Chapter 9
9
R ocky had found one of Eli’s blocks!
Wyn spun to stare at the house that was only a few feet away. It was nicer than the trailer house. “Was Eli inside there too?”
“Not sure, but we’re not taking any chances.” Chase grabbed her arm. “We’ll call Griff and ask him to head out here.”
As much as she wanted to rush inside the house, she knew Chase was right to be cautious. The home was nicer than the previous trailer house, but it was dark inside, and there were no vehicles in the driveway. It wasn’t likely that Eli was inside.
“Hurry,” she urged.
Chase already has his phone out. “Griff? Rocky alerted on Eli’s scent, and we found one of his toy building blocks in the snow outside a single-story residence.” She stopped listening as he explained their current location. “Great. See you soon.”
“Will you at least ask Rocky to search for Eli?” she asked.
“We know Eli was here; he dropped his block,” Chase said gently. “Rocky alerting at the front door doesn’t tell us anything new.”
“How can you be so logical?” She threw up her hands in frustration. “Our son was here, Chase. He was here!”
“I know that.” Chase’s voice was low and husky. “Do you think I don’t want to charge inside too? I do. More than anything. But we’re going to wait the few minutes it will take for the FBI to get here.”
His calm attitude was driving her crazy. Yet she was so glad they hadn’t stopped the search to head back to the SUV. What if the wind had shifted again and Rocky hadn’t found and alerted on Eli’s scent?
She stared down at the wooden block partially hidden in the snow. While she was thrilled to see it, she knew her son would be upset at losing it. “I hope Eli still has his stuffed horsey.”
“Me too.” Chase turned to glance down the street from the direction they’d come. “See? That didn’t take long.”
She turned in time to see a black SUV approaching. She was surprised. It seemed as if Griff Flannery had jumped into the car to head over the moment Chase called.
While Chase walked over to greet the FBI agent, she stayed where she was, standing over the building block. The block was for the letter C, and it was the only tangible lead to Eli. The way Rocky had found it only reinforced her belief that Chase and Rocky offered the best chance of rescuing the little boy.
She listened as Chase filled Griff Flannery on the sequence of events that had led Rocky to alerting on the block. The FBI agent crossed over and bent to examine it. Then he looked up at her. “You’re sure this is Eli’s?”
“Yes. He was playing with the blocks when he was taken.” She frowned. “To be honest, I didn’t look closely enough to notice that one of them was missing.”
Griff nodded and pulled an evidence bag from his pocket. After using the plastic like a glove and picking up the block, he rose. “Okay, I need you and Chase to stay behind me. I’ll take the lead. Once I’ve cleared the place, you can bring Rocky inside to search for Eli’s scent.”
She chafed at the delay but didn’t argue. At least this time, the house wouldn’t go up in a ball of flames.
“FBI!” Griffin pounded on the front door. “Open up! FBI!”
There was no answer from inside.
Griff tried again, then reached for the front door. It swung open easily, meaning it wasn’t locked.
Eli wasn’t there. At least, not anymore.
She hadn’t really expected him to be, but it still hurt to have come so close to finding him, only to fail. She swallowed hard and waited for Griff to clear the house. It didn’t take long for him to reappear in the doorway.
“I’m going to have the crime scene techs head over here to process the interior of the home.” Griff gestured to the dog. “If you want to use Rocky to verify that Eli was here, that’s fine. Don’t touch anything, and when that’s finished, I need you both to stay outside.”
“Understood.” Chase glanced at her, then turned his attention to Rocky. “Are you ready to search? Are you? Search!” Chase opened the front door. Griff stood off to the side to stay out of the way. “Search for Eli!”
Rocky didn’t need much encouragement. The K9 trotted up to the front door and crossed the threshold. She hurried over to watch. Just like at the trailer house, the dog went to the sofa, sniffed intently, then sat and let out a sharp bark.
“Good boy,” Chase praised.
“Impressive,” Griff said. “Do you want to do the rest of the house?”
Chase glanced at her briefly, then shook his head. “No need. We have the block outside and the alert. Eli was here. And he’s not anymore. We need to know who owns this place and where the kidnappers have taken Eli from here.”
The last part of his statement was sobering. Wyn knew she could find the owner of the house using the tribal housing database. But finding where Eli was now wouldn’t be easy.
“I don’t suppose the kidnappers left anything else behind?” She held Griff’s gaze. “Like a piece of paper, a note, a phone...”
“Nothing that I can see,” Griff said. “But I promise to let you know if the crime scene techs come up with something that will help. If we’re able to get fingerprints, those can be processed and sent through the system very quickly.” The agent shrugged. “If our perps are in the system, we’ll have results very soon.”
