He paused, lifting a questioning brow. “You mean Tanner and those guys?”
I nodded. A plan was starting to take shape in my head. “I don’t know much about Jeremiah and Jannie, but they should. They might know something that could point us in the right direction.”
Neil rocked his head from side to side, then nodded slowly. Approvingly. “I’ll text them to you. You might be on to something with that. If anyone knows anything about those two that might help, it’ll be them. Just be careful, okay?”
“I will,” I said. I was only planning on making a few phone calls. Nothing even remotely dangerous or that might get in the way of the police investigation.
Neil pulled out his phone, tapped the screen a few times and pocketed it just as I heard my message alert tone ring out. “Done. Just promise me you’ll call the police if they think of something.”
“Immediately.” I knew I wasn’t a cop. I just wanted to help, to find him before she could do anything horrible to him. “Good luck at the office.”
“And to you.” He smiled, then hurried to his car.
Back in my apartment with a steaming mug of coffee in front of me, I started calling his friends.
A guy called Bart Watkins was up first. I recognized his name. He was one of the friends who kept calling to ask me to add things onto Jeremiah’s calendar. Surprisingly, he knew who I was when I called.
“Stephanie? Are you okay? Have you heard anything from Jeremiah?”
I was momentarily stunned that he knew who was calling, then I realized Jeremiah must’ve given them all my number so they could reach him or coordinate with me. “No, not yet.”
“Fuck,” the guy mumbled. He sounded worried, stressed. As horrible of a person as it might make me, I was relieved to finally hear someone else worried about Jeremiah. “What happened? The news is saying he’s been kidnapped.”
I quickly filled him in on the little details I had. When I was done, I cut to the chase. “I think Jannie might be behind this.”
He cursed again. Loudly and repeatedly. Finally, he calmed down enough to say, “I don’t know how a little thing like her could’ve overpowered him, but I think you’re right. People are capable of anything if they’re motivated enough, and that girl was fucking motivated to get to him.”
Relief made me feel a little dizzy. I knew I couldn’t have been the only one who thought it was possible. Neil said he believed me too, but he also hadn’t said anything to support me when Jance screamed about there was no way a woman could’ve kidnapped his fully grown son.
“Do you have an idea where she might have taken him if it was her?” I asked, feeling vindicated in my quest to help.
“Honestly? I don’t know. I would’ve loved to be able to say I had any idea, but I only know the basics. It’s not like they were in a relationship or anything. I’ll give you a call if I think of something?”
I deflated at his answer, but I wasn’t giving up just yet. “Please do. Thanks anyway.”
Tanner was next on my list. He was as worried as Bart, if not more so. Unfortunately, he also couldn’t think of anywhere Jannie might’ve taken Jeremiah. It didn’t sound like he talked about her much, and they didn’t seem to know anything more about her than I did.
She was his ex-secretary. They hooked up once at a company retreat, and she never let it go. After Jance fired her, she’d started showing up in random places and leaving Jeremiah creepy messages. He told Tanner he thought she was stalking him but said he could deal with it. Typical.
To be fair, no one could’ve possibly known she would take things this far. Tanner did tell me, apologetically almost, that he remembered a few of the places Jeremiah would take girls at the time. He said he’d text me the place names and asked me to keep him updated.
“I’ll do that, thanks for your help,” I said and ended our call.
Looking over a list of places Jeremiah used to frequent with other women wasn’t going to be fun, but if it meant having a shot at finding him, I would grit my teeth and bear it. Before I did that though, I had one more call to make.
Shawn was calm, but there was a whole lot of emotion I could tell he was keeping at bay. Understandable since one of his best friends had been kidnapped hours before. Like Bart and Tanner, he couldn’t remember any specifics about Jeremiah and Jannie beyond what I already knew, but then he stopped halfway through his sentence.
“Wait. The company retreat that year was at Crystal Springs.” He said it like the name should mean something to me, but it didn’t. “That’s really close to the Julian.”
“The Julian? Who’s that?” I didn’t remember a friend of Jeremiah’s called Julian. If Shawn thought he might know anything though, Julian was going on my list.
Shawn chuckled in response. Briefly, but it was still there. “The Julian’s a place, not a person. It’s a hotel used for overflow guests when Crystal Springs gets too full. Don’t bet money on it, but I’m pretty sure that’s where they ended up that night.”
Cold dread settled in the pit of my stomach. I really didn’t want to think about Jeremiah and Jannie in a hotel together, even if I knew they had… urg. I was going to have to wash my brain out with acid to get rid of the mental image.
Still, if it meant finding Jeremiah, I would face the acid. “Did it have special meaning to them?”
Shawn paused, then sighed. “You’re not going to want to hear this, but you did ask for it.”