“I’ll try not to make it obvious that we’re following him,” Jack said as he pulled out onto the road and also turned left. “But I’ll have to keep up. He’s going pretty fast.”

“Edna threw him out of the emergency room,” Regan said. “I think the last thing he would expect is that anyone would follow him. Wilbur also told him to get lost.”

The winding road had no streetlights. Regan told Jack she thought Stix seemed much too jumpy and on edge. He looked so nervous, and his shoes had mud all over them. He knew Cleo was staying at Edna’s. There might be no connection between Stix and Cleo’s disappearance; but he was certainly up to something out here.

Stix put on his left blinker. Jack kept his distance as Stix turned down a heavily wooded dirt road that was marked “DEAD END.”

“I’ll wait a minute,” Jack said. “But I don’t want him to get too far ahead.”

Jack finally turned, then lowered his lights. He and Regan rode slowly down the dark, bumpy road; nothing but woods was on either side. After a few minutes they could see a lighted farmhouse and barn set back to the left. Several cars were parked straight ahead where the road ended. A large U-Haul truck was in the driveway, backed up to the barn door.

“I wonder what’s inside that barn,” Regan said.

“Let me make a call to the local police before we take a look.”

A minute later, Regan and Jack got out of the car. Jack took Regan’s hand. Carefully they walked toward the property. Voices floated out into the darkness from the barn. They crept up the driveway, then came around the side of the U-Haul to the open barn door.

Not a horse or a cow or a chicken was in sight. The contents of the barn were a garage sale junkie’s dream.

“Any bargains?” Regan called out.

Scott, Jillian, Jody, Stix, the president and vice president of Cleo’s fan club, and a couple other “shoppers” Regan recognized from Edna’s garage sale looked up.

“What are you doing here?” Scott shouted. “Get out!” He rushed to close the barn door.

“I wouldn’t do that,” Jack said, pulling out his badge. “You might as well cooperate.”

Regan stepped forward and pointed to a table covered with the skulls that belonged to Cleo’s parents. “I see a lot of familiar pieces. I can’t wait to have a look around. Oh, and look at those baseball cards. I think I can find their rightful owner.”

A police siren could be heard in the distance.