No one answered.
After a moment he knocked again. “There’s no escaping us, Mrs. Tipton. It’ll go better for you if you talk to us.”
The doorknob turned, and the door slowly opened. Dorothy Tipton, her face pale and her body trembling, stood there staring at them. “What do you want?”
“We need to talk with you. May we come in?”
She didn’t move for a moment, then she sighed and stepped aside. Seth and the two officers brushed past her into the house. They stopped in the entry hall and waited for her to close the door.
“What do you want?” she asked.
“We need some information. Your cousin Anthony Wilson has wounded an officer and abducted Callie Lattimer. We need to know where he’s taken her.”
She shook her head. “What makes you think I’d know anything about that?”
Seth swallowed and struggled to control his anger. He glared at her and took a step nearer. “Look, I don’t have time to play games. You ran right by a wounded officer when you drove off from the shelter. If nothing else, I can arrest you right now for being an accessory to attempted murder. If he dies, it’ll be murder. Add your role in Callie’s death to that, and you’re looking at the rest of your life in prison. The thing for you to do is to try to make the best deal for yourself that you can. Things will go a lot easier with you if you tell us where Anthony has taken Callie.”
Dorothy’s lips trembled, and a tear slipped down her cheek. “I didn’t have anything to do with that. Callie overheard Abby and me talking, and she was going to the police. Anthony said he’d take care of her.”
Seth gritted his teeth. “Your chances of making a deal are getting slimmer by the minute. Save yourself, Dorothy. Where is Anthony?”
He could see the indecision written on her face as she struggled to decide what to do. After a moment she burst into tears. Her body shook, and she put her hands on either side of her face and pressed them down hard.
“All right, I’ll tell you. He has a farm his parents left him. He probably took her there. It’s where he buried that woman’s car after he killed her.”
“What woman?”
“The one whose family Judge Lattimer wanted to find.”
Stunned, Seth blinked. “Hope? He killed Hope?”
Dorothy shrugged. “I don’t know. Was that her name? She was the one from years ago.”
Seth could hardly believe what he’d just heard. Anthony had killed Hope? He pushed the thoughts aside. Right now he had to find Callie. “Where is this farm?”
“It’s north of town. Turn off on the old levee road and drive toward the river. You’ll see it. It has a bulldozer sitting in the yard.”
Seth turned to two of the officers. “Take Mrs. Tipton downtown and hold her for questioning until we know what the charges are going to be. You other two follow me to the farm.”
“Detective, isn’t that out of our jurisdiction?” one of the officers asked.
Seth nodded. “It is. I’ll call the Shelby County Sheriff’s office on the way and have them meet us there.”