Chapter 6

Markow braced himself for a day of hard grind. Chief Grissom had come up with a list of homes either rented or purchased over the past month, but had indicated that there was nothing that looked out of the ordinary.

"I can probably spare a man to start working through them, but to be honest, I think your suspect has bolted," Grissom said, handing over the list.

Markow thought quickly. With what he now planned for MacSween, he didn't want any further involvement of the Cedar City PD in the search. With practised disinterest, Markow dropped the list onto the desk in his hotel room and responded to his opposite number's offer.

"I think you're right, Phil. He's gone — probably back to California. There are other leads I can follow and I don't want to abuse your hospitality by asking you to expend your resources on some other wild goose chase. Thanks for everything you've done so far — rest assured if I can return the favour at any time..."

"Think nothing of it, Greg. Glad I could help and just disappointed we didn't get your man. Good luck with your other leads."

Now Greg was preparing himself to check out the recent rentals/purchases on his own. He had contacted his own officers and now had CCTV images of the two young women who had been with MacSween in Cathedral City. One of the two had to be Christine Anderson, he thought.

It had been a long time since Chief Markow had had to do the slog of day to day police work and he wasn't looking forward to it. There were more than forty properties on the list that Grissom had supplied and he knew he would need to work his way through them.

His first task had been to plot the properties on a street atlas of Cedar City and the surrounding area. After that he numbered them and mapped out the route he would take so that he didn't constantly have to double back on himself. Now he was ready to begin his search and with a heavy sigh, he started the engine and headed for the first address.

A quick check of the clock beside the hotel room bed told Gavin that it was already mid-afternoon. He'd shovelled a room service meal into himself — nothing fancy, just a burger and fries — and was determined to get back to his research as quickly as possible.

"I let myself get carried away with the excitement," he thought, "instead of spending all that time reading about Sinclair, I should have been looking at Rose Latour, she's the one I need to find."

That was the next order of business — to research the Latour name. Gavin was surprised at the number of hits that Google returned on his very first search — just using Rose's name and the address in Baton Rouge.

Most of these were society pages, many of them just references to the fact that Rose had been at one ball or another, but also many charity functions. As with his searches on Johnny, he quickly gathered information about Rose's extended family and what he found once again surprised him.

"This just doesn't make any sense. Rose's family are at least as rich as Johnny's. What in the name of the wee man is going on here? Why were these two living hand to mouth when they obviously come from money?"

The Latours also had a great deal of US real estate in their possession. The family businesses seemed to major in, amongst other things, textiles — possibly a throw-back to the cotton trade in the US south. One thing that stood out was the extent to which the Latours were involved in military production — they seemed to have extensive contracts with the DoD — ranging from armaments (small arms and armoured vehicle production) through to uniforms and protective equipment. There were also a number of banks in the family portfolio and at least two fast food chains that were world famous.

The deeper Gavin got into his search, the more Rose and Johnny's predicament didn't make sense — until he stumbled upon one particular article. This piece made it clear that there was an intense rivalry, even hatred, between the Latours and the Sinclair family. The bad blood between the families seemed to be rooted in their constant struggle to be the most successful in business. Gavin's research identified the fact that the Latours had been around in Louisiana for at least as long as the Sinclairs and both had competed for the same dollars time and time again.

The article gave examples of where the families had fought it out to secure land and other assets — some of them going back hundreds of years. Both seemed to have been successful however, if the article was to be believed, mostly at the expense of everyone else. The article highlighted the fact that the Latours and Sinclairs had a reputation for being ruthless in business. Clearly they didn't take any prisoners and no-one was spared as the empires grew.

"That's the first thing that's made sense in all of this. I can see how it might be a problem for both families if Johnny and Rose got together — difficult to see past hundreds of years of family feuding. Families can be so difficult," Gavin thought.

One thread that ran through the links that dealt directly with Rose was that they were all old. It was as if her social whirl had come to a crashing halt when she had married Johnny and there were no signs that it had started up again after he had disappeared.

"It's almost as if she's dropped off of the face of the earth. Nothing. No social engagements, no charity work — she's just become a non-person."

The most recent links he could find were more about Rose's father. Frank (actually Francoise, but known to all as Frank apparently) Latour was now 82 and an old and frail man. Gavin read that he needed 24hour medical attention and that his business empire was being run by the vast army of executives that he employed.

"It doesn't look as if there's a natural heir to the old man's dynasty — other than Rose. I wonder who's making all of the decisions at the top? Even an army of executives needs a general."

After several hours of further reading, Gavin stumbled upon something that stopped him in his tracks. It was only a minor newspaper story, run by the local Baton Rouge rag:

Louisiana Mogul at death's door!

screamed the headline, but that wasn't what caught and held Gavin's attention. The story was about Frank Latour suffering a major health scare and it carried a picture of his daughter rushing to be by his side. Taken by one of the ambulance chasing paparazzi, the picture showed Rose arriving at a huge mansion in a high-powered jeep. Gavin could see that she was a passenger and that the photograph had been snapped hastily through the window, as the jeep had slowed before entering the gates of the property. Even in a grainy black and white photograph, reproduced in a poor quality newspaper, Gavin's first sight of Rose Sinclair/Latour took his breath away.

"Wow! Now she is something special," he thought to himself, staring at the image.

