Nobody intended to send Travis to the church.
That decision was made before he asked.
This time he did not argue.
Darren had exposed himself.
HE COMES OR I START MAKING THIS REAL.
The words confirmed what investigators had suspected.
He did not possess the leverage he claimed.
He was trying to manufacture it.
That meant the safest response was not to enter his chosen environment.
It was to remove opportunities.
Kaylee remained inside the protected residence.
Bethany stayed with her.
Travis stayed too.
The church was watched from a distance.
At four, no one appeared.
At 4:10, nothing.
At 4:22, a gray sedan entered the parking lot.
Driver: elderly woman.
She went inside.
Choir practice.
At 4:37, a delivery van stopped.
Wrong vehicle.
At five, investigators concluded Darren was probably observing remotely again.
No obvious watcher was found.
The communication channel remained silent.
Travis expected another taunt.
Instead, at 5:18, Miss Dolores called.
The daycare director.
Her voice shook.
"Travis?"
"Yes."
"Police are here."
He stood.
"Why?"
"Someone broke into the daycare last night."
His stomach tightened.
"Was anyone there?"
"No. We're closed today because of the investigation."
"What did they take?"
"Files."
He looked at Alvarez.
The detective was already moving closer.
"Whose?"
"Old enrollment records."
"Kaylee's?"
A pause.
"Her folder is gone."
Travis closed his eyes.
Darren.
But Dolores continued.
"Not just hers."
Several military-family records were missing.
The file room had been forced.
Computer untouched.
Cash box untouched.
Only paper.
Alvarez contacted the responding department.
The break-in had been discovered that afternoon because the center was operating limited hours.
Camera system?
Disabled.
Wires cut.
That required familiarity.
Leonard Pike knew the building.
But Pike was under police supervision.
He had already told Darren where the files were stored.
Darren may have known enough.
"What could Kaylee's daycare file give him now?" Bethany asked.
"He already had copies."
Travis looked at her.
"Maybe something changed."
Emergency contacts.
Authorized pickups.
Medical information.
Work numbers.
Addresses.
Then Dolores said something Travis almost missed.
"Your father was still listed."
"What?"
"As an emergency contact."
Travis stared.
"His address?"
"Yes."
Kurt's network already knew his father's home.
That was not new.
"Who else?"
Dolores checked.
Melissa.
Bethany.
Travis.
And one additional emergency contact Travis had forgotten entirely.
His cousin Nathan.
Nathan Hale.
Travis had added him when Kaylee first enrolled because Nathan lived closer to the daycare than Travis's father.
Nathan had moved the previous year.
"Old address?"
Dolores read it.
Travis froze.
It was not a residence anymore.
Nathan had converted the property into a small workshop.
He restored motorcycles there.
He traveled frequently.
The building was often empty.
Travis remembered something else.
A spare key.
Years earlier, Nathan had hidden one in a magnetic box beneath the rear staircase.
"Does Darren know that?"
Bethany asked.
"No."
Then Travis reconsidered.
Kurt had questioned Bethany about relatives.
Pike copied the daycare file.
Darren researched addresses.
Maybe they had inspected Nathan's property too.
Alvarez immediately dispatched officers.
The workshop was twenty-eight minutes away.
They found the stolen pickup behind it.
Travis felt the room change.
"He is there."
"Vehicle is."
Alvarez's caution could not hide the significance.
Officers established a perimeter.
No movement visible.
Nathan confirmed nobody should be inside.
The spare key?
Still potentially under the staircase.
Police checked.
Gone.
They entered.
No Darren.
Again.
But the workshop had been used.
Food.
Water.
A charger.
Maps.
And Kaylee's stolen daycare folder.
Darren had brought it there.
Why?
Investigators searched.
In the back office, they found handwritten notes.
Addresses copied from the file.
Melissa.
Travis's father.
Nathan.
Then another name.
Miss Dolores.
Her home address.
Travis felt anger flare.
"Why her?"
Alvarez said, "Access."
"To what?"
"The daycare."
But Darren had already broken in.
Then Bethany understood.
"He thinks Kaylee might go back there."
Travis looked at her.
Maybe.
The daycare represented routine.
If Darren could not locate the protected residence, he might wait for the family to return to ordinary life.
But that could take days or weeks.
Darren needed money now.
Investigators found another clue.
A calendar page.
Tomorrow circled.
Beside it:
D – 7:30.
"Dolores?" Travis asked.
Possibly.
Police contacted her.
She had planned to meet an insurance adjuster at the daycare the next morning to document break-in damage.
That appointment had been arranged after the burglary.
Publicly?
No.
But Dolores had mentioned it in a text to staff.
Who had access?
Current employees.
Pike no longer did.
Unless Darren had another source.
Staff phones were checked voluntarily.
One employee had forwarded Dolores's message.
Recipient:
Leonard Pike.
