“Then we quash it altogether.”
Reese nodded.“How often does that happen?”
“In all the time I’ve been doing this…” Simon’s gaze shot skyward as though he were thinking.A second later, he looked back at Reese.“Never.”
“Never?Really?”
“Really.I wouldn’t agree to look into something unless I thought there was something there.If we work together, perhaps we can give Travis and his family some answers.It may not be the closure he’s lookin’ for, but like I said, maybe it’ll help.”
Reese wasn’t so sure anything would help, considering Travis and Gage had lost their wife.Their children had lost their mother.Only time would lessen the pain of that sort of loss.But maybe Simon was right.Perhaps there were answers that would give them a little bit of peace.
“Okay,” Reese told Simon, meeting his stare.“Say I give you full access to the task force.What’s the next step?”
“We need to plug in some of the missing pieces.The only way I know to do that is to map it out from beginning to end.”
“And how do you propose we do that?”
Simon smiled.“Holt and I have already started.We just need your team to add what they already know.Then we can establish a baseline.”
A baseline.
Sounded easy enough.
Which Reese figured meant it wouldn’t be.
Chapter Four
Archer was impressed.
Admittedly, he hadn’t been sure what to expect when he learned the task force worked out of an old barn.His imagination had run wild.Everything from a horror flick complete with sharpened tools dangling precariously from the ceiling to the picturesque T.A.Moulten Barn in Grand Teton National Park, noted to be the most photographed barn in America.
This was so not either of those.The exterior could probably use a little work, maybe a coat of paint, some nails.Then again, perhaps Brantley and Reese wanted it to look that way to keep people from creeping around it.Considering the high-tech gadgets inside, it made sense.
“What do you think?”Brantley prompted as Archer took it all in.
“When do I start?”
“If it’s up to Reese?Yesterday.”
Archer chuckled.“Looks to me like you’ve got a full house.You sure you’ve got room for one more?”
“They’ll make room.Trust me.”
A few affirmative murmurs sounded from the people spread throughout the space.
“Believe it or not, we could use ten more,” Brantley explained.“We continue to take on more cases passed to us by local PDs.All of them cold.Some by months, others by years.The longer they sit, the more stressed I get knowin’ we’ve gotten nowhere.”
Archer could see how that would be stressful.“What about hot cases?How often do you take those?”
“Since we’ve come under the umbrella of Sniper 1 Security, we’ve got more resources, so it allows us to get more information faster.We’re rarely the first point of contact when someone goes missing, but if we learn of a tender age child within three hundred miles of here, we dispatch a team immediately.All others, we handle case by case, depending on the circumstances surrounding it.”
Archer nodded, letting that sink in.
Brantley cleared his throat, getting the attention of everyone in the room.Those who just realized there were others present chimed in with various greetings.
“Hey, boss.”
“What brings you by?”