Her expression showed the concern that she must have been feeling for her father, but it didn't detract from her beauty at all. Not even worry lines could do that. He took in the fine chiselled features, perfectly in proportion and the biggest, saddest, eyes that Gavin thought he had ever seen.

"Johnny was a very lucky man. Who wouldn't be head over heels in love with such classic beauty?"

Deciding the information he was getting was starting to become repetitive, he called a halt to his searches and instead reviewed the notes he had taken. He had used the little pad of headed notepaper that hotels always left in rooms and to his surprise, his scribbles covered five pages.

"Well, nothing more to suggest that Rose has hung around Monroe. I've got three addresses now — Johnny's father's, Rose's father's and the address she gave for her marriage license. All of the addresses are in Baton Rouge, so I need to decide whether that's my next stop. Do I go there and check things out? Of course I do, I can't give up now."

It was too late to begin the journey to Baton Rouge, so he decided to phone home to check in, eat something and then have an early night so he could start first thing in the morning.

Greg Markow was surprised that the list Phil Grissom had supplied only ran to 40 properties — but on reflection the world economic climate was probably depressing the markets.

"I should give thanks for the fact that there aren't more; otherwise I'd never be able to get through them."

His plan had him starting in Cedar City itself and then widening his search to cover Duck Creek, Parowan and New Harmony — communities that had sprung up around the city.

Greg didn't know it yet, but starting in Cedar City meant that he wasn't going to have to spend more than two days before he found the new house that Gavin and his family had moved into. Each location had to be thoroughly checked and unfortunately that meant parking up and observing the comings and goings — hoping to spot either MacSween or one of the two girls that had been with him. That in turn meant he had to remain at each property for some time to be sure that he had a chance to see all of the occupants.

It was nearing lunchtime on the second day of his search, and he was on his second property of the day, when he spotted both Fiona and Lizzie. The girls were dressed for running and as Greg watched they started jogging, chatting as they ran. The lycra tops and shorts left little to the imagination and Greg found himself becoming envious of the man he was after.

"Christ! Look at the two of them — like something straight out of girls gone wild. What wouldn't I give for a few hours with one of them? Steady Greg boy! Remember why you're here. Let's get our attention back on finding MacSween."

He couldn't resist following the tight butts of the two girls as they ran away from him however. He gave himself a shake and turned his attention back on the house the girls had come out of. Not long after, the door opened and Christine came out, calling over her shoulder to someone still inside the house. She closed the door and walked over to a Ford Fusion that was parked in the drive.

"What? Another one? Just who is this guy?" Greg mumbled to himself.

As Christine's car passed him he saw that she was older than the girls.

"His mother perhaps?" Greg asked himself.

He steeled himself to sit in the car for the rest of the day, snacking on some pre-packed sandwiches that he'd bought that morning. His only fluids came from the bottle of mineral water he'd bought at the same time. By the time the lights in the house dimmed — he assumed everyone had gone to bed — the two girls had long since finished their run and hadn't re-appeared. The woman had also returned in her car and he saw that she had groceries in the trunk. His excitement had climbed when a man came out of the house to help her carry the groceries inside, but dropped again when he saw that it wasn't MacSween.

"So, now we've got an older man and woman and two young girls. What's MacSween's connection to them and where the hell is he?"

The strain of being on the alert all the day caught up with him and Greg decided to return to the hotel to get some sleep himself. His plan was to return as early as possible the next day in the hope of confirming that MacSween was also here.

Everything seemed to be fine at home, although Fiona was still feeling sore that Gavin had elected to take his trip without her.

"Have you found her yet?" Fiona had asked.

"Fi, stop that. You know Mom thinks I'm down here for a swimming competition — don't get her suspicions up. I'll tell you how things have gone when I get back — I might be another few days, as I have to go further than I thought," Gavin responded.

"Can't you even give me a hint? After all, you've been really mean not letting Lizzie and I come."

"All I can say is that I've made some progress, but you're not going to believe the story I've got to tell. Honestly, I couldn't make this up," he laughed, as he pictured her pouting on the other end of the line.

Now he was back in the SUV and making the 185 mile drive to Baton Rouge.

Having started early, it was only 10:15 by the time he arrived in the city and he stopped on the outskirts to top up with gas and buy a street atlas to help him navigate easily. He'd decided to check out the address on the marriage license first and it didn't take him long to find it. Nicholson Drive was clearly a historical part of Baton Rouge. He passed signs that advertised the Magnolia Mound Plantation House and was able to catch sight of an impressive building atop a rise that was screened by huge flowering trees.

About two miles further on he found the address he was looking for. The house here was simply incredible and the scale of the grounds it sat in caused a problem for Gavin. The gardens were a riot of colour with flowering trees and shrubs of all descriptions (mostly magnolia, but Gavin didn't know that). While extremely pleasant to look at, unfortunately they hid the house very effectively indeed. The road was also so far from the house that even if the gardens weren't obscuring it, the distance made it virtually impossible to see anything. Gavin knew he would have to find somewhere to buy some binoculars.

He thought it was ironic when he found Sinclair's Army Surplus, but what he didn't know was that the store was part of the Sinclair family empire. He purchased some Magnacraft 10x50 binoculars with glare reduction and with forethought, also purchased some black clothing which he thought might come in handy. His final purchase was one that sent a tingle down his spine — a ski-mask — now it was starting to feel like old times.