Danny was almost trembling with excitement. Finally. A Lead. A search of the insurance database showed that Peter Camden had taken an insurance policy for his only son.
He didn't have a name for his son. Not even a birth date. He didn't even say who the boy's mother was. He just knew that the boy was born in the year 2000.
Jason Cook, Craig Thomas, Jonathan Camden and Shane McCollough were all born in the same year. And all their mothers were involved with Peter Camden.
The insurance policy was worth one million dollars.
Danny sat on his chair in deep thought. "What am I missing?" he thought to himself.
He looked across the room and saw a box stuffed in a Ziploc bag. He wanted to bang his head on the wall for having left that out. "Of course!" Danny thought.
He hurried to the box. The package. The one that Jerry Schroeder brought to the McCollough house, the one he printed. He's never opened it.
Danny quickly put on his gloves and reached for the box, peeling the packing tape as gently yet as hurriedly as possible. In the box was a picture of Shane, blindfolded, on a bed. There's a window behind him, it was taken during the daytime. Danny took the picture and scanned it.
With his photo-enhancing software, he zoomed in on the window in the picture. It was a neon light sign.
"Eighth of May" Danny whispered.