Harlan Coben - The Innocent

Our daughter is very sick. She desperately needs a kidney donation from a blood relative. We are searching for any blood relatives who might be a match. Please, if you are a blood relative of the late Candace Potter, please contact us at…

Matt kept reading and rereading the post.

"I had to do something," Olivia said.

He nodded numbly.

"I e-mailed the parents. At first I just pretended to be an old friend of Candace Potter's, but they wouldn't release any information to me. I didn't know what to do. So I wrote again and said I was indeed a blood relative. And then it all took a weird turn."

"How?"

"I think… I don't know… suddenly the parents got cagey. So we agreed to meet in person. We set up a time and place."

"In Newark?"

"Yes. They even booked the room for me. I had to check in and wait for them to contact me. I did. Some man finally called and told me to go to Room 508. When I got there, the man said he needed to search my bag. That's when he took the phone out, I guess. Then he told me to change in the bathroom and put on a wig and a dress. I didn't get why, but he said we were going someplace and he didn't want anyone recognizing either one of us. I was too afraid not to listen. He put on a wig too, a black one. When I came out he told me to sit on the bed. He walked toward me, just like you saw. When he got to the bed, he stopped and said he knew who I was. If I wanted to save my daughter's life, I'd have to transfer money to his account. I should get it ready."

"Did you?"

"Yes."

"How much?"

"Fifty thousand dollars."

He nodded, feigning calm. All the money they had. "So then what?"

"He told me he'd need more. Another fifty thousand. I told him I didn't have that kind of money. We argued. I finally said he'd get more money when I saw my daughter."

Matt looked off.

"What?" she asked.

"Weren't you starting to wonder?"

"About?"

"If this was all a con of some sort."

"Of course," Olivia said. "I read about these con men who'd pretend to find information on MIAs in Vietnam. They'd get the family to give them money to continue the search. The families wanted it to be true so badly that they couldn't see it was all a ruse."

"So?"

"Candace Potter was dead," she said. "Why would someone try to con money from a dead woman?"

"Maybe someone figured out you were alive."

"How?"

"I don't know. Emma Lemay might have said something."

"Suppose she did. Then what? Nobody knew, Matt. The only person in Vegas I told was my friend Kimmy, but even she didn't know all that information- the date of birth, the town in Idaho, the name of the doctor. I didn't even remember the doctor's name until I saw it in that post. The only people who would know all that were my daughter or her adoptive parents. And even if it was some sort of scam, what with the wig and all, I had to follow it up. I mean, somehow my daughter had to be involved. Don't you see that?"

"I do," he said. He also saw that her logic was somewhat flawed, but now was not the time to point that out. "So now what?"

"I insisted on seeing my daughter. So he set up a meet. That's when I'm supposed to bring the rest of the money."

"When?"

"Tomorrow at midnight."

"Where?"

"In Reno."

"Nevada?"

"Yes."

Again Nevada. "Do you know a man named Max Darrow?"

She said nothing.

"Olivia?"

"He was the man in the black wig. The one I met with. I knew him back in Vegas too. He used to hang at the club."

Matt was not sure what to make of that. "Where in Reno?"

"The address is 488 Center Lane Drive. I have a plane ticket. Darrow said I shouldn't tell anyone. If I'm not there… I don't know, Matt. They said they would hurt her."

"Hurt your daughter?"

Olivia nodded. The tears were back in her eyes. "I don't know what's going on. I don't know if she's sick or if they kidnapped her or hell, if she's somehow in on it. But she's real and she's alive and I have to go to her."

Matt tried to take it in, but it wasn't happening. His cell phone rang. Matt automatically reached to snap it off, but then he thought better of it. At this hour it was probably Cingle. She could be in trouble, need his help. He checked the caller ID. Private number. Could be the police station.

"Hello?"

"Matt?"

He frowned. It sounded like Midlife. "Ike, is that you?"

"Matt, I just got off the phone with Cingle."

"What?"

"I'm on the way to the county prosecutor's office now," Midlife said. "They want to interrogate her."

"She called you?"

"Yeah, I guess, but I think that had more to do with you."

"What are you talking about?"

"She wanted to warn you."

"About what?"

"I wrote it down, hold on. Okay, first off, you asked her about a man named Max Darrow? He's been murdered. They found him shot dead in Newark."

Matt looked at Olivia. She said, "What is it?"

Midlife was still talking. "But worse, Charles Talley is dead. They found his body at the Howard Johnson's. They also found a set of bloody brass knuckles. They're running DNA tests on them now. And within the hour, they'll have the photographs off your cell phone."

Matt said nothing.

"Do you understand what I'm telling you, Matt?"

He did. It didn't take long. They'd put it together like this: Matt, an ex-con who'd already served time for killing a man in a fight, gets these mocking photographs on his cell phone. His wife was clearly shacking up with Charles Talley. Matt used a private eye to find out where they were. He charged into the hotel late at night. There was a fight. There'd be at least one witness- the guy at the front desk. Probably a security video. They'd have physical evidence too. His DNA is probably all over the dead man.

There would be holes in their case. Matt could show them the gray window and explain about the drought. He also didn't know what time Talley had been killed, but if Matt was lucky, the murder took place when he was in the ambulance or at the hospital. Or maybe he'd have an alibi in the taxi driver. Or his wife.

Like that would hold up.

"Matt?"

"What is it?"

"The police are probably searching for you now."

He glanced out the window. A police car pulled up next to Lance's. "I think they already found me."

"You want me to arrange a peaceful surrender?"

A peaceful surrender. Trust the authorities to straighten it out. Do the law-abiding thing.

That worked so well before, didn't it?

Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice…

And suppose he did come clean. Then what? They'd have to tell everything, including Olivia's past. Forget about the fact that Matt swore, swore, he'd never let himself go back to prison. Olivia had indeed committed a crime. She'd, at best, helped dispose of a dead body. Not to mention the fact that Max Darrow, who had also been murdered, had been blackmailing her. How would that look?

"Ike?"

"Yes."

"If they know we communicated, you could get nailed for aiding and abetting."

"Nah, Matt, I really can't. I'm your attorney. I'm giving you the facts and encouraging you to surrender. But what you do… well, I can't control that. I can only be shocked and outraged. You see?"

He did. He looked out the window again. Another squad car pulled up. He thought about being back in prison. In the window reflection, he saw Stephen McGrath's ghost. Stephen winked at him. Matt felt the tightness in his chest.

"Thanks, Ike."

"Good luck, pal."

Midlife hung up the phone. Matt turned to Olivia. "What is it?" she asked.

"We have to get out of here."

LANCE BANNER APPROACHED Marsha Hunter's front door.

Two tired uniforms were with him now. Both men had facial stubble nestled in that cusp between needing a shave and trendy, the end of an uneventful Livingston night shift. They were young guys, fairly new on the force. They walked in silence. He could hear them breathing hard. Both men had put on weight recently. Lance was not sure why that happened, why the new recruits always gained weight during their first year with the force, but he'd be hard-pressed to find examples where that didn't happen.