Duncan had found a bed and breakfast, perhaps the only one in town. Called Home at Last, he’d rented out the whole place, which consisted of five rooms. We each had our own room and were using the fifth as a command center.
My room had two major improvements. One was that the air-conditioning worked. The other was that Duncan’s partner Andy had brought Caesar up with him. The dog greeted me with wagging tail and cheerful licks.
I chatted with the owners, a gay couple who moved from Arizona in the past year. They expressed no knowledge of or interest in the town’s intrigues.
In the command center Duncan had his laptop set up on a small desk. I gave him the college kid’s ID from that afternoon. Jerry had a series of maps of Hopper’s property spread out in front of him. He had a beer in one hand. A tape-delayed wrestling tournament played on the room’s television with the sound muted. Caesar sat at my feet closest to the air-conditioner. He’s no fool.
Georgia breezed in just as I was going over what Duncan had found on the Internet about the personnel connected with the league and the big team. None matched my ersatz kidnappers. The kid in the woods was just that, a kid in the woods. No criminal record, was enrolled at the University, nothing nefarious about him.
The three of them had attended the game that night.
Georgia still wore her Salvation-Army-severe garb. She set down her black cracked alligator purse, kicked off her black-sensible shoes, threw her black short cut wig on the bed and said, “I got nothing. These people are frightened out of their minds. Charming as I know how to be did not cause them to brim over with secrets.” She dumped the contents of her purse onto an antique table. “These are samples of the wonder drugs readily available in town.”
I said, “Let’s send all those out to be tested by a real lab.”
Duncan said, “I’ll take care of it. We’re all staying here until you get back?”
“Yes. We’ll be back from the road trip Monday morning. I want you three to be careful, stay out of the way of Rotella, and try and find out what has got this town so screwed up. Jerry’s going to reconnoiter out on Hopper’s spread.”