That was encouraging. “Thank you.” She backed away from the house so Chase and Rocky could join her.
Chase took a moment to reward the K9 with the red ball. Rocky dropped into a playful pose, then took off running with the ball in his mouth. He was like a kid with a new toy, and she was a little surprised at how well the reward of playing ball seemed to be received. Under different circumstances, she’d have asked about his training.
But now she was ready to move on to the next phase of the investigation.
Inside, she could see Griff was already on the phone with his team. She shivered in the cold. “I guess we walk back to the SUV and trailer?”
“Yes. But let’s hurry,” Chase said. “You were smart enough to bring the laptop. We can use my phone as a hotspot so you can log in to get the name of the property owner.”
She nodded. “I like that plan.”
They alternated between walking and jogging back to where they’d left the SUV. Chase had used an app on his phone to locate the vehicle since they’d crossed many yards in following Rocky’s trail. The dog ran, too, seeming to enjoy the outing. Chase let Rocky keep the red ball longer than usual, and it was only once they’d finally reached the SUV that he told the dog to hand him the ball.
Rocky dropped the ball at her feet.
“You’re a brat, Rock.” Chase bent down to pick up the ball. “A real brat.”
Rocky wagged his tail in agreement.
Chase opened the rear hatch for the K9. Rocky jumped inside, then stretched out with his head down between his paws. She slid into the passenger seat and picked up the computer that was ice cold to the touch. She hoped the battery would work in the frigid temps.
Chase started the car engine. She held the laptop near the heating vents, waiting for the air to turn warm. After a long minute, she opened the laptop and powered it up.
It worked. She glanced over at Chase who was fiddling with his phone. After a moment, she saw a message appear in the upper right-hand corner of the computer asking if she wanted to connect to the hotspot. She clicked the link, waited another few seconds, then brought up the Wind River tribal property registry.
It took her a while to identify the proper residence. There were addresses associated with homes, but many of them were not posted outside for mail delivery. Out here, most people used post office boxes rather than having their mail delivered to their homes. That practice had changed a bit here in Riverton, but the home where the building block had been found didn’t have an address posted in clear view.
“I found it!” She toggled from the map to the registry, double-checking her work. “The house is owned by Carl Longfoot.” She did a quick search to see if Carl Longfoot owned any other properties in the area.
He didn’t.
“Does that name sound familiar to you?” Chase asked.
“No.” She desperately wished it did. She knew the tribal leaders, of course, but none of them were named Longfoot. Or Stone.
“Keep looking,” Chase encouraged.
“I am. This is so strange,” Wyn said, half to herself as she worked the keyboard. “I’m in the tribal registry, and just like Julia Stone, there’s only one person with the last name of Longfoot.” She shook her head in frustration. “I don’t get it. Most of the people living here have families. Large and extended families. It’s highly unusual that the two people owning properties used by these kidnappers seem to be single individuals without any sort of extended family.”
“Without an extended family with the same last name.” Chase clarified her statement. “As we said before, both Julia Stone and Carl Longfoot could have family members on the reservation under a different name. We don’t know for sure they haven’t remarried, divorced, or changed their name for some other reason.”
“Maybe.” She was frustrated with the lack of information. “But I’d really expected to find some sort of connection between them.”
“I would have thought so too.” Chase pulled away from the side of the road, driving toward the property that Griff was having processed by the crime scene techs. “Let’s head over to let Griff know this guy’s name.”
“Sure.” She tried to come up with another way to find relatives of either of the homeowners. “There must be some connection between Julia Stone and Carl Longfoot,” she repeated. “If we can find that connection, then we may know who’s responsible for taking Eli.”
Chase nodded. “I agree, but who would know that?”
She stared at the screen for a moment. “My father. Or really, any of the tribal leaders may recognize their names. I should call him anyway.” She swallowed a wave of guilt. “I never told my father Eli had been taken.”
“No way. I don’t like that idea.” Chase’s tone was sharp. “We still don’t know for sure that this isn’t related to your audit work. Maybe one of the tribal leaders is behind the kidnapping to keep you from digging into the audit.”
“I don’t think that’s the reason,” she objected wearily. “And speaking of my job, I never called in to say I was taking the day off.” She was a little surprised no one had reached out to her. “I should do that now.”
“Wait.” Chase grabbed her arm. “Isn’t there another way? Someone else you can talk to about these homeowners?”
She shook her head. “I’m sorry, but I don’t know anyone who can provide that information.” She thought about it for a moment, then said, “Although now that we’re talking about it, I think it would be better if the request for information didn’t come from you or me, but from the FBI.”
“Yeah, I like that approach.” Chase looked relieved. “Go ahead and call off sick. But don’t say anything about Eli.”
