“Edward,” she whispered. “Dad, look at this.”
Confirmation Edward was in this up to his white hairline.
Thirty-Eight
Jane’s SUV rolled into Fairhope, and she glanced around with a rising sense of helplessness. “I have no idea where to look. Or even if Edward’s here.”
“I wish I had my drone,” her dad grumbled. “I might be able to see something from the air.”
She ran through a drive-through and got them all a sweet tea before she parked in the lot. She lowered the windows. “Let’s go over what we know.”
She ticked off the points with a finger as she made them. “One—Edward knew Lauren, and it’s likely he was the mysterious lover. Two—Edward wants revenge on Dad for his part in sending Colton to prison. Three—he’s likely the one who framed Will for revenge.”
“One other thing,” her dad put in. “Gabriel didn’t seem to know about some of this. Edward was always one to hold back his thoughts. He’s likely been planning this a long time, and Gabriel was his patsy.”
“A family resemblance,” Jane said under her breath. Her dad was the pot calling the kettle black.
“I’m calling Mom,” she said.
“I don’t know what good that will do,” her dad mumbled.
She ignored him and placed the call. Her mom answered on the second ring. “I was about to call you, Jane.”
The woman who’d avoided her for fifteen years actually sounded eager to talk. Jane tried to squelch the hope that sprang up like a seed left dry too long. It meant nothing.
“Why were you about to call me?”
“I felt bad that I didn’t tell you everything. You deserve that much. I don’t want to live in fear anymore. The one you’re looking for is your uncle. Edward Hardy.”
Verification at least. “He’s got the dirty bomb in his possession, Mom. He broke into Dad’s bunker with it and we interrupted him before he could set it off. We’re trying to find him now. Do you have any idea where he might have gone?”
“He got away again with the bomb?”
“Yes. Do you know if he’s got any contacts down here? Maybe in Fairhope?”
“I don’t know of any place like that, but what I do know is that Edward is a trickster. He’s good at making you think he’s doing something and then doing exactly the opposite. I can’t tell you how many times he made me cry when we were living at his compound. So if you think he’s gone to Fairhope, chances are he’s gone in the other direction.”
Jane shuddered at the word picture. “He doesn’t sound like someone I’d like to be around.”
“I hope that helps. I’m sorry it took so long for me to tell you.”
Jane thanked her and didn’t mention she’d already figured out Edward’s role in this. At least her mom had wanted to help. That had to mean something.
“Mom says he will do the exact opposite of what we expect.”
Her dad took a slurp of his sweet tea and mopped the perspiration from his forehead with a napkin. “She’s right. So he’s not here in Fairhope. It was a trick to lure us away from his real plan.”
What might he be trying to hide? Gabriel claimed not to have known the map had been taken, which meant that Edward didn’t even trust his second-in-command.
Reid leaned forward from the backseat. “His main goal is revenge. He nearly had that bomb planted in the bunker, but we chased him off in time. What could be his fallback position? You know him best, Charles. Any ideas?”
“In his mind I killed his son. He framed Will. He wanted to turn my entire compound into a useless mess of radioactive dirt, which would have been just revenge too. The three things I care about are Jane, Will, and my compound. What else is there for him to target?”
Jane caught her breath and struggled to make sense of her thoughts. “What if he led us away from the compound but plans to circle back there?”
He’d probably been laughing his head off as they raced after him, only to find him zooming over the water in the ultimate wild-goose chase to Dauphin Island. If she had followed through with her original plan to get a boat and follow him there, they’d be looking all over the island. At least they’d figured out to check Fairhope, and sure enough, his boat was here.
“Let’s get back to Dad’s place. He could already be there.”
And probably was already there. Gabriel or one of his other minions had probably picked him up and immediately headed back to Pelican Harbor. That bomb could already be armed and ready to go off the minute they came through the gates.
“Let’s get ATF out there.”
“Already on it,” Reid said. “I just got a text, and they’re thirty minutes away.”
“We should get there about the same time.” She tossed her phone back to Reid. “Would you text Augusta and have her head that way too?”
He nodded and began tapping away at her screen.
She rolled up the window and started the engine. All she could do was pray they got there in time.
* * *
Jane had the siren blaring and lights flashing all the way back to Pelican Harbor. When she reached the edge of her dad’s property, Augusta and Jackson were parked at the gate waiting on them.
The gate was wide open and Jane gasped. “He’s already in there.”
Jane had considered sending Augusta the code to get in, but she didn’t want her officers going in by themselves. Though there had been three men in her dad’s bunker, Edward could have gathered Gabriel and his men here as well. A dozen men or more could be lying in wait to ambush anyone entering the property.
She parked her SUV behind the squad car and got out. “Brazen, isn’t he? He didn’t even sneak in another way but came right through the front gate. And left it open as if to brag about it.”
“I got here a few minutes ago, but I wanted to wait on you and the ATF. We don’t know what we’re facing here.”
Jane got out binoculars and went to stand beside Augusta at the fence. “Exactly right.”
Though she knew her detective was brave, Augusta had a family waiting on her to come home too. That had to be in the back of her mind just like it was nagging at Jane. She glanced at Reid, who followed her, and knew he would want to be able to hug Will again, just like she did.
This situation couldn’t be overstated.
The house came into sudden view as she adjusted the binoculars. There was a figure in the rocker on the porch, and his white hair gave away his identity. Her dad’s chickens pecked in the dirt in front of him, and she thought she saw Parker lying on the porch in the shade, but dusk was coming fast, and it was hard to make out the shadows.
She handed the binoculars to her dad. “Edward is sitting in the rocker waiting on us.”
She couldn’t figure out his angle. Wouldn’t he want to arm the bomb and get out of there? He wouldn’t want to die in a blast from that bomb any more than the rest of them did. Did he want to taunt his brother?
When her dad handed the binoculars back to her, his mouth was in a grim line. “Grandstander. He always thinks he has to make a statement. I’m going in alone. He wants to gloat and taunt me, and I’ll let him have his say.”