Carl had personally gone over every property that Lee Hunter owned. His properties included his horse track, a separate stable, a house, and a cabin in Vermont. When he found out about the cabin, he had hope. Debbie wanted to go with him, but he was able to talk her out of it. If Justin was dead there, he didn’t want her to see. Vermont state police met him there with a warrant from a judge. The cabin was empty. They used cadaver dogs but couldn’t find anything. The cabin was very fancy, high priced electronics and furniture but it was clear no one had been there in a while.

No evidence of the murders had been found in any of his properties. That meant that he had to have properties in someone else’s name. They looked under Kip Thomas’ name, their mother Karen, their grandmother Louise. But they came up empty each time. The mother was keeping her mouth shut. It seemed she didn’t have much of a relationship with either of her children. Lee was raised by his father and Kip by his grandmother. The grandmother had a heart attack when she was told about Kip’s death, she slipped into a coma. The doctors weren’t optimistic.

Carl looked over coworkers and family but couldn’t find anything that sounded like a good place to hide someone. That only meant that Justin was dead and they were waiting for someone to find his body.

Lee was keeping his mouth shut, the lawyer was working to get Lee a deal. There was no way he would be getting out of a life sentence. He left semen, hair and blood on all three of his victims. Their goal now was to find Justin and Barbara Jo. The girl’s grandparents were finally able to came in to be interviewed by Carl. They lived in California, it had taken a while for them to get a flight. It had been three and a half weeks since Justin had been seen. They were going on that Justin was alive.

When Lee was asked about the whereabouts of his daughter. He had told them that his brother was watching her. The man was trying to play them, acting like smug. He held all the cards now and he knew it. Now finding Barbara Jo was the primary goal. The funny thing was, Carl thought Justin would tell them to find her first too. He was such a tender heart with Gus and Jenny. Brian on the other hand, while he loved his own son and goddaughter, he didn’t care looking for anyone other than Justin. It had taken all his life to fall in love, and he wasn’t about to lose the man that dared to love him back.

“Detective Horvath?”

Carl looked up to see an elderly couple.

“Yes, may I help you?”

“I’m Richard Franks, this is my wife, Linda.”

They looked older than their sixty-something years. But if his daughter had killed herself, and granddaughter was missing he would age too.

Standing up, he walking in front of his desk. Holding out his hand, he shook their hands.

“Let’s go, into the conference room and talk.” It was procedure not to take witness into the interrogation room. They didn’t need to feel any more scared.

As they sat down at the table, Carl could feel the unease in the couple.

“I’m sorry we have to meet under these circumstances. I just want you to know that we are doing everything we can to find your granddaughter.”

The woman sniffled. “I knew he was bad news. When Barbara Jo was born, he just lost all interest in having Annie around. So, Annie took Barbara Jo and moved into an apartment near us. He sent divorce papers and gave her full custody. I thought she was lucky to have escaped but Annie didn’t see it that way. She insisted he was the love of her life. She had been sinking further and further depression for the past few years. Finally, I guess she couldn’t take it anymore. I really don’t know where Lee would have Barbara Jo. He never showed any love or affection for her.”

“If you don’t mind me asking. Why didn’t you take the girl if he didn’t want to be a father?”

The woman looked down at her hands, tears running down her face.

“We thought it was best for her, I hoped that he would come to love her. We weren’t the best parents to Annie. Maybe that’s the reason she was so desperate for love. Our son, Darren, died twenty years ago. I can barely get out of bed on a good day, it’s been worse since we lost Annie. I didn’t think we could raise her, Barbara Jo was always a sick baby. She was always getting an ear infection here and there. She needed a clean environment and there are the problems we are having with the house. It’s been labeled a hazard. I’m not a hoarder, that’s not true. I just like to have my things close.” She shook her head, stopping her rambling. “I never thought he was capable of what he’s been accused of.”

