At 4:35 the next morning, Kaylee woke Travis by putting the wooden zebra on his chest.
He opened his eyes to darkness and a three-year-old face inches from his own.
"Zebra awake."
"So I see."
"Other zebra?"
"Still working on it."
"You said today."
Technically, she was right.
Travis sat up.
The federal residence was silent except for the low hum of ventilation and footsteps from an officer in the hallway.
Somewhere forty miles away, law enforcement was preparing fifty thousand dollars Darren would never receive.
Most of it was not real.
The top and bottom bills in each bundle were genuine. The centers were inert training paper. Investigators had photographed the serial numbers, tagged the bag and fitted the vehicle with tracking equipment.
Darren expected Travis.
He would get an investigator with roughly Travis's build.
That worried Travis.
"He'll know," he told Alvarez by phone.
"Maybe."
"He watched me."
"We know."
"He photographed me. He knows my truck. My walk. Probably what I look like from a hundred yards."
"We're accounting for that."
"How?"
"By not asking you to participate."
Travis rubbed his forehead.
That answer was becoming irritatingly familiar.
Darren had instructed him to arrive at six.
Alone.
Cash in a black bag.
Park near the old restroom building.
Leave the engine running.
Walk fifty yards toward the drainage culvert.
Wait.
The instructions had arrived in pieces, each from a different temporary account.
Darren was trying to prevent police from predicting the entire exchange.
But investigators already knew the terrain.
He had practiced there.
They had photographs of his survey marks.
They knew where he had planned to conceal a second vehicle.
They knew the rear service road.
They knew where the pavement dipped enough to hide a crouching person from the highway.
Darren's preparation had become evidence against him.
At 5:18, the decoy vehicle departed.
Travis did not watch.
He sat at the kitchen table while Kaylee ate dry cereal from a plastic cup.
Bethany sat opposite him.
Neither spoke much.
At 5:41, Hale entered with coffee.
"Still here."
Travis looked at her.
"Were you expecting me to tunnel out?"
"I considered it."
"How's the operation?"
"You'll be told when there's something you need to know."
He hated lawyers.
He was becoming fond of this one.
At 5:56, Alvarez sent a single message.
VEHICLE IN POSITION.
Travis read it.
Then put the phone facedown.
Kaylee offered him cereal.
"No thanks."
"Eat."
He took one piece.
She nodded approvingly.
At 6:03, nothing had happened.
At 6:08, still nothing.
At 6:14, Alvarez called.
"Darren hasn't approached."
"He saw the driver."
"Possible."
"Did the decoy get out?"
"Yes."
"And?"
"Nothing."
Travis stood.
"He knows."
"Stay where you are."
"I'm not going anywhere."
"Good."
The call ended.
Five minutes later, the decoy's phone received a message.
WRONG MAN.
Travis stared at it when Alvarez forwarded the screenshot.
Darren had recognized the substitution.
Another message arrived.
YOU REALLY THINK I'M THAT STUPID?
Then:
DEAL OFF.
Travis felt frustration, but underneath it something else.
Darren was watching.
If he knew the wrong man had arrived, he had line of sight to the rest area.
Police began searching observation points.
Wooded ridge.
Abandoned service road.
Old billboard access.
No immediate contact.
Then a surveillance officer spotted movement near a drainage channel nearly half a mile away.
A man.
Binoculars.
Dark clothing.
He disappeared before officers closed the distance.
A backpack remained.
Inside were water bottles, gloves, a scanner and another prepaid hotspot.
No weapon.
No Darren.
"He planned another exit," Travis said.
Alvarez did not disagree.
The hotspot gave them a new trail.
It connected briefly from a moving vehicle at 6:31.
Southbound.
Then disconnected.
At 6:38, Darren sent another message.
NEXT TIME YOU COME.
Travis read it twice.
Hale stood beside him.
"No."
"I didn't say anything."
"Your face did."
"He won't trust another decoy."
"That's his problem."
"He'll keep moving."
"Then investigators keep working."
Travis looked toward Kaylee.
Darren's entire strategy depended on forcing him into participation.
If Travis went, Darren gained what he wanted.
A controllable person.
A frightened father.
Someone likely to obey because the cost of guessing wrong felt unbearable.
Except Darren did not have Kaylee.
That remained the weakness in his threat.
"Make him prove it," Travis said.
Alvarez agreed.
The response went out:
YOU DON'T HAVE HER.
Darren waited nineteen minutes.
Then sent a photograph.
Kaylee.
