shouldn’t have surprised him, but somehow it did. How could she get rid of the land that her father had loved so much? But then, she had severed all connections with everything in this place, except for her sister, when she left years ago.
He clenched his jaw as he thought back to that time and how he’d felt when she’d broken off their engagement and moved to Nashville. To her credit, she’d begged him to go with her, to stay in the band that they’d started together. But in his heart, he knew he didn’t have the talent that she had, and he also didn’t have the dream of making it in the music industry. He supposed, in the end, their relationship had turned out the only way it could. She’d left, and he’d stayed.
Now she said she wanted to be friends, but that was never going to happen. He could just hope that the ranch would sell right away and she’d be gone. Back to Nashville and out of his life for good.
Shaking the troubling thoughts from his head, he directed his attention back to the road. With summer just having begun, tourists had flooded into Jackson Springs to spend some time in the Smokies. The sight of so many cars on the road made him smile as he drove into town. Ten minutes later, he walked down the hall of the sheriff’s department and entered his office.
His partner, Dan Welch, had the day off, and Cole settled behind his desk to do some paperwork he’d been putting off. He tried to push his conversation with Holly from his mind and forced himself to concentrate on the papers in front of him. He had no idea how long he’d worked and was shocked to look up a while later and see that it was almost lunchtime. He stood up and stretched his back, which had grown stiff while he was hunched over his desk, and was about to leave his office when the phone rang. The light on the base showing the various lines coming into the office indicated a call on line one from the receptionist. He picked up the receiver and answered. “Hey, Brenda. What’s up?”
“You have a call on line one from a young woman, Cole. I’ll connect you,” she answered.
Almost immediately, he heard the click that told him he’d been connected to the caller. “Detective Jackson speaking.” For a moment, he didn’t think anyone was there, and then he heard a throat clearing. He waited for someone to say something, but there was silence on the line. “Can I help you?”
“Yes,” a voice replied but didn’t say anything else.
He frowned as he tried to determine if he’d ever heard the voice before and decided he hadn’t. It was definitely a woman’s voice. And she sounded afraid.
“What do you need?”
The caller took a deep breath. “I think they’re trying to kill me, because I know too much.”
Her voice trembled, and Cole sat up straight in his chair. “Who’s trying to kill you, and what do you know about?”
“I don’t know all their names, but...” She paused, and when she spoke again, her voice was laced with panic. “He’s...he’s found me.”
“Where are you?” Cole asked. “I’ll come for you.”
“No! I have to go!”
With those words, the call disconnected. “Ma’am, where are you?” he yelled into the phone, but there was no answer.
He punched the button that connected him to Brenda’s phone, and she answered right away. “Cole, do you need something?”
“Have our tech guys see if they can find out where that last phone call came from, and tell them it’s urgent. Let me know as soon as they have something.”
“I’ll get right on it,” she said before ending the call.
For the next fifteen minutes, Cole paced the floor in his office as conflicting thoughts ran through his head. What if the girl on the phone had been lying? Some people enjoyed giving a false police report, and she could be one of them. On the other hand, though, she had sounded really frightened.
When the phone rang again, he grabbed the receiver. “Brenda? Any word on the call?”
“Yes. The call came from a cell phone and pinged off the tower near the old water plant. They placed her somewhere in the vicinity of that mall on Sturgis Road.”
“I’m on it,” Cole said before he slammed the phone down and headed out the door.
He knew he was probably on a wild-goose chase. How could he possibly identify a girl when he’d only heard her voice? Something in the way she spoke, though, told him that she was serious about being in danger. He’d heard fear in people’s voices before, and hers definitely told him she was afraid.
Whether or not he’d be able to find her, he had to try.
Getting the twins ready for the day was a full-time job, and Holly wondered again how her sister had done it. Holly usually had someone to help her, but the nanny she’d hired had recently quit, and Mandy hadn’t been able to find another one yet. Maybe while Mandy was here she could work on that.
Thankfully, two members of her security team had arrived. With one at the front of the house and one behind it, she felt safer. But there was another problem. She needed to go to the grocery store.
She stepped out onto the front porch and was met by Todd Bingham, who’d been on her security team for about two years. “Miss Lee, is there something I can do for you?”
“Yes, Todd. I hate to ask you, but could you and Ray take me to the grocery store? I need to do some shopping.”
Todd frowned. “I’m not sure you need to go out in public after what happened last night.”
“It’ll be okay. Evidently, the break-in hasn’t been discovered by the media yet. If it had been, we’d have reporters all over the place. So let’s go before they find out. I may not have another chance.”
He looked like he wasn’t convinced, but he raised his walkie-talkie to his mouth. “Ray, we’re going to town. Bring the car around.”
“Thanks, Todd,” Holly said. “Come inside and get one of the twins, and I’ll bring the other one. We need to put their stroller in the car, too.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he replied as he followed her into the house.
Ten minutes later, Ray pulled the car to a stop in front of the supermarket inside the Sturgis Road Mall. Holly pulled the baseball cap she wore lower on her head and slipped on her sunglasses before she stepped from the SUV. With Todd’s help, they settled Emma and Ethan in the double stroller.
Todd turned to Ray. “Park the car and then wait out front. If you see anything suspicious, call me.”
Ray nodded. “Yes, sir.”
As they walked toward the automatic doors at the store’s entrance, Holly hoped if anyone was looking she, Todd and the children would look like a normal family coming to do some shopping. Once inside, Todd grabbed a shopping cart and they headed toward the first aisle.
No one seemed to pay them any attention. She just wished Todd would relax more. His gaze
