Hours had passed, and Donovan still had thoughts about Tiffany and Howie being considered missing. After all, he never met them, but it nagged at him all day long. He decided to pursue these thoughts a little further.
He rushed to his laptop at his computer desk in the den. He immediately opened up a White Pages website. He conducted a search for any Anderson's living in Haneyville, Tennessee.
After a few minutes, he found the phone number for George Anderson.
Donovan looked at George's phone number on the White Pages website.
He looked at his iPhone. He hesitated on whether he should call this individual out of the blue.
He placed his iPhone down and got up from his computer desk.
He walked out of the den.
Ten minutes had passed, and Donovan could no longer resist the strong temptation building up inside his body.
He rushed back over to his computer desk and picked up his iPhone. He punched in George's phone number.
He waited and thought about hanging up. Then someone answered his call.
"Hello," said George Anderson from Donovan's iPhone.
"Ah, is this George Anderson?" said Donovan and for some reason got really nervous.
"Yes, it is, whom might you be?" said George.
"I'm Donovan Kirby. I'm a reporter for the Florida Today newspaper down in Melbourne, Florida."
There were a few seconds of silence from the iPhone, and Donovan thought George had hung up.
"Are you still there Mister Anderson?"
"I'm here. What do you want Mister Kirby?" George said in a quieter voice.
"I've been reading the Internet articles about the discovery of that nineteen sixty-two Buick Special and how about the divers' search."
There were a few seconds of silence. "The divers found nothing," said George and he sounded a little saddened.
"Do you believe that your son and Tiffany really ran up to Canada in nineteen seventy?"
"I don't know. That wasn't like Howie to run away like that."
"Have you heard from Howie? Did he call to say he was up in Canada doing fine?" asked Donovan, but for some strange reason, he had a gut feeling he knew the answer.
"I haven't heard from my son since he left that night with Tiffany in her car," George replied, and there was sadness in his voice then he paused for a few seconds. "Why are you so interested in my Howie?"
"Like I said, I'm a reporter an would love to do a story about Howie and Tiffany going missing that night? Who knows, maybe you'll hear from them."
"Why the sudden interest? They've been missing for forty-three years. And our Sheriff did an investigation back in seventy and found no evidence of foul play."
Donovan hesitated for a few seconds while he did not want to tell George that he had a gut feeling foul play was involved. Why he had this gut feeling, he could not explain. "I can't explain that, but I was thinking of driving up to Haneyville. Can I sit down with you for a little while and talk about their disappearance?" he said and did not realize he just offered to drive up to Tennessee.
"If you want to waste your gas. I'd sit down and talk with you for a spell," replied George.
"Okay, I'll call when I head up there. Maybe this week."
"I'm too old to be going somewhere," replied George, then he disconnected his end of the call.
Donovan set down his iPhone by his laptop and thought about what he just said to George. Then he had a grand of an idea. He opened up a blank Word file and started the title page for his third eBook titled Murder in the Woods.
He sat back and stared at the title. His writer's block was finally busted apart. He figured he could spring off these two missing teens from 1970 and write about a murder. The more he thought about the idea, the more he knew it was doable.
Up in Lexington, Jodi had the same idea. She sat at her computer in her apartment and did a White Pages search for Ernie and Kathy Carlson in Haneyville.
She found the phone number for Ernie Carlson and dialed his number from her iPhone.
"Hello," Ernie answered the call from her iPhone.
"Mister Carlson, I'm Jodi Lauder from Lexington, Kentucky," she said into her iPhone
"Hello Miss Lauder, how may I help you?"
"Well, I'm a reporter from the Lexington Herald-Leader newspaper."
"Why are you calling me?"
"I'm calling about the nineteen sixty-two Buick that was found in the bottom of the Lake Haney."
"Yes, that once belonged to my daughter."
"I know, and I also read that she and a Howie Anderson went missing back in nineteen seventy."
There were a few seconds of silence from her iPhone. "Why are you calling me?"
"I would like to come up there to Haneyville and do a story about Tiffany and Howie," she said without any prior thought with going up there. This was a spur of the moment decision that surprised even her.
A few more seconds of silence from her iPhone. "I guess that's alright," Ernie said.
"Good, I hope to arrive in a few days. I'll call when I'm heading down there," she said.
"I'll be waiting," replied Ernie, then he disconnected his end of the call.
Jodi looked at her iPhone and wondered if she made a mistake. Her curiosity ate away at her. She had to find the truth on the whereabouts of Tiffany and Howie.
Back in Donovan's den, he started on the Prologue of his new story.
The Prologue started off with two teenagers smoking pot in the front seat of a red 1962 Buick Special. The car was parked in the woods in a clearing by a lake.
After he finished banging on the keys of his laptop, he sat back and reread what he drafted out. He smiled and liked the beginning of his new story.
After an hour of typing out a little more of his story, Donovan started to get sleepy.
He headed off to bed and fell asleep within minutes after his head hit his pillow. He started to dream.
It's nighttime, and the moon was full and beautiful.
Donovan lay in the dark in the woods. He was in pain and stared up at the sky.
He heard a girl crying.
He heard a guy grunting and moaning.
He strained to look then saw a man on top of a woman. His coveralls were down at his ankles. He was naked and forced himself on that poor woman. She continued to cry while he humped her crotch.
