CHAPTER TEN
Once inside the vehicle, Quinn lether mind wander. Victoria had spoken of Quinn and Joe’s relationship as if it was a mistake. Quinn knew it had been a mistake to get involved with Joe so quickly. She’d thought he was the one. But she’d never thought of herself as a mistake in the whole thing. She’d genuinely cared for Joe and thought he’d felt the same way toward her. Knowing now that she was just a fling hurt even more than his leaving.
“Quinn?” Reid’s voice waded through her muddled thoughts.
“Sorry.”
“I said, Victoria mentioned Joe had said he was working on a case when you two were together and that it was going to be huge after the fact. Were there any breaking news stories in the months after Joe left?”
She hadn’t been sure of anything after he left. It wasn’t until the beginning of her third trimester that she pulled herself out of her depression. Or more accurately, God had pulled her out.
Victoria’s words had caused those dark clouds to reappear. “I don’t know. After he left, I was a little preoccupied. I didn’t pay attention to the news.”
“That’s something we should look into. In the meantime, I’d like to lay my eyes on his trailer.”
“There are only two places in town he could park it. Would you recognize it if you saw it?”
“Unless he got a new one, yes.”
She gave him directions to the nearest campsite, but it was a bust. There were several larger luxurious trailers. Reid had said Joe’s was small and generic. They were driving through the back portion of the last place he could have parked. She slumped in her seat. This was going nowhere.
“There it is.” Reid pointed as he pulled the car into the parking area by the trailer.
She sat up straighter, a weight lifting from her chest. The trailer sat alone in the back corner of the RV camp. Secluded. It was a run-of-the-mill small trailer. One door and a small window on the side facing the gravel road. They climbed from the car. She kept JJ close to her as she walked to the door. It was locked. Not a surprise. Quinn turned and started looking for a hidden key. Did people do that with travel trailers? She didn’t want to, but if all else failed, they could break a window. Yes, it was illegal, but at this point, she would do anything to protect her son.
Creaking noises came from behind her. Reid had opened the door. “How’d you do that?”
“Let’s just say I’ve learned a few things that most people haven’t.”
“Do they teach you to pick locks in private investigator school?”
Reid let out an exasperated breath and shook his head. “Just get inside before someone sees us.”
She climbed the two stairs and entered the small space. A chair and TV stand created a small living room on her right. To the left, there was a kitchenette and breakfast booth. Two closed doors past the kitchen area probably led to a bedroom and bathroom.
Reid zeroed in on the papers scattered across the top of the breakfast table. “Take a look through these papers, and see if anything could be related. I’ll go take a look in the bedroom.”
“JJ, go ahead and have a seat.” Quinn patted the back of the chair in the reading area and gave him her phone.
She sat at the breakfast table and rummaged through the papers. There was a pile of receipts for gas and food. The top one was a receipt from the Sunrise Café dated the day before the attempted kidnapping. It was for after her shift.
Joe had been in town and had waited until mere moments before they were kidnapped to do anything. Anger built in her.
At the bottom of the stack, there was a receipt from the delivery company that had shipped her envelope. “Reid, I found something.”
“So did I.” Reid came back into the kitchen area. Two manila folders landed on the tiny table in front of her. The top file was labeledQuinn Matthews. She knew what the label on the second file folder would say, but she looked anyway.Joshua Matthews.
She opened JJ’s file, and a chill ran up her spine. There on top was a copy of JJ’s preschool graduation picture. How had Joe got that?
The next picture was of JJ playing T-ball. He was up to bat. The helmet swallowed his head. It was a wonder he could see out of it at all. She thumbed through the rest of the file. It contained photos of JJ at various ages. There was even a photo of JJ in the hospital, the white band visible on his tiny leg. The pictures were worn, like he’d looked at them often.
Anger turned to disgust as her stomach churned. He’d been following them for years. At the bottom of the pile were papers. JJ’s shot records and birth certificate. Joe had written his name in for the father, whereas the original certificate was blank.
“What does all of this mean?” She closed the file and shoved it away from her. Her body heated as anger grew.
“I’d guess that he wasn’t as detached as he appeared to be. Maybe, the support money was just that—support—and not hush money as you’d speculated.”
She turned to check on JJ. He had his nose buried in whatever game he was playing on the phone. “If he wanted to support JJ, he should have been here. In person,” she whispered.
