Chapter 48
Bright and early the next morning, Rachel dragged her luggage down to the lobby and waited as Red pulled the rental car around to pick her up.
“Ready for our flight home?” he asked.
“Yes. It’ll be good to see Mags and get back in the groove of things. Tracking down Scotty Jensen is high on my list of things to do.”
“You haven’t heard from him again?” Red asked.
“No, he hasn’t called. I don’t know whether I should be thankful or worried.”
“He’s a nut job, that’s for sure,” Red said as he drove them to the airport.
The drive took about twenty minutes. The airport was busy, and they had just a few minutes to check in and get to their gate.
“Want me to return the car while you check us in?” Rachel offered.
“Yeah. Drop me off here.” Red grabbed their bags and headed inside.
As Rachel continued to the car rental drop-off, her cell phone rang. She looked at the caller ID. Unknown number. A chill ran up her spine. Was it Scotty again?
“Rachel Scott,” she answered.
“I know where Mallory is.”
Rachel slammed on her brakes and pulled the car over in front of the car rental return.
“What? Who is this?” Rachel asked her caller.
A woman’s voice answered her. “I only have a minute so listen carefully because I’m only saying this once. Mallory’s in Atlanta. I have the address.”
Rachel scrambled for a pen and piece of paper, her heart hammering against her chest.
“Give it to me,” she said, her hands shaking.
As she wrote the address down and repeated it back, she realized that this could be just a crank call. Scotty’s way of messing with her and throwing her off the track. Then suddenly she remembered Verdene’s advice. “Go with your gut,” she’d told Rachel.
“You have to come alone and you only have a few hours before Mallory is taken away again, so you have to hurry. No police, no FBI, or you will never find her. Understand?”
“Yes,” Rachel said. As the caller clicked off, Rachel realized she had an important decision to make. Red was inside the airport terminal waiting for her.
Without stopping to think, Rachel plugged the Atlanta address into the car’s GPS unit. It would take her about eight hours to drive there. She quickly used her cell phone to check the flights to Atlanta from the New Orleans airport. The next flight wasn’t for another four hours, and that was if she could get on. And if she went into the airport terminal, she would have to explain to Red that she was catching a different flight to a different city, and he would demand an explanation. He would talk her out of going or insist on going with her. The woman said to go alone. She had to wonder if this was a ploy of Scotty’s. Did he put someone up to calling her? Sending Rachel on a wild-goose chase? Rachel shook those thoughts from her mind. She remembered Verdene’s advice about trusting her instincts. And her instincts said to go for it.
The rental car attendant was approaching her car. The young man looked confused as she closed the door and started up the engine. Rachel quickly tore off another piece of paper and hastily wrote a note, folding a fifty-dollar bill around it. Rolling down her window, she handed it to the attendant.
Reading his name tag, she addressed him by name. “Shelton, change of plans. I’ve got to drive to Atlanta. I’ll drop the car off at the airport there instead. I need you to give this note to my associate, who will be waiting for me at the Delta check-in terminal. His name is Red Cooper.” She gave the attendant a description of Red. She knew Red would be pissed. Rachel hoped he would forgive her once she called him later and explained.
With a deep breath, she rolled up the window and sped off toward Atlanta. This she had to do alone.