AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Corey went to the table and opened the box. Raven got up, joining him. They poked at the food, splitting it between them.
“Okay,” Axel said, standing by the doorway. “Catch us up. What’s going on?”
Brandon silenced the movie and sat on the corner of one of the beds. “Mrs. Gunther had it out with the old slob next door,” he said. “She was asking him to water his yard and he said no. That’s all I’ve got. Three hours of neighbors bickering about the lawn.”
“And nothing from the tour group?”
“Fred was the quiet type. He may have a few beers with one of his co-workers, but he went home right away for his daughter. When they talked about him, they said all he talked about was her.”
“We still can’t find Luanne,” Marc said. “She disconnected the last cell phone number we could find on her. Her Facebook has been dead for a week or two. No one talks about her. Her friends that we could find didn’t mention a new place, they kept giving us the old address and phone number.”
“I don’t like it,” Axel said. He tossed his shoes to the floor and then sat on the opposite bed, sitting back on his hands.
I stood, unsure where to sit. “Maybe she’s out looking for them. She’s missing her daughter.”
“Maybe,” Marc said. “What bugs me is that there’s no contact information we know of. Wouldn’t she tell her friends about her new number in case they find the daughter?”
“Where does she work?” Axel asked.
“She doesn’t,” Corey said with a mouth full of tuna steak. He swallowed and sipped from a bottle of water. “She gets a check from him every month. And she makes cash deposits on occasion, but nothing regular. Just enough to cover bills she pays with a debit card. Outside of the child support, she doesn’t have an income.”
“But the girl is living with him?” I asked. “How is the mother getting support if the daughter is living with the father?”
“We don’t know,” Corey said. “Fred was paying for child support and given every other weekend on the divorce decree. If Sara is living with him, then they’re doing it without the court’s permission.”
“But he has a custody bond,” I said. “They don’t give you those unless you threaten to run off or something happens. And now they’ve got Mrs. Gunther’s money because he screwed up somehow. And what I don’t understand is why the bond agency was there when she paid them off.”
Axel rubbed a fingertip across his brow. “The money presented to the court was by the bond place, not Mrs. Gunther.”
“So?”
“They’re double dipping,” Axel said. He twisted a little to look back at me. “She may have paid them off, but the government is still holding money in their name. They may still be hunting. If they get to him before the deadline, the bond man gets the money back and he could try to keep Mrs. Gunther’s money.”
“They can’t do that,” I said. “That’s… stealing. Isn’t it?”
“Her giving them money saved her house from being used as collateral,” Axel said. “It was insurance in case he skipped. However, there’s still a chunk of money in their name with the police, and the police only want Fred back. Paying them off only guaranteed they wouldn’t come after her house, but it doesn’t officially stop them from trying to find Fred and turn him in.”
“We need to find him before they do,” I said. “Maybe we can negotiate a return somehow?”
“Even if we turn him in, they still get the money. There’s no legal reason for them to return it.”
“What if the charges get dropped? What if the courts tell them to? Can’t Mrs. Gunther sue them for it?”
Axel tilted his head, like he was thinking. “That still wouldn’t get her money back. One thing at a time, though. We’re still missing three people.” He waved his hand through the air. “First thing we need is to find Fred before he figures out a way to disappear and we lose him. Or these bounty hunters find him first.”
Marc stood up and stretched. “Well then you guys have to stay. I have to take Bambi back home.”
I blinked at the nickname. My tired brain was slow to register what he was talking about. I started shaking my head. “We can’t go home.”
Marc and the others focused on me. “What?” Marc asked. “What about Wil?”
How was I going to explain this? Sorry, guys, but I just don’t trust you enough to expose you to my brother.
In the end, I was looking straight at Corey. I don’t know why, but it was like I expected him to understand why I couldn’t leave right now.
Corey slowly sat up a little, studying my face. “Because he ran away from you? You don’t think he wants to see you?”
I bit my lip. Sounded good to me. It was even true. I had been worried when he ran off that it was my fault he did it in the first place. Was he unhappy? I’d never noticed.
“Bambi,” Marc said quietly. He stepped forward slowly toward me, his arms open. “You don’t know why he left.”
“I think I just want to give him time,” I said. “Even if we went to find him, I don’t know if I want to approach him. He left without telling me for a reason. I don’t know why and I don’t want to go into a tirade and scare him off for good.”
Marc’s mouth tilted into a smile. “That sounds reasonable.”
Did it? Because it sounded to me like I was chickening out of confronting him. If I’d been a reasonable sister, I’d demand to see him, drag him back anywhere with me.
But I wasn’t. I was a thief with a rogue group of criminals that I didn’t know at all.
Brandon tilted forward to look around Marc. “We could send Kevin,” he said. “We could tell him to wait for Monday morning and go talk to him.”
“I don’t know.” I didn’t like them knowing where he was. I wished I could talk to Blake. Was he still following me around? Did he even know what was going on?
“You don’t want Kevin to scare him off?” Corey asked.
“Look, guys,” I said, slicing my hand through the air. If they were letting me make the call, then I’d tell them what I wanted. “We’ve got stuff to do here. I’ll call the school and confirm he showed up for class. That’s all I need to know.”
The guys exchanged looks and then Marc shrugged. “Okay,” he said. “Your choice.”
“Then we should all get some sleep,” Axel said. He pointed at Corey. “Did you wire up Mrs. Gunther?”
“I’ve got a camera facing her door from the street lamp,” he said. “We’ll see if anyone shows up. Tapped her phone line, too.”
They started talking about other ideas on how to track down the missing Gunther family. I excused myself to go wash my feet, change into boxers and Corey’s T-shirt and use the restroom. I took my time, wanting a moment alone.
I stared at the phone, wondering how I was going to contact Blake. Maybe I could just use code. I know he said not to text or call because they could hear, but I was listening to them all talk and move in the next room. He said he’d get rid of his phone, too. I didn’t want to get caught, but I needed an outside voice.
I thought about it and then used the cell phone’s internet service to send a text message via an anonymous email service. There was a chance he wouldn’t get it anyway, but I wasn’t sure of another way to contact him. Maybe if Doyle was on call, he’d forward it somehow.
Kayli: It’s me. Are you still watching me?
There was a long wait. Maybe he was trying to figure out who was talking.
Blake: Tell me something I should know.
I had to think about it for a moment. He wanted to confirm it was me somehow. What could I tell him that the boys wouldn’t figure out?
Kayli: You drive a Batmobile.
Blake: Batman’s car doesn’t go as fast as my Mercedes.
I had to smile at that.
Kayli: Any word on my brother?
Blake: Doyle broke into the school’s computer network. He's marked as having shown up at school. But there’s a problem.
Ka
yli: What?
Blake: Remember Mr. Hendricks?
It took me a minute to remember. The email Blake showed me earlier about the school came to mind.
Kayli: Is he missing now?
