Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Have they found Glen yet?” Brian asked Sheriff Todd Colson who unlocked the holding cell to release him after the bail hearing.
“Not yet,” Colson said. “He was last spotted in Sacramento at a pawn shop. The owner said he bought lockpicks and a GPS navigator watch.”
“That means he’s close by. Do they know who the watch is registered to?”
“Nope, unfortunately not.”
Brian shuffled nervously from the cell block and blew into his hands. “Hopefully, Glen found a place to hole up in before the storm hit.”
“Do you have any idea where he could have gone?” Todd asked, narrowing his eyes.
“His parents have a house up here. I told you all that already.” Brian nodded at Becca, his lawyer.
“Right, except we called the caretaker, and he said no one’s been over there. He’ll keep an eye out for the kid,” Todd said.
“He might have wanted to visit the crash site.” Brian’s shoulders slumped, recalling the gloomy day when he went to the site where Alana had died. “I hope he’s okay.”
“We do too, but don’t worry.” Becca patted his forearm. “Any kid who can get himself from Texas to Sacramento without getting caught is capable enough to find a hiding place to ride out the storm. He has lockpicking tools, so I’m sure he found shelter.”
“Right, now I need to get back to Cait. She’s probably worried sick.”
“We’ll give you a ride up there, won’t we?” Becca prodded her brother.
“As long as the roads are passable.” Todd rubbed the back of his neck. “We have patrols up there to keep people off the areas that are closed.”
“Do we have time to get flowers?” Brian followed Todd to the processing area where he collected his wallet and keys. “Cait’s been through a lot already, and I need to show her she’s loved.”
“Everything’s closing up, but we can swing by Vivi’s. She runs the general store,” Todd said.
“Vivi’s another one of our siblings,” Becca said, clueing him in. “We Colsons kind of run this town. It isn’t called Colson’s Corner for nothing. Ha, ha.”
“Is Joe of the diner one of your brothers, too?”
“Actually, another sister,” Todd said. “She hates being named Josephine, so we just call her Joey. The ‘Y’ dropped off the sign long ago, so now it’s Joe’s Diner. Didn’t you wonder about the blank space?”
“Didn’t think about it,” Brian said. “I really appreciate all you’re doing for me. Can you get enough evidence to drop the charges?”
“I’m trying,” Becca said. “But Todd here has to stick to the law. He’s kind of a stick in the mud, if you know what I mean.”
“Hey, Thornton can cause big problems, like shut off our water or zone us into oblivion,” Todd grumbled. “We have to take his charges seriously. And someone did cut the brake lines to your Outback.”
“Then they might still be out there,” Brian mused. “I hope they were after me, and not Cait. I feel so bad she was hurt because of me.”
“We’ve put word out to see if anyone saw anything suspicious—other than the black SUV,” Todd said, holding a door for Bec.
She was dressed in a smart black suit, with her hair tied back in a tight bun. Brian would have been lost without her, and he really appreciated that Cait had made friends with Linx. The Colson family was as close-knit as the Hart family, and somehow, being surrounded by all the different members felt safe and familiar.
“Be glad for the black SUV,” Bec said. “It let me raise enough doubt about who tampered with the brake lines. As for the online messages, your account was logged in from two different locations at the same time. You logged in that morning from the hospital, but at the same time, someone near Sacramento logged in. That casts enough reasonable doubt to get you out on bail.”
“Sacramento? Wasn’t that where Glen was? Do you think he hacked my account?” Brian had been noticing suspicious items disappearing from his virtual knapsack and coin account.
“It could be that, or something more serious. PinkPriestess says she’s been chatting with ‘you,’ but when we crosschecked the time, you were clearly at the cabin and out of reach of the internet. She did, however, finger you in real life from the flower purchase,” Becca explained.
“You sure you want to keep buying flowers and leaving a trail of evidence?” Todd chuckled, unlocking the door of his squad car.
“If it’s evidence that I love Cait, then I’ll be happy to leave a trail of petals from my heart to her door,” Brian crowed, wondering where that random thought had come from.
