First Family

CHAPTER 72

SEAN AND MICHELLE had packed up the SUV and were saying goodbye to her father and brother.

She hugged them and said, "I'll call soon, Dad. And I'll come and stay with you. We can-"

"Get to know each other again?"

"Yeah."

As they were walking to the door Frank said, "Oh, I almost forgot. A package came for Sean earlier today. I have it in the living room."

He left and came back a minute later with a small cardboard box. When Sean saw who it was from, he exclaimed, "My two-star bud came through again. More AWOL binders."

"AWOL binders?" said Bobby.

"A case we're working," explained Michelle.

They headed out to the SUV. "I'll go through the binders, Sean, while you drive. That'll save time, which we don't have a lot of."

"Thanks, Michelle," he said earnestly. "That's very nice."

"Nice has nothing to do with it. You get carsick when you read. I don't want you puking in my truck."

Bobby smiled. "Now that's my little sister."

They drove off and headed through town toward the highway. Michelle opened the box and took out the first binder.

"It's a good thing your brother lives here. He can keep your dad company."

"I plan on keeping him company too. If this has shown me anything, you can take nothing for granted. Here today, gone tomorrow."

"I'll stop for some coffee before we hit the interstate," said Sean. "It seems like we always start these trips late at night."

"Make mine a double."

Sean got the coffee and they headed north.

Michelle went through five more binders and then stretched her arms.

"You want me to take over? I can hold the puke in," he said.

"No, I'll keep going. But if we don't find something here, then what?"

"Just pray you do find something in that stack because there is no then what."

Sean checked the clock on the dashboard and then pulled out his phone and pecked in a number.

"Who you calling?"

"Chuck Waters. Want to get an update. Maybe he's got a lead he'll share."

"Right. And I'm going to try out for Dancing with the Stars."

The FBI agent picked up on the second ring. Sean and he talked for a few minutes and then Sean clicked off.

"Anything new?" asked Michelle.

"Jane got the letter in the post office box, and Waters confiscated it."

"What did it say?"

"Something about a ten-million-dollar ransom. Only Waters thinks she pulled a fast one and fed them a fake letter."

"Why does he think that?"

"Things in this letter didn't match the one that was sent with the bowl and spoon. Different typewriters, for instance. And he said there was something funky about the postmark."

"Why would she pull a switch?"

"She's got a vested interest in this case, Michelle. From what Betack found with the second letter, this thing is personal to Jane Cox. She didn't want anyone else to read this last letter."

"You don't think Willa is her kid, do you? Maybe she was fooling around on the president before he was the president? Got pregnant and handed it off to her brother and his wife?"

"I might think that except about twelve years or so ago I saw Jane Cox and she wasn't pregnant."

"About twelve or so years ago?"

"I mean I saw her off and on during that period of time. She couldn't be Willa's mom unless they're lying about the girl's age."

Michelle shook her head and continued reading. A half hour later she yelled out, "Turn the car around!"

Sean nearly ran the truck into a Jersey wall. "What is it?"

"Turn the car around."

"Why?"

"We need to head south."

Sean put on his turn signal and started to edge to the right lane. "Why south?"

She scanned the pages of the binder she was holding, speaking rapidly. "Three AWOLs from the same address in Alabama, but they all had different last names. Kurt Stevens, Carlos Rivera, and Daryl Quarry. They were supposed to report to their base and be shipped out to Iraq, only they never showed up. MPs went to check it out. Place called Atlee, like an old plantation. Father Sam Quarry, Vietnam vet, owns it. MPs couldn't find any trace of them."

"Okay, they're Army deserters and it's one of the states on the isotopic probable list, but that's not conclusive, Michelle."

"They interviewed Sam Quarry, a Ruth Ann Macon, and her son, Gabriel. And a guy named Eugene."

"Again, so what, Michelle?"

"Gotta love the Army's attention to detail. The report says that Eugene identified himself to the MPs as a member of the Koasati Indian tribe."

Sean squealed across all lanes, horns blaring at him, and took the next exit. Two minutes later they were on a slingshot path to Alabama.