james.rb

require 'timeout'

class SearchesController
  def post
    search = Search.create! params[:search]
    begin
      timeout(3) do
        while result.nil?
          result = Cache.fetch(search.results_id)
        end
      end
      render json: result
    rescue TimeoutError
      render status: WHATEVER_CODE, href: search_results_url(search)
    end
  end
end