David Silva - The Disappeared

Walt stood at the sink, adding soap to the water, and she thought how lucky she was to know this man. He had been the only person in the world whom she had felt she could lean on during the worst days following Gabe’s disappearance. Michael had all but buried himself in his work. And Teri, herself, had become obsessed and distant. Walt, it seemed, had been the only level head around her.

“How about you?” she asked. “Any luck with the fingerprints?”

He turned off the water. “It’ll probably take a couple of days before we hear anything one way or the other. And like I mentioned last night, I’m not holding out any high hopes.”

“So what’s next?”

“I’ve got to go out of town, Teri. I’m sorry.”

“Now?”

“I know it’s coming at a bad time.”

“No. No. I’m the one who should be apologizing. You’ve been great, Walt. Really.”

“It’s another case.”

“I understand.”

“I want you two to stay here while I’m gone.” He paused a moment, as if he were searching for something else to add, and when it didn’t come easily, he rinsed the next plate and placed it in the rack next to the sink. “You’ll be safer here.”

“Thanks,” she said, knowing he was probably right. Then she wondered how he was going to feel about this next question. “I’d like to take him to see his doctor. You think that would be all right?”

“Sure. You worried about his strength?”

“That… and some other things.”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but he’s got a streak of gray hair coming in.”

“You’re kidding.”

“No, I just noticed it this morning. I know it sounds silly, but it worries me. Especially with everything else that’s going on. I just want to make sure that it’s nothing serious, that he’s all right.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem. Don’t tell anyone where you’re staying, though. If the doctor needs to get in touch with you, tell him you’ll call him.”

Teri nodded, surprised at how easily she had come to accept this new secrecy into her life. It was frightening how much things had changed in just twenty-four hours. It was also amazing how accepting of the changes she had already become.

Walt rinsed off the last plate and pulled the stopper out of the sink. The sharp, not entirely unpleasant aroma of Lux had filled the kitchen, reminding Teri of long ago nights when she would finish up the dishes while Michael and Gabe played catch in the backyard. Walt dried his hands off on a towel, hung the towel in the crook of the handle of the refrigerator, and swept up the stack of newspapers he had brought home with him. He sat down across from her.

“How’s he doing?” he asked, in reference to the boy.

“As well as can be expected, I suppose.”

“Has he asked about Michael?”

“Not really.”

“You still have Michael’s number?”

Teri nodded. “In my purse.”

“When I get back, I’ll want to give him a call. See if he has an inkling of what’s going on here.”

“He’s not behind this, Walt.”

“Maybe not. But I wouldn’t be doing my best for you if I took that at face value, now would I?”

She smiled.

“How about you? How are you holding up?”

“Okay.”

“Wish I could tell you what’s going on, but I’m as much in the dark as you are.”

“I know,” she said.

“It’ll all work out eventually.” He thumbed through the stack of newspapers, moved the local paper to the top, and casually glanced at the headlines. Teri watched him, realizing distantly that what she was witnessing was part of this man’s nightly routine.

“You think I should have called the police?” she asked softly.

He looked up and grinned. “A little hindsight?”

She laughed to herself.

“What did I say?”

“Nothing.”

“Come on, what’s so funny?”

“It’s just something Michael used to say.”

“Tell me.”

“It’s silly.”

“I don’t care.”

She shook her head. It was silly, and she preferred not to have to mention it because she knew it was silly. But at the same time, it was still one of those things about Michael that she had always loved, that juvenile sense of humor. “Hiney-sight. Michael used to call it hiney-sight.”

Walt grinned.

“I told you it was silly.”

“That you did,” he said. “And I should have taken the warning.”

Teri smiled, slightly embarrassed, then slipped awkwardly into a change of subject. “Why so many papers?”

“Patterns,” he said. “The bigger the canvas, the easier it is to spot them.”

“What kind of patterns are you looking for?”

“I don’t always know. Sometimes it’s a disappearance or a kidnapping that sounds a little like it might be something similar to what I’m working on. And other times it might be a personal ad or a story about someone who doesn’t remember who they are. It all depends.”

She nodded. “Looking for anything in particular right now?”

“Not really. I’ve got a case where a father kidnapped his two children. The mother has custody and she hired me to see if I could track him down. That’s what’s taking me out of town tomorrow.”

“You think you’ve found him?”

“I think I might have a lead on him. How hot it is, I won’t know until I’ve checked it out.” Walt slipped the local paper off the stack, set it aside, and began to rifle through the pages of the San Jose Mercury News . “Like all of us, this guy’s a creature of habit. First of all, he’s a diabetic, so he needs insulin and he needs a prescription to get it. Second, he makes his living as a mechanic. So he’s still maintaining some of his old contacts. That’s what makes disappearing so difficult. In order to do it right, you’ve got to become a completely new person. You can’t carry any of the old baggage. You’ve got to give up everything. Very few of us are prepared to go that far.”

“How’d you track him to the Bay Area?”

“His social security number. I had a female friend call the IRS and talk to one of their female employees. My friend went into this long story about how she and this guy were in love once and how they’d lost contact with each other, and how she was trying to track him down to see if they could maybe start things up again.”

“Isn’t that illegal? Giving out that kind of information?”

“You bet. The woman could lose her job if anyone found out.”

Teri grinned appreciatively. “Clever.”

“Whatever works, as they say.”

They fell silent a moment, Walt lost in thoughts of his own, Teri thinking briefly about how difficult it must be to track someone down once they’ve made the decision to disappear.

“Did you quit because of me?” she finally asked.

“What?”

“The department. Did you quit the department because of me?”

“No. I quit because I needed a change, Teri. That’s all, just a change.”

“Burn out?”

“More like frustration.” He collapsed the newspaper and sat back in his chair. The expression on his face was almost identical to the one he had worn the first time she had met him. Not impatience, but a sense of wanting to get on with it. “Actually, you were an inspiration.”

She smiled self-consciously, a bit taken aback.

“You were my ghost of Christmas past, you might say.”

“I don’t think I understand.”

“You remember when you called that press conference and made a big stink about how the department wasn’t doing anything?”

She remembered. She remembered all too well. That was before she’d really had a chance to know Detective Walter Travis. She couldn’t have called that same press conference today. In fact, there had been a number of times when she had worried that it might have cost him his career.