by Robin Mahle
Jacob was already in need of a fresh brew while he waited for the heap of messages to pile onto him. He pushed up from his chair and started into the corridor and toward the breakroom.
“Hey, man.” Craig brushed past him in the hall and stopped on a dime. “You see Alex yet this morning?”
Jacob came to a stop and turned back. “Not yet. I texted him but haven’t gotten a response. We had kind of a late night. He probably overslept.”
“That’s right. You went with him to that,” he cleared his throat and surveyed the area for eavesdroppers, “that poker game.”
“Yep.”
“How’d it go?” Craig peered at him as if he already knew.
“Fine. Why?”
“No reason. Just…” He swatted away the remainder of the sentence.
“No. What? Just what?” Jacob pressed on.
“It’s just a shady deal, that game, you know? I told Alex I wasn’t interested in going back. He asked me to join him yesterday too, but I took a hard pass.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. It was fun the first time, but things got too real, you know what I’m saying?”
“Yeah. I get it. I’ll let you know if I hear back from him.” Jacob continued on his path to the kitchen.
He walked inside the small breakroom with a round table in the center, a sink flanked by cabinets and a full-sized refrigerator. The fancy coffee maker rested atop the counter next to the sink. Jacob reached for a mug in the cabinet and inserted the pod, waiting for it to brew. He poured in a touch of flavored creamer and waited until it finished before pouring it into the mug.
As he turned to head back to his desk, another of his co-workers entered. “Morning,” he said after taking a sip from the steaming mug.
“Hi, Jacob.”
Steven Anderson worked in Human Resources and no one was ever really happy to see him, although as Jacob peered at him, he considered that the guy was okay, just maybe a little intense.
“How’s it going? There’s still water in the reservoir,” Jacob said.
“Good, thanks. Hey, um, I hear Alex was with you last night?”
Jacob furrowed his brow at the sudden interest in his extracurricular activities with a co-worker. “Yeah. We had a few beers last night. Why?”
“I got a call a few minutes ago from his wife. Actually, Ty got the call and he came to me and asked me to ask around. Anyway, she said he didn’t come home last night. Do you know anything about that?”
An awkward smile teased along Jacob’s lips as though the question in and of itself was farcical. “Uh, no. We parted ways, oh, I don’t know, about midnight or something. I saw him get into his car and drive away. I have no idea why he wouldn’t have gone straight home.”
“Well, I had to ask. I’m sure he’ll turn up. Probably slept it off somewhere in his car and hasn’t made it home yet.”
“He wasn’t drunk,” Jacob replied. “I’m certain of that.”
“Okay, well, look, if you hear from him…”
“I’ll let you know.” Jacob walked by him and into the hall. His mind raced with concern for his friend, who wasn’t really a friend, but was now more than just a colleague.
The men who approached them in the parking lot of the Crooked Horse offered their condolences because they knew Jacob and Alex had lost their asses in the game. Of course, they didn’t know that it was done on purpose. And in fact, Silas Levin was the big winner of the night. Was it possible one of them scared off Alex? He didn’t know how that could’ve happened. Sure, they were scary dudes and their words had an underlying meaning. The meaning was that they wanted to be sure Jacob and Alex weren’t plants. He thought they’d done a decent job defending their losses. But now?
Jacob returned to his desk with renewed concern for Alex, who still had not replied to his text. He had to assume his wife would’ve tried to reach him as well and only called work as a last resort. Things were not looking good.
“Hey, Cap.” Riley approached Ward’s office where he sat at his desk. “Pruitt and I are heading out for patrol.”
“Sounds good. Check in with dispatch,” Ward replied.
“Got it.” Riley returned to her desk and grabbed her keys. “Mind if I drive?”
“You’re the boss,” Ethan said.
“No, I’m not,” she sneered at him and started out the door. “I just like to drive. You have a problem with that?”
Ethan followed her into the parking lot and toward her cruiser. “No problem. You like to be the one in control, Riley. This is no secret and I’ve made my peace with it.”
