He walked back to his truck trying to keep his nerves steady. He climbed in the rig, fired it up and pulled away. As he steered one-handed along the winding country road, he used his free hand to flip open the glove box. He pulled out his nine-millimeter pistol and laid it on the seat next to him.

John Carr here I come.

Chapter 58

CHAPTER 58

ANNABELLE LOOKED DOWN at her vibrating phone. “Who would be calling me in the middle of the night?”

“Maybe it’s Reuben?” said Caleb as he drove along.

“No. I don’t recognize the number.” She flipped open the phone.

“Hello?”

“Annabelle? How’s it going?”

She snapped, “What the hell do you want?”

Alex Ford said pleasantly, “It’s nice to hear your voice too.”

“I’m a little busy, Alex.”

“I’m sure you are.”

“Wait a minute. Where are you calling from? I didn’t recognize the number.”

“A payphone.”

“Why a payphone?”

“Because I’m pretty sure my home, cell and office phones are being tapped.”

“And why is that?” she said slowly. “Is Knox on your case still?”

“That’s why I’m calling. I got a frantic phone call from Knox’s daughter, Melanie. She’s a lawyer in D.C. Her dad’s disappeared.”

“No he hasn’t. He’s after Oliver and we’re after Knox.”

“And where is all this taking place?”

“In the boondocks of southwest Virginia. So you can tell little Melanie that her daddy is just fine. For now at least.”

“That’s not all. His house was turned over by someone looking for something, and I’m not talking your random burglary. And on top of that I had a visitor, a man named Macklin Hayes.”

“Doesn’t ring a bell.”

“No reason it should. He’s a former army three-star who’s now on the intelligence side. His rep is like a Carter Gray only more sinister and evil. He’s also Knox’s boss and he doesn’t know where his guy is, which means Knox is roaming free.”

“Why would he be doing that?”

“He might if he found out something that made him uncomfortable about what was really going on with all this. I don’t think Knox is a killer. He’s a tracker, and if Hayes put him on Oliver, he must be the best they have on that score. It seems clear that when Knox finds Oliver, he was to call in Hayes’ heavy artillery to finish the job.”

“What would Knox have found that would make him start freelancing?”

“No clue. How close are you to finding Oliver?”

“Hard to say. We narrowed it down to four towns up here—at least we think that’s the case. We’ve cleared two of them and we’re heading to a third now.”

“Caleb and Reuben with you?”

“Of course. We’re the Camel Club, remember?”

“Or what’s left of it.”