Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
As soon as Jax pulled the car into the RV park, she spotted Preston sitting at the picnic bench with his laptop open.
He had a jacket under him on the seat, a hot cup beside him, and he wore a beanie and a pair of fingerless gloves.
Thick sweater and jeans. He looked like a model from an L.L. Bean catalog.
Jax had just parked when Maizie opened the door to the RV like she knew they’d arrived. Kenna gave her a wave and got out. “You connected to the phone?”
Maizie said, “Yeah. How did it go with Abe’s grandma?”
“No idea who might’ve taken them. No idea who killed Marcus.”
Maizie’s expression saddened. “They must be so scared.”
Jax hopped up to the stepstool in front of the door and gave the young woman a side hug. “We’re going to find them. And we need to keep praying that they know God is with them, as much as we’re praying for a lead.”
Kenna didn’t want to say aloud that she was starting to wonder if the family was still alive. Gerald Rickshire had implied he was connected to Dominatus, something that could link the disappearances to that group.
The only play she had to find out if it was true would be to call the president.
Kenna went over to the picnic bench and sat opposite Preston on the cold seat. “What are you working on?” She was assuming it was family business, but it could just as easily be personal.
“I just got a call. Your car repairs will be finished tomorrow morning.”
Kenna’s brows rose. “That fast?”
He shrugged.
“I don’t want to know how much this is costing you.” But she did want her car back, and if he was willing to pay for it…she was going to pad his Christmas gift.
“You think I care about how much it costs?”
She leaned her elbows on the table. “Fine. I guess I’ll just owe you one forever.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll cash in at some point.” Preston gave her a soft smile.
Jax settled by Kenna, and Maizie came out of the RV with her laptop and a blanket. Kenna glanced at the young woman. “Did Zeyla get you a connection into Ellayna’s phone?”
Maizie nodded. “She was heading back here, but I told her the police need the phone.” The young woman made a face. “She wasn’t happy, but she’s meeting with Ryson.”
“The techs missed it at the house,” Kenna said. “If they even searched it all that thoroughly.”
Jax said, “They probably looked to see if Crystal and the kids packed a bag, so they could decide the family just left town, and that’s the most they’ll do unless there are signs of foul play.”
Kenna leaned against him. “Maizie, did Zeyla tell you where the phone was?”
“Under Ellayna’s bed, like it slid there.”
Kenna glanced between Jax and Maizie. “That could indicate there was a struggle. She might’ve been grabbed and dropped it, or she knew there was danger and shoved it under the bed, hoping no one would find it.”
Maizie looked at her computer screen and typed on the keyboard.
“The phone has everything you’d expect your average teen would have.
Social media accounts, streaming entertainment apps, all the things you’d think a twelve-year-old might not be ready for.
Also, there are no family restrictions or time limits on her device, so maybe we want to talk to Crystal about adding those when we find them. ”
“Good idea,” Jax said. “Kids shouldn’t have unlimited access to media until they know how to regulate themselves. The dopamine hit is too addictive, and there’s far too much risk of seeing or hearing something they’re not ready for.”
Maizie looked at him. “I actually added it to my phone because I never had access to social media or entertainment before now. I don’t know how to use it in a healthy way either, even though I’m an adult.
Stairns set time limits, and if I need more time at night to watch something, I have to send a request.” She grinned.
“He’s pretty funny about it. He said I should do the same for him. ”
Kenna loved that the two of them related to each other like family. “Even old dogs need to learn new tricks. Like how to use different apps on their phone.”
Maizie grinned. “I taught him how to send me a video of Cabot. Now he does it every day.”
She smiled. “I’d love to see them.”
“No problem. As far as Ellayna goes, I’ve got texts in her messages and in the apps she uses. No emails with anyone, just spam, but that’s not surprising for a kid.”
Kenna smirked and heard Jax chuckle quietly beside her.
“Huh.” Maizie stilled. “She was talking to someone, making a plan for when to meet. Or connect. I think it was a phone call.”
“The podcaster?”
Maizie said, “Maybe. She has his name saved in her contacts as Rich Waters.”
“The name of the guy on the podcast is Steven, right?” Preston asked. “At least, the name he uses for it.”
Kenna nodded. “So far, all we’ve been able to ascertain is that it’s an alias he uses for it. There’s no other way to trace him. Except for this name. But maybe that is fake as well. Ellayna might have made it up.”
Aside from the federal government opening a case, which would be difficult to justify when he didn’t seem to have committed a crime, all they could prove was that he was just a horrible person who interviewed children for ratings.
She’d decided that no matter how gentle he was with Ellayna during the interview, he still shouldn’t have done it.
Without probable cause, no one could get a warrant to compel whoever was behind any of the podcasting apps to give up his personal information.
It might not even lead anywhere.
