Marla Keene was sixty-one years old and lived alone above a beauty salon in Springfield.
Detective Alvarez did not knock on her door that night.
Another department did.
Travis learned this because Alvarez returned to Melissa's kitchen shortly after ten with the look of a man whose investigation had become substantially larger than his original shift.
"She answered."
Travis stood.
"And?"
"Claims she barely knows Kurt."
Bethany gave a sharp laugh.
Alvarez glanced at her.
"You disagree?"
"She came to the house."
"When?"
"Maybe a month ago."
"Why didn't you mention her?"
"I didn't know her name."
"Describe the visit."
Bethany thought carefully.
"Kurt said she handled paperwork."
"Did you see her notarize anything?"
"No."
"Did she have a stamp?"
"I didn't watch."
"What did she do?"
"Sat at the dining table with Kurt for maybe an hour."
"Did you speak to her?"
"Just hello."
"Did she meet Kaylee?"
Bethany's face tightened.
"Yes."
Travis felt immediate irritation.
"Why?"
"Kaylee was home."
"Was Marla interested in her?"
"No. Not especially."
That helped.
Alvarez continued.
"Keene says her notary seal disappeared more than a year ago."
Hale frowned.
"Did she report it?"
"Claims she did."
"Can she prove that?"
"We're checking."
Travis pointed toward the photograph from his father's camera.
"What about her car?"
"She says Kurt borrowed it."
"When?"
"Several times."
"Today?"
"She says yes."
"Did she pick him up at the farm store?"
"No."
"Who did?"
"She claims she doesn't know."
Travis looked at Alvarez.
"You believe her?"
The detective's expression did not change.
"I haven't earned a belief yet."
Hale almost smiled.
Travis recognized her language.
Facts first.
The silver sedan had been located outside Marla's building.
Police obtained access to nearby security footage.
At 10:23, Alvarez received the first still image.
Marla's car entering the farm-supply parking lot.
The driver was difficult to identify.
The passenger door opened.
A man matching Kurt's build entered.
The sedan left.
"She lied," Travis said.
"Maybe about who was driving."
"Whose car, then?"
"Registered to her."
"Who else uses it?"
"We're determining that."
Bethany studied the blurry driver.
"That's not Marla."
"How can you tell?"
"Hair."
The driver appeared to have short dark hair.
Marla's DMV photograph showed shoulder-length gray hair.
Could have been tied back.
Could have been somebody else.
Then Alvarez received a second camera angle.
The driver stepped out briefly before Kurt entered.
Male.
Heavyset.
Dark hair.
Travis looked at Bethany.
"Darren?"
She leaned closer.
"No."
"You sure?"
"Yes."
"Who?"
Her expression went blank.
Then recognition arrived.
"Gary."
Alvarez immediately asked, "Gary who?"
"I don't know his last name."
Travis closed his eyes.
Hale gave him a warning look before he could react.
Bethany continued.
"Gary came to our house twice."
"What did Kurt say he did?"
"Insurance."
"What kind?"
"Property."
Alvarez wrote.
"Description."
Bethany gave one.
Late forties.
Heavyset.
Dark hair.
Glasses.
A limp.
Usually wore button-down shirts even in warm weather.
"What did he discuss?"
"I wasn't part of it."
"Did you hear anything?"
"Once."
She frowned.
"Kurt asked whether something would trigger inspection."
"What?"
"I didn't hear."
"Gary's answer?"
"Something about under a threshold."
Hale looked up.
"What threshold?"
Bethany shook her head.
"I genuinely don't know."
Travis paced to the window.
Kurt.
Darren.
Marla.
Gary.
The list was expanding.
"How many people did you bring into my house?"
Bethany flinched.
He regretted the question immediately.
Not because it was unfair.
Because it was useless.
"Sorry."
Bethany looked surprised.
Travis did too.
He had not apologized to her since coming home.
She nodded.
Alvarez asked whether Bethany could identify Gary from photographs if they found candidates.
"Yes."
At 11:07, investigators got a name.
Gary Blevins.
Insurance adjuster.
Former insurance adjuster, more accurately.
His license had been revoked three years earlier after allegations involving fraudulent claims documentation.
No criminal conviction appeared in the initial search.
His current employment was unclear.
The sedan footage showed Blevins collecting Kurt.
That established contact.
It did not explain the red folder.
Travis's father sat quietly at the kitchen table.
Then he asked a question nobody else had.
"Why did they visit my house?"
Alvarez looked at him.
"That's still open."
"Not to break in."
"Apparently not."
"If they wanted Travis's records, many are public."
"Some."
"The deed certainly is."
"Correct."
His father rubbed his chin.
"So why drive out and look at my house?"
Travis understood the implication.
"Me."
His father nodded.
"Maybe."
"Background."
"Maybe."
Alvarez said, "Surveillance is possible."
Travis disliked hearing the word officially.
His father continued.
"If you're choosing somebody because they're absent, you don't only research the property. You research who might interfere."
Travis stared at him.