The employee said she did it because Pike used to handle maintenance and she wanted to tell him what happened.
Pike received the message while under supervision.
His phone had supposedly been secured.
Investigators checked.
The message had synchronized to an old tablet still logged into his account.
Where was the tablet?
Pike's former apartment.
The apartment police had searched.
No tablet listed in seized property.
Darren could have taken it earlier.
That meant he might still be receiving messages intended for Pike.
Another ordinary technological convenience had become an information leak.
Alvarez contacted Dolores.
The insurance appointment was canceled.
Daycare secured.
Officers would remain nearby.
Travis looked at the calendar notation again.
D – 7:30.
Maybe Dolores.
Maybe daycare.
Either way, Darren expected something there tomorrow morning.
Investigators prepared surveillance.
But another question remained.
Where had Darren gone after leaving Nathan's workshop?
The stolen pickup was abandoned.
No second vehicle obvious.
Then Nathan mentioned one missing item.
A motorcycle.
Not valuable.
Half-restored.
Old Honda.
"It runs?"
Nathan sighed over the phone.
"Unfortunately."
Plate?
None.
Fuel?
Enough for maybe eighty miles.
Darren now had transportation that automated plate readers would not easily catch.
And he knew roads.
Back routes.
Service lanes.
Places without cameras.
Travis imagined him riding through darkness toward the daycare.
Alvarez said, "We'll cover it."
But Darren had repeatedly used obvious locations as distractions.
The rest area.
Church.
Safe house.
What if the daycare was another?
Travis looked again at the stolen folder inventory.
Medical forms.
Contacts.
Pickup permissions.
One item stood out.
Kaylee's pediatrician.
Clinic address.
Bethany saw it too.
"He took her there."
"Who?"
"Kurt."
"When?"
"Once. Kaylee had an ear infection. I couldn't leave work."
Travis felt his jaw tighten.
Kurt had taken his daughter to the doctor.
Bethany continued quickly.
"I authorized it over the phone."
"Was Darren ever there?"
"I don't know."
Then she stopped.
"Wait."
"What?"
"There was a man outside."
"Describe him."
"Heavy. Dark hair. Smoking."
Darren.
Maybe.
"What day?"
Bethany found the clinic visit in her phone calendar.
Six weeks earlier.
Investigators checked Darren's known movements.
Casino records placed him in the area that week.
Not proof.
Enough to investigate.
The clinic opened at seven the next morning.
Kaylee's file there contained updated contact information.
Including something the daycare record did not.
Travis's temporary Fort Sill mailing address.
If Darren believed Travis had returned to Oklahoma, the clinic record could help him construct another route.
But why steal an old daycare file to rediscover a clinic he already knew?
Hale asked the better question.
"What information in the daycare file is unique?"
They compared copies investigators had recovered from the cabin.
Most fields were duplicated elsewhere.
One page was not.
A handwritten pickup-password sheet.
The daycare used family code words for telephone authorization.
Kaylee's word:
GIRAFFE.
Travis stared.
The wooden ark.
Kaylee's obsession.
The password had been chosen months earlier.
Darren now possessed it.
He could call someone caring for Kaylee and sound legitimate.
Except he did not know where she was.
Unless he could trick someone into telling him.
At 6:43 that evening, Melissa's phone rang.
Unknown number.
Police monitoring caught it.
A man identified himself as Travis.
He said plans had changed.
He gave the daycare authorization word.
Giraffe.
Then he asked Melissa to confirm which facility Kaylee had been moved to.
Melissa did exactly what investigators had instructed.
She said:
"Hold on."
Then muted the call.
Darren had finally made the mistake Kurt avoided.
He had impersonated Travis directly while law enforcement was listening.
Investigators began tracing.
The call came through an internet service.
But the connection had originated from public Wi-Fi.
A twenty-four-hour truck stop.
Twenty-six miles from the daycare.
Cameras were pulled.
At 7:01, an image arrived.
Darren sat alone in a rear booth.
No disguise.
Helmet beside him.
Old Honda outside.
Police units moved.
Travis watched the clock.
7:08.
7:12.
7:16.
At 7:19, officers entered the truck stop.
Darren was gone.
The motorcycle remained.
Rear emergency exit open.
A truck driver reported seeing a man climb into the passenger side of a white sedan.
Plate unknown.
Driver unknown.
Travis felt the old frustration return.
Another escape.
Another vehicle.
Another person.
Then Alvarez received a call.
The sedan had been captured leaving the truck stop.
The driver's face was visible.
Nicole Voss.
Darren's ex-wife.
Click here to continue reading: PART 27: Nicole’s Car Seemed to Give Darren Another Escape Until Her Secret Arrangement With Police Finally Put Him Where He Could Not Run
After Nineteen Hours on the Road, Travis Found Another Man Wearing His Robe and Answering His Front Door
Part 26 of 28
