Missing Boy

by Rick Polad

  On the way back to the office, I remembered the hell I went through interviewing candidates and cringed thinking about doing it again.

  I looked through her desk and it was empty too. I hoped she would find some peace. I walked outside and watched the rush hour traffic for a few minutes. As I turned to go in, Carol came out of her building and waved. I waited for a lull and walked across the street.

  “Hi Spencer!” she said with a big smile.

  “Hey, Carol. How’s life?”

  “Just fine. Billy’s at my sister’s overnight and I’m off to get some groceries. Are you done for the day?”

  “I am. Heading home.”

  “Can I interest you in a home-cooked dinner?”

  “Sure. That’d be great. Is an hour enough for you to get back?”

  “Sure is. You like lasagna?”

  “Absolutely. Sounds wonderful.”

  “Good. See you in an hour.”

  She headed west toward the neighborhood grocery store. I turned east and took a walk toward the lake. A car honked at a taxi cutting into traffic. Pigeons rummaged in the gutters at the edge of the street, fighting with the crows for dinner morsels.

  The day had been warm and the late afternoon sun still made for a pleasant walk. I walked for a half hour and then turned back. As Carol opened her door the rich smell of sausage and sauce filled the hallway. She pointed to a bottle of red wine on the counter and asked me to pour.

  We talked as she cooked. I told her all about the case, ending with my arrest. She was shocked.

  “They can do that?”

  I took a bite of sausage and a drink of dry wine. “They can. You can accuse anyone of anything and the accused has to defend himself.”

  “Well, what if it’s just not true? Like with you.”

  “Then, hopefully, you win in court and the lawyers make money.”

  “That’s insane.” She asked me to stir the sauce.

  “It is. Some states have laws against frivolous lawsuits. If you bring a suit and lose you have to pay the defendant’s court and legal fees.”

  The lasagna was delicious. I thanked the cook and washed the dishes. Then we moved to the couch with our wine.

  “How’s your secretary doing?”

  I took a deep breath. “I don’t know.”

  Her eyebrows raised and I explained about Samantha’s father.

  “That’s horrible, Spencer.”

  I reached out and took her hand. We had both lost parents. She looked at me with understanding and held my hand.

  “I felt so badly for her. She had no one to turn to. I offered to talk anytime she wanted, but she never called.”

  “It’s a very personal thing. People react differently,” Carol said.

  I nodded. “But I think I need a new secretary.” I told her about my visit to Samantha’s apartment.

  “Maybe there’s another explanation.”

  I smiled. “Like what?”

  “No clue. Just trying to be optimistic.”

  My laugh brought a smile from her that changed quickly to a frown. I waited for her to tell me why.

  “Spencer, you say she had no one here, right?”

  “Right.”

  She looked thoughtful. “Actually, there was a man.”

  I let her think.

  “I saw him three times. Twice he walked into the office and they left together.”

  “Probably someone she met in the neighborhood.”

  She nodded. “Could be. But they were pretty friendly. With those big picture windows you have I can see into the office pretty clearly. There were some pretty passionate embraces.”

  A chill went down my back and I thought back to the time I saw her on the phone but she told me there had been no calls.

  “You said three times.”

  “Yes. The last time was Friday. But this time she came out and got in the guy’s car. And she didn’t look sad. She looked very happy.” She paused. “You look confused.”

  “I am. That’s not the Samantha I knew. I wonder what the hell is going on.”

  “Maybe she stole from you.”

  I shook my head. “No. There’s nothing to steal. I even owe her a week’s pay.”

  “Well, you’ll probably get a call telling you where to mail it.” She got up and rinsed her glass at the sink.

  “Probably.” But I thought probably not… there was something I was missing. I thought back over all of my interactions with Samantha. I had liked her as soon as we’d met and I had decided to hire her almost immediately. She was friendly and smart and easy to talk to. I had called her two references. One was a lawyer and the other was a jewelry store. They were the only connections I had to Samantha.

  I joined Carol at the sink and handed her my glass. “Thanks for the dinner. It was delicious and your company was as wonderful as usual.”

  “You can’t stay for a bit?”

  “I’d love to, but there’s something I need to take care of.”

  I gave her a quick hug and headed across the street to make a couple of calls.

  Back in my office, I found the referral numbers and called them again. Both had been disconnected.

  After staring out the window for a quarter hour I decided to go back to Carol’s. I wanted to talk with someone and she was prettier than Stosh.

  She was surprised to see me and even more surprised when I told her about the calls.

  “This gets stranger by the minute, Spencer.”

  I agreed.

  She went into her bedroom and came back a minute later. She handed me a slip of paper. I unfolded it and saw an Illinois license plate number.

  “What’s this?”

  “Well, I was intrigued by the hugs in your office. When he drove away on Friday I got the license number.”

  I was thrilled. “You are amazing, Carol. I could give you a big kiss.”

  She smiled and tossed her hair back over her shoulders. “Nobody here would stop you, Mr. Manning.”

  I leaned over, took her face in my hands and gave her a kiss on the forehead. I was so excited about the plate number I didn’t realize until later that she had looked a bit disappointed.