Travis stopped breathing.
She wore her purple pajamas.
Her hair was tied in two uneven pigtails.
The picture showed her standing near Melissa's front window.
Bethany made a frightened sound.
"When?"
Travis enlarged the image.
Something was wrong.
Then he saw it.
The ceramic pumpkin on Melissa's windowsill.
She had removed it days ago.
"It's old."
Alvarez confirmed metadata had been stripped, but visual details suggested the photograph predated their move.
Darren had photographed Kaylee while surveilling Melissa.
He still had no proof of current access.
Investigators replied:
OLD PHOTO.
Darren responded almost immediately.
YOU WANT TO BET HER LIFE ON THAT?
Travis stared at the sentence.
Every instinct told him not to gamble with his daughter.
That was exactly what Darren needed.
He looked at Kaylee.
She was sitting on the floor with Bethany, making animal noises.
Safe.
Visible.
Real.
Travis typed nothing.
Alvarez controlled the communication.
The next response was simple:
SHOW TODAY.
Darren went silent.
One hour.
Two.
No photograph.
No proof.
The threat began losing shape.
At 9:12, Nicole Voss called investigators.
Darren had contacted her again.
Not for money this time.
For a car.
He told her he needed to "get south."
Nicole refused.
Darren became angry.
Then he asked whether she still had Caleb's father's phone number.
Nicole ended the call.
That request chilled Travis.
"Why Caleb's father?"
Alvarez said, "Maybe old leverage. Maybe intimidation. Maybe Darren is cycling through people he thinks he can pressure."
His options were shrinking.
Kurt in custody.
Marla detained.
Ethan cooperating.
Gary cooperating.
Pike talking.
Paula exposed.
Mack known.
Cade searched.
Every old connection had become dangerous to use.
Darren needed a person outside the network.
Or a vehicle nobody was watching.
Investigators checked rental agencies.
Bus stations.
Train schedules.
Nothing.
Then a gas station south of the failed exchange reported a stolen pickup.
Keys had been left inside while the owner paid.
Camera footage showed Darren taking it.
For the first time since the motel, they had a clear image of his face.
No disguise.
No hat.
He looked exhausted.
Beard growth.
Bruise along one cheek.
His movements were hurried.
"He's deteriorating," Hale said.
Travis studied the image.
"Or stopped caring."
Either possibility was dangerous.
The pickup traveled south.
A highway camera caught it.
Then another.
Direction: Arkansas.
Nicole.
Police warned her.
She left her house under escort.
Darren arrived twenty-three minutes later.
He found it empty.
A neighbor's camera recorded him trying the front door.
Then walking around back.
Then leaving.
He had not broken in.
Maybe he knew police would be close.
Maybe he only wanted another resource.
The pickup appeared again near the interstate.
Then disappeared.
At 12:46, Darren finally contacted Travis's channel.
No threats.
No photograph.
Just four words:
KURT HAS MY MONEY.
Travis looked at Alvarez.
"What money?"
Investigators asked.
Darren answered:
HALF OF EVERYTHING.
Then:
HE HID IT FROM ME.
The eighty thousand in Travis's storm shelter had apparently belonged partly to Darren.
Or Darren believed it did.
The ransom demand suddenly looked different.
Fifty thousand was not a random valuation of Kaylee.
It was close to what Darren believed Kurt owed him.
He had converted a dispute with his brother into a price on Travis's fear.
Another message arrived.
I JUST WANT WHAT'S MINE.
Travis felt anger sharpen.
Nothing Darren was demanding belonged to him.
Not the money extracted from victims.
Not Travis's house.
Not Kaylee.
Alvarez asked whether Darren would surrender if money were returned.
The answer came quickly.
NO COPS.
GET TRAVIS.
Travis looked at Hale.
She shook her head before he spoke.
Then Darren sent something unexpected.
A location pin.
Not the transfer point.
Not Arkansas.
A roadside church outside Joplin.
Time:
4 PM.
Final message:
HE COMES OR I START MAKING THIS REAL.
Darren had finally admitted, without meaning to, that the threat was not yet real.
He did not have Kaylee.
He was threatening to change that.
And in doing so, he had given police another place where he expected Travis to appear.
Click here to continue reading: PART 26: Travis Refused Darren’s Second Meeting, and a Forgotten Detail in Kaylee’s Daycare File Finally Revealed Where He Would Go Instead
After Nineteen Hours on the Road, Travis Found Another Man Wearing His Robe and Answering His Front Door
Part 25 of 28
