From what little I’d seen, Crystal’s only purpose in Stella’s life was to collect welfare and try to hook Branson. If Stella was runnin’ off—with Branson, to boot—I wouldn’t be surprised if she left her baby behind too. My gaze drifted to my notepad. “Not near enough.”
He nodded and seemed to realize how hard that had been for me to admit. “I’ve scoured both PI reports, the one Pearce Manchester’s father hired and Kate’s, and neither of them mention you. Manchester Senior’s PI was following a loose lead in Ardmore, which he quickly dismissed within a day. He mostly focused on Manchester’s nefarious activities in Dallas. The report concluded that Pearce Manchester met his end by pissing off the wrong people, and while Hardshaw wasn’t mentioned by name, they would fit with the PI’s conclusion.”
“So why are they interested in me?”
Joe shook his head. “I’m still diggin’, but I’ve also done some low-level searches for Neil Franken and I suspect it’s an alias. There’s nothing on him. It’s gonna take fingerprints to ID him, and that’s if he has a record.”
“So we know a little more, but not enough to help.”
“We’re chippin’ away at it,” Joe said. “And there’s a mountain of information here. I may pull some of it off and have you start searchin’ when you finish with the phone, but I also really think we should head over to the landscaping office. I’d sure hate to miss the opportunity of meetin’ your ex.” The dark look in his eyes hinted that things wouldn’t go well for Branson if he did.
A half hour later, Joe pulled into a parking space around the corner from the landscaping office. He’d called Randy to have him watch the farm, while I called Granny and warned her that some people I’d known in Oklahoma might come looking for me.
“They might be a little rough,” I said. “Maybe we should have Randy Jackson or Witt come over and help.”
“Pft,” she spit out, obviously insulted. “I can take care of my own ding-dang self.”
I grinned. “I know you can, Granny, but I don’t want you getting hurt on account of me.”
“And I appreciate it, girl, but I’ll be fine. And besides, Witt’s been makin’ himself scarce the last few weeks.”
“What’s he been up to?” Come to think about it, I hadn’t seen much of him either.
“He’s probably sulkin’ since he couldn’t get the finances together to open that garage.”
That was the first I’d heard he’d given up on his dream of opening his car repair shop. “I’ll give him a call to check on him, but that means he’s free to come over and help watch the farm.”
“I don’t need no damn babysitter. Now I’ve gotta go—Dolly Parton just showed up with Big Bill’s wings.”
If my cousin was bringing our grandmother wings, she wanted something. But Granny was pretty sly. She had to be onto her. “You be careful with those wings, Granny,” I warned. “I don’t have time to take you to the ER when you think your heartburn is a heart attack.”
“That’s why I’m makin’ Dolly Parton stick around and help me can some tomaters. And if you’re so worried about someone helpin’ keep guard over me, she can hold a shotgun as good as the next fool.”
“It’s not the carryin’ part I’m worried about, Granny. It’s the shootin’ part. Dolly’s liable to shoot her own daggum foot off.”
“You let me worry about that. You just be safe, girl. You hear me?”
That was the closest I’d get to concern from my grandmother, and it brought tears to my eyes even as I grinned. “Yes, ma’am. Call me if they show up.”
“I’ll hold ’em here if they do.” Then she hung up.
Joe chuckled as he turned off the engine. “Sounds like your granny is as ornery as ever.”
“You don’t know the half of it.”
During the drive into town, we discussed whether he should go through the back door and make it look like I was alone, but in the end he decided if Kate was watchin’, he wanted her to know he was around. Plus, it was a little after eleven. He planned to leave by eleven thirty to get to the diner early. We’d argued about it during the drive into town, but ultimately he’d agreed to let me go with him, if for no other reason because it would mean leaving me alone if he didn’t.
“You will stay in the car,” Joe had said in a stern voice. “I will deal with whoever it is.”
I’d been cagey and hadn’t agreed, but the side-eye he’d given me let me know he was onto me.
“We won’t have time to get much done before we need to leave,” I’d said, standing to the side and holding Muffy with one arm and Joe’s laptop under the other.
Joe unlocked the front door, his backpack slung over his shoulder with the other laptop.
“You were makin’ great progress in the car,” Joe said as he pushed the door open. I’d spent most of the drive poring over Franken’s emails, the few that were there. His email account was less than a month old, and the only correspondence had been between Franken and Chad Manchester. Chad had been the one to reach out, asking Franken to meet him a week ago to discuss his brother’s disappearance. But there was nothing to tell us how Chad had gotten his number and why he thought Franken would know anything.
“Again, it’s not enough to tell us anything. It only leaves more questions.”
He shot me a grin. “If you’re the detective you declare yourself to be, you should know that’s par for the course.”
I rolled my eyes as I slipped past him and put Muffy down. “This time it’s a bit more personal.”
His smile fell. “That it is.”
Muffy ran straight to Rose’s desk and hopped into her dog bed, looking a little lost without Rose.
“I know we discussed leavin’ Muffy here when we go to stake out the diner,” Joe said as he shut the door behind us, “but I’m havin’ second thoughts. I’m worried if someone comes lookin’ for you, they’ll take their frustration out on her. Maybe we should take her to Maeve at the nursery.”
Frowning, I cast a glance at the little dog. Muffy had seen her share of violence over the past year, but I hated the idea of someone purposely hurting her. And if Branson found her and thought she belonged to me, he’d torture her and kill her in retaliation. “We’ll have to head out even sooner if we drop her off at the nursery,” I said. “Let’s just take her with us. I’m sure she’ll behave.”
He gave a quick nod, donned a pair of gloves, and pulled out Chad Manchester’s laptop.
My phone buzzed with a text, and I pushed out a sigh of relief when I saw it was from Rose.
We’re in Shreveport about to have lunch. Any word on Kate?
I sent a text back. None, but Joe, Jed, and I have some information to sift through to help. I’ll let you know if I hear something.
I immediately saw the bubble pop up in the text box.
Joe knows about Jed???
I hid my grin from my brother and texted back: It was just as tense as you would expect, but they reached a truce to protect me from Kate and some leftover Ardmore mess. But don’t worry. I’m fine.
We should come back.
I quickly sent back: No! Please don’t come back. I’ll only worry if you’re here. I know you’re safe if you stay.
If you change your mind, say the word. We’ll be on our way. Aunt Bessie wholeheartedly agrees.
Skeeter agreed? We weren’t exactly friends, and I suspected that he partially blamed me for Jed leaving his fold, but from what I could see, Rose had the man wrapped around her little finger. If she wanted to come back, he’d likely ask how fast he should drive.
“Everything okay?” Joe asked in a worried tone. Even though my back was to him, he could see me hovering over my phone.
“Yeah, it’s fine. Rose texted that she and her aunt are in Shreveport about to have lunch. She’s worried about us and I had to talk her out of coming back.”
“Shreveport is the best place she could be right now,” he said absently, leaning over the computer screen. “I was worried it was Kate sending directions to her noon surprise.”
“No such luck.”
I turned my attention back to the flash drive’s memory and started to randomly open folders and files. I clicked on a folder labeled audio files, which was buried in a file labeled ring tones. An audio file appeared with a single name and labeled with Tuesday’s date.