"You would've interfered."
"Obviously."
Bethany looked at the old man.
"Kurt asked about you."
Travis turned.
"When?"
"Several times."
"What?"
"Whether you and your dad were close. How often he came over. Whether he had keys."
His father sat straighter.
"Keys?"
"Yes."
Travis felt another piece settle into place.
His father had a spare key.
Kurt needed to know who else could unexpectedly enter.
"Did you tell him?"
Bethany looked ashamed.
"Yes."
"Everything?"
"I thought we were talking."
Travis looked away.
Again: the map.
Every ordinary complaint, family detail and practical fact had become intelligence.
Alvarez's phone rang.
He stepped outside.
Kaylee had been put to bed upstairs with Melissa.
The house was quieter.
Bethany sat at the table.
"I need to tell you something else."
Travis waited.
"About your dad."
His father looked up.
"Kurt asked if you had a will."
Travis stared.
"Why?"
"He said if you were staying in the Army, we should know what happened to the house if something happened to you."
That could have been ordinary.
In another context.
Here it felt poisonous.
"What did you tell him?"
"That your father probably knew."
Travis's father swore softly.
"Did he ask where I kept it?"
"No."
"Insurance?"
Bethany hesitated.
Travis's stomach tightened.
"He asked about life insurance."
"Did you tell him?"
"I said military families usually have it."
"Beneficiary?"
"He asked."
Travis stood.
"What did you say?"
"That I was."
Silence.
Bethany's face crumpled.
"I didn't give him policy numbers. I swear."
Travis walked away from the table.
He needed space.
Not because he believed Kurt planned murder.
That leap was too far.
But because the man had systematically asked questions Travis himself would consider intrusive from almost anyone.
Home title.
Deployment.
Marriage.
Childcare.
Money.
Family support.
Life insurance.
Kurt had gathered vulnerabilities until people became files.
Hale said quietly, "Don't attach a conclusion without evidence."
"I know."
She nodded.
He was learning.
Alvarez returned.
"Gary Blevins has been located."
"Where?"
"Home."
"Talking?"
"Yes."
"And?"
Alvarez pulled out a chair.
"Blevins says he drove Kurt from the farm store."
Nobody was surprised.
"He says Kurt called asking for a ride."
"What about Marla's car?"
"Gary says Marla lent it to him earlier today."
"So they're all connected."
"Connected isn't necessarily co-conspirators."
Travis sat.
"What did Gary think Kurt was doing?"
"Property consulting."
Bethany scoffed.
Alvarez continued.
"Gary claims he evaluates houses Kurt is considering managing."
"With a revoked insurance license?"
"He isn't claiming to act as an adjuster."
"What does he claim?"
"Photography. Estimates. Research."
Travis remembered the house value numbers.
"House 286."
Alvarez nodded.
"Could be valuation."
"Could be."
"What about the red folder?"
"Blevins denies knowing about it."
"Marla?"
"Same."
"Darren?"
"Still missing."
That was the first time anyone used that word.
Missing.
Not merely unavailable.
His white van had not been found at his registered address.
His phone was off.
Travis looked at Bethany.
"Where would Darren go?"
She thought.
"Kurt once mentioned a cabin."
"Where?"
"I don't know."
Hale gave Travis a look.
He said nothing.
Bethany continued.
"He called it the river place."
"What river?"
"I never asked."
Alvarez wrote it down.
"Who owns it?"
"Kurt made it sound like Darren did."
That was enough for investigators to start searching property records.
Shortly before midnight, they found a parcel linked not to Darren but to Gary Blevins's deceased father.
A small cabin beside the Gasconade River.
Gary had inherited it.
Alvarez called the officers interviewing him.
The conversation lasted less than two minutes.
When he returned, his expression told Travis the answer.
"Gary admits Kurt uses the cabin sometimes."
"Is Kurt there?"
"We don't know."
"You're going?"
"Officers are."
Travis looked toward the stairs where Kaylee slept.
A day earlier, he would have insisted on going.
Now he understood the choice before anyone explained it.
Kurt had spent months making Travis's absence useful.
Travis was not going to give him another absence tonight.
"I'm staying here."
His father nodded.
Bethany looked at him.
Something shifted in her expression.
Perhaps she understood the choice too.
At 12:41, officers reached the cabin.
Empty.
No Kurt.
No Darren.
But the place was not clean.
On a table they found discarded mail.
Copies of property listings.
Several prepaid phones.
A portable scanner.
And a paper shredder filled with narrow strips.
Then an officer opened a closet.
Inside were plastic storage tubs.
Each labeled with a surname.
REESE.
HALE.
DONOVAN.
Five more.
The operation had not been running from Travis's house.
His house had merely been the newest branch.
Click here to continue reading: PART 11: The Storage Tubs Explained How Kurt Chose His Targets, but Travis’s Own File Contained a Photograph Nobody Could Explain
After Nineteen Hours on the Road, Travis Found Another Man Wearing His Robe and Answering His Front Door
Part 10 of 28
