The cabin search continued through the night.<\/p>\n
Travis learned about it in fragments.<\/p>\n
A phone call.<\/p>\n
A message.<\/p>\n
A photograph forwarded to Hale.<\/p>\n
Investigators did not permit him to see everything, and Hale repeatedly reminded him that evidence belonged to the case now, not to his anger.<\/p>\n
By two in the morning, nobody at Melissa's house had much energy left for anger anyway.<\/p>\n
Bethany slept on the living-room sofa.<\/p>\n
Travis remained upstairs beside Kaylee.<\/p>\n
His daughter occupied the center of the guest bed with the territorial confidence of a child who had never paid a mortgage.<\/p>\n
Travis sat in a chair beside her.<\/p>\n
He watched her breathe.<\/p>\n
Every so often she moved one foot beneath the blanket.<\/p>\n
He thought about Kurt's notebook entry.<\/p>\n
BETH \/ DAYCARE \/ AUTO ISSUE.<\/p>\n
A stranger had turned Bethany's exhaustion into a prospecting note.<\/p>\n
Travis could not absolve her choices.<\/p>\n
She had lied.<\/p>\n
She had forged his signature.<\/p>\n
She had helped keep Kaylee from him.<\/p>\n
Those facts remained.<\/p>\n
But another fact existed beside them.<\/p>\n
Someone had studied her at a vulnerable point and deliberately moved closer.<\/p>\n
Both could be true.<\/p>\n
At 3:18, Hale knocked softly.<\/p>\n
Travis stepped into the hallway.<\/p>\n
"They found your tub."<\/p>\n
He closed the bedroom door behind him.<\/p>\n
"What's inside?"<\/p>\n
"Copies."<\/p>\n
"Of?"<\/p>\n
"Deed. Tax assessment. Some social media printouts. Bethany's employment information."<\/p>\n
Travis frowned.<\/p>\n
"Social media?"<\/p>\n
"Photographs."<\/p>\n
"Whose?"<\/p>\n
"Yours. Bethany's. Kaylee's."<\/p>\n
His stomach tightened.<\/p>\n
"What else?"<\/p>\n
"Army-related material."<\/p>\n
"From my house?"<\/p>\n
"Some probably public. Some not."<\/p>\n
"What isn't?"<\/p>\n
"There's a copy of an LES."<\/p>\n
Travis swore quietly.<\/p>\n
That meant access to his personal records.<\/p>\n
"Anything from my father's house?"<\/p>\n
"Not obviously."<\/p>\n
"Red folder?"<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
"Darren?"<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
"Kurt?"<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
Hale hesitated.<\/p>\n
"What?"<\/p>\n
"There's a photograph investigators want Bethany to look at."<\/p>\n
"Of what?"<\/p>\n
"Your house."<\/p>\n
"Why?"<\/p>\n
"Because of when it was taken."<\/p>\n
They went downstairs.<\/p>\n
Alvarez had returned.<\/p>\n
He placed a digital image on his tablet.<\/p>\n
The photograph showed Travis's house from across the road.<\/p>\n
Winter.<\/p>\n
Bare trees.<\/p>\n
Snow residue along the ditch.<\/p>\n
Travis stared.<\/p>\n
"That's old."<\/p>\n
"How old?"<\/p>\n
He examined the porch.<\/p>\n
A Christmas wreath hung on the door.<\/p>\n
"December."<\/p>\n
"Which December?"<\/p>\n
Travis looked closer.<\/p>\n
Kaylee's small red sled leaned against the porch.<\/p>\n
"Last year."<\/p>\n
Alvarez nodded.<\/p>\n
"Metadata on the original file indicates December seventeenth."<\/p>\n
Travis looked at Bethany, who had awakened.<\/p>\n
"When did you meet Kurt?"<\/p>\n
"April."<\/p>\n
The room went quiet.<\/p>\n
Four months.<\/p>\n
Kurt had photographed the house four months before supposedly meeting Bethany by accident at the grocery store.<\/p>\n
Her face lost color.<\/p>\n
"Maybe somebody else took it."<\/p>\n
"Possible," Alvarez said.<\/p>\n
"Could metadata be wrong?"<\/p>\n
"Possible."<\/p>\n
But nobody believed coincidence was becoming more likely.<\/p>\n
Travis enlarged the photograph.<\/p>\n
Something stood at the edge of the frame.<\/p>\n
A vehicle.<\/p>\n
Only the rear quarter visible.<\/p>\n
Silver.<\/p>\n
Marla's sedan?<\/p>\n
Too little to tell.<\/p>\n
Alvarez swiped to another image.<\/p>\n
Travis's truck in the driveway.<\/p>\n
Another.<\/p>\n
Bethany carrying grocery bags.<\/p>\n
Another.<\/p>\n
Travis's father standing on the porch.<\/p>\n
The old man stared at himself.<\/p>\n
"When was that?"<\/p>\n
