Page 33 of Texas Cold Case Murder

Nancy Tobin was easy to find, but her driver’s license address was for Corpus Christi, Texas. That was a solid four and a half hours away. Not impossible, but she’d been hoping for someone closer to home.

Ellen Carter took a little longer to find. But when Nina was able to match the woman’s face on the driver’s license photo to that of the yearbook, she was satisfied she had the correct one.

Even better, Ellen still lived in Temple.

“We need to visit Ellen Carter.” Nina turned the laptop so Jackson could see the address.

Jackson nodded slowly. “We can do that when Creed returns with the car.”

“If Ellen doesn’t know anything, we might have to drive down to Corpus Christi, too,” she added.

“We don’t have time for a nearly-nine-hour round trip,” he protested. “Better to call her. Maybe Ellen Carter has contact information for her.”

A phone call wasn’t optimal, but she understood Jackson’s reservations. They didn’t have a lot of time to spare. It was already Saturday afternoon.

Nina nodded. “Okay. We’ll visit Ellen and go from there.” She silently prayed Ellen Carter would have key information about her mother.

And more importantly, about her biological father.

* * *

Impressed that Nina had found someone connected to her mother, Jackson rose to his feet. Creed should be back any minute.

As the minutes ticked by slowly, Jackson paced the length of the room again, trying not to imagine the worst-case scenario.

That the gunmen had somehow stumbled upon Creed.

He pulled his new phone out. No calls from Creed, which may not mean much. He was about to call his ranger friend, when Nina spoke up.

“Looks like Ellen lives only ten minutes from the trailer park.” Nina looked at him. “Although in a much nicer neighborhood. At least according to the map app I’m using. The houses look larger and expensive in comparison.”

“We’ll find it.” When he heard the rumble of a car engine, the tension eased from his shoulders. After sliding the phone back into his pocket, he crossed the room and stepped through the doorway to open the garage door.

Nina jumped up from her seat at the table. “Let’s go.”

He turned to glance at her. “I think we should have Creed stay back to continue searching the Sanchez angle. There’s no reason all three of us need to show up on Ellen Carter’s doorstep.”

“That’s fine with me.” Nina was clearly impatient to go. “This is going to work, Jackson. I just know she’ll be able to help us figure out what was going on with my birth mother back then.”

“I hope you’re right.” He wanted answers, too. Anything that would lead them to the identity of the gunmen was a plus.

Creed walked in carrying two laptops tucked under his arm.

“Did you run into any problems?” Jackson asked. “I was worried you might’ve run into the black truck.”

“Nope. There was a traffic accident, though, so I had to take a detour.” Creed glanced from Jackson to Nina. “You guys look ready to roll. Did you find something?”

“Yeah.” Jackson took a moment to fill him in on the two women who were possible friends of Anna Lange. “We’re heading over to visit Ellen Carter now. How about you stay here to keep digging into the drug angle?”

“Sounds like a good plan.” Creed dropped into the chair Nina had vacated. “I still believe the drug cartel is involved. For all we know, the cartel took out Nina’s birth mother as a warning to Mark not to talk.”

That was a very strong possibility. And maybe that was the reason Mark had been murdered prior to his meeting with Nina. And that also explained why he felt responsible for her death. “Keep your phone close. We’ll call if we learn anything that might help.”

“Will do.” Creed already had one of the laptops open and powered up.

“Close the garage door after we leave, okay?” Jackson held the door for Nina. Once they were settled into the front seat, he backed out of the garage.

“Turn right at the next traffic light,” Nina said, peering at her phone.