“Gee, thanks.” She pressed the remote to unlock the door and stepped into the driver’s side of the cross-over SUV. The black and white Ford Explorer was an older model, but still had some get-up and go to it. Their department was too small and underfunded and there wasn’t a chance in hell she’d ever get to drive one of the new models with all the bells and whistles like the ones they had in the city.
After Ethan buckled himself into the passenger seat, Riley turned over the engine. “Where do you want to start?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Main Street, then branch out from there.”
She reversed out of the lot. “See? I don’t always have to be the one in control.”
“Uh-huh.”
The radio crackled and the dispatcher’s voice sounded over the speaker. “Car 319, be advised, an abandoned vehicle was spotted around the 500 block of East Hillcrest Road.”
Ethan picked up the receiver. “Car 319. We’ll head over there now and check it out.”
“Thanks, Ethan,” the dispatcher replied.
Riley turned the steering wheel and headed in the direction of Hillcrest Road. “You know, I think she has a thing for you.”
Ethan wrinkled his nose. “Who? Our dispatcher? Lisa?”
“Yeah.”
“Riley, the woman’s in her fifties.”
“What? She can’t have a crush on a younger man?”
“Please. Just drive, would you?” He gripped the handle above his door and peered through the windshield. “Someone must’ve broken down and left the vehicle for help or something.”
“Probably. We’ll find out here shortly.” Riley continued through the streets of the small town and drove past the new housing development. “They’re making progress up there. The models in the second phase look almost finished.”
“It’s good for the town, I know, but I kind of wish it could stay small, you know? Everyone knows everyone. Now we’re going to have more new people moving in.”
“If we didn’t have people moving here, we’d soon be out of a job. The town would dry up and wither away. We need to keep bringing in jobs and houses. Otherwise, the place is going to look like it did when we were kids, after Caterpillar shut down. I don’t want to go through that again.”
“I suppose not.” Ethan pulled upright and focused ahead. “Hang on. Is that the car?”
Riley veered toward the shoulder. “I’d say so. Let’s go check it out and run the plates, see if we can track down the owner.” She shifted the gear into park and opened her door. “I don’t recognize the vehicle off the bat, do you?”
Ethan’s face turned deadpan and he opened his door without a reply.
Riley regarded him with concern. “Everything okay?” she started toward the abandoned car.
“Yeah. Fine.”
His curt reply brought her greater concern. She homed in on the car as it straddled the shoulder and the road. Her hand pressed against the butt of her gun, but it remained holstered. So far, she wasn’t picking up on anything unusual. “I’ll take the driver’s side. Go around to the other.”
“Copy that.” Ethan cautiously approached the passenger side and eyed Riley as she neared the driver’s side.
“Anyone in there?” Riley announced before she stood too near. “It’s the police.” She tossed a glance to Ethan as they remained in lockstep on the opposite sides of the car. The time had come to brandish her gun
and she did, aiming it at the closed window on the driver’s side.
Ethan followed her lead.
Riley now stood squarely in front of the driver’s window; weapon trained on the car’s interior. “It’s empty.” Her shoulders dropped and the tension in her face evaporated. She grinned and looked at Ethan. “Let’s run the plates.”
Ethan appeared relieved but didn’t turn back until he retrieved his flashlight and shone it inside just to be sure. “Yeah, okay.” He returned to the patrol car and opened the laptop to enter the plate number.
Riley made a final sweep of the abandoned vehicle before returning to find out who owned the car. She sat down in the driver’s seat, half in and half-out, and waited for his reply.
“I’m just getting it now. One second.” Ethan peered at the screen and creased his brow. He shot a glance to Riley. “Alex Laughlin.”
“He’s the co-worker, isn’t he?” Riley held his gaze, reading him like a book. “You already knew who it belonged to. It’s Jacob’s work friend he was with last night.”
