Page 12 of Venom's Sting

We find Rigs in the office he shares with his old lady. Mattie’s at work, and he seems to be working on a schedule for the prospects. He has an open-door policy and the older brother glances up briefly as we walk in.

Rigs was a chaplain in the Marines when he was young. Even today he wears black dress pants and a matching button up shirt underneath his cut, with a hefty cross hanging around his neck. He’s the spiritual advisor and the one who keeps us all on the straight and narrow. I’ve always liked and respected Rigs, though I know he’s not someone you’d want to get on the wrong side of. I’ve heard Tank talk about how Rigs was the very first man patched into the club by our founder, Claw.

He stands up as we enter. I watch his eagle eye rove over us and zero in on the scrapbook under my arm.

“Good morning,” he says good-naturedly. “Did you bring memories to share with me today?”

“I’m afraid not, sir. I’ve brought more problems.”

“Jesus fucking Christ, why can’t you ever just speak directly?” Rage, grumbles.

“You shouldn’t take the Lord’s name in vain, brother.” Rigs’ rebuke is quiet and offhand like he doesn’t really expect us to obey but feels like he should mention it anyway. Gesturing towards the long table at the back of his office, he suggests, “Why don’t the two of you have a seat. We can take our time and talk this out.”

No sooner does my ass hit the seat than Rage starts telling Rigs all about how the lady from the cornfield’s mother is missing and we need to find her. Rigs knows all about the woman my best friend is referring to because I fessed up to the club officers about how I got distracted with her being in danger and lost sight of the van I was supposed to be tracking. And since her grandfather shot down my drone it alerted the drivers of those vans that there were eyes in the sky. The whole debacle is embarrassing.

Rigs rubs his chin for a second before asking, “Is all that true?”

“Yeah, her name is Amy Grayson, and I found her working at a coffee shop near the location I was staking out at the time. We got to talking and she eventually told me about how she’s soldall her personal possessions to keep the search going for the last eight months.”

Rigs and Rage are all ears as I tell them all the details Amy told me earlier this morning. When I’m finished, I shove the scrapbook towards him. “She brought this to work with her because she’s saved up enough to hire a private investigator. I told her that I would look into it myself and our club would probably help out as well. I know she’s in a bad way financially, so she can’t really afford to waste money on a PI.”

By this point both Rigs and Rage are carefully scrutinizing each and every page. The last page has a small flash drive taped to the paper with a notation that it’s a copy of the footage from the officer’s cell phone when they performed the wellness check.

Rigs detaches it and pulls his laptop over to have a look at it. “Whoever took this is dedicated to solving the case. He didn’t miss anything. It’s interesting that they didn’t find any trace of the meds that were supposedly being delivered there. What did the grandfather say about that?”

“Her grandfather is shifty as fuck. Just claimed he never received them, and the pharmacy is in error. The stupid fucker used her desperation to get inside the house and look for her mother against her to obtain a restraining order. She’s not allowed within five hundred feet of the property or fifty feet of the old man.”

Rigs’ head lifts to look at me. “That’s pretty extreme. Do you think the grandfather fears for his safety around her?”

I snort a laugh. “Not fucking likely. He seems to be toting around his rifle with him most of the time and has a bunchof farmhands who like to roughhouse women. She’s barely a hundred and twenty pounds soaking wet.”

Rigs responds thoughtfully, “You know what that means, right?”

“That he’s a grumpy old man who doesn’t want to deal with her ass anymore,” I respond.

“No, getting a restraining order he means he doesn’t want her to be eyes on with whatever’s happening at his place.”

“Well she has gone to the police a bunch of times. She also told me that when she came along for the wellness check she kind of lost it with her grandfather, so that might have had something to do with it too. Amy told me that every clue seemed to lead back to her grandfather but now she’s too scared to keep going out there because if she gets arrested, there’ll be no one looking for her mother. Plus if her mother isn’t at his place, there’s no real point to risking her freedom to keep snooping around his farm.”

“Your new friend has done a good job of gathering information and organizing it in a way that makes it easy to understand what she’s done so far, but we need to branch out. I’ll call Zen and ask him to do a thorough online search for anything your friend might have missed. I’ll also ask him to ferret out all the information he can about that grandfather, Rufus Grayson, and his farmhands. That should give us a feel for how much of a danger he poses.”

“That’s a good idea. “I’m worried about her mother because she has a bunch of serious medical conditions and she’s been missing for coming up on eight months.”

“Statistically speaking, the longer a person is missing, the less chance there is of finding them alive. Is your friend aware that instead of this being a rescue mission, it might turn out to be a recovery mission.”

“I told her exactly that, but she’s convinced her mom’s alive, and the grandfather knows where his daughter is.”

“Is there any chance Amy’s mother is avoiding her and taking shelter at her father’s farmhouse?”

“I don’t think so. Amy reported that her mother had nothing to do with her grandfather for years, and after her step-grandmother died almost two years ago, Amy had little contact. I didn’t want to pry, but I’m suspecting abuse of some kind.”

Rage speaks up, “I need the most current list of the mother’s medical issues and prescribed medications so I can have the proper treatment and meds on hand when she’s rescued.”

“Amy has agreed to come to the clubhouse when she gets off work today. I’m sure if that information isn’t in the scrapbook, she can give it to you, then.”

“If she’s in bad shape, we might have to chopper her out to one of the big medical centers. I’ve got a contact with Air Life Line. I’ll call and give him a heads up that he might be needed,” Rage says.

“I’m sure Amy would be thrilled to hear you’ll be managing the medical details.”

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