
“We’ve got a place you could use,” Ethan says.
He’s been quiet up until now and I can’t help wondering what he’s thinking.
The new wrinkles on Agent Williams’s forehead deepen when he asks, “That place near the Gulf where you sent your friend? Everyone in the department knows where that is and will probably be the first place they think of.”
“No, it’s in Arkansas. Dad just bought into this hunting club. I went up there with him to check it out. It feels like it’s at the end of the world. It’s on an island in the Mississippi River. It’s very remote—the only way to get on the island is by barge.”
“What does that mean—by barge?” I ask.
“A barge,” Agent Williams says and looks at me like I’m crazy. He’s got his hands out in front of him, twisting around, like if he can show the shape of it I’ll get it. “You know, a boat that you drive cars on.”
Ethan chuckles. “It will take us from the mainland to the island. No one else will be able to get a vehicle on the island. And even if someone has a boat, the camp is miles from the bank. And that’s only if they know where to find the island, which very few people do. And it’s the off-season—should be deserted right now. It’s just a couple of hours from here.”
“When did you go there?” I ask.
Ethan squeezes my hand. “When you and Catherine went shopping in Shreveport.”
The Dress. The one I dreamed about buying and dreamed about wearing to the Mardi Gras Ball with Ethan as a normal girl. But that’s not why I got the hand squeeze. Catherine took me that day because I was so upset and she was trying to cheer me up with shopping. Dad was driving down to Baton Rouge to see Mom in rehab and I couldn’t force myself to go with him. He even offered to take me to New Orleans as an incentive, since it’s so close to where Mom is. I didn’t want to see her because I was still so mad at her for falling apart when we needed her the most.
“Ethan,” Agent Williams asks, “I really hate anyone else knowing where they’ll be. Are you certain no one knows you have this place? And would your father be okay with this?”
“He hasn’t told anyone about it because he knows everyone will be asking him to take them hunting when deer season rolls around. This place is just for us.”
“What about Ethan?” I ask. “Shouldn’t he go with us?” I hate to drag him away from here, but I don’t want to be “tucked away” somewhere without him.
