Chapter 6
“I’m sorry Nick, but I was unable to get any feed on the car,” Swede said. “I even wrote a program to keep a watch out for it, but I haven’t had a notification since.”
“I understand. I thought I’d check in with you since Jillian is determined that we go out and search for Travis now,” he explained.
“I’ll call you if anything turns up,” Swede said.
“I appreciate it,” Nick told him as he heard beeping coming over the phone line.
“Wait. I can’t believe this,” Swede exuded excitement.
“What?” Nick asked.
“My program. It’s bringing up satellite feed of the car on the interstate heading back toward… North Miami?” Swede explained.
“Are you sure?” Nick asked.
“Positive. I’m watching it happen as we speak.”
“That’s amazing,” Nick said.
“I’ll send the footage to your phone so you can follow,” Swede said.
“Thanks,” Nick said. “I’ll call if anything changes on my end.”
As soon as his call ended, he called for Jillian. “Hey Jillian, are you about ready to go? I have a new lead on that car that had Travis yesterday. I want to get on the road in hopes of catching up to it.”
“I’m coming,” she said, hobbling out of her room in a sundress. She headed over to the kitchen and grabbed two bottles of water and an insulated bag to put them in to keep them cold before they left. “It sounds like you have promising intel.”
“I do at the moment,” Nick said.
“But I thought we were going to go see Carlos first,” Jillian reminded him.
“I really think we should talk to Travis’ buddy system friend before we do anything else.
I have a feeling that Detective Simons hasn’t spoken to him.
Carlos was in the reptile exhibit with Travis before he went missing.
He might have seen something that could be essential in our finding those two guys who took Travis. ”
Nick shook his head. “I don’t know. If we take the time to speak to Carlos we might miss out on finding those two guys. Won’t Carlos be at Playland Day Camp today?”
“Not today,” Jillian said. “I spoke to his nanny Monica. He was too upset about Travis to go today.”
“Okay then,” Nick relented. “But only for a few minutes.”
“Should we inform Detective Simons?” she asked.
“I’ll give him a call once we leave Carlos’,” Nick said as they headed to the main house.
She slowly followed behind him as he walked to the front door where he’d left his car parked in the circular drive.
After helping her into the car, she gave him the address to Carlos’ parents’ house and they headed to the Fuentes, who lived two gated communities over.
When they arrived at the two-story hacienda-style home, the housekeeper showed them into the family room where Monica was trying to get Carlos to put on his shoes. “See I told you Miss Jillian was coming to see you,” Monica said.
The little boy hid his face behind Monica’s back.
“He’s normally not this shy,” the nanny said. “Please, have a seat.”
Nick and Jillian sat on the love seat across from where Monica and Carlos were sitting on the couch.
“Hello, Carlos,” Jillian said. “It’s so good to see you. Did you enjoy the zoo yesterday? I heard you were looking at the snakes. Do you like them?”
The little boy peeped back at her and nodded; his face was wet from where he had been crying. “I’m sorry. It’s all my fault.”
“No, it isn’t,” Jillian said.
“But if we had followed the rules…” Carlos said. “I should have gone to the bathroom with Travis even if I didn’t have to go.”
“True. We all make mistakes,” Jillian said. “I’ve done the same thing.”
“So, have I,” Monica said. “I’ve gotten so wrapped up in what I was looking at that I forgot what I should have been doing.”
Jillian nodded. “But then I remembered, and I recalled seeing things I didn’t realize I’d seen. Have you done that, Carlos? When you were looking at the snakes yesterday. Did you see something that you recalled today? About the people around you?”
The little boy nodded as well. “There was this one guy who had a snake on his arm from here to here,” he said pointing at his wrist to his elbow. “And he went into the restroom before Travis did.”
“Did you notice when he came out?” Nick asked.
“Nope. By then I was too busy watching the real snakes,” Carlos said.
“Could you describe the snake tattoo?” Nick asked, taking out a notepad and a pencil from his pant pocket. “Was it skinny or wide? Did it have stripes or markings?”
“Skinny. Stripes,” Carlos said scooting to the edge of the couch. “It was black and it’s tongue was stinking out toward the guy’s thumb.”
“That’s very good detail,” Nick said, quickly sketching. “Did it look something like this?” He showed the boy the drawing he made.
