Hunting Truth (32 page)

Emergency Room my ass!
“Chad! Angel! Come here
quickly!” I yelled as loudly as I could down the hallway, my finger
reaching for the call button.

I saw them emerge from the living room,
looking confused and somewhat anxious.

“Did you come over in the van?”

“Yes,” replied Chad as Angel nodded.

“
Good. Where’s it parked?” I demanded,
knowing what a nightmare it was to get parked nearby and wondering
how much time we’d have to waste getting to it.

“
We couldn’t get parked so we asked the
doorman who let us park in the underground garage,” answered
Chad.

“
Why?” asked Angel, looking very
worried.

“
I
’ll explain as we drive,” I said as the elevator
arrived.

We got in and I pushed the button for the
garage, grateful that Lucas had given me a key.

We descended quickly but I asked them to
remain still when the doors opened. I cautiously peeked out to
check that Lucas and Carter had gone.
My heart started to hammer when I saw Lucas’ Lexus
parked in its usual space, but then I caught sight of him climbing
into the passenger side of a gray van that was nondescript looking
except, if you looked closely, then you’d notice it had several
antennae mounted on the roof. There was only one other van in the
garage so I assumed that was the one Chad had hired. I whispered
for Chad and Angel to wait a second then, as soon as the gray van
moved off, I started for the large white van, shouting for them to
follow me as I cradled my arm to help alleviate the dull throbbing
in my shoulder.

As soon as we were all inside, Chad pulled
off slowly.
“Get your
foot on the gas, Chad,” I instructed, wishing that I was insured to
drive it instead. “We’re heading to Walton Park in Orange County.
I’ll explain as we drive but, for now, drive it like you stole it.
If you see a gray van, similar to that one, that has several
antennae, follow it but not closely enough to make it
obvious.”

“
Ooh th
is sounds exciting!” cried Angel, clapping her
hands.

“
It sounds like trouble,” corrected Chad.
“Start explaining . . . and it had better be good.”

By the time we’d crossed the George
Washington Bridge and left the Hudson behind, I’d briefly explained
about Lucas’ tormented past, his ownership of Odyssey and Joel’s
blackmail threats. When I told them that Joel had hinted that he
had Ava and Scott, Angel demanded that we call the cops. I was
forced to explain about the caliber of some of the members of
Odyssey and the potential fallout from that.

“
But that
’s crazy,” she shrieked. “Lucas is putting Ava and
Scott in a potentially dangerous situation because he wants to
protect his reputation.”

“
Lucas has been instructed specifically not
to go to the police. If he does, and Joel finds out before the
police do anything, he feels that they’d be in much greater danger.
He also has a team, led by Carter, with at least the same level of
expertise as the police department, but who aren’t bound by red
tape so can act faster. If he went to the police, God only knows
how long it would take them to do anything. The deadline for Lucas
to hand over all of his assets is tomorrow, after all.”

She turned to me and gripped my upper
arms, saying, “Issy, you’ve got to—”

I cried out when pain flared in my
shoulder. She abruptly let go, looking shocked.

“I barely touched you,” she accused.

“
I know. I hurt my shoulder when I fell
awkwardly earlier.
It
hurts whenever I move my arm.”

“
What?” Chad shrieked. “You can’t move your
shoulder? Some use you’re going to be to us on tour.”

“
Chad!” scolded Angel.
“Issy
’s hurt and she
didn’t do it on purpose!” She turned to me. “Have you had it looked
at?”

“
No, there hasn
’t been time. I only did it shortly before you
arrived. It might be fine in the morning.”

“Yeah, and it might not,” muttered Chad.

Angel rolled her eyes but otherwise
ignored him. “I think we should turn back. If Lucas’ team are on
it, what use will we be if they find Joel? Especially if you’re
already hurt?”

I attempted to shrug but instantly
regretted it. I took a deep breath and replied, “I just want to be
close by if they do. If we can observe from a distance and it all
goes wrong, I can call the cops if I need to.”

“So we stay in the van?” Angel asked,
although it sounded more like a statement of fact.

“
You ladies will, but if it kicks off, I’m
going to get Scott out of there,” Chad muttered.

“
Oh honey, I know he’s your friend but you
could end up putting both of you in danger. Joel sounds unhinged.
Hell bent on making Lucas suffer. For all you know, he may be
plotting to ensure Denial’s downfall as well, since Lucas is partly
responsible for your success,” she cautioned.

“
That’s why I need to get Scott out of
there unharmed. No Scott, no tour. Especially since our backup
drummer is now out of the picture.”

I gritted my teeth at his selfish
attitude. “Chad, you can’t go blundering in there. Leave it to
Lucas and his team—they know what they’re doing. Some of the team
are former FBI, some former marines . . . you could compromise
everyone’s safety. That’s assuming we actually track Joel’s
location down.”

I felt the van accelerate. I looked across
at Chad. “For now, all we can do is try to spot the gray van that
Lucas and Carter are using. We need to follow it at a safe
distance, that’s our only hope of finding Scott. And remember,
Carter’s an expert. He’ll soon know if he’s being followed.
Hopefully, he won’t be expecting anyone to follow them but all the
same, if we see it, stay back.”

We sped along Route 17
, each of us attempting to spot
Carter’s van. We were just north of Paramus when Chad cried out
that he could see it. I again cautioned him against getting too
close but Angel pointed out that we needed to get close enough to
check it was the right van and that we could pull back once we’d
confirmed it. Silence descended as we crept closer. I could feel my
adrenaline beginning to pump.

“
That
’s it,” shouted Angel, making me jump.

“How do you know?” I
asked, squinting my eyes to attempt to check the roof.

