She needed to tell someone about this, but who? The local police department would be the logical choice, but how likely were they to take her seriously? Their mayor was planning to kill the librarian? Plus he’s smuggling in Russians? Sure. Very believable.
At the very least she needed to warn Daisy. Jennifer reached for the bedside phone, but stopped before lifting the receiver. If she could listen in on Temple’s calls, he could listen in on hers.
She had until lunchtime; that was when Sykes was going to try to grab Daisy.
Whom to call? The Jackson County Sheriff’s Department? The FBI in Huntsville? Or Immigration? Not the sheriff’s department, she thought; with the kind of network Temple had built, they were too close for comfort. Temple spent a lot of time in Huntsville, though; could he have any influence on the federal level? Surely not. Still, the last thing she wanted to do was underestimate him; she’d have this one chance, and one chance only, to get away from him and not completely lose what little affection her children had left for her.
She tried to think, something she hadn’t let herself do in far too long. She had no friends whom she could call for help or advice. Her parents had moved to Florida, and her one brother hadn’t spoken to her in years; she didn’t think she even had his phone number. When had she become so isolated?
She had to do something, even if it was nothing more than drive to the library and warn Daisy. She wouldn’t even have to do that. She could just wait until Temple left the house, so he couldn’t overhear her, and then call to warn Daisy. That was okay for the short term, but she had to figure out something that would stop Elton Phillips and her husband, once and for all.
Evelyn dropped what she was doing, got dressed, and came right over. As soon as she arrived at Daisy’s house, she fixed Jack with a mother’s gimlet stare and said, “What’s going on that you thought I might be followed, why shouldn’t we tell anyone where Daisy’s moved to, and why did I have to erase her number off my Caller ID?”
“It’s possible she witnessed a murder,” Jack said as he took his plate to the sink.
“My goodness,” Evelyn said weakly, sinking down into the chair he had vacated. Midas bounced around her feet in exuberant greeting, and she automatically leaned down to pet him.
“The body was found in Madison County, so I’m taking her to Huntsville to give a statement. What has me worried is that someone got her tag number and had it traced, so someone may be trying to find her. I might be overreacting, but until this is settled, I’m keeping her hidden.”
“This is my daughter you’re talking about You aren’t overreacting. Do whatever you have to do to keep her safe, you hear me?”
“Yes, ma’am. In the meantime, warn everyone in your family not to answer any questions about her. Don’t give anyone any information, not even the mayor. He may be involved.”
“My goodness,” Evelyn said again. “Temple Nolan?”
“He’s the one who had me trace the tag number.”
“There’s probably a perfectly good explanation—”
“Would you risk Daisy’s life on that possibility?”
“No, of course not.”
While they had been talking, Daisy had been methodically cleaning up the kitchen, her brow furrowed with thought. “If Mayor Nolan’s involved, then he knows all of us: Mother, Aunt Jo, Beth, me. None of them are safe, either, if the object is to get to me. He’d know I would do anything to protect them.” She looked at Jack; the colors of her eyes intensified in her pale face. “Can you protect all of them? Not just Beth but Nathan and the boys, too?”
He hesitated, then told her the truth. “For a while. Then money problems start kicking in. Deputies can’t be indefinitely assigned to guard duty.”
“Then unless I can make a positive identification of one of the three men from police photos, or they happen to solve the crime and it was someone else entirely, we’re looking at a long-term situation.”
He nodded, his gaze holding hers. He wished she hadn’t made such an accurate assessment, but she was too intelligent and well read not to have eventually figured it out anyway. Watching her expressive face, he could practically read the thoughts chasing through her mind.
“Don’t borrow trouble; we’ve got enough to handle right now. We’ll do this one step at the time. “You make the statement, give them descriptions of the three men, and we’ll take it from there.”
“All right, but for now, I don’t just want my family guarded, I want them gone.” She turned to Evelyn. “How about a week in the Smokies? You and Aunt Jo, and Beth’s entire family”
“I’m not leaving you with this going on!” Evelyn said fiercely.
“I’ll be safer if you do,” Daisy pointed out, with irrefutable logic.
Evelyn hesitated, torn between common sense and a mother’s instinct to fight for her child.
“For one thing,” Daisy continued, “guarding one person would be much easier for the police than guarding seven. For another, I won’t be distracted if I know you’re safe, so I won’t be as likely to make any mistakes.”
“She’s right,” Jack said, throwing his weight behind her arguments. “Pack up and leave town as fast as you can. I can assign a couple of officers to guard you until you do, and have the Huntsville department do the same for Beth’s family.”
“What about the puppy?” Evelyn looked down at Midas, who was gnawing on one of the chair legs. “Who will take care of him?”