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“We go back,” Buster said. “Let’s give it a couple of hours and then circle back.”
As far as ideas went, it sounded like suicide. What else did they have?
DARRENWASABOUTto suggest the same thing as Buster, except that he was trying to figure out a way to keep Reese out of it. She would protest, and he didn’t have a good argument as to why she couldn’t go with them other than the same keeping-her-safe excuse that she’d rejected before. He knew her, and him asking her not to go while he risked his own life wasn’t an option, either. She could be stubborn that way.
Buster drove a couple miles down the farm road before cutting the lights and pulling off the road. “Those folks are guilty as sin of something.”
“Yep, they are,” Darren agreed.
“Murder is a serious accusation,” Buster continued.
“Kidnapping and murder,” Reese added. “If this is true, they’re preying on teenagers.”
“Deliveries across the state sure make a good excuse to be in various places,” Darren added.
“Not to mention, they use trucks, which would make it easy to hide someone,” Reese added.
“It’s all circumstantial,” Buster said. “We don’t have any proof. Just a theory.”
“A good one at that,” Reese stated.
“Not enough for the law to step in,” Buster said. “Like we already said, the best they could do would be to drop by and ask questions. The Archers don’t have to allow them inside even if they have a kid strapped to the couch. The law wouldn’t be any wiser. Without a search warrant, they can’t walk through the door or make demands.”
“So we go back,” Darren said. “This could be like searching for a needle in a haystack.”
“Not to mention these people are beekeepers,” Buster added. “They’ll have storage buildings for their honey and others for equipment. There’s no telling where they would stash a fifteen-year-old.”
“Assuming we’re right in the first place and she is actually here,” Reese added.
“And still alive,” Darren pointed out. The odds weren’t great they would be able to make a hill-of-beans difference. And yet, if this was one of his girls, he would hope folks would move heaven and earth to find out before walking away.
“What if we’re off base?” Buster asked. “Just playing devil’s advocate here.”
“Then, we know for sure the Archers are innocent,” Darren said. “We keep looking for Tandra while trying to figure out who is trying to kill Reese.” Those last words tasted bitter in his mouth. “Because whoever is behind this is intent on making sure she doesn’t see her next birthday.”
“And they don’t mind taking down anyone who is helping me,” Reese added. “Now that the two of you have shown your faces, neither one is safe.”
Darren nodded. He was well aware of the danger, considering his house had been torched. Those smug bastards weren’t getting away with it, either. “With the whole family involved, they could easily cover each other’s tracks.”
“Seems like everyone has a computer, laptop or smartphone these days,” Reese said. “Any one of them could be responsible for finding the next target and grooming them.”
“If that’s true, the family isn’t just criminal, they’re...” Darren stopped himself right there. His emotions were running high, and he didn’t need to finish his sentence. The thought this could happen to one of his girls at some point in their lives was enough to make him crack a tooth from clenching his teeth so hard.
“We’ll figure something out,” Reese insisted. “I wish we had a reason to be on property. That would make this so much easier.”
“Or an invitation,” Buster quipped.
“I wonder if there are any other dogs like Tyson on property?” Reese asked.
“I’m guessing just the one since we haven’t heard barking, and it seems like they keep him at the house,” Buster mused. “We would have heard others mouthing off once Tyson got riled up.”
There was a small miracle. Still, if they made the pit bull angry and got anywhere near his mouth, the bite from his jaw would apply something like three hundred pounds of pressure. The jaw would lock, too, so there was no opening it again or wriggling out. Plus, this one looked trained to defend. Not good.
“So, with the Archers, we’re dealing with at least two young men, a mother, a father and an aggressive dog,” Reese recapped.
“I wouldn’t underestimate any one of those,” Darren added. “To complicate matters, we’re going on gut instinct these folks have done something illegal. They might just be nasty folks who keep to themselves. Jerks but not criminals.”
“This family strikes me as pure evil,” Reese said.
