“Oh dear,” Angie said, and stared in shock. “Wait, that’s my signature.”
“I figured as much, do you know when you signed it? Dad said it was probably shoved at him when he was signing his papers before he was transferred to Japan.”
“So that’s where you went? I knew your father was military, and I hate to admit this now, but all our energies were focused on Wanda at that time,” Randall admitted.
“Yes, we went to Japan for almost four years then back to the States, moved around every two to three years until I left for college. Mom tried to send you a Christmas card when we got back to the states, but it was returned with address undeliverable.” He showed them the yellow sticker from the post office.
“So, where are your parents now?”
“Dad retired three years ago, and they settled south of Chicago in a small suburb where Dad grew up. After college, I moved to New York City, where I currently own my own investigation firm.”
“What do you want from us?” Fern asked.
“I’d like to find Wanda,” Christopher said again.
“That little dweeb in the office at the church waylaid me on one of my visits to Pastor Jones to sign something.” Angie interrupted. “It was around the time we had found a bone marrow donor. I was distracted and just signed it to get him away from me.”
“Sorry, we can’t help you,” Fern said as she stood and went to pour more coffee. “We don’t know where she is.”
“I know.” Christopher sighed and hung his head. “Doug, Brandon, and Brian along with Sarah told me all about how you communicate with her.” Everyone was silent after that. As much as Fern was mad at the man, she couldn’t fault him for anything, he had been only five at the time. And this really was a bizarre situation. But when her daughter started to giggle everyone turned to gawk at her.
“You boys are so funny.” She laughed, and she did it so hard she had to wrap her hands around her middle. She reminded Fern so much of Wanda when she was that age.
“What’s so funny?” she asked her daughter.
“Boys, Mommy. Don’t you watch cop shows on TV?”
“She’s an NCIS fanatic.” Brandon grinned at Christopher. “But what does cop shows have to do with anything, Sarah?”
“Grandpa worked with cutting edge technology with computers, right?”
“I did.” Randall frowned.
“And Daddy is a Sheriff, Uncle Doug is a Deputy and Uncle Christopher is an investigator.”
“And your point is?” Fern frowned at her.
“Why can’t you use Aunt Wanda’s e-mail address and find her URL address and track her that way. You know like Abby and McGee would. Wouldn’t it pinpoint her actual location or the location she sends the e-mails from?” She paused as she saw the shock come over their faces, then said, “That’s what I would do. If it’s not her actual house, I’m sure you can get within a few miles of her.”
Fern looked at the men and saw that a lightbulb had gone off over all of their heads. She giggled and high-fived her daughter. “Yep, boys are funny that way.” She grinned as her mother said, “Out of the mouths of babes.”
Brandon jumped to his feet and literally ran out of the room and almost tripped over the cat lying there, but he was back in less than two minutes. He opened the computer, looked at his wife and grinned. “You’llhave to sign on since it’s your computer. She sends you the e-mails, and you tell me about them or let me read them, but I don’t know your password.”
Fern grinned and quickly signed on. “Here’s a new one that came in this morning.” She read it and smiled. “Says she’s still working like a mad woman, but she’s enjoying every minute. Also says that if she can finish by oops.” She grinned and turned it to let her brother read it in silence. They exchanged grins, and Brandon read it and joined in.
“Sounds like a plan. Can you e-mail back?”
Fern sat down and did as asked and when she was done, she turned the computer to Christopher who read the e-mail and smile as he nodded. Luckily her parents had stepped out. For the e-mail said if she got done by a specific date, she’d come home for their parents’ thirtieth anniversary to surprise them and had asked Fern to come up with some type of celebration for them. And to make it a surprise party with a surprise guest. Thank goodness she had four months to work on it.
“Do you need any other computer?” Randall asked as he came in carrying his own, while Angie had her own. They opened them and saw that they had e-mails and read them then allowed the others to also.
“I don’t know if I remember how this works,” Christopher admitted. “Sean at my office always did this part.” He closed his eyes and pictured the list he had in his office of step-by-step instructions that Sean had written out and allowed his fingers to fly over the computer. In minutes he frowned.
“According to this, every e-mail from Wanda Perkins in the last two years and four months havecome from a town in Arizona.” He did some more key tapping and said, “For six months before that, they pinged all over. Chicago, Vegas, New York, Orlando, New Orleans. But finally settling in Arizona.”
“What’s the name of the town?” Randall demanded. His own fingers flew over the keys after he was given the address. “Okay, it’s southwest of Phoenix.”
“And the timeline is right,” Angie said. “She said in her first e-mails that she was traveling trying to find herself. But then she’d found the perfect location that fit her with a job she loved and a place to live.”
