“Like Paul Franklin would care about the dead?” Ariel asked.
“Maybe, maybe not,” Benson said. “Do note that he never received his ten thousand dollars that your brother owed his brother, Dave.”
“True,” she said.
Mason’s phone pinged. “Dad sent back a message.” He opened it up and read it. “Well, I’ll be. He found a George Richardson from Midvale who happens to drive a blue truck. And he has a record. Of course, there is no way of knowing if he is a shifter or not, or if he was the one to run Tawny off the road, but it's a start.”
“Did your dad find any fingerprints on the car?” Benson asked.
“He doesn’t say, so I’m guessing not.”
“Does this George Richardson have a brother?” Liam asked. “She used the word:they. Tawny could have been about to say the Richardson brothers.”
“I don’t know. Let me call him. Dad only sent one name. He might not be sure about another person.”
“Hey, Mason,” his dad said.
“I’m on speaker with everyone. Did you check if George Richardson had a brother?”
“I didn’t, but to make sure we have the right person, Noah is running the prints we found through to database to compare to George’s.” A knock sounded on his dad’s door. “Hold on. It’s Noah. What did you find?”
“The prints belong to Richardson, all right.” Noah said.
Alex scooted closer to the phone, happy to know they had a lead. “This is Alex. What do you know about this man?”
“I’m about to call Sheriff Hanson over in Midvale to see if he knows where we can find him.”
“Will you ask Hanson to bring him in for questioning?” Mason asked.
“To be honest, I’d rather follow him. Otherwise, we might never find my daughter. Mason, like you did with Hammer Schmidt the last time, how about seeing what you can find out about this guy? If the sheriff has a local address, I’ll text it to you so you can track him.”
“Sounds good, though he might not be driving around at night.”
“I understand. It might be a long vigil for you.”
“Understood,” Mason said.
“If we do learn where Richardson lives, how about taking someone with you. I don’t know why, but I have the sense this guy is a werewolf. I say that because even though George Richardson has been arrested three times, one for breaking and entering, and two for disorderly conduct, he’s not spent one day in jail,” the sheriff said.
“It seems as if he had help staying out,” Mason said.
“So it seems, though Paul Franklin’s not been spotted anywhere near here, what with his arrest warrant. It’s possible, Franklin isn’t involved in any of this. We know there are other clans around.”
“I know. Send me the man’s information when you get it, and I’ll head out.”
“Will do, son.”
“Dad?” Zach said. “Can you check to see if this Richardson guy was military?”
“Why?”
“David said the bullet would have hit dead center of my heart had it been in the usual place. To me, the person was trained. If Richardson is military, he might have been the one to shoot me—assuming he’s human.”
“I’ll check it out. Maybe I should look into this Brad Smith guy too.”
“That would be helpful,” Zach said.
The sheriff disconnected.