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My version of the “us” break was very relaxing, but once I realized there was a lot of stuff we needed to sort out, I felt guilty. "Thanks for break, but you're right," I said. "We do need to figure out the master plan while we're together."
We made a quick trip out to pick up supplies—lined pads, colored pens, highlighters, flags, and snack food. When we got back to our room I organized everything and made a cup of tea for myself and a coffee for Chance. We had another day and a half together. We were going to stay in the room and get to work.
"I got the directions from Cassie," I said as I punched the name of the town closest to her ranch into Google Maps. "It's about a seven-hour drive from here. I forgot how big Texas was. I'll drop you off at the airport and head south."
"At any point, and this is a general-purpose rule, not just for your trip to meet Cassie, if something doesn't feel right, you call me, Jim, or Tom. You drive to the nearest police station. I don't care if they think you're crazy. You stay at the station until you talk to one of us, and we work out a plan. Got it?"
"Yes, sir," I said, giving him a little salute.
"I'm serious, Babe. These people aren't messing around. We have to be cautious."
We talked about how I'd approach the interview with Cassie. There were two main goals—find out if Cassie knew why Helen left BITES and get as much info as possible about how the lab works while deciding if Cassie might be someone we could trust if we decide to approach BITES leadership directly. I'd just have to play it by ear. I would have been less concerned if Chance could have been waiting for me in town while I went to the ranch, but that wasn't an option. Once we discussed all the angles associated with that project, we set that pad aside and took a short break to get snacks and drinks and reset our brains for the next topic.
"Let's tackle an easy one next. Whenever I have a few days in Wilkins' Gap, I'll finalize the roll-out for our pizza offering at the cafe. It's easy and something they can handle without me. Adding Cryptid Coffee is a little bigger undertaking. I'll work on it when time permits, but it's going to be further down the list. Is there anything I need to be doing with Hairy's website?"
"Let's take a look," Chance said, just before his phone rang. "Chance Munroe," he answered. "Hi, Leif. Everly's here. I'm going to put you on speaker."
"Hi, Leif. Have you heard how Farraday's doing?"
"I called her a few days ago just to make sure her injury was healing. She's doing well. Look, I just wanted to let you know that Trent, that's my local cop friend, said they believe the accident that killed that woman wasn't an accident. It looks like someone forced her off the road."
"I figured," I said.
"Thanks for letting us know."
"Look, I don't know what this is all about and, I get that you don't want to involve more people, but if you need my help, call me."
"Does this change anything?" I asked after Chance ended the call.
"Not really. For now, it's just a reminder that we need to be overly cautious."
We spent some time talking about Hairy's website, and Chance made some notes about designing a website for the museum. "You still have the feather we found, right?"
"Yeah. That'll be a good addition to the museum," he said. "We need to see what other physical evidence Harry had. I'm sure there must be photos, but I can't figure out where to look."
We talked a lot about the museum, but we were still a long way from a plan that we could do anything with. When Chance came out of the bathroom, I held up the pizza menu. "Should we call in our order. It'll probably take a while, and I'm starting to get hungry."