The Ideal Man

TWENTY – FOUR

“This isn’t bad news,” Ellie insisted. “And don’t give me that look. Now I know where Patterson is, and hopefully he’ll come after me again, and you can arrest him.”

“Ellie, he’ll find a gun.”

“Would he know how to get one from the street? Where to go? Who to talk to?” Agent Clark asked the questions. He and Agent Hershey had joined Ellie and Max just minutes after Max had talked to Spike.

Max had been right when he’d said the two agents could blend in. John Hershey was under six feet and slight of build, though muscular. Ellie guessed him to be a runner, maybe even a marathon runner. With his thick, wiry hair and glasses, he reminded her of a professor at her father’s university. Pete Clark had a stocky physique and a balding head, and his jovial round face made him look like everyone’s favorite cousin.

“This Patterson guy’s mental, but that doesn’t mean he’s stupid,” Hershey said.

Clark had a photo of Patterson and another of Willis Cogburn downloaded to his phone. Ellie looked at Cogburn’s photo and thought he looked like a normal person. Certainly not a hired killer. But then, she thought, what do those men look like? What would be so different about them?

Her attention was drawn back to the conversation about Patterson when Max said, “He won’t shoot to kill. He would try to kill anyone who is with her, but he likes using his fists. He’ll want to wound her so she can’t run. If he gets a chance, he’ll try to beat her to death.”

Ellie didn’t disagree with Max’s conclusions. Clark had read part of Patterson’s file and so had Hershey. Both of them felt the same as Ellie. This was an opportunity to get him once and for all.

“If he has a gun and goes after her, we could put him away for years,” Clark said.

“All right, we’re looking for two men now. We’ve got their photos, and we all know what we need to do,” Hershey said.

“Put them down,” Clark answered. “Like rabid dogs. That’s what I’d like to do.”

“But you’ll arrest them instead,” Ellie said.

Max smiled at her. “You’re the voice of reason.”

“It’s my understanding you’ll be leaving directly after the party, right?” Clark asked.

“I’m not leaving until Patterson is behind bars,” Ellie vowed.

“Ellie…,” Max began.

She wouldn’t let him finish his thought. “If I have to knock on his parents’ door and taunt him to get him to attack me, I will. I want you to catch him and put him away. Please. I want this nightmare to end.” Her voice shook with emotion, and she took a deep breath to calm down.

Hershey nodded. “Let’s get this mother…”

“And Cogburn,” Clark added.

Hershey agreed. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and get him this weekend, too.”

Ellie was quiet on the ride back to Winston Falls. Although it didn’t show on her face, Max knew she was upset because she had ordered milk at the restaurant and downed it as though it were Pepto-Bismol.

“Do you have an ulcer?”

Ellie looked up with a quizzical expression. The question came out of the blue. “No.”

“You drink a lot of milk.”

“I like milk. It soothes my stomach.”

“You ordered it right after you heard that Patterson tried to buy a gun.”

“Yes, I did,” she admitted.

Neither one of them said another word for a while, and then Max broke the silence. “Come on, Ellie. Tell me what’s going on in your mind. I know you’re worried.”

Worried? That didn’t even come close to describing the way she was feeling. “I want to stay in Winston Falls and catch Evan Patterson. You have no idea what it’s like not knowing where he’s been hiding, but now he’s here, and I have an opportunity to draw him out. Hopefully, he’ll do something that will get him arrested.”

“That has to scare you.”

“Seeing his face again will probably freak me out,” she admitted. “But right now I’m not scared. You’ll be there. You won’t let him hurt me.”

Her faith in him was humbling. “Damn right.”

She crossed her legs and shifted in her seat as she turned toward him. “His parents have been enabling him and making excuses for him and blaming me for years,” she said. “They’re on record saying I’m the reason their son is tormented.”

“I know, sweetheart. I read your file. I think it’s time I had a little chat with Mr. and Mrs. Patterson.”

“Why would you go there? If Evan is hiding in their house, they’ll lie and say he isn’t. They’ll do everything in their power to protect him.”

“Probably,” Max agreed.

“Then why would you go over there?”

“To put the parents on notice. They need to hear that their son is trying to buy a gun.”

“I don’t think it will make a difference.”

The closer they got to Winston Falls, the more anxious she became. Her palms were sweaty and she was finding it difficult to breathe, signs of a post-traumatic disorder. Who could blame her? The name Patterson was synonymous with pain.

She wanted to drive him out of her thoughts, but each time she erased his name from her mind, the name Cogburn rushed in. Same game. Different player.

Seeing the distress in her eyes, Max reached over and took her hand.

His phone rang. It was Ben calling back. Max put the phone on speaker and set it on the console.

“Ellie’s with me, Ben,” Max said. “Tell us what’s going on.”

“Hughes thinks the Landrys are going to call off Cogburn,” Ben said.

“Why?”

“Greg Roper,” he answered. “No one knew about Greg Roper until he came forward. And now he’s disappeared. The only logical explanation is that there’s a leak. Someone’s feeding the Landrys information about our investigation. We’ve already appointed a task force to find out who it is.”

“And that means the Landrys know that Ellie couldn’t identify them from the mug shots,” Max concluded.

“That’s right,” Ben said. “According to Hughes, the Landrys now have no reason to get rid of Ellie. He thinks she’ll be fine on her own.”

“Has anyone found Cogburn yet?” Max asked.

“No.”

“Then I’m not leaving her alone,” he stated emphatically.

“I agree,” Ben said. “I think Hughes is jumping the gun here.”

After he’d ended the conversation, Ellie turned to Max. He was frowning.

“You think I’m still in danger from the Landrys?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “But I’m not letting you out of my sight until I know where Willis Cogburn is.”