"December nineteenth."<\/p>\n
His father remembered.<\/p>\n
"You were at Fort Sill for training," he told Travis. "I brought Kaylee's Christmas present."<\/p>\n
Bethany sat down.<\/p>\n
"He was watching us."<\/p>\n
Alvarez corrected gently.<\/p>\n
"Someone was documenting the property."<\/p>\n
"That's watching us."<\/p>\n
This time he did not argue.<\/p>\n
Another photograph appeared.<\/p>\n
Bethany and Kaylee outside daycare.<\/p>\n
Bethany made a sound in her throat.<\/p>\n
Travis felt his anger become something colder.<\/p>\n
The image had been taken from inside a vehicle.<\/p>\n
Kaylee wore her yellow winter coat.<\/p>\n
She was holding Bethany's hand.<\/p>\n
"December twenty."<\/p>\n
Bethany looked at Alvarez.<\/p>\n
"He knew where she went to daycare before he ever spoke to me."<\/p>\n
"Apparently someone did."<\/p>\n
"Why us?"<\/p>\n
Nobody had the answer.<\/p>\n
Travis looked at the notes.<\/p>\n
TITLE SINGLE.<\/p>\n
That was part of it.<\/p>\n
Military homeowner.<\/p>\n
Property titled solely to him.<\/p>\n
Frequent absences.<\/p>\n
Spouse at home.<\/p>\n
Child.<\/p>\n
Financial strain.<\/p>\n
Kurt had not fallen into their lives.<\/p>\n
He had selected them.<\/p>\n
At four in the morning, Alvarez received preliminary results from the other tubs.<\/p>\n
The pattern repeated.<\/p>\n
Property documents.<\/p>\n
Deployment information.<\/p>\n
Family photographs.<\/p>\n
Financial notes.<\/p>\n
Copies of identification.<\/p>\n
In some files, forged agreements.<\/p>\n
In others, nothing had progressed beyond surveillance.<\/p>\n
Daniel Reese's file was the oldest among those recovered.<\/p>\n
His tub contained a photocopy of a cashier's check.<\/p>\n
Twenty thousand dollars.<\/p>\n
PAID 20.<\/p>\n
Hale had been right not to assume.<\/p>\n
But Travis's assumption had been correct.<\/p>\n
Reese had paid Kurt.<\/p>\n
When contacted again, Reese initially denied it.<\/p>\n
Then investigators told him they had the check.<\/p>\n
He admitted the truth.<\/p>\n
He had paid twenty thousand dollars to make Kurt leave before filing the civil case.<\/p>\n
"Why lie?" Travis asked.<\/p>\n
Hale answered.<\/p>\n
"Shame. Fear. Settlement terms. Maybe all three."<\/p>\n
"But Kurt filed anyway."<\/p>\n
"Apparently."<\/p>\n
Reese had thought paying would end it.<\/p>\n
Instead Kurt had returned demanding more.<\/p>\n
That was when Reese hired counsel.<\/p>\n
The case collapsed.<\/p>\n
The house was stripped afterward.<\/p>\n
"Extortion?" Travis asked.<\/p>\n
"Potentially," Hale said.<\/p>\n
"Say potentially one more time."<\/p>\n
"Potentially."<\/p>\n
He almost laughed.<\/p>\n
By dawn, investigators had identified seven military-connected homeowners in the recovered material.<\/p>\n
Four had experienced suspicious property disputes.<\/p>\n
Two had reported identity theft.<\/p>\n
One had paid Kurt.<\/p>\n
Marcus Donovan appeared to have been the next active target.<\/p>\n
Travis's family had been the current one.<\/p>\n
A task force was beginning to form across jurisdictions.<\/p>\n
That sounded impressive.<\/p>\n
To Travis it meant more phones ringing.<\/p>\n
More offices.<\/p>\n
More time.<\/p>\n
Kurt was still missing.<\/p>\n
Darren too.<\/p>\n
At 6:20, Melissa made coffee.<\/p>\n
Kaylee woke and demanded pancakes.<\/p>\n
Nobody had pancake mix.<\/p>\n
Travis improvised with toast cut into circles.<\/p>\n
Kaylee accepted the fraud.<\/p>\n
Bethany sat beside her at the table.<\/p>\n
For ten minutes they behaved almost like a family.<\/p>\n
That illusion was more painful than open hostility.<\/p>\n
When Kaylee finished eating, she held up a piece of toast.<\/p>\n
"Daddy house today?"<\/p>\n
Travis looked at Bethany.<\/p>\n
"No, Bug."<\/p>\n
"Tomorrow?"<\/p>\n
"I don't know."<\/p>\n
Kaylee frowned.<\/p>\n
"Why?"<\/p>\n
There was no useful explanation for a three-year-old.<\/p>\n
"Some rooms need fixing."<\/p>\n
"Uncle Kurt broke?"<\/p>\n
The kitchen went silent.<\/p>\n
Travis looked at Bethany.<\/p>\n
"She calls him uncle?"<\/p>\n
