“No, tell him we’re prayin’ but he’s got better things to do than try to make me feel better.”
“Right,” Chace mumbled. “Thank you for your time.”
“I’ll be here,” she replied.
“All right. Good-bye Ms. Rodriguez.”
“Good-bye, Detective Keaton.”
Then he heard her disconnect, his eyes went from where they wandered to the counter back to Walker to see he had his home phone to his ear.
“Tate?” Walker said. “Ella says he’s takin’ her to Dallas. In about three seconds I’m in the Snake.”
Then he touched a button on the phone, tossed it on the counter, leaned forward, pulled his phone out of Chace’s hand and moved.
Chace called after him, “Walker, let the police deal with this.”
“You tell your brothers, they find me, flip on their sirens, I ain’t stoppin’,” Walker said to the stairs then he jogged down them.
“Fuck,” Chace whispered, dug his own phone out, flipped it open, called the Station and told them to inform local Departments and the Highway Patrol that a black Dodge Viper with silver racing stripes would likely be detected greatly exceeding the speed limit and if they caught him on radar they followed him but let him be.
Then he turned his eyes to Frank who was staring down the stairs and called his name.
“Guy’s headin’ to Dallas. Tate Jackson is heading to Dallas and Ty Walker is heading to Dallas and so am I,” he told Frank and Frank jerked up his chin.
Chace Keaton walked swiftly out the backdoor but not so swiftly he didn’t see the photo in the windowsill of Walker and Lexie standing close, arms around each other, beautiful landscape in the back, Lexie Walker smiling bright and happy at the camera, clearly exactly where she wanted to be and where that was was not standing in front of beautiful landscape.
The image burned in his brain, he made it through the door, jogged to his SUV, swung in and headed out.
* * * * *
Tate
His cell beside him rang, he nabbed it, looked at the display, flipped it open and put it to his ear.
“Keaton,” he greeted.
“News just in, Tate. Duane Martinez was picked up yesterday in Oklahoma.”
Tate blinked at his windshield then asked, “What?”
“Highway Patrol caught him speeding. He didn’t stop. Fifteen minute high-speed chase, he crashed but was unharmed, took off on foot, they got him. Since he freaked, he luckily left the weapon that did Peña in his SUV and didn’t have a chance to use it again. Took some time to process him, run his prints, find out they’d get to prosecute him after Dallas did and they informed Dallas, Dallas sent boys out to get him. This we just got. He never made it to Colorado.”
“Then who has Lexie?” Tate asked.
Keaton was silent a moment then, his voice deeper, pissed but controlled, “One, Rowdy Crabtree. Two, Arnie Fuller. Or three, my father.”
Fucking hell.
“Break that down for me, Chace,” Tate ordered, searching for an exit sign to turn the f**k around a-fucking-gain.
“Rowdy is freaked and f**ked. Arnie is missing. And I know Newcomb slipped that video to Walker and Lexie so it stands to reason that my father would find out that same thing. He’ll want Walker to collect all copies and return them to him and he’ll want to assure Walker and Lexie do not talk. And he’ll do what he can to make that happen.”
“You talk to your Dad?” Tate asked.
“Called four times. He’s not answering. Called my Mom, she says he’s at work. I don’t want to worry her so I left it at that.”
“He usually take your calls?”
“Not even close. Then again, I got nothin’ to say to the man so I don’t usually call him.”
Tate thought that was likely the f**king truth.
“Why Arnie? He did this, it would be a serious f**ked play.”
“Arnie hates Ty Walker.”
“Think that’s been established, Chace, but the man’s not dumb. I’ll repeat, he did this, it would be a serious f**ked play. He’s already a national pariah and he’s an ex-cop. He wants to do everything he can to avoid jail time, not buy himself more.”
“Arnie hates Ty Walker, Tate, but he hates Irving Walker more.”
Tate spotted the exit sign, one mile ahead, he processed that but his mind was on the conversation.
“What?”
“For Arnie, black doesn’t mix with white, ever. And, for Arnie, black definitely does not mix with Reece Rayner, the woman he had his eye on, the woman whose pants he wanted into before or after he put his ring on her finger, the woman who said no to him more than once and the woman who ended up knocked up by and married to a black guy.”
Tate stared at the road and whispered, “You are f**kin’ shittin’ me.”
“Nope,” Keaton told him. “Ty Walker never committed a crime in or around Carnal that I knew of but he had a file in the office, in Arnie’s desk, thick and always gettin’ thicker. Arnie kept his eye on Ty while Arnie nursed his vengeance and bided his time. He wanted to f**k father and son, put both in their place and remind Reece of her mistake all at the same time. What happened to Walker was not random. Not by a long shot.”
Tate knew what this meant. And Tate knew this was not good.
“So, Ty bests him, publicly humiliates him in a huge way, he breaks and now he’s unpredictable,” Tate deduced.
“My guess, yes. I don’t put anything past my father but he usually throws money at shit so this is not his style. If Rowdy Crabtree has one working brain cell, he’s in Brazil by now. Arnie Fuller is f**ked, his brother is f**ked, both are goin’ down and both are goin’ somewhere they do not want to go and very well might not make it back from. He has nothin’ to lose.”
Arnold Fuller had nothing to lose but Alexa Berry Walker and her husband Tyrell had everything to lose.
Including the child Ty told him a couple of days ago his wife was carrying.
Fuck.
Chace spoke in his ear. “Tate, I’m tellin’ you this and not Walker because he’s on his way to Dallas. My opinion, what Fuller’s already done to him coupled with this, that may be the best thing while we round Fuller up and get Lexie. Give him time to cool down before he gets back. Wouldn’t matter if it was Fuller or anyone did it, gives him time to cool down. But it is not my pregnant wife who’s missin’ and you got experience with that so I’m handin’ you the ball to make the call. Whatever you decide, you take that man’s back, I’ll do what I can to take it too if he hits Carnal and he’s close when we get her back to him and catch the f**ker who took her.”