Page 13 of Montana Delta Rescue
She drove until she saw a store where she could buy a cheap new cell phone and then she pulled into the parking lot. Less than thirty minutes later she had a new phone and had ditched the fancy old one. Into the trash can outside the shopping mall.
Let him think I’m shopping here a long time. Or that I’ve lost the phone.
She’d written down the phone numbers she wanted to keep, so she would be able to call Sadie again from the road. But she would have to watch her minutes as this phone was not unlimited like her old phone had been.
Back on the road, she hoped no one would figure out where she was and follow her. Nervous, she kept looking into her rear-view mirror.
About an hour out of town, she called Sadie again.
“Hey Sadie,” she said. “Something weird happened with Tony.”
“Uh oh,” Sadie said. “Tell me.”
“He called me after I talked to you and then we made dinner plans as if I’d still be in town. After that I started to head your way and he called me again. Said he knew where I was and that he’d put a tracker on my phone so he could always know where I was.”
“Oh, that’s not good,” Sadie said.
“I know,” Marilyn said. “But I ditched the phone outside a store and bought a new one. This number is the new one for me now. Don’t use the old one.”
“Got it,” Sadie said. “Be careful. I wish Hank or one of the guys was with you.”
“I will be careful,” Marilyn said. “I couldn’t wait for one of them to come out to get me. I had to go.”
“Hang on a minute,” Sadie said. She spoke to someone in their office.
Marilyn waited patiently.
“Okay,” Sadie said. “Hank wants you to switch out your car for a rental car as soon as possible. He says if Tony would put a tracker on your phone, he’s probably got something on your car too. It’s best not to chance it. He could follow you out to Montana if he knows where you’re going.”
Oh wow. I hadn’t thought of that.
“I will pick up a rental car in the next town,” Marilyn said. “But won’t he be able to track my info through the rental car place? I’ll have to use my credit card.”
“I don’t know, but I can ask Hank,” Sadie said. “Don’t tell anyone where you’re really going. Let them think you’re going in a different direction.”
* * *
An hour later,in the next town at the rental car place, Marilyn filled out the forms and used her credit card. Soon she was driving one of the smallest rental cars they had. A new red one. Already she felt more confidant.
Her confidence in escaping Tony and his cronies was short lived as she glanced in the mirror for maybe the hundredth time since she’d first suspected someone was following her. It was not paranoia.
A black sedan was following her.
Marilyn looked into her rear-view mirror and wondered about the black sedan two cars behind her. The sedan kept up a steady pace behind a white Volkswagen and a red Camaro behind her rental car.
No matter what lane she got into, the sedan followed.
Tony’s restaurant, Santoro’s Red Gondola, made him a lot of money. He could easily hire someone to follow her, if he hadn’t directed one of his own employees to do it.
If the sedan was still behind her when she stopped for gas, she’d have to do something to lose it. Though what, she didn’t know.
* * *
Sadie cameinto the room as Hank and Rock each prepared their coffee before the Brotherhood Protectors team meeting, which would start in five minutes. Sadie walked up to Hank, holding out a note and said, “The mail just came. I need you to look at this.”
Both men looked at her, the serious tone in her voice drawing their full attention.
“What is it?” Hank held out his hand.