Bethany closed her eyes.<\/p>\n
"I didn't teach her that."<\/p>\n
Kaylee continued eating.<\/p>\n
Travis forced himself to keep his voice neutral.<\/p>\n
"Did Kurt tell you to call him Uncle Kurt?"<\/p>\n
She nodded.<\/p>\n
"Uncle Kurt say Daddy far."<\/p>\n
Bethany began crying.<\/p>\n
Travis looked at his daughter.<\/p>\n
"What else did he say?"<\/p>\n
Hale, entering the kitchen, immediately intervened.<\/p>\n
"Don't question her."<\/p>\n
Travis stopped.<\/p>\n
She was right.<\/p>\n
Again.<\/p>\n
A trained child interviewer could handle anything relevant later.<\/p>\n
Kaylee should not become another source document in an adult investigation.<\/p>\n
Travis picked up her cup.<\/p>\n
"More milk?"<\/p>\n
"Chocolate."<\/p>\n
"Negotiator."<\/p>\n
"Chocolate."<\/p>\n
She won.<\/p>\n
At 7:03, Alvarez called.<\/p>\n
A fingerprint from the cabin had produced a match.<\/p>\n
Not Kurt.<\/p>\n
Not Darren.<\/p>\n
A man named Leonard Pike.<\/p>\n
Travis had never heard the name.<\/p>\n
Bethany had.<\/p>\n
She nearly dropped her coffee.<\/p>\n
"Len?"<\/p>\n
"You know him?"<\/p>\n
"He worked at Kaylee's daycare."<\/p>\n
Travis stared.<\/p>\n
"What?"<\/p>\n
"Maintenance. Sometimes pickup traffic."<\/p>\n
Miss Dolores's daycare.<\/p>\n
The place where Kaylee had been photographed.<\/p>\n
The place Bethany had withdrawn her from.<\/p>\n
Alvarez asked Bethany for everything she remembered.<\/p>\n
Leonard Pike had done occasional maintenance.<\/p>\n
Fixed gates.<\/p>\n
Changed light fixtures.<\/p>\n
Helped direct cars during events.<\/p>\n
He had access to the building.<\/p>\n
Possibly enrollment paperwork.<\/p>\n
Possibly emergency contacts.<\/p>\n
Possibly information about parents.<\/p>\n
Travis felt the whole case rotate.<\/p>\n
"What if Kurt didn't find us through property records?"<\/p>\n
Hale understood.<\/p>\n
"What if he found military families through the daycare?"<\/p>\n
Bethany shook her head.<\/p>\n
"Not everyone there is military."<\/p>\n
"He wouldn't need everyone."<\/p>\n
Alvarez said investigators would examine the connection.<\/p>\n
Twenty minutes later, Dolores confirmed Pike had worked there for approximately eighteen months.<\/p>\n
He had quit suddenly.<\/p>\n
When?<\/p>\n
Three weeks earlier.<\/p>\n
The same week Bethany withdrew Kaylee.<\/p>\n
Travis felt the hair rise on his arms.<\/p>\n
"Where is he?"<\/p>\n
Alvarez answered.<\/p>\n
"That's the problem."<\/p>\n
Pike's apartment was empty.<\/p>\n
His phone disconnected.<\/p>\n
His last known employer had not heard from him.<\/p>\n
Travis stared at the photograph of Kaylee outside daycare.<\/p>\n
Kurt had been watching before April.<\/p>\n
Pike had access to family information.<\/p>\n
Pike's fingerprint was in the cabin.<\/p>\n
Then Bethany remembered something.<\/p>\n
"The grocery store."<\/p>\n
Everyone looked at her.<\/p>\n
"The day I met Kurt."<\/p>\n
"What?"<\/p>\n
"Someone spoke to me before him."<\/p>\n
"Who?"<\/p>\n
"I didn't know his name then."<\/p>\n
Her face had gone pale.<\/p>\n
"But I know it now."<\/p>\n
"Who?"<\/p>\n
"Len."<\/p>\n
Travis felt his stomach drop.<\/p>\n
"What did he say?"<\/p>\n
"He recognized Kaylee. Said hello."<\/p>\n
"And then?"<\/p>\n
"He walked away."<\/p>\n
"How long before Kurt dropped the eggs?"<\/p>\n
Bethany stared at the table.<\/p>\n
"Maybe thirty seconds."<\/p>\n
The accidental meeting had not merely been planned.<\/p>\n
Someone had apparently signaled the target.<\/p>\n
The cabin search continued through the night. Travis learned about it in fragments. A phone call. A message. A photograph forwarded to Hale. Investigators did not permit him to see … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insightdrama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12740"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12768,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12740\/revisions\/12768"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/insightdrama.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}