“Okay.” As she prepared to make the call to her assistant, Evelyn, she couldn’t help wondering if keeping Eli’s kidnapping a secret was the right thing to do. When she’d first realized he was missing, she’d wanted every single person on the rez to be out looking for her son.
Now she didn’t know what to think. So far, their evidence indicated Eli had been kept here in Riverton at least for the past several hours.
She hadn’t taken Chase’s suggestion about her audit of the tribal council funds being a reason for the kidnapping seriously. Yet the fact that Eli had been moved around the city, and a fire had been used to destroy evidence—not to mention being shot at—gave her pause.
Was Chase right? Was it possible that someone within the tribal council was responsible for kidnapping their son?
And if so, what would he demand in exchange for bringing him home?
* * *
Chase noticed the crime scene tech’s white panel van was in the driveway when he approached the house that they now knew belonged to a man by the name of Carl Longfoot. Nobody was outside, though, so he assumed they were already hard at work lifting fingerprints from inside.
He would have rather found Eli inside, but having a relatively fresh crime scene to examine and process for clues was better than what they’d had before.
“Stay here while I update Griff.” Chase pulled off to the side of the road and parked. “This won’t take long.”
“Okay.” She was scowling at her computer. “I’ll keep trying to figure out if there’s any other way I can dig into the backgrounds of these homeowners.”
Leaving her to it, and keeping the car engine running, he pushed out of the driver’s side and headed up to the house. Griff looked surprised to see him.
“Back so soon?”
“The homeowner is Carl Longfoot.” Chase got straight to the point. “Much like with Julia Stone, Wynona hasn’t been able to find any of Carl’s extended family.” He could see the crime scene techs were dusting for prints. “Have you found anything?”
“Several prints, but it’s going to take time to isolate and run them through the system,” Griff said. “We’re working as quickly as we can.” Griff gestured to the activity going on inside. “They have a computer set up inside the white van, so we should know something within the hour. If they’re in the system,” Griff added. “You know there is a slim possibility they’re not former criminals.”
“I know.” He was hoping that these two men who had taken Eli did have criminal backgrounds. But he also knew that prints didn’t always go into the system for petty crimes. “Do you mind if I call Doug? Maybe his tech guy can find something on Carl Longfoot.”
“Go ahead, we’ll take whatever leads Doug’s guys can find.” Griff didn’t seem to have the typical arrogance of a federal agent. Not that he was an expert, but Maya had mentioned her previous interactions with the FBI in her law enforcement days. But then the agent in charge retired, and he assumed Griff was the new kid on the block.
“Great. Thanks again.” Chase didn’t want to leave. He wanted to stand there to wait for the fingerprint results. But it was cold, and he knew that the process took time. With reluctance, he turned away.
He was halfway to the SUV when he heard the front door shut. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw a person dressed in Tyvek head toward the white panel van. His heart thumped crazily in his chest. He found himself taking several steps toward the van.
Then Griff came outside. “Chase, I told you I’ll let you know what we find.” The agent sounded irritable. Chase wanted to snap at him, then belatedly realized the fed didn’t have any clue that the child they were looking for was his son.
“I know. I just thought I’d wait around a bit.” He gestured toward the SUV. “Wyn is sick with fear. Eli is only four and a half, too young to be gone from his mother for this length of time.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Griff narrowed his gaze. “Weren’t you involved in a missing kid here on the rez several months ago?”
The knot in his stomach tightened painfully. It was a case that haunted him from the moment Wyn had called him. “Yeah, the little girl’s name was Alecia. Alecia Redstone.” The image of the girl’s dead body flashed in his mind. “She didn’t make it.”
Griff winced. “Sorry about that. But I heard you and your K9 did a great job in tracking her across the rez.”
Not good enough , Chase thought darkly. “Rocky found her at the bottom of a ravine. We never knew if she fell of her own accord, was pushed, or was dumped.”
There was a long moment of silence as the reality of what they were dealing with hit home for both men. “Wait here,” Griff finally said. “I’ll see what we’ve got.”
Chase nodded without saying anything more. Dredging up the old wounds from his unsuccessful search for Alecia made him fear the same thing would happen here.
That he and Rocky would be too late to save Eli.
The sound of a car door slamming caused him to glance over to the SUV. Wyn had gotten out of the car and was hurrying toward him. “What is it?” she asked, deep furrows grooved into her brow. “Bad news?”
“No.” He realized she’d picked up on his depressing thoughts. He jerked his thumb toward the panel van. “Good news actually. They’re running the fingerprints they lifted from the kitchen now.”
Her dark eyes widened. “Already? That’s wonderful!”
“Yeah.” He didn’t want her to get her hopes up, but he knew it was too late. For him too. They desperately needed something to go on.
