Chapter fifty
“My name is Chap.” The man standing next to Winsley said. “You’ve already met Jinx. Over there--“ He continued, nodding towards a man standing to the side of Keggs’ SUV who was pointing an UZI towards the rear of the car. “--That’s Jack.”
Just around the rear fender Jed could make out several pairs of legs, some were moving slightly, some were just laying there like logs, side by side.
“And over there,” Chap pointed to two men who were standing beside the now empty camper. “…are Pete and Anthony.” Chap leaned in close to Jed and whispered. “Don’t call him Tony he gets all freaked…something about an odd uncle.”
Jed looked over at Anthony and nodded, Anthony nodded back then held up his thumb and forefinger like a gun and pointed it at Chap.
“Yeah. In your dreams.” Chap said.
“Where did you guys come from? How did you know….?”
To Jed’s surprise Chap turned towards Ellie.
“Mr. Jacobson sent us, Ma’am. He became concerned when you didn’t check in.”
“Wow.” Ellie said, giving Winsley a kiss on the forehead. “I never thought I’d be grateful for Daniels over- protective nature.”
“How did you find us?” Jed asked.
“When you didn’t check in, Ma’am, Mr. Jacobson ran your credit card. The charges went south then north which seemed odd because you had told him you were heading west. He wasn’t sure if something had happened to you and the camper had been stolen so he called us.”
“Thank goodness.”Ellie sighed, still holding onto Winsley.
“After he called us we ran another check and the charges had stopped. We went to the last place there was a receipt from. We went in and asked the teller about you. The only reason they remembered you because there were a couple of guys in a black SUV asking about you as well. We asked to see their security video’s luckily they kept a months worth before taping over them. We found a photo of the black SUV and Anthony here hacked into the RMV and ran the plate. It was registered to some laboratory in Massachusetts. He got the V.I.N. number and hacked into the manufacturers GPS and that’s how we found you.”
“Who is Daniel?” Jed asked, turning to Ellie.
“My, uh..” Ellie started.
“Her Butler.” Chap finished.
“You have a Butler?” Jed asked.
“Yes, well sort of. I’ve been trying to get rid of him since nineteen ninety eight but the little bugger won’t budge.”
“Lucky for us.” Jed said. “Who are you?”
“Um, may I?” Chap asked Ellie.
“Fine. Go ahead, no use in hiding it now, the cats out of the bag.”
“I’d like you to meet Mz. Eleanor Whitcomb.” Chap said.
“Why does that name sound familiar?” Jed asked. Then he remembered a couple of years ago he had read an article about an Eleanor Whitcomb who had stepped down as CEO of a large airline and retreated from public life. “The Airline Eleanor Whitcomb? The billionairess?”
“The one and only.” Chap said.
“Aren’t you supposed to be off in some Chalet in Switzerland or something?”
“Actually it was a retreat in Belgium.” Ellie corrected. “But we just made that up. After Deidre died I got really sick of everyone coming to call. With no one to inherit the fortune it seemed like they were lining up at all hours of the day or night. I couldn’t take it anymore.”
Suddenly Jed felt himself getting angry, “With everything we’ve been….”
Ellie held up her hand to silence him.
“My money can buy a lot of things, Jed, but it can’t buy you into Canada. And Doctor Finde may be a recovering, well semi-recovering, alcoholic but he’s one of the best Doctors I know, drunk or sober. Nothing would have been different.”
Jed thought about it for a moment and realized she was right.
But in this situation her money had indeed bought them their freedom.
And now that Jed was free there was something he needed to take care of.