Brantley pivoted to see Evan perched on one of the desks nearby. He hadn’t even noticed the man.
“My gut’s fuckin’ silent,” he admitted regretfully.
Which was the problem, wasn’t it? Usually, Brantley was dialed into the case and could figure out where to go next. This one felt a little too personal, what with his future mother-in-law involved. He didn’t want to make a mistake and risk something happening to her, so he was playing it safe. And that was getting them nowhere fast.
“What would Cindy do?” JJ prompted.
Brantley glanced over at her. “What do you mean?”
“If she hit that guy over the head with a bat, it doesn’t sound like she’s bein’ held hostage,” she said, her tone careful and measured, her eyes reflecting a hint of concern when she peered past him.
He could feel Reese approaching, knew the man was interested in what JJ had found out.
“When I say that,” she clarified, “I mean, she likely wants to help him in some way. He would’ve kidnapped her, sure, but that doesn’t mean Cindy’s gonna play the victim.” Her gaze moved to Reese. “She’s a strong, smart woman. If she’s helpin’ him or protectin’ him, it’s only because she thinks he needs it.”
“Or he’s forcin’ her,” Reese noted.
“True.” Her eyebrows rose slowly. “But can he really force her to hit a guy with a bat?”
She had a good point, but Brantley already believed Cindy was helping Toby. At least helping him to evade arrest.
“Would she talk him into going back?” Evan asked. “Confronting whatever it is he’s gotten himself mixed up in?”
Brantley didn’t know the answer to that, so he looked at Reese to see if he wanted to weigh in. He didn’t.
“Maybe she’s got a safe place he can hide,” Baz mused. “She have any property? A vacation house or something? Friends who might let her stay with them?”
“No,” Reese answered without hesitation.
“We do know that Toby has other property,” JJ chimed in. “They could’ve gone to one of those.”
Yeah. They could have. But Brantley didn’t have the manpower to traipse across Texas to see if Toby was holed up in some abandoned shack on a piece of property he owned.
“Or there’s a good chance they circled back to the cabin,” Slade offered.
Brantley looked over at him. “What?”
Slade’s eyes shifted between each person before returning to Brantley when he said, “It happened to me a few times, actually. When I was lookin’ for someone.” His shoulders shrugged, and he smiled. “You’d think I’d learn to just hang out at the first place I thought they’d be.”
Brantley hadn’t considered that they would double back. Made sense, though. Why not? Since he hadn’t even considered that option and likely wouldn’t have, it made a hell of a lot of sense.
“We can go back,” Brantley told Reese. “Wait ’em out if they’re not there. See if they turn up.”
He could see the indecision in Reese’s eyes, knew he was as unsure as Brantley was.
It felt like an eternity passed while he waited for Reese to make a decision. He finally nodded.
“Okay then,” Brantley said, taking a deep breath. “Reese and I will go back to the cabin. Evan and Slade, you two round up the others and head back to Coyote Ridge. Y’all can work things from there. We’ve got RT and Z if we need backup.”
“Sure thing, boss,” Slade said, standing up.
Brantley looked at Baz, then to JJ. “You two stay put. Work the case from here.”
She nodded. “You want us to keep Tesha?”
Brantley looked to Reese again for a decision.
“She’ll go with us.”
