Tuesday Teaser 12/30/2025

12/30/2025

The local police in Minneapolis were handling the investigation into Dylan’s life there. Preliminary reports showed no family had been located and no one he’d worked with knew much about him. He was a loner and beyond secretive. His most important interactions were online with Clint and a few other friends. It was logical to think those were the people most able to shed light onto this man, where he might have taken Clint, and what else he might do.

“Are they in the same city?” Liam asked.

Matt shook his head. “No, different sides of the state. I have a meeting set up with Sills and then Mayle. They live a few hours apart. College buddy of mine works out of the FBI field office in Atlanta, and he’ll go with me.”

Jim looked at Liam and rolled his eyes. Candice snickered and shook her head. Even Griff, in the midst of his plunge into depression, smiled. Matt seemed to have a college buddy, peewee softball teammate, or middle-school glee club friend everywhere.

“What? I’m a nice guy.” Matt looked around at them. “George Krebs will be at the police station by the time I get to Atlanta. So we’ll start with him, then proceed to the ladies.” He pointed at Griff. “You can sit in and listen. Not a word out of you.”

Griff glanced at Liam, who nodded. “That’s how we have to have it, Griff. You know that.”

“Yeah,” Griff said. Knowing didn’t make it any easier to sit on the sidelines and watch other people hunt for Clint, however.

“Okay, partner, you need some sleep,” Candice said. She stood behind Griff with both hands on his shoulders. When he shook his head, she cut off his next statement. “Don’t even try telling me you can’t sleep or aren’t tired. You haven’t slept in, what, a day? Or more.”

“I can’t—” Griff started.

“Griff, you can’t function on no sleep,” Liam said.

Griff looked at him. “I was going to say I can’t go back there. To that empty house. I just… I can’t.”

Candice patted his shoulder a few times. “My condo is five minutes away. I have a spare room, and if we need to get back here fast, we can do that easily.”

“I don’t want to put you out,” Griff said. “There are plenty of hotels.”

“You’re not staying alone in a hotel. I insist.” Candice was tugging on his arm to nudge him onto his feet.

Griff was suddenly extremely tired, exhausted to the point he was having a hard time keeping his vision focused and forcing his eyes open. He nodded. Realistically, he knew he wasn’t functioning even remotely well at this point and would cease to do so at all without at least a few hours’ sleep. Caffeine and determination only went so far.

Candice’s condo was nice, but not home. Griff opened the futon in her spare room and stretched out, not expecting to be able to rest much. He felt as if there was a squirrel running laps in his mind. His thoughts flitted from one thing to the other, and nothing stuck with him long enough to make much sense.