  “Did you also get the car make?”

  “I did. Red Chevy Impala… fairly new.”

  “You’re the best. Thanks!”

  Now I needed to talk to Stosh.

  Chapter 35

  It was close to ten when I got to Stosh’s house. He was asleep in his chair with his large volume of Sherlock Holmes stories open on his lap. He had read it several times. When he got to the end he’d start over. I’d only read it through once, but I had read some of my favorite stories several times. I didn’t want to just let myself in. After all, he was a cop with a gun. It took two rings of the doorbell before he woke up and answered the door.

  “This better be the end of the world to wake me up in the middle of the damn night,” he said gruffly as he walked back to his chair.

  “First of all, it’s hardly the middle of the night, and second, the world is fine. But I think it’s worth interrupting your beauty sleep—which, by the way, isn’t helping.”

  He yawned. “What’s so important?”

  “Samantha’s gone.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Meaning wasn’t at work today, apartment is cleaned out, and there’s no note.”

  “Tough being the boss. Maybe better benefits.”

  “Carol, the lady who reported my broken window, saw her get into a car Friday afternoon with a man she had seen several times in the office hugging Samantha.”

  “So? No law against that.”

  “She had told me she knew no one in Chicago. It was just her and her father.”

  “Well, she met someone.”

  “The first day she worked I saw her on the phone as I drove away, but she later said there had been no calls.”

  “She could have called someone… maybe the hugger.”

  “Are you done being a pain in the ass? Because
there’s something else. I called her two references an hour ago. Both numbers have been disconnected.”

  That he had no answer for. I continued. “Something’s wrong here, Stosh. Who is Samantha George?”

  “And who was her father?” he added.

  “And why did she come to work for me?”

  He was silent.

  “Any suggestions?” I asked.

  “I’ll get a print team to your office in the morning. Will you be there at ten? Let’s find out who she is. Then we’ll go from there. What’s her apartment address?”

  I gave him the address. “I’ll be there at ten. One more thing you can do. Carol got the license plate of the car. Newer model, red Chevy Impala.” I gave him the slip of paper.

  “Sounds like Carol’s doing more work than you are.” When I didn’t respond, he continued with a smirk. “And she hasn’t been arrested.”

  “Nice. When can you get the plate run?”

  “As soon as you stop talkin’.”

  He made a call and then turned on the TV. We watched Johnny Carson while we waited. Twenty minutes later the phone rang.

  The car was a rental. Stosh said he would have someone check with the rental company in the morning. After a reminder about the restraining order I headed home.

  Chapter 36

  Sometimes Martin would start the knocking and the wall always knocked back. Martin couldn’t remember how many days it had been going on. He still had no idea why it was happening, but it gave him something to do. When he got tired of knocking he sat on the bed and saw that the cat was back… with a purple kitten sitting next to it in the corner by the door, ten feet away. Both were watching him intently. As he moved around on the bed their eyes followed him. He reached out to pet the cat and his arm stretched toward it. It kept stretching longer and longer but it never reached the cat.

  Chapter 37

  A clear sky at sunrise had quickly turned gray and a light drizzle started a little after eight. Forecasters were calling for rain all day. I liked gray days… good for reading and napping. I wasn’t so sure about looking for fingerprints.

  The print team arrived at a little after ten, leaving wet trails on the linoleum floor. I spent ten minutes with Detective Parks making a list of people’s prints he might find. There were a number of secretary candidates but none of them had made it past the front desk. The only other person who had touched anything was Carol, and I had told her to stop by to be printed when she saw activity in the office.

  Parks took Carol’s prints ten minutes later, and she stood outside chatting with me while the team worked. The main target was the desk in the main office.

  “This is all so crazy, Spencer.”

  “It is that.”

  “Do you have any idea what’s going on with Samantha?”

  I shrugged. “Maybe nothing. People do strange things. Trying to make sense of someone else’s behavior can be a full time job.”

  She laughed that pretty laugh. “You’re thinking she isn’t who she said she was?”

  “It’s possible.”

  “I wonder why.”

  “Me too.”

  As we watched a Plymouth trying to squeeze into a parking space, the sky opened and a downpour made seeing the costume shop across the street difficult. We went inside and watched people scurrying for cover. It only lasted a few minutes, but the gutters were running with water that had overwhelmed the sewers.

  When Parks called me over a few minutes later, Carol left after asking me to let her know what happened.

  “Our job just got easier, Spencer. The desk and chair out here have been wiped clean. Same with everything on the desk. Not even a speck of dust so that happened pretty recently.”

  Samantha had anticipated us looking for her prints. There was something going on. But what the hell was it?

  “Have you done the phones? I may get a call.” I hadn’t forgotten about Sadie.

  “The phone on this desk has also been wiped clean, so you can use it. We’re working on your office. There are prints on your desk. Was she in there?”

  I thought back. The only time she had come close was when I was talking to Barbara, and Samantha had stood in the doorway. “Not while I was here. But she was usually here by herself. The bathroom is probably a good possibility.”