Damnit, Carl suspected even if they tried to get custody of the girl she wouldn’t be able to stay with them. They had too much going on in their life, probably mental illness of some sort.

“Do you have any idea where he would be keeping Barbara Jo?”

The man shook his head. “No, Lee’s always been an odd one. His father was just like him. That man was a son-of-a-bitch. It’s not surprising that Lee turned out the way he did, the only person I knew worse than Harold Hunter was that wife of his.”

“You knew Lee’s father and his wife?” The man had died almost ten years ago, this was surprising.

“Oh, yeah.”

“Richard, please,” the woman said, tears running freely now.

“Hush, woman.” He looked at Carl then. “Kathy, was my ex-sister in-law. She married my brother about thirty years ago. Divorced him, leaving him almost destitute. But they had a daughter, Maureen. Then Kathy met Harold and got married. I don’t know what happened in that house, I just know that Maureen ran away when she was fourteen. Nobody’s seen her since then. Kathy took off a year later, then the old man died a few years later. We thought that maybe the Harold was messing with Maureen, but we couldn’t find her to ask. My brother died never knowing where he daughter was. I can’t live not knowing where Barbara Jo is.” His voice cracking with the last sentence.

His head was spinning a little at the information he was getting. That meant their daughter had married her own step cousin-in-law. That would make things make sense a little more. It seemed the whole family was full of secrets. As interesting as all this was, it did not help in finding Barbara Jo.

“One last question, do you know of any friends of Lee?”

They had done searches of all Lee’s employees, it seemed they didn’t like the man. They did their job and went home. If fact, Carl had yet to find any friends of Lee’s.

“Just one, the guy was a creep, but that seems like birds of a feather now. An ex-lover of his brother Kip’s, Gary Sapperstein.”

The food was almost out, he had just been feeding Bobbie Jo for the last day. Her fever had lowered finally, but she was still sick. That seemed not to slow her down much though. She had all but demanded they go outside. He stood at the door of the cabin and watched her playing in the grass in front of the cabin.

Suddenly, something caught his attention. Something large came lumbering out of the tree line. It took him a second to recognize it was a dog, a collie he thought.

“Come inside,” he said firmly.

“I’m playing,” she whined.

“Inside now,” he said. The dog was getting closer, he was worried about its temper. He had seen on the news more stories about dogs killing children than he should have.

She stood up, but the dog chose that moment to bark.

“Doggie, Daddy, it’sa doggie.”

She started to run in the direction of the dog. “Barbara Jo, you come back here right now!” he yelled.

His heart was beating out of control, envisioning her being ripped apart by some rabid animal.

“You promised,” she cried before running towards the dog. He had promised, he promised never to yell at her like that again. The first time was when she tried to cook something on the stove, she almost burned herself. He had just been napping for a moment. He would have never forgiven himself if she had burned herself.

Suddenly, the dog lifted his head up in the air, paused, then turned on the spot and ran back to the tree line. Bobbie Jo was running after him.

“Please, come back! I won’t yell again. Don’t!”

“I be back, I get doggie.” And then she was gone, through the tree line.

He yanked and pulled at the chain, he could feel it ripping into his skin. It didn’t matter though, only she mattered. Anything could be in the woods, animals that would tear her to pieces.

A noise filled the quiet outside, listening hard he realized it was a car. A car was driving here up. Lee was a little early, he didn’t care. The man would go and find her. Justin would do whatever the man asked.

A black sedan pulled up, it wasn’t the car that Lee left in. But it wasn’t Lee that stepped out. It was Gary Sapperstein. What the hell was Sapperstein doing there. Then he remembered Bobbie Jo, and it didn’t matter.

“Please, Gary, the child I’m taking care of just ran into the woods. Please!” Little girls were never Gary’s thing so he didn’t have to worry about that.

“What would you for me if I do?” the man said with a leer.

Bile rose in his throat. He didn’t matter though, only Bobbie Jo. “Anything. I’ll give you anything you want, just if whatever you want it is from me.”

