Read Online Long Gone by Marliss Melton, Janie Hawkins - Free Book Online

before each trial. When Higgins came to me with the suspicion that someone was monitoring your calls, I knew it had to be someone on the inside, someone high up, like Milton. Together, we devised a plan to leverage evidence against him.”
    “A plan,” Drake repeated as pieces of the puzzle fell together. “Wait a minute, you set up Skyler intentionally?”
    “Yes.” Higgins clasped his hands together. “We called you several times from Myrtle Beach, using Skyler’s calling card and hanging up the same way she had. If our theory was right, Centurions would show up looking for her. Sure enough, they did.”
    Drake glared at his father. “You knew all this when I called you for help,” he accused “Why the hell didn’t you tell me?”
    Connor grimaced. “You had your phone with you the whole time, didn’t you? I couldn’t take the chance that Milton was listening in. He’d know I was on to him.”
    “Don’t blame your father.” Higgins jumped to Connor’s defense. “It’s my fault our plan took a wrong turn.” Pulling off his sunglasses, he sent Skyler a remorseful look. “I should have told Skyler what we were up to. That way she would have stayed in the safe room like she was supposed to.”
    “Why didn’t you?” Skyler demanded, her voice quavering.
    Higgins grimaced. “I didn’t want you to panic. I figured as long as you went straight into your safe room, you’d be fine and I’d explain everything when I came to collect you. My men and I were right outside the entire time.” His hazel eyes swiveled toward Drake. “When the intruders went into her house, we bugged their van. The minute they left, I went inside to get Skyler from the safe room. But by the time I got there, she was gone. She must have slipped right past me.”
    Drake shook his head at the man’s incompetence. “What if they’d grabbed her before she went into the closet? What if they shot and killed her on sight?”
    Higgins broke eye contact. “That’s why we built the safe room,” he muttered. “So that wouldn’t happen.”
    “How did bugging their van help?” Skyler wanted to know.    
    “It allowed our analysts to record the call they made reporting their failure to grab you. The voice on the other end of the call belonged to Bill Milton.”
    With much to think about, Drake rubbed Skyler’s stiff back. At least the so-called leak in WITSEC proved non-existent. It was his cell phone that had been compromised, pointing Centurions to the cities from which Skyler had called him. Knowing that, he felt better about sending her back with Higgins
    “Don’t you ever use Sky as bait again,” he warned the agent. 
    “Not going to happen,” Higgins promised. “I promise you’ll be safe from now on,” he said to Skyler .
    Connor pushed to his feet and started pacing. “ Skyler said you tossed your cell phone into the back of a pickup truck?”
    “That’s right. One with out-of-state tags.”
    “Good. Then Milton never heard this conversation. All he knows is that you called me this morning and I flew you down here and together we freed Skyler and arrested Jameson. Jameson’s arrest is bound to make him nervous, though. When Milton sees the writing on the wall, he’ll try to flee the country.”
    “Do you have enough evidence to get him indicted?”
    Skyler’s frightened question pulled a reassuring smile out of Connor. “Possibly,” he conceded. “Jameson is squealing like a stuck pig, but he hasn’t fingered Milton outright—if he even knows who he is. At least what he’s told the interrogators lines up with the evidence we already have.”
    “Why did the Culprit give Skyler to Jameson, anyway?” Drake wondered out loud.
    Connor shrugged. “It was an agreement they came up with, one that kept Milton’s hands clean.”
    Drake felt his agitation rising. “How do you know Milton hasn’t fled the country already?”
    Connor patted his cell phone. “Because his wife hasn’t called me