Линвуд Баркли - Find You First

Miles considered her theory, which, judging by her hopeful expression, she wanted to believe. It was a less creepy possibility than some stranger hiding under the bed.

“Does that make any sense?” he said. “You know Todd. Wouldn’t he have been happy to talk to you? And his car wasn’t there. His stuff all gone...”

“I know, I know. And anyway, Todd’s not missing part of a finger.”

“And there’s the business with the woman in the van,” Miles said.

“What about the woman in the van?”

“She came along at just the right time, didn’t she? Charise thought there was something funny about her.”

Chloe’s eyelids fluttered. “Like what?”

Miles was thinking. “We hear what sounds like an accident, we run out to see what’s happened. Our guy under the bed takes that opportunity to get out, with the phone. By the time we get back, he’s gone. That woman, who said she was trying not to hit a deer, that might have been a distraction.”

“But how...”

“Guy hears us come in, he hides under the bed, he mutes his phone, sends her a text. Tells her to do something that will draw us outside.”

“Oh my God,” Chloe said.

Miles, more to himself, said, “There was no deer. Charise didn’t see a deer.”

“Okay.”

“It was a distraction. Hitting the brakes. It got us out of the trailer. We’d arrived there right in the middle of whatever it was they were up to.”

“The scam,” Chloe said.

Miles nodded, figuring out where she was going. “Yeah, maybe.”

“Whatever phone scam Todd was doing, maybe he wasn’t in on it alone. Maybe he was working with, you know, like, some organized-crime types or something. Maybe he double-crossed them.”

Miles ran his hand over the top of his head, thinking. He looked back at the house.

“We have to tell her,” he said. “We need to tell her that something might have happened to her son. She needs to call the police.”

“Shit, seriously?” Chloe said. “Because if she does, then the cops will find out what Todd’s been doing, whatever it is, and then if it turns out he’s okay, he’s gonna be up to his ass in trouble.”

“She has to know,” Miles said firmly. “You said she already knows he might be up to something illegal. Bring her up to speed, let her make the call. She’s his mother.”

“You’re his father,” Chloe said.

The words hung there.

Miles was about to say it wasn’t the same, but couldn’t bring himself to utter the words. To downplay his relationship to Todd was to downplay his relationship to Chloe.

“Yeah,” he said. “Should we tell her together?”

“You gonna tell her your connection?”

“Let’s play that part by ear,” he said.

As he put his hand on the door handle, his cell rang. He took it from his jacket, looked to see who it was from, then put the phone to his ear.

“Yeah, hello,” he said. “Dorian.”

“How’s it going, boss?” his personal assistant asked.

“That’s kind of a long story. What’s up?”

“Okay, so, couple of things. The gamers want to set up a second meeting, maybe in—”

“Just set it up, whenever they want. What’s the other thing?”

“So... can you talk?”

“Yeah. What is it?”

“I’m following up on that list, getting more information on all the people on it, building up even more detailed profiles so when you approach them, you’re up to speed, you know.”

“Sure.”

“So, I’ve run into something kind of weird with a couple of them.”

“What do you mean, weird?”

“Let’s start with Jason Hamlin.”

“Okay, right. The one in Maine.”

“Right. The college student. He’s missing.”

Miles suddenly felt light-headed. “Missing?”

“Well, maybe not technically. He may have died in the fire. They’re looking for his body in the wreckage.”

“Dorian, start at the beginning.”

“I’ll email you a link to the story. Hamlin was living in a house off campus that he shared with some other guys. There was a gas leak and an explosion. The others made it out, but not Hamlin. They haven’t found his body but they’re thinking it has to be in the ashes. The thing is, though, he usually went out for an early-morning run, but he must not have done it that day, because, well, if he had, he’d have showed up. Right?”

Chloe was giving him a what’s going on? look. Miles raised a hand.

“Send me the stories,” he said.

“And this Katie Gleave? From outside Buffalo? Lackawanna?”

“Right.”

“She’s been in Paris, posting stuff on Instagram pretty regularly. She’s over there with a friend, and now the friend is asking if anyone knows where she is, to get in touch. She’s disappeared. Police issued a release and everything.”

Miles’s light-headedness was getting worse.

“Miles, you there?” Dorian asked.

“What... what about the others? Dixon Hawley, and... and...” He knew every name on the list by heart, but now he couldn’t remember them. “Um, the one in Fort Wayne, Travis, what’s the name, Travis Roben. What about him? And Nina—”

“That’s all I got so far,” Dorian said. “But I thought you’d want to know. Did you find the Swanson girl? Chloe?”

“Yes,” he said slowly. “Dorian, I’ll have to call you back.”

He ended the call, put the phone away, and stared straight ahead, shell-shocked. He tried to get his head around Dorian’s news. He contemplated the odds that three connected individuals might, seemingly at random, suddenly encounter misadventure.

“What was that all about?” Chloe asked. “You okay? You look like shit. Was that your doctor? Bad news?”

“Not... my doctor.”

“Yeah, well, whatever it was, we have to figure out what to do right now about Madeline. She’s looking out the window at us. We gonna tell her about Todd or what?”

Miles tried to draw some moisture into his dry mouth.

“It might just be a hell of a coincidence,” he said, “but your theory about Todd? About whatever it is he’s into?”

Chloe nodded.

“There might be something totally different going on.”

When Dorian was finished with her call to Miles, she saw that Gilbert was standing outside her door.

“Gil?” she said.

Miles’s brother entered hesitantly.

“Do you have a minute?”

“Sure,” she said. Gilbert took a seat and Dorian came out from behind her desk and perched herself on the edge of a coffee table. “What’s up?”

“Where’s Miles?”

“He’s... on the road.”

“You know about his diagnosis, of course.”

She nodded. “I know. It’s awful. He doesn’t deserve what’s happened to him.”

“I... I need to ask you about something and I don’t want you to share it with Miles. I know that puts you in a difficult position.”

“Yeah, it kinda does, Gilbert.”

Gilbert bit his lower lip, considering whether to proceed. “Miles told me something about Caroline. Something she tried to do, and got caught.”

“Oh,” Dorian said. “Okay. You want to tell me what that was?”

He shook his head slowly. “Not really. But she tried to take advantage. Financially. And I’m worried she might be trying to do it again.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I mentioned it to Miles the other day, but he had so much else on his mind, he kind of brushed it off.”

Dorian was growing impatient. “Gilbert.”

He sighed. “Excel Point. It’s showed up several times in the accounts. We’ve paid them about $198,000. I’ve been through all the departments, talked to our people in research and development, and no one knows what it is.”