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The team agreed that they wouldn’t tell Jenna of their meeting with Claudia. It might very well be too painful for her at this point. Instead, they found ways to occupy her, including visiting the shelters and the schools.

It was evident that this was where Jenna belonged. Teaching. With children surrounding her. Her time may have passed for her to have children of her own, but she could give the love overflowing inside of her to those who needed it most.

“Hey, we’ve got a couple of problems you guys need to know about,” said Code.

“Of course we do,” said Ian. “What now?

“Someone was digging into the court records to find out the attorney of record for Jenna. They got the names of Kari, Kat, and Georgie.”

“Okay. We can manage that,” said Ghost.

“Maybe. The other is the house in Arizona. Neighbors called the police because they saw someone attempting to start a fire. He stopped them because the winds are picking up again, and it would have burned the entire neighborhood.”

“There’s something in that house,” said Nine. “Get two men back to search that damn house.”

“Already done,” said Code. “I sent Max and Titus. They were meeting with a company in Southern California about security work the last two days, so it was on their way home. They should be getting to the house soon.”

“Good. Make sure they take anything they think might be of value to us.”

“What do you want to do about the legal team?” asked Ace. “Should I give them a heads up?”

“Definitely. Let Kari know that Cipriani may reach out for information about the case or about Jenna. We need to speak with Cipriani face-to-face. I just need to figure out what we’re going to say to her and what we’re going to do about this bullshit,” said Nine. Ace smirked at him, shaking his head.

“Always bullshit somewhere. That’s why you have us. Bullshit scoopers. The best in the business.”

“Geez, they weren’t wrong about this place. It’s depressing as shit and quite the dump,” said Max.

“It’s hard to picture Jenna in this house. I mean, she seems so, I don’t know. Neat. Clean. Proper. I’m trying to find the right words,” said Titus.

“I think those are all good words for her,” said Max.

He started opening the kitchen cabinets, and it didn’t surprise him to see bugs crawling around the cabinets. He found the same friendly welcome wagon in the drawers.

“There’s no food,” said Titus, opening the other cabinets. “When they left, they took all the food or threw it away but left the dishes behind.”

“Maybe they thought they’d rent the place to someone,” said Max.

“Who? I don’t know anyone that would rent this place.”

“Brother, I think we’ve been living the good life too long. You and I both know a helluva lot of people who would love to rent a place like this.”

“You’re right,” nodded Titus. “I forget sometimes how fortunate we’ve all been.”

“Take the back bedrooms. I’ll look in the master,” said Max.

Max rifled through the dresser drawers and keepsake boxes lining the shelves of the dusty bedroom.

The heat was stifling, so he opened the windows to allow air in, only to be met by more stifling heat coming at him at thirty miles per hour.

Dust flew through the windows and off the furniture, but it was actually better than the intense heat of the closed home.

He opened the keepsake boxes, each one labeled with a girl’s name on it. Three boxes. Not four. There wasn’t one for Jenna. The other three girls all had their own box filled with school papers, artwork, letters, photos, and precious memories of childhood.

Why wouldn’t they have a box for Jenna?

Clothing still hung in the closet. Others were neatly folded in the dressers. Again, why leave these things behind?

“They were running,” muttered Max to himself. “They didn’t have time to take these things.”

Kneeling beside the bed, he carefully shone his flashlight beneath the bed and surprisingly found nothing. He pushed the mattress aside to check between the mattress and box springs but once again found nothing.

Max walked to the back of the home, finding Titus on his knees doing exactly what he’d done. Looking beneath the bed.

“Find the boogie man?”

“I was expecting to, but no. Anything in the master?”

“Yeah. Keepsake boxes for the other three girls but not Jenna. Artwork, report cards, photos, all of it. But not one damn thing for her.”

“Same here. High school yearbooks, class photos, keepsakes from dances, hell, even their dresses are still hanging in the closet.”

“Yeah. Same as the master,” frowned Max.

He stepped back into the hallway and winced as the floor creaked beneath his weight. It wasn’t unusual. Max was a very big man. So was Titus. Floors always creaked beneath their weight.

When he moved to go down the hallway, he found it odd that the floor stopped creaking then started again. Turning, Titus was staring at him with a raised brow. He knelt down and pulled the carpet from the wall. Dust and who the hell knew what else flew in his face.

“Great. I’ll pay for that,” frowned Titus. He continued to pull on the carpet and then leaned back on his heels. “We’ve got ourselves a safe.”

“Then we need to get that damn thing out of there,” said Max. The winds outside were picking up with ferocity, the poorly constructed modular home rocking on its foundation.

Leaving Max to guard their find, Titus sped to the hardware store for the tools he would need. He wasn’t worried about breaking into the safe. Someone back home would do that. What he needed was to get that safe out of the floor.

Forty-five minutes later, the two men had it out of the floor but not without considerable effort.

“That was a fucking bitch,” gasped Titus.

“I think we’re just getting old,” grinned Max. “Let’s load it up and get the hell out of here.”

After securing the safe, Max and Titus stopped at their hotel for a quick shower, grabbed their luggage, and got on the road to head for home.

The dust, wind, and funnel clouds of dirt made driving nearly impossible.

If they could just get another fifty miles under their belts, they’d be out of the path of the winds.

“Max! Titus! Are you there?” asked Code.

“Yeah, we’re here. What’s wrong? We’re driving home,” said Titus.

“Shit. The winds are causing some issues with comms. We lost your tracking for a few minutes, and it coincided with an unexplained explosion at the house. Someone blew it to shit.”

“Is there fire?” asked Max.

“ No fire. Apparently, someone called the fire department seven minutes before the explosion. At least they didn’t burn down an entire neighborhood.”

“Yeah. Lucky. But I bet they were pissed to realize we got what they were after.”