Laura looked impatient rather than attentive. “That’s it?”
“I know being pregnant has made you a bit short tempered, but seriously, what would you like me to say?”
“Oh, I don’t know. How about if he comes near you again I’ll-”
“Wait a minute there, dumpling,” Mike cut her off, realizing he was no longer interested in playing the target for Laura’s frustration. “Let me bring you up to speed. You go to college. You date a foreign student from a religion and country that turns a blind eye to women’s rights and honor killings. You get pregnant by him. Then you cry, move back here, and dump your situation on us. We help you in every conceivable way and it’s still not enough. Moomoo is your baby’s Father. What would you like me to do, kill him?”
The stricken look on Laura’s face illustrated how on target his summation was. She bit her lip and nodded. “I…I’ll contact that police officer, Tom Huang, and get his advice.”
“Good first step. It will give the police some basis if they do have to act against Moomoo. When do you start classes?”
“Next week. Mr. Corbett and I worked out my schedule already between Demon Inc and college. He says everything will work out well. Most everything will be by appointment only and I can meet with potential clients at my own prerogative.”
“That’s great. I wonder what he has in mind.” Mike chuckled, considering some of the more outlandish things they could be recruited to do. “We won’t be doing birthday parties and bar mitzvahs will we?”
Laura laughed, shaking her head. “I don’t think so, but he did mention he has a lot of people already contacting him, interested in what they think are paranormal happenings. He believes Demon can give a lot of these people closure on their fears. I read some of the E-mail offers he’s already received, offering thousands of dollars just to bring D and the crew to have a look.”
“Sounds like a circus act, but one thing I do know now, if there is something wrong somewhere for real, D will know it. There’s nothing wrong with making a little money, solving mysteries even if they don’t involve the supernatural, right D?”
Demon nodded.
Laura knelt down awkwardly and started going over Demon as if looking for something, her face a mask of concentration. “I know you have a switch on this thing. You have a remote control or something running this furry automaton. C’mon, I know it’s around here somewhere.”
Demon’s bared teeth and low toned continuous growl sent a laughing Laura scrambling away. Mike tried desperately not to start laughing too at Laura’s dig, but failed, which caused Demon to launch into attack mode, nipping first Laura and then Mike. Pandemonium ensued until Jenny arrived home to find Demon had expertly herded the two teens up against the wall.
“Demon!”
At the sound of Jenny’s voice, Demon immediately rolled over, face back and tongue lolling out comically for Jenny’s benefit.
“Are you two teasing my dog again?” Jenny asked, hands on hips, as Demon ran over to sit next to her, head cocked to the side.
“Laura did it, Mom. She insinuated Demon is a robot with fur.” Mike turned to face Laura with his arms folded. “When she found out about some new Demon capabilities I haven’t even had a chance to share with you and Dad, she insulted him. He mistook my laughing as confirmation I agreed with her. Apologize this instant.”
“I merely defended myself. Mike said I was an annoying, ungrateful, self centered preggo, and Demon agreed with him.”
“About which one?”
“Jenny!” Laura looked outraged at first and then giggled. “Probably all of them.”
“Arf!”
“Demon! Okay… okay… I’m sorry for the way I’ve been acting. It’s like I’m watching someone else making a complete idiot out of themselves.”
“Well, c’mon in the kitchen. Dan will be home shortly and you can fill us both in on the new Demon news. Where’s Joanie?”
“Upstairs with her new tutor, Denny Stossle. He’s a good guy, Mom, with a genius IQ. That brings me to how I met up with him – also a story that needs to be told only once to both you and Dad.”
Jenny sighed. “We’ll need to clone you if things get any more exciting around here, D. Follow me. I have to start making dinner. You two humans can help. You can come too, Mr. Roboto.”
* * *
Laura sat with Mike hours later at the kitchen table as he researched a paper for English class on Shakespeare. Laura continued the monotonous data entry tasks to further set up Demon Inc’s accounting program. Demon lay at Mike’s feet dozing comfortably. They had run him down to the park for as long as he wanted to play ball. Denny turned out to be a hit with both Jenny and Dan, cementing his position with Mike by relating a very favorable version of the Brad incident, complete with Mike’s intervention later in the cafeteria on Denny’s behalf. Demon revelations drew the shock and awe the teens had envisioned, especially Demon’s tearing the head off the stuffed pig demo.