“Now we have the number he was using to communicate with her,” Maizie said.
Kenna touched her hands together in front of her. “Please tell me it’s not a burner phone. Please, please, please.”
Jax squeezed her knee. “Yes, Lord,” he prayed aloud.
“Hang on, I’ll run the number through some searches.” Maizie had access to legal and not-so-legal avenues for finding out all kinds of information.
Now that the president had told the world they worked for her, Kenna figured she could pitch in if Maizie got into trouble with the law and they found themselves needing to get her a good defense attorney.
“Bingo.”
Preston leaned over and looked at her screen. “I like bingo. Bingo is good.”
Maizie almost smiled. The young woman’s lips were starting to turn blue, despite the blanket.
She needed to go back inside, and if she was honest, Kenna did as well.
She needed a whole lot of things that she didn’t have, but contentment had to exist in the gap between what she thought she should have, or know, and what she possessed.
“His name is Wallace Lofton. According to this, that’s who the phone is registered to.”
Kenna silently thanked God for even this much of a lead. The prayer spilled out onto her lips. “Thank You, Lord. We need to find this guy.”
“There can’t be that many Wallace Lofton’s out there, but how do we narrow down which one is the podcaster?” Preston asked.
Jax said, “I can give the name to an FBI contact and have them run every Wallace Lofton that exists. Ryson can do the same.”
“There’s one Wallace Lofton in this area.
He’s thirty-nine and moved here from Seattle three years ago.
He is a card-carrying member of the Salt Lake City Private Investigator Cohort and the president of another group who looks at cold-case murders that are as yet unsolved.
” Maizie scanned the screen of her laptop.
“That’s all I can see from his Facebook without hacking his account to get a look from the inside. ”
She paused long enough that Kenna nearly asked her what she’d discovered, but Maizie continued before she could. “There’s a conversation here on a post he shared.” Her nose wrinkled.
“What is it?” Kenna bounced her knee up and down.
Maizie said, “What is murderabilia?”
“Ah.” Kenna nodded. “Think memorabilia, but for murder.”
Preston’s head jerked. “That’s a real thing? Gross.”
Jax said, “Sadly, yes. And it is awful. But some people collect memorabilia from murders like they’re items worth putting on display. It’s pretty despicable. Like collecting Nazi stuff. They want tokens from true crimes so they can show them off like collectibles.”
“There’s a black market for everything, I guess.” Preston leaned back on the bench seat, as if he needed to absorb the blow of how awful people could be.
“We need to know if he bought or sold anything,” Kenna said. “This sounds like the right guy.”
“I’ll call my buddy at the bureau here in town. See what he can dig up on this guy.”
“Tell your friend not to take too long,” Kenna said. “I’d rather just go knock on his front door.”
Jax hesitated but said it anyway. “Preston and I can go. You and Maizie can stay here and dig up this guy’s entire life.”
Kenna pressed her lips together because that actually sounded like a decent division of labor. “Call Zeyla also. She needs an assignment.”
“You don’t want to go?”
Because she hadn’t argued with his suggestion to stay here? Kenna said, “I already found one dead body. I filled my quota. If there’s a door to knock on, you go right ahead.”
Jax leaned over and kissed her cheek. “Good deal.”
Kenna leaned on his shoulder and not so gracefully climbed free of the picnic bench seat. “Let’s go, Maze. We’ve got a case to work.”
Maizie gathered her things, and they went inside, where Kenna immediately set about making hot chocolate. She peeled her coat off and switched the sweater she was wearing for a longer, more insulated knit one with a single button that fastened over her baby bump.
The process of getting her arms in it sent an odd cramp through her middle. Kenna bent forward slightly and braced her hands on the edge of the kitchen counter, blowing out a long breath through the sensation.
“Kenna, you okay?”
She could see Maizie out of the corner of her eye, sitting at the table with her laptop facing where Kenna stood. All she could do was nod. Give the sensation a second to pass. “I’m okay.”
The kettle clicked off.
“I’ll make your drink,” Maizie said. “You get some rest.”
“Thanks.” Kenna took her phone, and wandered to the bedroom, where she crawled onto the bed and slumped down with her head on the pillow, lying on her left side. A moment later she could see Jax and Maizie having a whispered conversation.
There were still at least ten days for this baby to stay right where she was and keep growing, and be safe. Nothing to worry about.
She leaned the edge of her phone on the bed so she could see the screen and realized she had missed a call.
Kenna dialed her voicemail and put in the code. “Probably spam.” She didn’t have the number saved.
Jax appeared at the entrance to their bedroom, holding a steaming mug. “What’s that?”
“Kenna? Why didn’t you answer the phone?” A child. A young girl. “I don’t know where I am. Kenna, help me.”
Everything in her chilled. “Ellayna.”