As soon as they’d left, Ethan strode into the single stall bathroom. Switching on the water, he scooped some up to rinse out his mouth. He’d have a bruise on his jaw in a few hours. A good reminder. Not that he needed one. Bracing both hands on the sink, he took a few seconds just to breathe, trying to stop the parade of horrors about what Harley could be doing to Miranda right now from marching through his brain.
Judd spoke from behind him. “Shut it down.”
“I spent most of the last ten years chasing down the worst of the worst. I know what can be done to a woman.” With each minute that ticked past, his blood chilled just a little further.
“You’re no good to her if you’re crazed with fear and rage.”
“I want to kill him.” Ethan had shot and killed men in his career. But it had never been personal before.
“Preaching to the choir, man. You kept me calm when that lunatic had Autumn last fall. So I’m gonna return the favor. I’m with you, every step of the way.”
Ethan blew out a breath and splashed more water on his face. Yanking out some paper towels, he dried off and headed for interrogation, Judd trailing behind.
“You’ve filled Rene in on what her son’s been up to?”
“Yeah.”
That would save a little time.
Inside the little room, Rene knit her hands. “—just can’t believe you’d do all this.”
“I was trying to protect you.” Johnny sat, head hung low, not looking at her.
Tears spilled down her cheeks—clearly not her first. “I should have left sooner. I should have put you first. I should have—”
“You should have done a lot of things, Rene. But right now we don’t have time for your self-revelation and lack of focus.” Ethan tossed a notepad onto the table.
The woman flinched back in her chair as if he’d slapped her. He had a hard time feeling bad about it.
“Wh—what’s going to happen to my son?”
“I don’t know, and right this second, I don’t care. Your violent, piece of shit husband has Miranda Campbell. He broke into her house and attacked her, kidnapped her, while I was on the goddamned phone with her. I need to know where he’d take her.”
Rene began crying harder. “I don’t know.”
“Does he have access to any kind of property? A hunting cabin? Maybe through family members, like his cousin, Terry. The one he stayed with after the attempted shooting. There any kind of property you know about? Somewhere out of the way, where it’d be easy for him to hide? Somewhere he’d maybe go to fish or drink? To get away from things?”
“He didn’t have anywhere special to go to drink. He just...drank. He’d be gone a lot, but I don’t know where. I was just happy for the quiet.”
Ethan struggled with impatience. “Did he inherit any kind of property? Buy some?”
“No, no we didn’t have the money for anything like that.”
“Yeah we did.” Johnny spoke up.
Rene stared at her son. “What?”
“Explain,” Ethan growled.
The boy lifted his head. “He was selling drugs on the side. I saw him meeting with his supplier once. I don’t know what he did with the money other than drink it away. We sure as shit never saw any of it. But he had some.”
The bail money.
Ethan had known Harley had to be into something. If only he’d pressed harder, found something sooner, maybe Miranda would never have been taken.
“Drugs?” Rene squeaked. “No. You must be mistaken.”
“I’m not mistaken about anything, Mom, and I’m not blind like you.”
Judd pulled out his phone and swiped at the screen. “You said you saw his supplier. Was it this man?”
Johnny studied the picture. “Yeah. That was him.”
Judd met Ethan’s gaze. “My guy from Lawley. Eugene Willig. We’ve suspected him, but this is my first solid confirmation. I’ve just been waiting for sufficient grounds for a search warrant. If they’ve been working together, maybe he knows something.”
“Find him. I want to talk to him.”
“On it.” Judd slipped out of the room.
“What else do you know, Johnny? About Harley’s association with Eugene Willig? About the people Harley dealt to? Anything. Do you know what he was dealing?”
“Prescription shit, I think. The stuff I saw in Doc Campbell’s clinic looked a lot like what he got from that guy. I don’t know who all he was selling to, and I only saw him with Willig the one time. I was too afraid of what he’d do if he caught me.”
Ethan could hardly blame him for that. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this before?”
“You couldn’t manage to do anything to him when he was clearly beating the shit out of my mother. Why would my word that he’s probably dealing drugs be enough to do something?”
Ethan absorbed the blow and scrubbed a hand over his face. Now was not the time to explain. What was done was done.
“Fugitives need three things. A way to communicate, money for food and travel, and a place to stay. At this point, I don’t believe Harley’s on the run. He’s gone to ground somewhere with the intent to do God knows what to Miranda. We have to figure out where.” Ethan shoved the notepad and pen toward Rene. “Make a list of every known family member or friend Harley’s got. It’ll be a start.”
“Can you triangulate cell phone signals like on TV?” Johnny asked.
“Depends on whether the phone is on. We can have the phone company ping the nearest tower. We’ve already done that for Harley’s phone, but it’s switched off. Why?”
“When he sent me instructions, he didn’t use his regular phone.” Pulling his cell from his pocket, the boy tapped to bring up a series of text messages. “It was one of those prepaid deals.”
Chances were, the phone was also off or tossed by now, but it was another line to tug. Ethan took the phone. “Good thought. I’ll look into it.”
Judd opened the door and waved Ethan out.
“Keep working on that list, Rene. Anything or anyone you can think of.”
Out in the hall, Judd was fairly vibrating with energy. “Willig’s grandparents had a farm about ten miles out of town, halfway between here and Chapel Creek. They died about six years ago, and he’s been paying the property taxes ever since. He keeps an apartment in Lawley, but he hasn’t been back to it since the last robbery. There’s a good chance he’s laying low at the farm. I’ve already called Judge Carpenter for a warrant. You want in?”
“Hold that thought.” Ethan handed the phone to his dispatcher. “I’ve got another number for you to check. Different carrier than Forbes’ primary line. I want location and call history for the previous two weeks.”
It took five minutes and an official fax to the phone company to prove exigent circumstances, but they got what he asked for. As predicted, the phone was off, but Ethan plugged the last known coordinates for the burner phone into a mapping program. Harley had been out into the county in the general direction of Chapel Creek. “Where’s the farm?”
Judd checked the address and pointed at the screen not far from the GPS coordinates. “Looks like your boy’s been visiting with my boy. And recently.”