“Now why don’t you tell me what this is all about,” said Tyree.

“This is sort of confidential,” she said, looking at Trimble. “No offense, but I’d like to speak to the sheriff in private.”

Trimble got up. “We can talk more later, Sheriff.” He glanced over at the photo. From this angle he could see it was the man he knew as Ben. “Maybe you and I can talk later too, ma’am.”

Once he’d left Annabelle said, “My name is Susan Hunter. Here’s my ID.” She handed him across a professionally done and totally fake driver’s license. “The man in the photo is my father. He might go by Oliver or John, or maybe another name.”

“Why so many names?” asked Tyree as he studied the license before handing it back.

“My father worked for the government many years ago. He left under somewhat unusual circumstances. Ever since then he’s sort of been on the run.”

“Unusual circumstances? Is he a criminal?”

“No, these unusual circumstances are that enemies of this country are looking to kill him because of what he did to them.”

“Enemies? Like who?”

“Like governments, the names of which you would recognize. I don’t claim to know the whole story, only that between the ages of six and when I started college, we moved fourteen times. Different names, histories, jobs were lined up for my parents, we had handlers.”

“Then y’all were sorta like in witness protection?”

“Sort of, yes. My dad was a real American hero who did incredibly dangerous work for his country. That work came with a price, though. We’ve been paying that price for a long time.”

Tyree rubbed his chin. “That might explain a lot.”

Annabelle leaned forward eagerly. “So he has been here?”

He leaned back in his chair. “He was, yes. Called himself Ben, Ben Thomas. How’d you track him up here?”

“Something he managed to send me, a coded message. But it hasn’t been easy. I’ve been to just about every small town in the general vicinity. I was running out of hope.”

“Well, like I said, he was here, but he’s not here now.”

“Where did he go?”

“He was in the hospital the last time I saw him.”

“Hospital? Was he hurt?”

“Got himself nearly blown up. He was okay, though. I went by the hospital early this morning to see him but he was gone.”

“Gone voluntarily?”

“I don’t know the answer to that.”

“You said he was nearly blown up?”

“We’ve had some strange things happening here. Haven’t gotten my arms around it. Your dad was helping me. And he’s not the only one missing. Fellow named Danny Riker was at that hospital too. Had a guard posted to watch him because some folks tried to kill him. But Danny slipped by my guy and he’s gone too.”