She closed the curtain and leaned against the wall beside the window. What the hell was he doing out there, this time of night? She took a couple of deep breaths to calm her racing heart. She didn’t think she was in any actual danger, but the fact that he was out there was unsettling. She wished he’d just leave her alone.
She considered texting or calling Rich to tell him Davis was out there, but decided against it. Rich needed to sleep as he might be up in the middle of the night to work, to take over surveillance. She wondered if there was any danger associated with that, and if there was, she assumed he needed to be well-rested and focused, not worried about her. Not knowing if it would really help keep someone from forcing their way in the front door or not, she jammed the back of one of her kitchen chairs under the doorknob. She’d seen it done in movies and television shows.
She knew the windows in the bedrooms were locked, as were the windows in the living room and kitchen. She was as secure as she could be. She pulled the heavy throw blanket from the back of the couch and draped it over the cushions. She kept a bed pillow on the couch. She tossed it near the blanket. She’d sleep there tonight.
As she lay awake, she made plans for the next day. After the boys were on the bus in the morning, she and Jeriah would go to her mom’s house to borrow a couple of suitcases. While there, she’d tell her mom the flight was booked, and she’d communicate the plans for the transportation to the airport and the times. She’d also help her mom with anything she might need to be ready for the trip. The car Laura Lee arranged would pick her up before her mom. That way, she could carry her mom’s suitcase down the stairs for her.
After Donna would pack for the trip. She’d have to wait until the boys got home from school to pack their backpacks, but she could have most of it done. At least she had chosen a flight time that would not necessitate that they had to get up early and rush out of the house. She wanted their travel day to be as calm as possible.
As she lay there, her thoughts turned to Rich. She was excited that she’d see him again very soon. She hoped that with them being on his turf, he’d see that she and the kids could fit into his life. She knew she had to somehow prove to him that she could handle his job and the separations.
At some point, she fell asleep.
Oscar
The team continued the surveillance on both the salon owners and on Francisco Oliveira through the night and into the next morning. None of them went anywhere, made any phone calls, or sent any text messages of interest to the team. Even the burner phone Oliveira had called after Burke and Tessman’s visit the previous day showed no activity. Burke truly expected they would have received a phone call from it. Zoe’s roommate had no call or text activity regarding Zoe either.
Going over all that Smith had found; the team prioritized the current surveillance and checking out the residence near Lansing where Oliveira had pictures posted in the now deleted social media account. The house was owned by Roderick Forsander, whose social media accounts had pictures of Oliveira still posted, but no concerning prepper-rhetoric posts. He also had pictures that matched up with Oliveira’s photos from the wooded area up north. He was eight years older than Oliveira.
After shuffling their surveillance positions earlier that morning, Wilson and Burke were now driving towards Lansing. Burke drove as Wilson scanned the file from Smith.
“Well, one thing’s for sure, Oliveira and Forsander are chummy. If anyone knows what Oliveira is up to, it’s Forsander,” Wilson said. “Smith said that there’s nothing in any of his posts or in his history that Smith looked into that indicates when they became acquainted.”
“Could be they met through the prepper group,” Burke said. “Just because Forsander doesn’t have any suspicious posts doesn’t mean he’s not one of them. It just might be that he’s smarter than Oliveira and didn’t post anything he then had to take down.”
“Yeah, I have to wonder why it is that Oliveira deleted all his social media accounts and didn’t just remove the posts and pics that revealed his ideology.”
“Maybe he was told to,” Burke suggested. “If he reached a certain level in the group he may have been instructed to. Honestly, I can’t understand why anyone posts everything they do.”
Wilson chuckled. “Thankfully people do, so we have an easy way to get intel on them.”
“How do you want to play it with Forsander?” Burke asked.
“I think we stick with the private investigator angle as federal agents will ring too many alarm bells, but I’d also like to suggestthat our visit is because we traced that call from Oliveira and imply it was made to him.”
“Tracing a call to a burner? That’s kind of over the paygrade of a private investigator, isn’t it?” Burke asked. It was a rhetorical question.
“He may not know that. I think we start with it but if we need more clout, your ATF creds could rattle him. Look what we found in Shawano, military weapons.”
“That’s a hell of a leap from tracking down a college girl with recently acquired prepper ideology,” Burke said.
“Is it? Talking about a civil war that’s coming and picking sides is more militia talk,” Wilson said.
“And we really have no clue who that call was made to,” Burke said.
“Except that it was made to someone in Lansing and Forsander is the only friend of Oliveira we know about.”
“To not give that away, we say we’re paying a visit to all of his friends in the area,” Burke said. “Starting with Forsander, who is our strongest contender.”
Wilson laughed. “Contender?”
“Better than using the word guess.”
They pulled up in front of the house, parking across the street from the two-story home. Just as they were about to get out of the car, a red pickup truck pulled into the driveway and a man who matched the picture they had of Forsander from his driver’s license, got out of the driver’s door. A young woman got out of the passenger door. From the mere glance they got of her as they both hustled into the house, they noticed that she very much resembled Zoe Reopelle. She was approximately the same height, build, and age. And she had a dark brown ponytail which would put her hair color and length at about what Zoe’s was as well.
Wilson compared the make and model of the vehicle and its license plate number to the info on file for Forsander. “It’s his truck.”
“There’s no mistaking that was Forsander and that very well could have been Zoe Reopelle,” Burke agreed.