He wouldn’t do anything to hurt anyone, the Sap was a creep.

“I guess we have a deal, I’ll hold you to it. Not that you can run away again anyway. Where’d she go?”

Justin pointing in the direction she ran. After the Sap took off Justin realized he hadn’t said the child was a girl. What was Gary doing out here? Justin closed his eyes, he knew what he was doing here. Lee and Gary were in this together. He didn’t know how they knew each other but stranger things had happened. Like Brian Kinney proposing marriage.

It had been almost a month since Justin disappeared. Days ago, they found out that Lee Hunter, Kip Thomas’ brother, took Justin. That didn’t help anything though. The man wouldn’t tell them where he was. Brian had been banned from the police station after he caused a scene. He wanted to get his hands on the man that took Justin, that hurt Cynthia. Hell, it looked like he killed his own brother, even though they said there wasn’t any evidence that it was Lee that had done it.

Justin was in the hands of a murderer for some time. They didn’t know how long exactly. A reporter had made a point in telling Brian that it was most likely Justin was dead within the day he was taken. He wasn’t Lee’s type, so there was no reason to keep him. But it didn’t make any sense. Why take him to begin with? They suspected it had something to do with Kip wanting to get even with Brian. But it wasn’t even Brian that got Kip fired. That happened because Marty thought he was too big of a risk and none of the talent.

Since Justin had been gone, Brian had been staying in the loft. Hoping that Justin would find his way back to him. Melanie and Lindsay had sold their house but weren’t going anywhere until Justin came back. So, Brian let them stay at Justin’s country manor. He made sure they knew to treat it well. Brian told them that they could help fix it up and make it homey for Justin. They tried to say that might not be a great idea…getting it ready for Justin. They thought it would be too hard if Justin didn’t come home. Brian told them to fucking do what he said, because Justin was going to fucking come home and paint in his goddamned studio that Brian fixed up for him.

Just as he reached for a bottle of Jack Daniels his phone rang. He snatched both off the counter.

“Kinney,” he answered.

“Brian, do you know a Gary Sapperstein?”

“Yeah, he owned Babylon before I did. He didn’t like to pay taxes so I got it for a steal.”

“Shit.”

“What?”

“Did Justin know him or have any contact with him?”

Brian tensed up with memories of Justin dancing on the bar at Babylon.

“Justin worked for him for a very short time. Dancing.”

“But it was a good work relationship?”

Brian sighed. “I don’t think so. He was always shoving drugs up Justin’s nose. The last time Justin worked for him he worked a private party at this house. I don’t know what happened there, Justin never told me. But he did change after that. He used to be open to a little bondage. But after that he almost freaked out at the idea of being tied up. He seemed to get over it though.”

Brian hated the that Justin wouldn’t tell him. But if the way Justin acted was any indicator, he would have killed the Sap if he knew.

“I think our situation just got more complex.”

“What do you mean? Why are you asking about him?”

“Seems like for a time, he was Kip’s sugar daddy. Not only that a close and personal friend of Lee Hunter. Maybe we can’t find Justin because we are looking in the wrong direction.”

“Fuck!” Brian yelled, throwing the bottle across the room. It smashed into the door.

“We are running Sapperstein’s properties. I promise you. I will do everything I can to find Sunshine.”

Despite himself Brian smiled. He had never heard the gruff detective call Justin by his nickname.

“You better,” he said before disconnecting. Looking through his phone he made another call. “Get over here, Mikey, I don’t trust myself right now.”

If Justin was in Sapperstein’s hands, he would either be dead now or wishing he was. Brian was tired of letting everyone else look for Justin. He knew of one place the police probably didn’t or wouldn’t for a while. It was rumored that Sapperstein had a place up in North Carolina. Luckily, Brian had a very good memory, and remembered where it was supposed to be at. At least a general location. It had to be better than sitting on his ass here.