Chapter 32
32
M itch turned to Mason, and just before he was about to say something, his phone rang. He pulled it up and his brows rose into his hair.
He looked at Mason as he answered his phone. "Hey, Ethan."
Mitch stepped closer to Mason. Mason leaned in; he didn't want to miss a single word.
"I just received some intelligence, and I thought it might help you over there. Mason, are you close by?"
"Yes, I'm here."
Ethan continued. "All right, listen up. It appears that Terry Bryan also goes by the name Terry Layton and most recently Layton Terry. It was just confirmed through TSA, that he boarded a plane and landed in Tampa a week ago. Not saying that this is your guy, but I'm saying a man with some aliases near the same town as you, and also on our suspect list, would be someone very important to watch for. I don't have any information that he's checked into a hotel. We are checking that though, and I'll let you know as soon as I have something."
Mitch responded, "Thanks, Ethan. That's great information about the man Mason believes has Carley. I'll keep you posted. Out."
The call ended, and Mitch glanced at Mason. "We're gonna find her. We're getting close. But we don't have a location to search. We can ask the police to contact local businesses and look at their security cameras. He may show up on them, driving by or in the parking area. We can create a timeline with that information. We have a car, and we have a name. And we know he's not far from here because he wants the drive. We have that. And if he's the man trading military secrets for money, he wants what we have."
Mason's mind raced. "Then let's let him know we have it."
Mitch cocked his head. Jace and Quinn both straightened their posture.
Mitch said, "What do you mean?"
Mason replied, "I mean, we need to get the word out quickly that we found a military-grade thumb drive and it's here."
Mitch nodded. Jace sprang into action. "Well, the quickest way to do that would be through a couple of channels. We have the local radio station which is where I get the word out when I need something quickly. It was how we got the word out about Grace's petition signing, and we reached hundreds of people that night. And if he's monitoring social media, and/or police channels, we can get the word out on both of those."
"Okay," Mitch responded.
Mason nodded, "Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good let's start there. I'll do social media. Jace, you call the radio station. Mitch, you call local PD and ask them to broadcast across their radios and their scanners that there's a military-grade thumb drive found, and for right now, it's being held at the Sandbar."
Quinn said, "Well, wait a minute. Shouldn't we tell them it's at the police station? Why would having it here be bigger bait?"
Mason grinned, "Because they won't think there's security here."
Quinn nodded. "Gotcha. Okay. Great thinking, Mason."
They split up to go their separate ways. Mason quickly pulled up the Sandbar's social media page and made a new post. All capital letters.
“ANNOUNCEMENT. MILITARY GRADE THUMB DRIVE FOUND. Red in color. Stainless steel casing. A few scratches and bruises on it. Dug up by landscapers at the Barracks Condos. Being held at the Sandbar for safekeeping. If anyone knows who this belongs to, or if it's yours, please contact the Sandbar and ask for Jace. He'll get you in touch with your property.”
He read it over a couple of times, then removed the description and added at the bottom: “You'll need to describe the thumb drive to take possession.”
Mason felt better about that. He felt at least, he was doing something. He clicked, post, and watched as it uploaded. Then the message popped on his screen. Posted.
He walked out to the bartender and said, "If anybody calls here about a thumb drive, patch him through to Jace or me. Margo exited from the bathroom her eyes were still red. She caught up to him. "Is there any news?"
"No. But we're making some progress."
"Oh, Mason, I'm so worried."
He hugged his boss's wife, his girlfriend's sister, and his friend. He said, "I know. I'm worried too, Margo."
She stepped back and sniffed. "She likes you so much."
He grinned. "I like her too. More than I ever dreamed I could like anybody. More than I ever dreamed I would want someone in my life. It's unreal and then this. But I'm more determined than ever to find her."
"Thank you. Thank you. I'm trying to stay out here because I feel like I'm in the way. I don't know what to do. I don't know if I should go to the house and see..."
Mason froze, "Wait a minute. I'm just gonna run out to the house and make sure she's not there. That they're not holding her there."
"Don't go alone, take someone with you."
"I'll take Mitch with me."
Mason hustled back to the office. "Mitch, let's go out to Carley's house and make sure they didn't take her there."
"Will do." They rushed out to Mason's truck and hopped in. He drove them quickly toward Carley's house.
Mitch inhaled. "I doubt that they would take her there, it would be the obvious place to look, and they think police have already been there.”
"That's true, but at least I feel like I'm doing something."
"Well, there is that."
As Mason sped to Carley's house, Mitch's phone rang again. "DeMario."
"This is Tray Fielding from Blossom Springs PD. We just got word that Jonathan Roberts out on County Road AA found a woman who had been kidnapped. We have units on the way."
Mason slammed on the brakes just before turning on Golden Acres Road, where Carley lived, and made the left to stay on Hospital Road. About two miles past the hospital, he took a left on County Road AA.