Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 128083 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128083 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
“Yo. Do you have a picture available to send me from right now?”
“Uh, yeah.” He looked at Cami, who was already on the job, pulling her phone out and then holding it as steady as possible to snap a picture of the laptop. “I’ll text it to you,” Rex said.
“Great. I’m pretty sure the location is within sixty miles of Soledad, California.”
His heart sped. He’d seen that town on the map. It was somewhere up ahead, which meant they were on target. “Can you narrow it down any more than that?”
“I’m trying, but anything more to work with would be helpful.”
Cami gave him a chin tilt, indicating that she’d texted the photo to Rex. “I’m going to send the photo to you now. Hey, Joaquin, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this. It could be a life-and-death situation.”
“I gotcha, buddy.”
He thanked Joaquin again and then hung up. Next to him, Cami was on her phone. “We’re about an hour from Soledad now. Should we get a little closer and find a hotel and wait for more information from your friend?”
“Yeah, and while we wait, we can drive around and see if we spot a store with a logo that resembles what we could see on the bag. Or maybe a place that sells comics.”
“Okay, hold on.” Cami spent a few minutes typing and scrolling on her phone. “There aren’t a lot of hotels in the area. It’s mostly Airbnbs, cottage and cabin rentals, and camping. There’s a pretty big state park nearby.” She paused as she scrolled for another minute. “Monterey and Carmel-by-the-Sea are an hour west of Soledad and are much more populated.”
“It doesn’t seem like that cabin is in a populated area,” he said. “I think it’s a better bet to stop somewhere close and see what we come across.” He tapped on the steering wheel. Sixty miles was a big distance, but it also narrowed things considerably. He’d pull up a map when they stopped and rule out a few directions if possible.
“A cabin or a campground it is,” Cami murmured.
“I’ve done my fair share of roughing it for a good cause,” he said to lighten the moment. And also, to move his mind immediately away from visions of them together in the small space of a nylon tent under a moon in the wilderness. Not helpful, Lowe. He wanted to curse his own mind for going there against his will. Or better judgment. “But we need electricity.”
“There are a few towns nearby, but they’re tiny. One only has ten residents.”
“We don’t need a lot of residents. Just a couple of restaurants who offer to-go orders in brown paper bags. The food items we saw Cyrus eating will help too. A burger and fries and a cup of chili and a baked potato. And a spot where comic books and cards might have been purchased. Then again, those items could have been bought in advance. The food is the only thing we know for sure is local.”
She was frowning down at her phone. “That could still be a whole lot of places.”
“I know. But if we can find the red logo near other diners or burger stands or whatever, we’ll know Cyrus is within twenty miles. Then we’ll be even closer.” It was all about narrowing and then narrowing some more. “We can likely rule out a few directions right off the bat.” They knew he was close enough to the ocean to hear it—even if distantly—from inside the cabin. Rex’s mind had started whirring. With the information they had, they could find him. He was certain they could. Even if Joaquin wasn’t successful in getting them any closer than he had, they had several other pieces of information to use.
There was also the pancake breakfast the man had promised. If they could figure out the most likely place the man would go to pick up a to-go order like that, they could follow him back to the boy. That would be a huge victory but would also require another set of choices. Was he willing to kill the man who was keeping Cyrus locked in that room if it came to that?
Jesus. What had he gotten himself into?
He considered calling the police again, rolling the logistics around in his mind for a minute before rejecting the idea. He and Cami were so close. And Rex felt competent as far as extracting the boy, if they could just figure out where exactly he was. Right now, they had the benefit of surprise. Not only might calling the police cause some trigger he couldn’t anticipate, but the police would want to be brought up to speed. And he and Cami would likely be detained.
No, right now, the authorities would only slow them down. And they couldn’t afford to slow down, even a little.