Then he saw the naked man get off the woman. He noticed it was the brunette girl he had in a previous dream.
The man pulled up his coveralls.
"I'm telling the Sheriff," she cried out in anger.
He reached in one of the pockets of his coveralls and removed a pistol. He aimed it at the woman.
He put a bullet in her forehead to silence the brunette girl.
Then Donovan looked at the full moon between some dead branches of a large old tree.
Donovan bolted up from his dream in a panic and sweat. For a split second, he thought he was dead. It took a few seconds for him to realize he only had a bad dream.
He closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep. But that dream was still vivid in his head and could not shake it away.
Donovan got out of bed and rushed out of his bedroom and headed off to his den.
Once he got in his den, he powered up his laptop.
As soon as it was ready, he opened up his manuscript Word file for his Murder in the Woods eBook.
Donovan typed that dream he had and figured it would be a perfect fit for his story.
After he was done typing down his dream, Donovan went back to bed.
He could not go back to sleep, as that lousy dream was still vivid in his head. So he stared in deep thought at the ceiling about his book, the Internet articles about Tiffany's car and how Tiffany and Howie went missing that night in 1970.
Up in Lexington, Jodi also lay in her bed in deep thought. She stared in deep thought at the ceiling about the Internet articles about Tiffany's car and how Tiffany and Howie went missing that night in 1970.
Monday morning arrived, and it was back to work for the vast majority of the people across the country.
Donovan ate a quick breakfast and got dressed for work.
During the drive to work, all Donovan could think about was Tiffany and Howie.
He powered up his computer the second he arrived in his cubicle.
As soon as everything came up on his monitor, he sent Hank an email requesting to take off a week of vacation starting in two days.
Donovan grabbed his coffee cup. He had a smile on his face when he got up from his computer with his coffee cup in hand and strutted out of his cubicle.
A few minutes passed, and Donovan entered his cubicle with his first cup of morning coffee. He sat down at his computer and immediately checked his email. Hank had not responded to his request. He drank his cup of coffee while he stared at his monitor.
After a few drinks of caffeine, he got a beep that indicated that he got an email. He anxiously opened up the email as it was from Hank. He read the message. He got disappointed, as it was not about his vacation request. Hank wanted Donovan to head up to Titusville for a story about a robbery at a convenience store that happened an hour ago.
He grabbed his small note pad and headed out of his cubicle.
Up in Lexington, Jodi just arrived at her work cubicle and just sent off an email to her boss. She requested a two weeks vacation to start in a couple of days. After all, she had four weeks on the books and needed a break.
She drank on her cup of hot green tea while she waited for a response from her boss. To her surprise, her boss responded within a few seconds, and her request was approved.
Jodi drank her tea with a smile and could not wait to drive up to Haneyville.
Back in Melbourne, Donovan arrived back from his reporting duty up in Titusville.
He went to his computer the second he got back into his cubicle. He opened up his email and saw that Hank replied to his vacation request.
He opened up the email, and he could not believe his eyes. Hank denied his request.
"Why?" Donovan typed as his reply then send off the email.
He was disappointed and could not figure out why Hank denied his request. Especially since Donovan had not taken any vacation for the past year.
He sat and stared at his computer monitor while he waited for Hank to reply.
"Donovan," Hank said from Donovan's cubicle entrance.
The sound of Hank's voice startled Donovan, and he jumped a little. He turned around and saw Hank standing by his cubicle entrance.
Hank hesitated for a few seconds. "I need you to stay here and cover for Diane," he said.
"Diane? Why do I have to cover for her? I wanted to take a week's vacation."
"Because she's going on two weeks of vacation," Hank replied.
Donovan looked at Hank and could not believe his ears. "Vacation? She just went on vacation last month. A cruise I believe," he said and started to fume inside.
"Sorry," Hank said and noticed Donovan looked upset.
He walked away and could care less about Donovan being upset about his vacation request denial.
"I want that story about that robbery in Titusville in thirty minutes," Hank replied while he walked away.
"Yeah. No problem," Donovan said while he stared at his computer monitor.
"Where you going on your vacation next week?" a fellow female coworker asked Diane while they walked past Donovan's cubicle.
"Another week-long cruise. I saw it online, and Hank approved it ten minutes ago," Diane replied to the female coworker.
Donovan fumed inside while he stared at his cubicle entrance and saw Diane and that other female coworker walk past his cubicle.
Donovan powered down his computer.
He got up from his seat and stormed out of his cubicle.
He walked near Hank's glass office.
Hank glanced up from behind his desk and saw Donovan.
"I need that article about the robber in Titusville," Hank called out from his office.
"You'll get it when I get back from the bathroom," Donovan called out while he walked past Hank's opened office door.
Hank returned to his paperwork, satisfied he would get the article in a few minutes.
Donovan walked out of the front entrance from the Florida Today newspaper office.
He headed over to the employees parking lot.
Hours had passed, and Donovan ignored all of his iPhone calls from Hank.
He sat at his computer and read those Internet articles about Tiffany's car and how the Knoxville divers gave up on their search for finding any remains.
He went to bed still in deep thought about Tiffany and Howie.
It was not long after Donovan fell fast asleep when he had another dream.
He had that same dream where he lay in the dirt in the woods and heard that brunette girl being raped and then shot in her forehead.