The deputy met her halfway up the stairs, his expression serious, his hand resting on the butt of his holstered gun.
“Go back inside, Laura.”
“What’s going on?”
The deputy’s radio came to life and he spoke into his shoulder mic. Then to her. “Go inside, lock the door, keep the lights on. We’ll be up in a little while.”
She looked around, felt her hackles rise again, and hurried back up the stairs. She locked the screen and front doors behind her. Doogie met her at the front door, then raced back to the bedroom. When she followed him, she found Doogie alerting at the same window.
This time the black Lab let out a low growl totally out of character for the gentle dog.
She screamed at the sound of someone pounding on the front door. “Laura! It’s me.”
She raced back to the living room to let Rob in, breathing a sigh of relief to have him in her arms. He kicked the door shut behind him and locked it. “What’s going on? The deputy sent me up here and there’s three more parked downstairs.”
“I don’t know. Doogie woke me up. When I went outside, he told me to get back in the house, lock the door, and leave the lights on. He said he’ll be up in a little while.”
She got dressed and made them a pot of coffee. They heard yet another car drive up and a dog barking. Laura hushed Doogie when he replied with barks of his own.
Rob looked out the front window. “It’s a K-9 unit.”
They watched the officer unload a large German shepherd and head around the back of the house. He circled around, came up the stairs, went back down again, and then into the woods behind the house.
Thomas arrived a moment later. The deputy in charge talked with him, pointed behind the house, and then they hurried off.
Twenty minutes after that, Thomas finally came upstairs and explained.
“The deputy heard a boat idling along the shore, then it stopped and there was a splash like someone got out in the water. He walked down there and found a little skiff. When he identified himself and told whoever it was to show themselves and come out, he heard someone take off running through the brush. That’s when you came out. He was calling for backup.”
“But he didn’t see anyone?”
“No.”
There was more. Rob was determined to hear it. “What did you find in the boat?”
Thomas looked at Laura, hesitant.
Laura spoke up. “Tell us. I want to know. This lunatic’s after me. I want to know what’s going on.”
“We found a bag, one of those cheap nylon backpacks, like a gym bag. Inside it was duct tape, a roll of rope, and a knife.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Rob watched as Laura blanched. “This house isn’t safe either, is it?” she asked.
“We need to get you out of here,” Thomas said. “Right now, while he can’t track you.”
“What if that’s what he wants?” Rob asked. “What if this was a deliberate attempt to get us to move Laura again?” Rob couldn’t believe he even said the words. The paranoia grew like a tumor in his gut.
“Whoever this guy is, now he’s on the run. He’s not going to be tailing you in the next little bit. We’re going to get you out of here, get you safe. That’s my priority.”
“I don’t think there’s anywhere’s safe enough,” Laura said.
Rob had a flash. “Maybe there is.”
It was 3:00 a.m. in Montana when Rob called Bill. After the problems last time, Bill had given them several alternate numbers, including his girlfriend’s house and cell phone, the airport he worked out of, neighbors, even the local sheriff’s office. Fortunately, Bill was home. He quickly awoke when Rob explained the problem to him.
“Let me make some calls. I’ll get her a ticket to Denver, meet her there, and fly back with her.”
“Okay, call me right back.”
Laura balked. “Oh, no. You are not shipping me up to Montana. I won’t go without you.”
“Laura, you have to. I’ll take some vacation time in a week or so. I’ll drive and bring Doogie with me. I can’t just leave right now.”
“Neither can I.”
Thomas stepped in. “Laura, you don’t have a choice in the matter. If I have to send you to the airport handcuffed to an armed deputy, I will.”
She looked at him. “You don’t have the authority to do that.”
The detective stared her down. “You want to try me?”
She managed not to burst into tears.
Barely. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
She was in the shower when Bill called back with the flight arrangements. “I’ll meet her in Denver for her connection to Bozeman.”
Rob wrote the flight information down and read it back to Bill for confirmation. “Okay. I’ll get her on that flight.”
Bill had arranged a non-stop from Tampa to Denver. It left TIA at ten, which didn’t give Rob much time.
He helped Laura pack and the deputies escorted them back to her condo so she could get the clothes she’d need for the northern climate. It was fairly warm there this time of year, but still chilly by Florida standards.
Rob loaded her suitcases into Thomas’ unmarked patrol car. She’d changed into jeans and had a lightweight jacket to carry on. She carried her laptop and iPad and had the rest of the journals she hadn’t read yet in her checked bags.
Rob hated the look on her face when he had to remind her to leave the gun behind. Leaning close, he whispered in her ear, “It’s all right, baby girl. I’m giving you permission not to carry it. You’ll be safe out there.”
She broke down. “I don’t want to go.”
He forced himself to stay strong for her. “I know. I’m sorry, but I’m ordering you to go. And you will stay out there until I say so.” He took her play collar from his pocket put it in her hands. “Take it with you. Keep it in your pocket. Even when you can’t wear it, remember you have it and remember who owns you.”
She tearfully nodded. “Yes, Sir.”
Laura knelt and hugged Doogie. The Lab licked her face but acted listless, apparently knowing his mom was leaving. One of the deputies volunteered to take him to Steve at the shop for her, and she fought back tears as they drove off, Doogie racing back and forth in the back seat while looking out the rear window.
Rob sat with her in the back seat of Thomas’s car. She remained silent most of the way, and when asked a question she answered mostly in one-word sentences. Upon their arrival at the airport, Thomas pulled up to the departures curb and requested an airport police officer be summoned. He identified himself, and three more airport officers arrived to escort them.
They were rushed through the ticket desk. TSA agents gave Rob and Thomas special clearance to go to the airside terminal with her and the airport police.
With a few minutes remaining before her flight boarded, Rob said his good-byes there and kissed her one last time.
“You’ll be fine, baby girl. I’ll be there before you know it. You’ll be safe.”
“What good is it if I’m forced into exile from my own life?”
He caressed her cheek. “I love you.”
“I love you, too, Sir,” she whispered.
One of the officers escorted her down the gangway and they lost sight of her around a turn. When the officer reappeared, they started boarding the other passengers.
The airport police and TSA agents stood there with them while Thomas and Rob watched until the plane left.
Rob was assured that an airport police and TSA escort would be awaiting her at the gate when the plane arrived in Denver, and would stay with her until she and Bill caught their flight out.
That left Rob feeling a little better.
Neither man said much on the ride back south.
“You know this is for the best,” Thomas said after they’d crossed the Skyway. “You know this is the only way to keep her safe for now.”