Linwood Barclay - Fear The Worst

“I suppose someone could have a phone bought for them out there, then have it FedExed out east,” Jennings speculated. “For all I know, you can program phones right here in Milford with area codes from anyplace in the country. It’d be something to check out.”

“So, if there was any doubt before, there isn’t now,” I said. “The woman who lured me to Seattle was hooked up with whoever broke into my house.”

Detective Jennings was still looking up different data on the phone’s screen. “It looks like all this phone was ever used for was to call you and take calls from you.” She dropped the phone into her purse and then asked, “Mind if I hang on to this?”

“Of course not,” I said.

“Were you planning to tell me about this phone?” she asked.

“What?”

“Were you going to tell me about it?”

“I only just found it. Once I’d figured out what phone it was, yeah, I would have called.”

She nodded slowly. This all had a bad feel to it.

I said, “Has something happened? You were just here a little while ago. Why are you back?”

“You know someone named Ian Shaw?” she asked.

I swallowed. “I think so,” I said.

“You think so?”

“He works at Shaw Flowers,” I said. “For his aunt.”

“So you do know him,” Jennings said.

“Yes,” I said. “I know who he is.”

“When his aunt came to work this morning-by the way, Ian lives in an apartment behind the shop. Did you know that?”

I nodded. “I get the feeling you already know the answers to these questions.”

The corner of her mouth curled up. “His aunt called the police today. Ian’s got quite the shiner on his cheek. Someone punched him good.”

I said nothing.

“Now, Ian didn’t really want to talk about it, but his aunt kind of put the fear of God into him, and he finally coughed up your name. And Mrs. Shaw remembered you coming by a couple of times asking about Sydney. And she didn’t much like the idea of you beating up her nephew.”

“There was a misunderstanding,” I said.

Jennings offered up a fake smile. “Damned if that isn’t what Ian said. Just a silly misunderstanding. He says he’s not interested in pressing charges. But his aunt insisted I come by and have a word with you just the same. She told me to tell you to never show your face around there again.”

“No problem,” I said.

“You want to tell me about this misunderstanding?”

“If Ian’s not pressing charges, I can’t see that there’d be much point,” I said.

Inside the house, the phone rang. “Excuse me,” I said, then ran inside and grabbed the kitchen extension. “Yeah?”

Susanne said, “If you thought Bob was pissed before, you should see him now.”

“About what?”

“His detective just showed up with coffee and donuts.”

“Bob should be grateful. Now he knows his guy can actually do something useful.”

“Tim,” she said.

“He’s a fucking security guard, Suze,” I said. “That’s how much Bob cares.”

“He does care, Tim. It’s just, he doesn’t always think things through.”

“If he really cared, he’d have a word with Evan. There’s something about him, Suze.”

“I don’t need this,” Susanne said. “I don’t need all these damn complications.”

“I have to go,” I said, seeing Jennings in the doorway.

I hung up and said to the detective, “Have you ever talked to Evan Janigan about Syd?”

“Yes.”

“Well?”

“He needs a good kick in the ass. But other than that-”

“He’s a thief,” I said. “He’s stolen from Susanne.”

“Then she should call the police,” Jennings said. “Everybody else is.”

I WAS PUTTING BACK INTO THE CUPBOARD canned foods and cereal boxes that had survived the invasion when I heard voices by the front door.

“Motherfucker, what happened here?”

It was Patty Swain.

“In the kitchen,” I called out.

I heard a second voice, this one male, say, “It’s like a hurricane or something.” I turned to the door that led into the living room and there stood Patty and Syd’s onetime boyfriend, Jeff Bluestein.

“Mr. Blake,” he said, nodding, then opening his arms to indicate the mess. “What happened?”

Patty’s eyes were wide as she looked around. “I can’t believe what they did,” she said. “This is so fucked.”

Jeff said, “Patty, enough.”

“Someone broke in while I was in Seattle and tore the place apart,” I said.

“Seattle?” Patty said.

“I was out there looking for Sydney.”

Patty, who’d already looked stunned, appeared even more surprised. “Syd’s in Seattle?” she said.

I said, “I was tricked into thinking she was there, so I’d be out of the house long enough for someone to come in and search it from top to bottom.”

“Oh my God,” Patty said. She wandered into the living room, then up the stairs. All along her route, Jeff and I could hear her saying, “Oh my God. Oh my God.”

“How you doing, Jeff?” I asked.

Jeff Bluestein was the same age as Syd. He was about my height, just under six feet, but bulkier than I am, with curly black hair and thick black eyebrows. He had a loping quality about him, as though he were dragging somebody else along behind him. He’d always struck me as a nice guy, but Syd had found him moody and unmotivated, and I don’t think their three months of going steady, or whatever it was kids called it, was ever very serious. Syd broke it off the end of last summer, but they’d remained friends. Jeff got to know Patty through Syd, and they were friends, too, but nothing more than that.

When Jeff learned Syd was missing, he’d approached me immediately about setting up a website. He was a whiz at that sort of thing. And while that was hardly unique for someone in his age group, I was impressed, and not wanting to have to waste a minute getting the site under way, I turned him loose on it.

I offered to pay him for his time, but he’d refused to take any money. “I just want Syd to come back,” he’d said. “That’s all the reward I want.”

“I’m okay,” Jeff said in answer to my question about how he was doing. He sounded tired, but Jeff was never what you’d call chipper. He was a bear, just waking up from hibernation, loggy-headed, trying to figure out where he was.

“I was going to call you,” I said. “I wanted to make sure the site’s working okay.”

“It’s fine,” he said. “I was checking it this morning. Your mail’s working and everything.”

“Okay,” I said. “You want a cold drink or anything? They didn’t throw everything out of the fridge.”

“I’ll have a look,” he said and opened the appliance door. His body blocked out the interior light. He pulled out a can of Coke and cracked the top. “I haven’t been sleeping so good,” he said.

“Something on your mind?” I asked him.

“Just worried about Syd. I thought she woulda gotten in touch.”

“Yeah,” I said.

From someplace upstairs: “Oh my God!”

“She’s kind of over the top,” Jeff said softly, tipping his head in Patty Swain’s direction. I knew he liked hanging around with Patty, but her rough edges made him uncomfortable. I’d never heard Jeff swear, not even a “damn.”

“She’s her own person, that’s for sure,” I said.

Jeff stood there looking around the kitchen, not mesmerized by the mess, but off somewhere in his thoughts.

“Why do you think Sydney didn’t like me?” he asked. His choice of tense threw me off for a second, but then I realized he was referring specifically to that period when she’d just broken up with him.

“That’s not true,” I said. “I know Syd likes you.”