“
It’s got an antenna on
the top,” she replied, sounding very pleased with
herself.

Her eyesight must have been
better than mine because I couldn’t yet see it clearly.

“
Is there just one?
Carter’s has several.”

“
Oh yeah . . . I forgot
about that. No that one just has a single antenna.” She sounded
bitterly disappointed.

“
Crap,” muttered Chad. “I
can see it now too. Definitely just one.”

“
Pass it when you can,” I
instructed. “Let’s make sure it’s not the one and get it behind us
so it doesn’t distract us again. There can’t be many gray vans,
surely.”

It wasn’t Carter’s. It was
driven by a young guy with a female passenger. The air of
disappointment was almost palpable, and not helped by the
aftereffects of the adrenaline surge. I found it increasingly
difficult to concentrate on our goal and not get distracted. I saw
Angel relax and yawn a few times too. Thankfully, Chad appeared to
suffer less; perhaps driving helped him to remain alert. On the
approach to Ramapo, he quietly announced that he could see a gray
van with multiple antennae on the roof. Angel and I sat up
instantly and sure enough, there was the van a few hundred meters
ahead. Angel confirmed that it had several roof-mounted
antennae.

“
Sh
ould I get a little closer?” asked Chad.

“
No. I think
it
’s
best if we stay well back and keep an eye on it,” I replied,
thinking there was a real chance that Carter would realize he was
being followed. We kept our distance until the gray van turned on
to County Road 19. Angel whooped, knowing that it was indeed
heading towards Walton Park, until Chad pointed out that there was
much less traffic and it was much more likely that we’d be
spotted.

He backed off a little more but
began to worry about how we’d be able to follow them without being
detected once we got to Walton Park; especially since, as far as we
knew, Lucas and Carter didn’t have an exact location to head for.
By the time we neared Walton Park, he was visibly uptight. The task
of not getting close enough to be detected but not falling behind
far enough to lose contact with the gray van was a difficult one.
He cursed loudly when we headed into the outskirts and there was
virtually no traffic to hide behind. Once we skirted Walton Lake,
there were too many junctions so Chad had to get closer to the van
to avoid losing it.

Abruptly, the gray van slammed
on its brakes causing Chad to curse violently. He ordered me and
Angel to get down before he overtook it
. The pain in my shoulder when I
ducked down made me feel nauseous. Thankfully dusk was falling so I
doubted he’d be highly visible to the occupants of the van as he
drove past. He took the next turn on the left and I forced myself
back upright, gritting my teeth against the pain.

“
Why the hell did you do
that? Now we
’ve lost it,” cried Angel as she climbed back on to the
seat and smoothed down her hair.

Chad had slumped over the
steering wheel and when he turned to her, I could see that his face
was clammy with sweat. “What did you want me to do? Stand on the
brakes so we could announce our presence? Maybe even get out and
say hi?”

“Of course not!” she
retorted angrily.

“
Well
, what the hell was I supposed to do then, Miss
Know-It-All?” he snapped.

“
Guys”, I
shouted. “Can we
just concentrate on what we do now, please?”

Angel lifted her chin to signal
her belief that she was in the right and Chad
’s sulky expression conveyed his
annoyance with her but their disagreement ceased.

“
I think we should turn
around and pull back on to the road so we can observe the van from
a distance. If they drive past, we all duck down,” I
suggested.

“
I think that’d make them
suspicious if they notice us. Especially if we have to try to get
close to them again when they move,” said Angel, shaking her
head.

We all thought for a few
seconds. “We can’t just sit here. They could’ve moved off already
for all we know and we’re sitting here like idiots,” muttered Chad.
“I could try sneaking out on foot and peering around the building
on the corner, just to check they’re still there. I’ll be far less
noticeable than the van would be with the headlights illuminated.
Plus, if we drive back we’ll be facing the wrong way if they move
on. They’d have to drive past us and we’d probably be
seen.”

I shrugged, devoid of any
better ideas. “Okay then. Just be careful.”

Angel
’s eyes were wide with apprehension
when he climbed down from the van. “Please take care,” she
called.

Angel lowered her window and
poked her head out to watch him walk down the sidewalk behind
us.
I
carefully slid over to the driver’s seat and attempted to do the
same but the body of the van was blocking my view. My shoulder
ached with every move. I sat properly in my seat, preparing to
await Angel’s commentary that would undoubtedly begin any second.
Movement on the other side of the road caught my eye. I looked
across and could scarcely believe my eyes. A woman who looked like
Ava was walking past, presumably from a nearby convenience store
judging from the bag of groceries that she carried. And I mean, she
looked exactly like Ava. She’d been level with me when I’d noticed
her so by the time my brain had registered her similarity to Ava, I
was looking at her from behind. My hand went automatically to open
the door, but before I did, I remembered why we were there and
thought it wise to check around for Joel—without risking being seen
and recognized.

I sat back in my seat and
scanned the area in front of the van. Daylight was fading fast but,
from what I could see, it looked just like any respectable
neighborhood with houses on both sides of the street.
Apart from the woman
walking away from me, I could see no other activity. There were
cars on driveways and most of the houses had light seeping through
or around closed drapes, but nobody was outside. Then I looked in
the wing mirror so I could get a view of what was behind us on my
side. There was nothing.

“Angel,” I hissed quietly.
“What can you see in your mirror?”

“
Not a lot. It’s getting
too dark,” she replied. “Why are we whispering?”

“Do you see that woman—” I
began, looking back in front.

I heard more than saw
Angel looking around
her but my attention was firmly fixed in front. The woman had
disappeared. “Dammit!” I cursed, as frustration fought with the
adrenaline that had been building since I’d seen her.