Chapter 5 - The Trap
Agent Reed picked up the badge with gloves.
“Cole’s?”
“No.”
I recognized the number.
“Dorsey.”
Reed frowned.
“He’s in federal custody.”
“Then somebody wants us looking at him.”
My satellite phone rang.
Rachel’s voice came through.
“Ethan?”
“Rachel. Where are you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Are you hurt?”
“No.”
A man spoke behind her.
“Enough.”
Then another voice came onto the line.
Sheriff Cole.
“You should've stayed a mechanic.”
“Where is she?”
“You want your wife back? Bring the drive.”
“Rachel told you she copied it?”
“She told me plenty.”
I heard Rachel shout.
“He’s lying!”
The call disconnected.
Reed looked at me.
“He wants you emotional.”
“I know.”
“You cannot go after him.”
“I’m not going after anybody.”
She studied me.
“What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking Cole believes I still have the only copy.”
Reed understood.
“Which means he doesn't know I have it.”
Exactly.
Two hours later, I called Cole.
“I’ll trade.”
“For Rachel?”
“Yes.”
“Come alone.”
“Where?”
“The abandoned Dawson Mill.”
Reed shook her head.
I continued.
“Thirty minutes.”
Cole hung up.
Reed stared at me.
“You are not walking into that building.”
“I don't need to.”
“What do you mean?”
“He told me exactly where he is.”
Federal teams moved immediately.
I stayed behind.
That surprised everyone except Reed.
“You really weren't planning to go?”
“I spent fourteen years learning not to enter traps somebody else designed.”
Twenty-eight minutes later, tactical agents surrounded the Dawson Mill.
Cole tried to escape through a drainage tunnel.
He didn't make it fifty yards.
Rachel was found unharmed in an upstairs office.
But the biggest discovery wasn't Rachel.
It was Cole’s laptop.
Financial records.
Recorded conversations.
Payment ledgers.
Names.
One name appeared more often than any other.
County Commissioner Harold Vance.
The man who had publicly supported Cole for twelve years.
And according to the records, Vance had received more than $1.7 million.
But when agents arrived at Vance’s ranch, he was gone.
May you like
So was nearly half a million dollars in cash.
The investigation had just become a manhunt.