  “Right. Adams is working in there.”

  I nodded and then remembered something. Barbara had used the phone in my office. I told Parks he’d find another set of prints on my phone.

  Ten minutes later the phone rang. It was the lieutenant.

  “Print team there?”

  “Yup. The reception desk and chair and phone were wiped clean.”

  “Interesting. Parks is good… if there’s a print there he’ll find it.”

  “Maybe she’s good too.”

  “Hopefully not as good. We found the car abandoned on Randolph just west of downtown. The rental registration is bogus.”

  Not a part of town you wanted to bring tourists.

  Stosh continued. “I’ve gotta get him over to the car. I think I’ll have him do that before they head to the apartment. Do you have any guesses about what she was doing, Spencer?”

  “I’ve thought about it. Doesn’t make sense.”

  “Nothing she said that seemed strange?”

  “Nope. Just all the events with her father.”

  “Well, keep thinking. Put Parks on.”

  I had been awake much of the night thinking about it. There had been nothing strange about her behavior except for the bare apartment. But even people who had lived somewhere for years sometimes had bare walls. And it was hard to tell what was normal after what had happened to her father. What really didn’t make sense was her being so sad when she was with me, and acting so oddly as reported by Carol.

  Parks handed the phone back to me. “Lieutenant wants you.”

  “Yup.”

  “You got plans for dinner?”

  “Nope. My only plans are to stay away from Riverview.”

  “Good to hear. Come over at six… we’ll figure out where to go.”

  “Will do.”

  The team left an hour later. They told me the bathroom had also been wiped clean. Parks commended my excellent cleaning service. The only prints in my office were mine and an unknown on the phone. There were prints on door jambs and knobs, but they were mine also. Samantha had done a good job of leaving no trace.

  ***

  Waiting wasn’t something I did well. And waiting for the phone to ring when I didn’t know when or if it would was the worst.

  I had been awake a good part of the night thinking about Rosie and I realized that I might be using my heart as an excuse. I realized that a part of me was happy with things the way they had been. Maybe it was better that way.

  I had also wondered what to do if Sadie called. I couldn’t let her down, but there was that restraining order. And I had told Stosh I would call if I heard from her. I decided that if she called I would go, but if I told Stosh he’d lock me up. Without a call I didn’t have to worry about it.

  But something else was bothering me so I took a drive, and at a little past one I was standing in front of Joey’s Ice Cream Parlor. This time I had left my gun at the office. It was a friendly visit. I walked past the counter where a woman with short brown hair was sitting with a banana split. I watched her eyes follow my image in the mirror on the back wall. After the customary pat down I was ushered in.

  Joey was sitting back in his chair with a big grin on his face. “Manning, I’m thinking I should put your name on the door. What brings you back?”

  “I’m writing an article for a fashion magazine… wondered what color your handkerchief was.”

  “You coulda called.”

  I nodded. “I’m wondering what brought you to Riverview last week.”

  “Are you now? Marty… did you hear that? He’s wondering.”

  Marty didn’t respond and Joey didn’t continue.

  “I know some o
f it, but some gaps could use filling in.”

  Joey looked at me with his head slightly cocked to the left. Cigar ash was collecting in a glass ashtray.

  “I gave you some news during our last chat. Your IOUs are being buried with your clients. I gotta figure you’re not happy about that. I figured that before I saw you at Riverview.”

  He still looked at me with no reaction.

  “And when I saw you, I figured you were following up on Benny. Ten grand is a lot of money. I was at the park because of missing kids and when I started poking around, Benny was killed, and then Harold, who was also holding an IOU to you. So I figure both of us are there because of the same people. I’m guessing Walters and Meyers are part of my missing kids case, and you’re having a long chat with Meyers.”

  He knocked off the ash. “That’s a lot of figuring, Manning.”

  “Yeah. And I figure I’m right. What I don’t know is what you were chatting about.”

  “And you’d like to know?” He balanced the cigar on the tray.

  “I would. It might help with the missing kids, who I hope are just missing and not dead.”

  “Me too, Manning. But I don’t see the two being related.”

  “They’re related because of Walters and Meyers, and the more I know about them the better chance I have of putting this puzzle together.”

  He took another puff and blew a smoke ring. “Okay. You helped me out in the past. I think you’re a standup guy. Walters took over Benny’s note.”

  “That was my guess. Do you know why?”

  He spread his palms wide. “Don’t know, don’t care.”

  “That’s a pretty cavalier attitude.”

  He shrugged. “To be frank, all I care about is the money. I get paid, I don’t care who writes the check.”

  “Have you been paid?”

  He squinted slightly and then glanced at Marty who very slowly shook his head.

  Joey didn’t need to answer.

  “You said Walters picked up the note,” I said. “But you were talking to Meyers.”

  “And how do you know that?”

  “That’s what I do for a living… I detect things,” I said with a smile.

  Joey didn’t return the smile. “If it wasn’t for the kid angle you would have left ten minutes ago, Manning. I don’t mess with kids and I don’t like people who do.”