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Rafe clicked on his preferred search engine and typed in Angie Hale’s name with her date of birth and social security number. When a link popped up, he clicked and read the document. His brow furrowed. Angie Hale had passed away from cancer last month. Roderick was her only child and heir. Angie had worked dead-end jobs, often two or three at a time to keep food on the table. No history of drug or alcohol abuse.
He scanned further and discovered that the woman never finished high school. A quick calculation told Rafe that Angie became pregnant in high school and dropped out to give birth to Roderick and raise him. Tough decision. Rafe had nothing but respect for the scared teen who made a hard choice and did her best to put a roof over their heads and food on their table. According to the file, Angie hadn’t been the recipient of much support from her family and received nothing from the baby’s father.
He clicked on another file, this one a summary of the estate she left to her son. The house and her old clunker of a car. According to the records, Roderick had sold the clunker, but kept the house and used it as his primary residence now.
Rafe sat back, frowning at the screen. Knowing Hale’s birth father might be important. Getting that information was the problem.
He shifted back to the search engine and hunted for Angie’s high school. If he could figure out the names of some of her friends, he might be able to find one or two willing to talk about her background. Checking her social media posts might be of some help there, too.
“Need help?” Cal asked Rafe.
“Grab your laptop.”
His teammate returned with his computer and sat beside Rafe. “What am I looking for?”
“Angie Hale’s social media posts. She passed away last month. I’m looking for a friend or two willing to talk to us.”
“Why?”
“I may be on the wrong track, but I want to know the name of Roderick Hale’s father. The name’s not listed on Hale’s birth certificate.”
“I’ll see what I can find.”
“I found the camera feeds,” Jon said. “Eli, Jackson, since Cal’s occupied, I’ll split up the footage we need to review and send it to your work email.”
Both men left the kitchen and returned with their laptops and got to work.
Rafe toggled back to the files of the original kidnappers. All three men had been inmates in the same Tennessee federal prison. Raymond Clark was due to be released sometime in the next year. Trevor Cain, the child molester, still had ten years left on his sentence.
On a hunch, he went to West Gate High School’s website, the school Angie attended before she dropped out to have her baby. He clicked on the yearbook link for the years Angie attended West Gate. He typed Angie Hale’s name in the search box and digitized annuals from two years popped up.
Rafe stared. Angie would have been around 16 when she had Roderick.
“What do you see?” Kristi asked.
“Roderick Hale’s mother only attended two years of high school. She never graduated.”
Jackson glanced up from his computer. “She was only 15 or 16 when she had Roderick?”
“Looks that way.” Rafe picked up his phone and called Fortress tech support. He asked for a copy of Angie’s medical records. Assured that the information would be in his email within fifteen minutes, Rafe ended the call.
“Do you think the information matters?” Kristi asked.
“My gut says yes.”
“We need to find my father,” she whispered, tears sheening her eyes. “He’s hurt, maybe worse, and we don’t know who has him or why.”
“We’re working as fast as we can plus the local police are searching for him. If we tug the right thread, this whole tangled knot will unravel.”
At that moment, Cal whistled and sat back, his gaze glued to the computer screen in front of him.
“What do you have?” Rafe asked.
“The names of Angie Hale’s two best friends.”
“Great. Get their contact information, and we’ll try to persuade them to answer a few questions.”
“You’re in luck there.” Cal grabbed his phone. “I know one of them. I investigated her husband’s murder and arrested his killer. I don’t think we’ll have a problem getting the answers we need.”