“Yes. That’s it!” Carlos said, excited and he crossed the room to stand in front of Nick. “How did you guess?”
“From your detailed description, “Nick explained. “Thank you for your help, buddy. Was the tattoo on the tall guy or the shorter one?”
“There was only one,” Carlos said.
Nick nodded. “Let me ask you a different way. Was the guy with the tattoo tall or about average?”
The little boy studied for a moment. “About average.”
“Thank you again,” Nick said.
“Yes, thank you, Carlos,” Jillian said. “You’ve helped us figure out a few details about one of the men that was there yesterday when Travis vanished.”
“Do you know why he ran away?” Carlos asked. “Did I upset him? Mommy said he must have been upset for some reason to do that.”
Jillian glanced over at Monica, not understanding why Mrs. Fuentes would tell her son that Travis had run away instead of the truth.
Did the woman think that pretending that Travis really did run away would be less devastating for her son than knowing that he’d been kidnapped?
On second thought, it was better for Carlos not to know the truth for now.
“No, I don’t think you did anything to make him run away,” Jillian said. “If anything, he isn’t too happy that his father remarried, and he’ll have a stepmother.”
“Oh,” Carlos said. “Do you think she’ll be evil or wicked?”
“No. Abby isn’t like that at all,” Jillian said. “Travis’ fears are unfounded.”
Nick cleared his throat. “I think we better be going. We need to meet up with Detective Simons.”
“Right,” Jillian said, and she smiled at Carlos. “Thank you again for helping us today.”
“We’re so glad you were able to come by,” Monica said, standing up and walking over to join them. “Aren’t we, Carlos?”
“Yes,” the little boy said, going to his nanny. “I hope Travis comes home soon.”
Nick stood and helped Jillian get to her feet.
“So do we,” she replied.
“Let us know when he does,” Monica said with a wink.
“Of course,” Jillian assured as they all walked to the front door together.
“We really enjoy playing together,” Carlos said.
“I’ll make sure you know right away,” she said, waving before Nick helped her into his car.”
Once inside his car, Nick turned to her.
“That was actually a good idea to stop in and talk to Carlos.” He quickly buckled his seat belt before starting the car.
He drove down the drive and let the car idle while he finally made the call talking briefly to Detective Simons, letting him know about the snake tattoo that Carlos had told them about before he finally headed toward the interstate.
“What did he say?” Jillian asked.
“He’ll meet us there,” Nick said.
“But how will he know where there is?” Jillian demanded not understanding what he meant with her focus now on the two young men who had taken Travis “Those two could be getting away and we are not even out of the gates yet.”
“Calm down, Ms. Grant,” Nick suggested. “I forwarded him the satellite feed I’m following so he could do the same. That’s how he will know where to go.”
“But that doesn’t mean…” she said, her trembling voice trailing off and she looked out the window.
Nick knew she was worried. Hell, he was worried too.
He knew the chances of them finding the boy with the two guys was slim to none and he could tell that Jillian realized it too.
He was surprised she’d stayed so calm talking to Carlos, but then she was a nanny, and it was her job to deal with children every day.
But, just maybe, if they caught up to the two guys, they’d tell them where Travis was.
After all, they hadn’t made a ransom demand.
Jillian dug in her purse and pulled out a pair of sunglasses and put them on.
She hadn’t heard from Mr. McGinty the previous night even though Detective Simons had said he’d call to follow up with her after her accident.
With the time difference in the Cook Islands, she had no idea when he’d meant to call and if he had only twenty-four hours to reach Geneva to inform her of Travis’ disappearance then that came first.
It was winter on that side of the world, and even though the Cook Islands boasted to have sunny and warm weather all year long with June being part of the dryer months, there could still have been a tropical storm blow through knocking out phones and electricity which would have kept him from reaching out to her or Geneva as planned.
Now here they were finally on this goose chase toward the interstate in hopes of catching up with the silver Subaru that had been spotted yesterday.
What if this turned up another dead end?
What if they were no closer to finding Travis than when they started?
She thought about that for a moment and decided it was better than sitting at home feeling helpless.
Nick’s car slowed and her head jerked up noticing they were getting off the interstate and turning west. “Where are we going?”