Chapter 18

Frank and Anita pay Cobb a visit at his family estate.

Frank was awakened by his newly-returned furry alarm clock at 5:30 AM. He felt refreshed after a night of dreamless sleep.  He pulled on some running shorts and a t-shirt and he and Lucy walked down the path to the beach for an abbreviated walk/run. He could tell Lucy was not quite 100% by the way she favored her stitched hip.

After about a half-mile, they turned and headed back. When they reached the trailer, about an hour had gone by since Frank woke up.  Lucy cautiously entered the dog door and drank a healthy amount of water. She was clearly more tired than usual.

Frank took a shower, dressed and made them breakfast. Lucy ate her scrambled eggs hungrily. At least her appetite was back to normal. Frank sat at the computer with a mug of hazelnut coffee and began to search for more clues about Stanton Cobb. His first stop was Google Maps. He plugged in Cobb's Green Cove Springs property address. The satellite view of the property revealed a typical old-style southern plantation layout. There was a large main house with a series of out-buildings arranged in an arc around a field. These outbuildings were likely slave quarters when they were originally built. There were also some modern amenities on the property including a fortified guard shack at what appeared to be the one and only entrance to the property. Cobb would know they were coming.

Frank decided to do a little digging on the history of the property. He discovered that Green Cove Springs was established in 1854 when the name was White Sulfur Springs. It was renamed to its current name following the Civil War in 1866 and became the county seat in 1871. Preceding and during the Civil War, many land owners felt that the area around Green Cove Springs was far south enough that slaves could not escape north to the safety of the union troops on the St. Johns River.  The river is one of only two in the world that flows from south to north. The other is the Nile. Frank assumed that the former plantation owned by Cobb, which was small by southern standards, was one of those established to prevent the escape of slaves. From the satellite images, both the main house and the group of outbuildings looked well-maintained.

Frank then switched over to investigate some of Stanton Cobb's legal career highlights. After graduating from law school, Cobb and his wife moved back to Jacksonville where he joined a downtown law firm named Laney, Roberts, and Hughes. The firm specialized in domestic law. Since it was the late 60's, divorce, common law marriage, and other areas of related legal proceedings were beginning to grow quickly. Cobb didn't attain much notoriety at first. That all changed in 1974. Cobb was retained by a wealthy family, prominent in the Baptist church, for an adoption case. The plaintiff in the case was a poor Jacksonville woman who had put her young son up for adoption when she gave birth to him at age 16. The woman, now 24, wanted custody of her son returned to her. Cobb represented the adoptive parents. The woman claimed that she signed over her son under duress due to her need for money and her young age. She was now married with another child and wanted her son returned to her.

During this case, there was some significant coverage in the Florida Times Union, Jacksonville's newspaper. According to the articles, Cobb was masterful in arguing that, even though the woman was under age and was now more financially and domestically stable, the child would clearly benefit from staying with his adoptive parents. He argued that they were able to provide him with a better education and with a faith-based environment. He also argued that there would be significant trauma to the child of being ripped from the arms of the only parents he had ever known. Cobb supplemented his assertions with expensive expert testimony that validated the potential psychological damage to the child. Cobb even had the child testify via closed circuit television where he told the court how much he loved his adoptive parents and how sad he would be to ever have to leave them.  According to the newspaper report, this maneuver brought the whole court room to tears, including the plaintiff.

The judge ruled in favor of the adoptive parents and Cobb. His career was launched due to the prominence of the case. It didn't hurt that the adoptive parents were the great nephew and niece, by marriage, of the pastor of First Baptist Church. Cobb had made his mark both publicly and within the church. He soon launched his own thriving family law practice and would later be joined by two young lawyers, Travis and Margaret Bullock.

The legal highlights for Stanton Cobb were very few after the one blockbuster public case. He had apparently parlayed that case into a financially successful and influential career. Cobb was now among the elders of First Baptist Church, a group with more power in Jacksonville than the city government. As Frank knew, he also had power and influences in other, less well-known circles.

As Frank searched for other hidden morsels of information, he heard the unmistakable sound of a Harley-Davidson engine pulling in near the trailer. Lucy heard it too and jumped to attention. Only two people that Frank knew rode Harleys. One was Jonesy, who occasionally rode the one that he had received as a bonus. The other was Anita. Since he was expecting her, he assumed she had arrived. Lucy knew both possible Harley riders well so she was out the dog door before Frank could get up out of his desk chair. He found Lucy outside on her back having her belly scratched by a fit-looking Anita completely dressed in black.

