Eleven (Brandon Fisher FBI Series)

Chapter 9 & 10

Chapter 9

TRAVIS CARTER'S MOTHER, Ellie, had survived her husband of eighteen years. At the current age of sixty-five, she had never remarried but shared an address with a man by the name of Stewart Carlson.

They offered us a glass of iced tea which we appreciatively received as the humidity had increased with the promise of incoming rain. We sat at their dining room table with Jack and I facing each other, and the couple positioned at each end of the table.

"We understand your son was married to Lori Bingham," Jack said, using Lori's maiden name.

"That's, uh, right. What about her?" Ellie fidgeted with the glass of iced tea, spinning it around in her hand.

"How long were they married?"

"Too long." Ellie paused and took a swig of her drink. "She told lies about him."

"What sort of lies, Mrs. Carter?" I asked.

"Oh, please don't call me that. It's still Carter, but Miss will do just fine." She spun her glass again. "She was a good girl at first. The perfect find for my Travis, but as time went on, she claimed he beat her. My boy wouldn't lay a hand on anyone, let alone a woman."

"How was his childhood growing up?" Jack asked.

Ellie's eyes snapped to him. She stopped spinning the glass. "If you're implying that I was abused, Travis witnessed it and carried on the family tradition, you're sadly mistaken."

"If you know my Ellie, she wouldn't put up with that type o' shit." Stewart backed up his woman.

"How was Travis's relationship with Lori's brother, Lance Bingham?"

"Now that man, he sends shivers through me," Ellie said.

I straightened in my chair. "Why is that?"

"You ever meet the man?" I'm sure my eyes communicated the answer. "I guess you have. Anyway, I think he's the one who put Lori up to rattin' on Travis."

"Your son went missing back in eighty-six," I said.

"Yes. February eleventh of that year."

"The file reads the twelfth." Another instance of the number eleven made a bead of sweat form on my brow, or it could have just been the stale air in the farmhouse.

"Well, that's the day we reported him missing. We gave him a day to see if he'd come back."

"We?"

"Lori said he went off to work like any other day, only they never saw him at work. She spewed nonsense about my son having run off with a girlfriend." She solidified eye contact with me. "My Travis would never have done that either. They wouldn't pronounce him until ninety-three. They said seven years had to pass first. Not that you ever get closure without being able to..." Her words stalled as if she couldn't bring herself to say body in reference to her son. Her eyes smeared with suspicion. "Why are you around here asking questions about my boy anyway?" Her eyes lit. "Did you find him?" She looked toward a framed photograph on a sideboard.

"Is that your son?"

"Yes. He was handsome, wasn't he?"

I saw a man in his mid-twenties, a smile forced for the camera. Nothing about him stood out to me except for the glint in his eyes. Something lurking there made me question his character. I simply nodded in response to Ellie.

Jack's cell phone chimed notifying him of a text message. He pushed some keys and scrolled down the screen with a fingertip. He looked at me. "It's time we let these two get on with their day."