Chapter 2

Frank gathers background research on the missing girl's family

Frank and Lucy headed back to the trailer.  Frank lived in a small mobile home/trailer that he rented from Fat Sam.  It was on a secluded patch of land among the low sand dunes.  It had easy access to the beach and the beach road.  Lucy bounded through her doggie door as Frank unlocked the front door and entered his entry/kitchen. He then checked his answering machine.  The number associated with the machine was a land line connected to a small yellow page ad he had run.  Although he gave in to carrying a cell phone and had a computer, his cell phone number and email address were only known to certain trusted individuals.  His business card had the answering machine number.  No website for this guy.  To him, technology was an intrusion and a pathway to finding him that was not desirable.

Today, the machine's message light was not blinking.  He had been receiving hang up calls on his machine on sporadic mornings for the last month.  They were always at the same time and from the same number.  The number, according to the area code on the caller ID, was from Scranton, Pennsylvania. Of course, with today's disposable phones and Internet calling capabilities, the area code meant nothing.  There was no hang up call today.

After taking a shower, Frank put on his unofficial Florida PI uniform, khaki cargo pants and a dark pullover polo shirt.  The ensemble was completed with a pair of black "tennis shoes" as they were called in the south. Frank still preferred calling them sneakers.  He had a meeting with Mr. Bullock in four and a half hours which gave him about four hours to research the man and his associates.

As with any search, this one began with typing Travis Bullock's name into Google. Google as a company and as a search engine is a proper noun. It has also, however, been turned into a verb.  It was not commonplace to Google oneself or to Google someone else.  After a while, Googling someone starts to sound like a euphemism.  At any rate, the initial search for Travis Bullock received well over 1,000 hits.  Adding the term "attorney" reduced the results to 300.  Adding "Jacksonville" brought the number down to a manageable 57.  Ten of those hits were from the web site for the law firm of Bullock, Bullock and Cobb, the small, but prosperous firm that Mr. Bullock owned along with his wife Margaret Susan "Peggy Sue" Mathis-Bullock and firm founder Stanton Cobb.

A quick check of the firm's web site brought up brief biographies of the partners and associates, a mission statement that indicated a southern conservative flavor, and contact information.  Mr. Bullock's biography indicated that he completed his undergraduate and law degrees at Florida State University and was very active in their alumni, donor, and sports booster groups.  There was also mention of his position on the board of the Ponte Vedra First Baptist Church, a wealthy offshoot of Jacksonville's First Baptist Church which is the precursor of many of today's mega churches.  First Baptist Church in Jacksonville regularly seats 10,000 for services where the faithful are serenaded by a full orchestra and a 250 member robed choir. This church is viewed as the headquarters of the Southern Baptist movement.  It also has an iron grip on what will and will not be deemed acceptable in Jacksonville.

Peggy Sue Bullock also attended Florida State through law school.  She, according to her bio, met Travis there and married him soon after graduation.  They had always worked together when she was not busy having their four children. The law firm's primary specialty was family law.

Stanton Cobb, according to the site, was the founding partner of the firm.  Also a graduate of Florida State, his graduation date put him at about 78 years old.  His original firm was in downtown Jacksonville and was founded on providing adoption, divorce, and other related services.

After perusing the firm's web site for any further insight, Frank moved on to the other search results.  Most of the entries were society type stories, fund raisers for new wings at Baptist Hospital, various Republican event photo ops including a picture of Peggy Sue with Sarah Palin during a campaign stop that was part of the ill-fated McCain/Palin presidential bid.

There were also brief articles regarding Travis' membership on the Baptist Church board as various opinions were made public on issues of the day. None of the opinions or quotes, however, was attributed to Travis or his wife who served on the Ladies Auxiliary. The church related articles were fairly constant until 2008 when they stopped completely.

It is amazing how much information can be gleaned, even by the casual investigator, from the Internet.  Frank believed, however, that police databases were still the best source to dig up the true dirt or lack thereof on an individual or group.  The truly deep search would wait until after the meeting with Mr. Bullock and until after the case was a paid engagement.