"Hey Anita", Frank said as he came out to greet her.

"Hey Piano Boy. Ready for our road trip?" she said.

"I think so", Frank said.

He filled her in on what he had found, asked if she wanted food or a snack for the road, and they were on their way in Frank's car.

They headed south on I-295 connector. Exited on San Jose sough in Mandarin and drove into St. Johns County over the Julington Creek Bridge. Once over the bridge, San Jose turns into State Route 13. They continued on enjoying the beautiful houses and live oak trees with their beards of Spanish moss as they passed through the area known as Switzerland. They eventually came to the Shands Bridge, which is the farthest south of the seven bridges that cross the St. Johns River in the Jacksonville area. As they crossed the Shands, they saw the port with many of the expensive pleasure boats docked in the river.

As they entered Green Cove Springs, a Clay County Police Cruiser settled in behind Frank's car and the rotating lights came on.  Frank and Anita shared a look.

"Looks like they've been expecting us", Frank said.

Frank pulled off onto the shoulder and the cruiser pulled in behind him. A large, mustached, shaved-head officer emerged from behind the wheel and walked to Frank's car. Frank rolled down the window and greeted the officer with a smile.

"Good morning officer.  What can I do for you?" Frank asked.

"You can turn around and go back over the bridge where you came from", was the reply from the officer in a non-friendly tone.

"Did we do something wrong?" Frank asked. "It must have been serious to get us banished from your town".

"If your intent is to harass a prominent resident of this town, then that will get you banished", the officer said.

"But we've done nothing wrong, officer", Anita said from the passenger seat.

"You are out of line and out of your jurisdiction, officer Velasquez. I'm sure you don't want to risk your standing with your department by not cooperating. Although I know your kind find cooperating and conforming to the rules of society a challenge", the officer replied.

"I'm not trying to cross jurisdictions. This is my day off", Anita said. "We are two private citizens visiting your town and we have not broken the law".

"Not so far", the officer said slyly. "Who knows what I might find when I search your car. There's no telling what illegal substances might be found in your car".

"So you would stoop to entrapment to protect Cobb", Frank said. "That seems extreme".

"You call it entrapment", the officer responded, quickly growing angry. "I call it your word against mine".

Frank smiled to himself. The officer turned a deeper shade of angry red. "Do you find something funny"?

"Depends on your perspective", Frank said. "Do you know anything about storing data in the cloud?"

"You mean storing pictures and songs on the Internet? What does that have to do with anything?" the Clay County officer demanded, obviously quite angry now.

"Your little statements about officer Velasquez's type not being cooperative and your threat of entrapment are now safely stored in the cloud. My phone is really great at recording things that I want to keep a record of", Frank said.

"Well, that's a bit underhanded, Mr. Rozzani", the office said sounding both deflated and angry. "Wait here and I'll be right back".

The officer walked back to his car and punched a number into his cell phone.

"I can't believe he fell for that", Anita said after the officer had left.

"I wasn't sure he would, but it was worth a try", Frank admitted. "I'll have to learn how to record with my phone someday in case I really need it".

The officer walked back to Frank's car with a defeated look on his face.

"You win Rozzani". In fact, I'm going to escort you to Mr. Cobb's property so that I can make sure you don't stray from your destination".

"Well, isn't that special", Frank said sarcastically. "Well lead on officer. We will follow you".

The officer went back to his cruiser and got in.  He pulled around Frank's car and Frank pulled out and followed him. They went through the small, but well-kept downtown area and then exited to a tree-lined two lane road. After about a mile, the officer turned right onto a private road. Frank followed. After about 200 yards the police cruiser stopped at a guard shack which resembled the one that Frank had seen in the satellite image of Cobb's property. The officer chatted with the guard for a minute and pointed back to Frank's car. He then got back into his car, moved out of the way, and motioned for Frank to pull forward. Frank pulled up to the guard shack. The guard was not your typical rent-a-cop. He appeared to be ex-military. It dawned on Frank that this was overkill for a property that belonged to your average prominent attorney. The guard asked Frank and Anita for ID. He looked them over and passed them back. He then instructed Frank to follow the road to the main house and to pull up in front of the main entrance. The guard then opened the mechanical chain link gate. Frank pulled through and followed the curved road to the main house as instructed. The main house was a three-story building with six pillars on the front.  It was an all-white structure. There was a large porch on both the first and second floors. Frank pulled around the circular driveway to the front entrance. He expected burly guards to emerge and scrutinize him and Anita closely before letting them get near Cobb. Instead, they were greeted at the door by Cobb himself. Cobb was dressed in khaki pants and a blue dress shirt. He held a mug of coffee. He didn't look as menacing as he did when frank encountered him in his office. He looked like any old grandfather enjoying a relaxing Sunday at home.