The doorbell rang, startling both teens. Demon glanced up and shook his head when Mike looked at him, but followed the teens to the front entrance. Opening the door, Mike stepped back in surprise, seeing Tom Huang. Tom looked tired and haggard.
“Can I come in, Mike?”
“Sure. Is… is this about Brad Sanderson?”
Tom grinned and shook his head no as Mike opened the screen door. Dan stepped out of the living room to join the group at the door. “It’s not about Sanderson or Laura’s ex-boyfriend, although I’ve made out an official entry about this Mahmoud’s stalking her. An officer I know on the force, Jake Simpson, has a son on the Arroyo football team. His son called to tell him all about it. We watched the YouTube videos of the confrontation and the Coach’s meeting up with you in the parking lot later. The label on the vid clip is ‘Brad gets schooled on the first day’.”
“The Coach had better stay the hell out of it,” Dan said. “He’s the one that instigated the attack on Mike by the aqueduct.”
“I’ll stay on top of that situation,” Tom promised. “That was a pretty harsh and dangerous lesson, Mike. Hell of a fight the other night with Santana. You have to understand an altercation like the one with Sanderson will get you jail time and a lawsuit because you have provable skills.”
Mike nodded in silent acquiescence, but his eyes betrayed a hardness he was still coming to grips with. “I understand, Sir. Come in the kitchen. You said you needed to talk to me about something else?”
In the kitchen, Mike went to the refrigerator and retrieved a Diet Pepsi to give Tom.
“Thanks. Have you heard about the missing boy from this morning?” Tom sat down wearily at the kitchen table, opening his soda and taking a long swallow.
“Dan and I just heard about it on the news,” Jenny said, having walked into the conversation late at the door, and followed Dan into the kitchen. “He’s only six. They’ve been searching for him with no luck. He disappeared from Corvallis Elementary where Mike and Joanie used to attend. He lived only six houses down from the school, so his Mom’s been letting him walk to school while she watches. Although only in first grade, he did go to Corvallis for kindergarten too.”
Tom nodded. “She saw him get crossed by the crossing guard, and then went into the house. We’ve talked with the crossing guard. She thinks she remembers him because he had on a red 49er’s jacket, but once they cross the street there’s a huge crowd of kids and parents.”
“How can we help?”
“That’s where this gets a little dodgy, Mike. They’ve been rounding up the usual suspects all day. Can Demon sense when we have a viable suspect?”
“Arf!”
Mike looked down at Demon and then at Tom. “That would be a yes.”
Tom started to speak with a bewildered look on his face, but then hesitated before saying, “I’m not going there. If you think he can, we’ll ride over to the parents’ house first and eliminate them. Then, we’ll go down my list. I would have contacted you early when we first put out the
Amber Alert, but I was ordered not to by our Chief. She’s not a Demon believer, and thinks we’ll become the laughing stock of Northern California. I’m doing this on my own, so I spent the day with my partner putting together a list of likely suspects, separate from the department’s. They’ve already been questioned at the station. We don’t have probable cause to go any further. There are nine on my list without airtight alibis I want Demon to check out. Although I’m in uniform, we’ll have to drive my Chevy Impala. This won’t be sanctioned. If the Chief finds out I’m doing it, I could lose my badge.”
“You won’t lose it if Demon can find the boy,” Laura said. “I can coordinate from here if you take Denny with you. I’ll network my iPad with his notebook computer, and I hate to bring this up after already laying my problem with Mahmoud on you earlier, Tom, but is it okay if Denny films anything that happens during the search with Mike’s iPad?”
“As long as I get ultimate censorship rights I don’t care. I want to find that little boy. His Mom is coming unglued. The only reason we’re making their house our first stop is because it’s standard procedure to eliminate the parents. I trust you bunch to deal with me fairly. I’ll do anything to get a kid back… anything.”
Mike smiled. “If Demon finds the one that did this, you might get tested. If you can leave me and Demon alone with him for a few moments you’d have deniability.”
“Arf!”
Tom peered at the two, Mike standing by the sink with Demon sitting next to him, and nodded. “If Demon thinks it’s a go on one of these guys, we’ll play it out to the end.”
Demon ran to the door and waited.
Mike followed. “That’s our cue, Tom. Let’s do this. Denny!”
Denny shot out of Joanie’s room as if he were launched from a missile pod. “Yeah, Mike?”
“We have work. Bring your notebook computer and link it with Laura’s iPad.”
