Харлан Кобен - The Boy from the Woods

“Look, Oren, I probably should have given you a heads-up before I went on the air—”

“Probably?”

“—but I have a really bad feeling. You need to put some resources into this.”

Silence.

“Oren?”

“Matthew put you onto this,” Oren said. “Why?”

Now it was her turn to be silent.

“Whatever your grandson is hiding, he has to come clean now. You know this.”

As they sped off from Maynard Manor, Wilde asked, “What happened?”

“It’s like Crash said,” Matthew said through a wince. He was still trying to catch his breath. “We were playing a game.”

“You’re going to lie to me now?”

Matthew blinked back the tears. “You can’t tell Mom.”

“I’m not going to.”

“Good.”

“Because you are.”

“No way. I’ll tell you, but we can’t tell her.”

“Sorry, it isn’t going to work that way.”

“Then I’m not telling you a thing.”

“Yeah, Matthew, you are. You’re going to tell me what happened. And then you’re going to tell your mother.”

He hung his head.

“Matthew?”

“Okay.”

“So what happened?”

“Did you know what Nana was going to do?”

“Do?”

“She went on the air about Naomi. She told everyone she’s missing.”

Wilde had wondered whether that was going to be her next move. Hester had been worried about leads drying up. What better way to beat the brush?

“What did she say?”

“I didn’t really hear it,” Matthew said. “But Crash and Kyle and the others did.”

“And they got upset?”

Matthew started blinking.

“Matthew?”

“Crash kneed me in the balls.” More tears came to Matthew’s eyes. A few spilled out.

Wilde felt his hands tighten on the steering wheel.

“They wanted to know what I told her. I rolled away. When I saw an opening, I ran.”

“You’re okay now?”

“Yeah.”

“You want me to take you to a doctor?”

“No, I’ll be a little sore, I guess.”

“Most likely. Does Crash have something to do with Naomi?”

“I don’t know. It’s...”

“It’s what?”

“You can’t tell anyone, okay? About Naomi. About tonight.”

“We’ve already been through this, Matthew.”

“I’ll figure out how to tell Mom. But tomorrow, okay? Tonight I don’t want to say anything.”

As he turned onto Matthew’s street, he heard the whoop of a siren and the blue squad-car lights came on. A voice over the loudspeaker said, “Pull over immediately.” They were right down the street from the house, no more than two hundred yards, so Wilde signaled out the window that he was going to cruise up to it. The car hit the siren again and spun right alongside them.

The familiar voice over the loudspeaker — they both knew Oren Carmichael — said in a tone that left no room for argument: “Immediately!”

To Wilde’s surprise, Oren cut them off with his squad car, forcing them to the curb. Oren opened his car door and made his way toward them. By the time he arrived, Wilde had the window down.

“What the hell, Oren. You know we live right down the block.”

Oren arched an eyebrow. “We?”

Mistake , Wilde thought. “I meant Matthew, this car. You know what I mean.”

Oren looked inside the car. He nodded at Matthew. Matthew said, “Hey, Chief.”

“Where are you coming from, son?”

Wilde said, “Maynard Manor.”

“Why were you there?”

“Why would you care?” Wilde countered.

Oren ignored him. “Son?”

“I was at a party,” Matthew said.

Oren took a longer look at Matthew now. “You don’t look so good, Matthew.”

“I’m fine.”

“You sure?”

Wilde wasn’t sure whether they should tell Oren about the incident in the house or not. Before he had a chance to say anything, Matthew said, “I’m fine, Coach. We were playing Midnight Skull.”

“What?”

“It’s like tag or something. Running around outside. That’s why I look like this.”

Oren Carmichael frowned. He glanced at Wilde. Wilde gave him nothing. Then Oren said, “Why did you ask your grandmother to look for Naomi Pine?”

Ah, Wilde thought, so that explained the sudden stop. Oren wanted to corner Matthew alone — away from both his mother and grandmother, two renowned attorneys — so he could get less evasive responses.

Wilde said, “Don’t answer.”

Oren didn’t like that. “What?”

“I’m telling him not to answer.”

“You don’t have any legal standing here, Wilde.”

“Yeah, I’ve been hearing that a lot tonight. But I’m not letting you question him without his mother present.”

“I don’t know where Naomi is,” Matthew blurted out. “That’s the truth.”

“So why did you ask your grandmother to find her?”

“I’m just worried about her, okay? She hasn’t been in school and...”

“And?”

Wilde said, “Matthew, not another word.”

“And kids pick on her, is all.”

“Are you one of those kids, Matthew?”

Wilde put his hand up. “Okay, that’s it. This conversation is over.”

“Like hell—”

Wilde restarted the car.

“Turn that engine off right now,” Oren snapped.

“You charging us with something?”

“No.”

“Then we are on our way. You can follow us to Matthew’s house if you’d like.”

But Oren didn’t follow them.

As Wilde pulled the car into Laila’s driveway, the front door opened. It was dark now, but with the light behind her, Wilde could make out Laila’s silhouette standing in the doorway. She held her hand up high and awkwardly waved. When Wilde and Matthew got closer, he could see that she was holding her mobile phone.

“There’s a call for you,” she said to Wilde. Then she added: “On my phone.”

He nodded, and she handed it to him. He put the phone to his ear.

“We good?”

It was Gray Hair. Wilde wasn’t surprised. They would have seen the license plate. Guys with his kind of juice would have no trouble getting a registration, a name, an address, phone numbers both home and mobile. Laila was the car’s owner. That would be the number they’d try.

“I guess,” Wilde said.

“Crash may have acted inappropriately.”

“Uh-huh.”

“But the boy is under a lot of pressure. We hope you’ll understand.”

“There’s a missing girl,” Wilde said.

“He doesn’t know anything about her.”

“So why’s he under a lot of pressure?”

“Other things.”

“Can I ask your name?” Wilde said.

“Why?”

“Because you know mine.”

There was a pause. “Gavin Chambers.”

“As in Chambers Security? As in Colonel Chambers?”

“Retired colonel, yes.”

Whoa , Wilde thought. The Maynards were not messing around when it came to security. He was tempted to move away so Laila wouldn’t hear, but from the look on her face, that would only get him in hot water.

“Do you know what Crash did to Matthew, Colonel?”

Laila’s eyes widened when she heard that.

“We have CCTV in the basement area,” Gavin replied.

“So you saw it?”

“I did. Sadly, that particular footage no longer exists. Accidental deletion. You know how it is.”

“I do.”

“Will you accept our apologies?”

“I wasn’t the one assaulted.”

“Will you please pass them to young Matthew then?”

Wilde said nothing.

“It’s my job to keep the Maynards safe, Mr. Wilde. There is much more at stake here than a teenage brawl.”

“Like what?”

But Chambers didn’t answer. “I know you’re good at what you do. But I’m good too. And I have vast resources. If there is conflict between us, it probably won’t end well. There will be collateral damage. Do I make myself clear?”