The next two minutes dragged by with excruciating slowness. He was about to head over to open the back of the panel van to find out what was happening when Griff emerged. The excitement in the FBI agent’s expression made his heart race.
“You have something?” Chase asked.
Griff nodded and turned to look at Wyn. “Does the name George Twofeathers mean anything to you?”
“I don’t think so.” She frowned, then glanced at the SUV. “I can see if he has family listed in the tribal registry, though.”
Wyn spun on her heel and ran to the SUV. Chase eyed Griff. “What crime did George Twofeathers commit? Why are his prints in the system?”
Griff hesitated, then said, “Armed robbery five years ago. He did his time and was released on good behavior. He’s twenty-five years old now.”
Chase wanted to punch something at the way this kid had been let back out on the streets to commit another crime. “If he’s kidnapping kids, he’s not behaving very well, is he?”
“Hey, it’s not like releasing him was my decision,” Griff protested. “That was up to the judge. And in all fairness, we don’t know for sure he’s involved.”
“Then why are his prints in the house?” Chase knew his anger was misplaced and did his best to wrestle it back. “I’m glad we have a name. You’ll get a BOLO out for this guy? Do the tribal police know him?”
“I’ll call them now.” Griff pulled his phone from his pocket. He must have looked impatient because Griff sighed loudly. “Give me a break, Chase. I just got the fingerprint results. You stood here while we processed them. Now that we have a name to work from, we’ll find him. I’m confident someone living on the rez will know him. Know his friends and where he hangs out. And before you ask, I checked to see if he has a car registered to his name. He doesn’t.”
That figured. Chase tried to think of another avenue to pursue. “Did you look at his arrest record? Did he have help pulling off the armed robbery?”
“Yes, but that guy’s prints aren’t in the house,” Griff said. “He’s a white guy by the name of Barry Tomlin. From what I saw, Tomlin is still in jail. Maybe he committed another crime while in lockup, and they added to his initial sentence.”
He forced himself to nod. Griff was doing everything he could. Time for Chase to accept what they knew and to move on from there. “Okay, thanks. I really do appreciate everything you’ve done so far. Please keep me updated on your progress.”
“Yeah, I will.” Griff turned away to use his phone to call the tribal police.
Chase left him to it, heading back toward the SUV just as Wyn emerged from the passenger seat with a crestfallen expression etched on her face.
He swallowed a groan. “Let me guess. No home address for George Twofeathers?”
“Nope. I found his mother, Regina Twofeathers, but she’s not a property owner either.” She gripped his arm. “We need to find her.”
“I know.” He reached over to put his arm around her shoulders. “We’re getting close, Wyn. I can feel it.”
“I hope you’re right.” She rested against him for a moment.
He held her close, ignoring the cold wind coming from the west. He wanted to kiss her, to let her know he still cared about her.
But before he could say anything, she pulled away. “I have an idea. I think we should check the apartments not far from the college.”
He frowned. “Why there?”
“There are college kids living in those apartments. One or two of them could know George Twofeathers. I don’t think he attended college, but kids of a certain age tend to hang out together, right?”
He nodded.
“I learned his mother, Regina, isn’t very old, roughly forty-five years old. I’m assuming he might be about twenty-five give or take a year.”
“He is twenty-five,” he agreed. “Griff has his arrest record. George Twofeathers was arrested for armed robbery and spent five years in jail. That’s why his prints are in the system.”
“Has Griff issued an arrest warrant?”
“He’s on the phone with the tribal police right now. I’m sure they’ll head over to his last-known address, too, although if he has Eli, I doubt he’s hanging around at his home.” Chase glanced at the time. It was still pretty early, just going on nine in the morning. It seemed like an entire day had passed since they’d woken up this morning, rather than a few hours. “We can try the Silver Spur later, too, after the place opens. Maybe someone there knows him. Or who he hangs out with.”
“You’ll go with me?” Her expression was hopeful. “I can’t sit here doing nothing, waiting for the feds and the tribal police to find George. If we can find a friend of his, maybe that’s where they’re holding Eli.”
“Of course.” He gave her another quick hug. “We’re in this together.”
“Thank you.” Her voice was low and husky, and she surprised him by moving in to kiss him on the cheek. “I couldn’t do any of this without you.”
He stared down at her for a long moment. “Wyn, when this is over and we have Eli back,” he began.
“I know,” she quickly interrupted. “I know what you’re going to say. That we need to talk about where we’ll go from here. And we will. I—let’s just wait to hash through the details of how we’ll make things work until we find him.”
He wanted to push for more but didn’t. Maybe it was premature to plan their son’s future when they didn’t know where he was being held. Or why.
For now, they were a team, working toward the same goal.
To find their son.