Lauren put a kibosh on buying more Captain Jack’s pizza. Instead, they settled on soup and sandwiches for lunch and dinner.
He really wanted to talk to Griff, then depending on what he learned from that conversation, he’d reach out to Agent Braun. He empathized with Lauren’s frustration over the lack of progress on the case. He didn’t understand why it was taking so long for the FBI to find kidnappers. It occurred to him that if Braun had arranged to interview Eric Howington and Karla Dalton back in Chicago, then they couldn’t be riding in an SUV here in Madison, firing a gun at them.
“Turn left here,” Lauren said, interrupting his thoughts. “The next highway will take us where we want to go.”
“Okay.” He headed north to get out of the city. The cops that had been around earlier seemed to have dispersed. Maybe they’d already found their abandoned stolen car.
The trip didn’t take long, but he realized this particular section of the state was composed of several acres of farmland. They passed one smaller farm, but the next one was huge. Not only were there big stretches of open land, but the farm had a huge outbuilding and barn to go along with the white farmhouse.
“I haven’t seen large farms like this before,” Lauren murmured as they drove past. “I guess living in the city makes it easy to forget that someone has to grow and raise the livestock to provide the food we eat.”
“Where are the cows?” Lucy asked.
“They might be in the barn since it’s cold outside.” He wasn’t an expert on farming either. The Sullivan K9 Search and Rescue Ranch had horses and dogs, lots of dogs, but they didn’t run cattle or raise chickens. When they passed the farm, he caught a glimpse of a cluster of cattle huddled behind the barn. “There they are, seeking shelter from the wind.”
“I see them!” Lucy looked excited.
He nodded, turning at the next intersection. The cabin rentals Lauren had found weren’t far. As he followed the signs leading them to Calvin’s Cabins, he was surprised to see there was a small patch of woods on one side of the cabin rentals, while the open farmland stretched beyond the other.
Having woods on all sides had been nice, and for a moment, he debated whether to stay here or head someplace else. The cabins were somewhat secluded, so he decided to just stay there. At least for the next twenty-four hours.
This time he was given cabin number nine, which was farthest from the two-story home that doubled as a lobby. The guy behind the desk looked to be almost eighty, with white hair, white beard, and a large belly that protruded over his belt. Thankfully, the elderly owner was more than happy to take cash.
“Just one night?” The guy looked disappointed. “Not the whole weekend?”
“We might stay another night. I should know more by tomorrow morning.” Grady smiled and gave the guy an extra twenty. “Thanks again.”
“Anytime.” The twenty along with the other two hundred in cash disappeared into his pocket.
Once they were settled inside the cabin, he called Griff but was forced to leave a message. Same thing when he called FBI Agent Braun.
“Should I start making calls?” Lauren asked with a frown. “They should be getting back to us about what they’d found.”
“Not yet.” He sat at the table and opened the computer. He still hadn’t finished going through the social media posts of Nelson’s frat brothers. “Let’s do a little more work first.”
She sighed and glanced over at Lucy who was watching television. “I don’t love all this screen time, and I really hate knowing she’s missing school.”
“I understand.” He hoped the case would be solved by Monday. “There’s one name I ran into last night on Archer’s social media account. A guy by the name of Curtis Handover.” He glanced at her. “Does that sound familiar?”
“Nope.” She sat in the chair beside him. “Why did he catch your eye?”
“Because he said something about Bobby Morton’s death.” He scrolled through the site to find the comment. “Something that indicated he was a good friend of Bobby’s.”
“Even so, that doesn’t mean he’d try to kidnap Lucy.” Lauren frowned. “Unless you think Nelson is a friend of his too?”
“No, it sounded as if Curtis wasn’t happy with your ex.” He found the comment and turned the screen so she could read it for herself. “See this? He wrote: ‘Bobby shouldn’t have died and being sent to prison isn’t enough of a punishment.’”
“Yeah, I see that. But I still don’t think that means he’d kidnap Nelson’s daughter as payback.”
He shrugged. “Maybe this Curtis guy is Bobby’s cousin or something, since they have different last names.”
After entering the new name in the search engine, he found Curtis Handover’s social media page. The second picture was one that featured Curtis and Bobby standing next to each other, grinning at the camera. The caption simply said, “my brother.”
“His brother?” Lauren frowned. “You mean he has another relative other than Randy?”
“Different last name could mean he’s a half brother or even a stepbrother.” He did a quick criminal background check on Curtis Handover. The guy’s record was clean. Going back to social media, he dug further until he found a post where the two men were standing with their respective mothers. The post was captioned, “different moms with the same love.”
“They share a father.” He turned to stare at Lauren. “It looks to me like Curtis blames Nelson for his half brother’s death.”
