The Evasion by Adrienne Giordano Page A

there?”
    “I am.”
    “Chuck,” Gabe said, “we’ve got to let them pick up that shipment. If we alert them it’s been seized, our guy is in the wind. If we don’t alert them, we have time to saddle up S.W.A.T. and hit the final delivery location. That way, everyone’s surprised and Martinson doesn’t have time to run. Assuming he’s at the delivery location. Either way, we’ll get a bead on him and we’ll still have the shipment.”
    As good as that argument sounded, Jo bit her lip. A whole lot of politics would have to be played to pull this one off.
    “Sorry, man, that’s not my call. I had to kick it upstairs.”
    Gabe glanced at her and shook his head. The fastest way to reach Chuck’s boss was through Tom or Bev.
    And they needed to do it fast.
    “Thank you for the update,” Jo said. “We appreciate all you’ve done. We’ll be in touch.”
    Before she disconnected, Gabe was jabbing at his own phone. “I’m calling Tom. You call Bev.”
    Perfection. That’s what they were together. Sharp minds, sharper instincts. No matter how much they disagreed about her risky behavior, when they worked together, they made magic.
    “I got voicemail,” Gabe said.
    “Me too.”
    So much for magic . They both left messages then stood on the street staring at each other. Back to plan B that might actually be plan C now.
    “We need to find Thelma’s house,” Gabe said.
    “Start with Ellie?”
    “Or the sheriff.”
    Jo scrunched her nose and Gabe laughed. “We’re in it now, honey. Either way, the sheriff is going to find out. Might as well face it.”

 
    Chapter Seven
     
    Of course, because shit luck ran parallel with the Martinson case, the sheriff was, once again, out of the office. They stood on the steps while Jo left a voicemail for him to call her or stop by the hotel ASAP.
    “Hopefully, he’ll call soon.”
    Ever the optimist, this one . Her phone—the one that never stopped—rang and she checked it. “It’s my office. Hello?...Hi.” She glanced at Gabe. “It’s good. I’ll fill you in later, but we’re making fantastic progress…The Moore case?...Sure…I think I have a copy on my laptop. Now? ...Uh, okay. I’ll run back to the hotel and send it to you.” She paused, gritted her teeth and looked up at the sky. “Ten minutes? I haven’t prepared.”
    It sounded like this Moore thing was about to bust in on their day. Gabe stuffed his hands in his pockets and waited while Jo smacked her free hand over her head, her universal signal for great or crappy news.
    “Okay,” she said. “Give me a few minutes to get to the hotel. Right.” She punched off. “Damn it!”
    “What happened?”
    “That was my boss. I’m helping on a case he’s handling and they want me on a video conference in ten minutes. He knows how important Martinson is and he’s pulling me into a conference? Really?”
    Gabe held his hands up. “It’s okay. We’re in stand-by mode anyway until we figure out where Thelma lives. While you’re on your conference, I’ll run over to Ellie’s shop and see if she knows anything.”
    Leaving Jo at the hotel alone would suck. Martinson knew they were here. He could be watching and that didn’t sit right. And Gabe couldn’t even ask the sheriff to keep an eye on the hotel because then he’d have to explain why he was trampling all over a case he was supposed to be staying out of.
    Shitstorm. He had to do it though. “I’ll only be gone a few minutes, but you gotta lock yourself in that room. Martinson knows we’re here and poking around. Wait’ll he figures out his container was seized. We have to get to Tom and Bev, get them to talk to someone who can release that shipment.”
    “Don’t panic. By the time you get back to the hotel, we’ll have heard from Bev or Tom. Hopefully. That’s all we can do. Just keep moving.”
    He hesitated.
    “Gabe, you’ll be gone fifteen minutes. I’ll be fine.” She tugged on his shirt. “I promise I won’t leave the