Where did he get it?
From his house, stupid. He lives around here somewhere. Remember, he’s got some other life. If you can get hold of the phone, you might find out who the bastard is. Be able to turn him in!
Hope flared bright for an instant but quickly died.
He shut the door and latched the hook, then tested the door to her cage before leaving. It didn’t budge.
Dani’s heart sank.
Once again she was trapped.
Chapter 14
Come by my place tomorrow and we’ll figure out a plan. Shannon’s offer trailed after Travis as he set about his task. Could he trust her?
He didn’t know.
Did he have any other options?
Not a whole lot.
He checked his watch and decided it wasn’t too late to call Carter. Though he hadn’t expected much, he needed to hear that someone was doing something to help find his kid.
The sheriff picked up before the phone rang twice. “Carter.”
“It’s Travis. Wondering if there was any news?”
“Not much. You keepin’ yourself out of trouble?”
“Tryin’.”
“Yeah, right.” Carter didn’t bother hiding his sarcasm.
“Well, we might have a little more to go on, but it’s not much. Remember Madge Rickert?”
Travis knew instantly. “The woman walking her dog who spotted a white van near the school?”
“Yep. Seems as if she got all hot and bothered about what she’d seen and visited a hypnotist in an attempt to remember the license plate.”
“Does that work?”
“Sometimes, I guess, though it’s not too scientific. Anyway, she had this guy hypnotize her and lo and behold she comes up with a series of numbers and letters for an Arizona plate.”
Travis’s heart stopped. His fingers tightened over his cell phone. “And?”
“And that plate belongs to a black Chevrolet TrailBlazer, but, get this, the back plate was reported missing about six weeks ago. We called the guy and it turns out he thought he lost it in the car wash. Now, of course, we think it might have been stolen.”
Travis leaned a shoulder against the motel room wall.
“It gets better. The owner of the Blazer isn’t sure how long the plate had been missing when he discovered that it was gone. As it turns out he’d been on a two-week camping trip—started out in Medford, Oregon, traveled south over the Siskiyou Mountains and camped a few nights around Lake Tahoe.”
Travis squeezed his eyes shut. “Pretty much a straight line between Falls Crossing and here in Santa Lucia.”
“You got it. The Feds are checking into registrations and recent transactions for white Ford Econoline vans for the years that the description fits, but it’s pretty much like finding a needle in a haystack. Sometimes people don’t get around to doing the actual paperwork when they buy vehicles. It could go through several hands before someone actually takes the time to register the thing. A lot of vehicles are on the road with no insurance, no proper title or registration.”
Travis’s hopes sank. “But you’re lo
oking for the van.”