Ethan cast down his gaze. “I’m sorry. I had to be sure. It was dark and I thought, yeah, maybe that’s his car. But I can see you already saw through me.”
“Well, it was written all over your face. Didn’t need any special powers to see it. So what do you think?”
“I don’t know. I saw him drive off last night. I didn’t think he was drunk, but it’s not like I followed him.”
“Okay. I guess we’ll have to track him down. In the meantime, let’s get a tow truck out here.” She stopped for a moment and peered back at him. “Before we do that.” She reached for her cell phone. “Let me call Jacob. I’ll ask him if Alex is at work today.”
She made the call and Jacob’s line answered.
“Hey, hon, what’s up?” Jacob asked.
“Hey, um, I don’t suppose your friend Alex Laughlin is at work today, is he?”
The silence on the other end lingered for too long and raised the hackles on Riley’s neck.
“Actually, no. How did you…” He trailed off, but then added, “I haven’t seen him here today. And…his wife called into the boss because she hasn’t seen him since yesterday.”
“Oh no.” Riley closed her eyes. “We just found his car on the side of Hillcrest Road.”
13
It hadn’t fully registered. The suggestion that Alex Laughlin had gone missing when Jacob had spent several hours with him only the night before seemed implausible. But Riley’s insistence that Alex’s car had been found on the side of the road challenged that assumption. Now Jacob was faced with a decision. Was it time to tell the boss or wait until the police found him? Assuming they would find him.
Jacob scrolled through the messages he’d received from Alex last night, searching for any clue that might suggest he was about to leave town. It was an idea that would come as no surprise, all things considered. Silas Levin was a convincing man and he had convinced them both to do as he said, or else. He wondered if “or else” had come to pass.
“Damn. Nothing.” Nothing he had seen in those messages stated anything other than what had actually gone down. Even last night, there was no indication Alex was going to flee. He replayed the events in his head. Had it been the men who came out to speak to them in the parking lot? They’d only offered condolences for suffering losses during the game. Regardless of how menacing they appeared, neither discharged threats.
Jacob stood from his desk and sighed. He knew what he had to do and started toward his boss’s office to tell him about the car. The first few steps into the corridor took much longer than they should have, but he pushed forward and cracked his neck from side to side as if that alone would grant him the strength to continue.
“Hey, man.” Billy approached from around the corner. “What’s going on? I hear you and Alex had quite the night last night.”
“Wait. Have you talked to Alex today?” Jacob stopped dead, almost stumbling over his own feet.
“I touched base with him late last night and he replied that he was heading home.”
Jacob outstretched his palm. “Can I see the message?”
Billy’s brow creased as he reached into his pants pocket and retrieved his phone. “Sure. I guess.” He unlocked the phone and opened the messages. “It’s right here. What’s going on?”
“Nothing. I just need to see what he said.” Jacob snatched the phone and examined the message.
“Okay, dude. Chill out.”
Jacob’s face wore uncertainty. “This is it? That’s all he said? ‘Talk to you tomorrow, bro?’”
“What were you expecting? You read it with your own eyes. He said you guys had a good time and I missed out and see ya. So, yeah, that was all he wrote.” Billy grabbed his phone. “What the hell’s going on with you?”
Resigned, Jacob replied, “I need to see the boss. That’s all. I have to tell him… I need to tell him that the submittal isn’t coming back for another few weeks.” He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t say what swirled in his mind, that it seemed Alex had jumped bail, and for reasons he would need to learn.
“I don’t envy you, bro. Good luck with that. Hey, you see Alex, tell him maybe I’ll take him up on the next game. Who knows? I just didn’t get a warm fuzzy from the owner over there. You know.”
“Oh yeah, I know.” Jacob started into the hall once again.
Ethan peered again through the side-view mirror of the cruiser. “I see it. The tow truck’s here.” He opened the passenger door and stepped out, turning to face the oncoming truck.