"Well, Mr. Rozzani, you found me. You managed to blackmail and officer and find your way onto my property", Cobb said. "Now, what can I do for you?"

"I think we need to have a talk, Mr. Cobb", Frank answered. "Our investigation of Maggie Bullock's disappearance is resulting in a great deal of information that involves you and your connections".

"I will speak to you, Mr. Rozzani. Hopefully we can separate the fact from the supposition and put any suspicion of my involvement to rest", Cobb said. "Please come to my office. Officer Velasquez, since my great nephew is your superior, for your best interest and his, I would request that you remain in the sitting room while Mr. Rozzani and I speak. My assistant will provide you with food or snacks as needed".

"That's fine sir", Anita said. She took a seat across from a muscular male assistant seated at a rather feminine secretary's desk in a room to the right of Cobb's office. She knew that Frank would fill her in on the details later anyway, and this gave her a chance to observe the household activity.

Frank followed Cobb into his darkly-paneled office with matching dark furniture and sate in one of his guest chairs. Cobb sat behind the over-sized desk.

"Well, Mr. Rozzani, you certainly decided not to take my advice regarding this case. As a result, you've surfaced a great deal of irrelevant information that has put me and my interests in a position of risk", Cobb began". This was all in pursuit of the crazy notion that Maggie Bullock is anything other than a typical pregnant teenage runaway".

"Mr. Cobb, Maggie's parents are still adamant that she is not a runaway. They believe she was taken and is being held against her will", Frank responded. "Based on my investigation, I tend to agree with them".

"Parents like to believe the best about their children and children like to spin circumstances in the best possible light for their parents", Cobb pontificated. "Travis and Margaret want to believe she is the perfect child, but her delicate condition at the age of 16 contradicts that image, wouldn't you say?"

"Not necessarily", Frank responded. "Let's look at a hypothetical situation, shall we? Suppose a naive teenager becomes infatuated with a charismatic figure for whom she has a great deal of respect. Now suppose that person takes advantage of that infatuation for nefarious purposes. Also, suppose that person has a past history of making bad decisions when it comes to matters of the flesh and underage girls. Then suppose that person's lack of good judgment has put other influential people at risk through their lack of self-control. Do you see how the light might shine back on that influential person when that teenager turns up missing?"

"It's all circumstantial and utterly ridiculous, Mr. Rozzani", Cobb snapped. "Frankly, I have little regard for you and your associates. Your methods for gathering information and jumping to conclusions seem less than above-board. Of course, I have my own methods and connections that allow me to gather interesting information. I promise you that if my connection to Christianity Today becomes public along with allegations against any of its employees, I might have a reason to pass your current whereabouts to certain devious characters in Western New York".

Frank was incensed at Cobb's veiled threat. He did, however, expect something like this.

"Mr. Cobb, if I determine that your connections to Christianity Today or the actions of Pastor Worthington will help bring Maggie Bullock home, I will not hesitate to use that information. As for your threat, if you think I am intimidated or scared by alerting anyone of my 'whereabouts', you should probably do your homework a bit more thoroughly. Unlike you, I have nothing else to lose."

With that, Frank rose from his chair and left Cobb sitting behind his desk. Anita saw Frank emerge from the office and knew by his expression that it was time to leave. She joined Frank as he exited the house. They both got into the Lexus and Frank drove away from the property silently.

After they had exited Green Cove Springs and had crossed the Shands Bridge, Frank was calm enough to fill Anita in on what Cobb had said. Anita listened and then said, "So Cobb is still in the thick of it".

"He is either in the thick of it or there are an amazing number of coincidences", Frank said.

"Well at least I may have some information related to Cobb's 'special project' that is keeping him from the office", Anita said.

"What would that be?" Frank asked.

"A doctor stopped by to see Cobb while you were in with him. He seemed anxious to speak with him and said he would be back", Anita said. "Maybe Cobb is having health issues".

"Did you get the doctor's name?" Frank asked.

"Doctor Wells", Anita said. "He said he was going back to his office, but would be back within an hour. That means he's local to Green Cove Springs or very close by".

"I'll have to check him out", Frank said. Maybe he has a specialty that will lead us to what is going on with Cobb.

Anita and Frank talked about the next steps as they traveled the rest of the way back to Frank's trailer.