Page 91 of Hidden Depths

“How?”

“I’ll go look.”

“No. Don’t do that to yourself. I’m going to call my boss and let him know. This changes things.”

He lifted his phone to his ear, but she stopped him, stealing his phone and hanging it up. “You can’t.”

“I have to. We can trust Armstrong.”

“What if it gets back to Sheriff Dodd?”

“It won’t.”

“How can you know that for sure? We don’t know who’s involved down here.”

“I can tell Armstrong to keep it under wraps. I’ll explain everything.”

“Will that be enough?”

“We don’t have a choice. Armstrong has already alerted the Florida office. They’ll be sending down a team soon, but I don’t know how long that will take. We need to speed things up.”

“What about this friend of Peter’s? You said she’ll be here soon.”

“Yes, Agent Taylor is supposed to be arriving today, but this is bigger than that. This goes beyond this small town. Sam Lansky escaped from a federal prison.”

“Please, Tom.” Her eyes filled with tears. “We can’t let him get away. We have to end this. Now that I know he’s free, I’ll never be able to rest.”

“Of course you will. And there’s no reason for him to get away.”

“Please. You and that DEA agent can do it, can’t you? You’re both good. Peter wouldn’t have sent her if she wasn’t.”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“I promise I’ll stay right out of your way. I’ll make sure I’m safe the whole time.”

Tom was confident he could do it without Armstrong’s help, but he didn’t like putting off getting a team to look into Lansky’s escape, and Armstrong would be furious when he found out. But they still had some time.

“Fine,” he said. “We’ll give it twenty-four hours. That’s it. The weather’s closing in anyway, which will bring things to a standstill. But if we can’t get anywhere by then, I’m calling it in.”

“Thank you.”

“Keep in mind that Agent Taylor may not be on board with this, and we can’t move forward without her cooperation.”

“Okay, but if she is?”

“Then, if we can subdue them with the two of us—”

“Yes. I’ll stay out of it.”

“I’m holding you to that. If you step out of line, I’ll knock you unconscious and ship you to Peter, if that’s what it takes.”

They both turned when they heard shouts from the shed. “Give me a sec,” he said. But when he climbed through the fence, he found Sara right behind him.

“What did I just say?” he whispered.

“I’m not getting involved. But I want to know what’s happening.”

A rattle was followed by something metal slamming against the shed wall.

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