Riley glanced into the rear view and then stepped out to join him. “I’m not sure which direction to go with this. The wife says she hasn’t seen him and he’s not at work. I’ll tell you, Ethan, I’m not getting a good feeling about this.”
“But you don’t see anything?” he asked.
“No, which might be more troubling.”
“Maybe not, Riley. It could be a very good thing. All we can do now is get his SUV towed and hope he turns up. I mean, look, we didn’t see anything suspicious inside. That’s a good sign. He didn’t run out of gas or have the hood up, meaning it wasn’t likely he had car trouble, and even if he had, I’m sure his wife would’ve been the first to know.”
“Okay, so then what you’re saying is he just walked away.” She placed her hands on her hips. “A guy just walks away from his family, his job, and his car, for what reason?”
Ethan shook his head. “I wish I knew. I really do.” He started toward the truck that had just pulled up behind them. “We have to wait for something to break free.” He waited for the driver to exit. “I’m Officer Pruitt. That’s my supervisor, Officer Thompson.”
“You all made the call?” The slim man in baggy Dickies and a shirt with his name embroidered on it spit onto the road.
“Yes, sir.”
“I figure you’ll want me to take it to the impound lot then?”
“If you wouldn’t mind,” Ethan replied.
“Consider it done, Officer. I will need to get the truck closer, if you’d be so kind as to move your police car.”
“Sure thing.” Ethan started back to the cruiser. “We have to get out of his way so he can hook it up.”
“Oh, right.” Riley returned to the driver’s seat and pulled the car around Alex’s Toyota 4Runner and then off onto the shoulder in front of the abandoned vehicle. When she stepped out of the car, the faint sound of a ringing phone caught her attention. She cocked her head, straining to listen and hoping to identify a location. A few steps forward and she listened again.
A small ravine lay about fifty feet ahead and was covered in tall weeds that had dried out in the summer sun.
“That’s where it’s coming from.” Riley turned back and waved to her partner. “Ethan? Over here.”
“I’ll let you do your thing. I need to see what my partner wants.” He turned away from the tow truck driver and started his approach. “What’s up?”
“I heard a cell phone.
I’m pretty sure it’s a cell phone.”
“Where?”
“The ravine up there. We need to check it out.” She started toward the overgrown gully between the shoulder of the road and a strip of desolate farmland. It appeared that the ravine was used as part of a watering system for the field that was now abandoned. “I stepped out of the car and I heard the noise.”
“We didn’t hear Jack Squat when we were checking out the vehicle.” Ethan followed only steps behind.
“I know. Someone must’ve just called him. We might’ve just gotten very lucky.” She continued until reaching the edge of the ditch and retrieved the flashlight from her belt. “Let’s hope we can see in this mess of weeds.”
Ethan also retrieved his flashlight, regardless that it was midday, and aimed it into the tangled dried brush. “Wait. Don’t we have his phone number? Laughlin’s number?”
Riley stopped in her tracks. “Yes, we do.” She dialed the number from her phone. A low ring tone, some sort of classical music, resonated. “Do you hear that? It’s coming from in here.”
Ethan stepped to the edge of the gully and pushed around the weeds with his legs. “It stopped. Call it again.”
She dialed the number. “Down there. I think it’s coming from down there.” Riley pointed a few more yards ahead and trudged through the edge of the brush. She trained the light in the center and deepest part of the channel. “I see it! I need gloves. Do you have any gloves?”
“In the car. I’ll be right back.” Ethan jogged back to the patrol car but stopped as he approached the tow truck operator. “Hang on. Don’t take it just yet. We found something.”
“You got it, Boss,” the driver replied.
Ethan retrieved a forensics kit from the trunk of the car and hustled back to Riley. “Here.” He handed her the gloves.
“Thanks.” She dropped her phone into her pocket and squatted down into the grass. Pushing away the brush, she formed a clearing in the center and reached in. “It’s lying on top of some brush, above the water. Thank God it hasn’t rained in days or we’d be looking at a phone that didn’t work.”