“On it!” Denny ducked back into Joanie’s room and emerged with his laptop at a dead run down the stairs. Twenty seconds later he was networked with Laura’s iPad.
“Impressive. Want to call home before we go out, Denny?” Mike asked.
“Nope. They think I’m here. Let’s leave it at that. I ain’t missing out on this mission no how, no way.”
“I may not have mentioned this, but you kids are just a little bit scary,” Tom stated, having watched Denny’s flawless networking with Laura’s iPad. “Where’d you recruit this kid?”
“It’s a long story, Tom,” Mike replied, leading the way to the door, after handing Denny his own iPad to record video with. “I’ll tell you on the way. We’d better get started.”
Dan walked with Mike to the door. “I ain’t sayin’ something stupid like be careful, but I’d sure like it if all of you come back in one piece.”
“Ditto,” Jenny said, taking Dan’s hand in hers.
Mike nodded as he went out the door. “We’ll be back with the boy.”
* * *
“Your folks take this all in stride,” Tom remarked, parking his Chevy in front of the missing boy’s parents’ house, and thumbing back at Denny. “And you even recruit as you go. Where the hell do you plan to go with all this, Mike?”
“We don’t have a clue. We all decided after finding Demon to ride the wave into the rocks. You want on board?”
Tome chuckled. “That’s what I figured. I know one thing, that kid’s best chance of being found is if we do it in the next few hours. We do that, and I’m in. Count on me from inside the PD for whatever I can do. The boy’s name is Jimmy. His parents are Don and Kate Manjetti. Let’s walk a thin line confronting them. Can Demon sense a connection without us interacting with them?”
“I don’t know,” Mike answered, looking back at Demon. The dog stayed silent, merely waiting to be let out. “I guess we need to go find out.”
Tom let Demon out of the backseat, pointing at Denny. “Stay here, kid. We’ll check this out quick and get back.”
“Ten-four.”
Tom grinned. “Smartass.”
Demon weaved back and forth across the front lawn until getting to the front step. He turned and ran back to the car, waiting to be let in the backseat again. Mike opened it for him and closed it after Demon jumped back in next to Denny.
“That would be a no, Tom.”
Tom hesitated, relief showing plainly in his face. “Okay, great, that’s a good starting point. Let’s get on to a real suspected perp.”
When Mike was sitting next to Tom as they drove away, he glanced back at Demon who sat attentively on the seat. “You had doubts about the parents, Tom?”
Tom’s hands tightened on the steering wheel and his mouth clenched into a thin line while he thought over an answer. “Yeah, I did. I’ve seen so much crap on this job sometimes I can’t even trust my own instincts. I trust Demon’s though.”
“Good enough. Who’s next?”
“Paul Donner. He’s the nearest to the parents’ house. Can Demon really tell one way or another without even knocking on the door?”
Mike looked back and Demon shook his head.
“That…that would be a no,” Denny spoke up, still staring at Demon.
At Paul Donner’s house, Demon did his weave to the door but stayed at the doorstep. Tom walked up next to him with Mike and Denny. He knocked on the door and Donner opened up a moment later, a rail thin man in jeans and a t-shirt, clean shaven, with slicked back brown hair. When he saw Tom’s uniform, he grimaced, frustration and outrage warring across his features. Denny filmed the encounter from the time Donner opened his door, keeping the iPad inconspicuously at his side.
“Good Lord, don’t you people ever quit? I don’t know where that boy is, damn it!”
“Yeah, I’m really sorry to hurt your feelings, Paul.” Tom gave him a dismissive wave. “That’s the price you pay for the rest of your life for molesting your own eight year old nephew. I have a way to clear you with me in a few seconds, let us inside for a moment.”
Donner hesitated before flinging his door open. “Fine! C’mon in. Make yourselves at home.”
Demon walked in, sniffing at Donner for a moment. He looked up into Donner’s eyes and let out a low growl. Donner, who had been maintaining his look of outrage, suddenly jumped back from Demon with his hands out in defensive fashion.
“Hey, what the hell? Get that damn dog under control!”
Mike knelt next to Demon. “Did he have something to do with the boy?”
Demon shook his head no.
“He’s not clean though?”
Demon growled, but sat down in a waiting posture.
Mike turned to Tom with a shake of his head. “He’s not guilty of this, but he’s one to watch, Tom.”
Tom moved over to the cringing Donner with his fists clenched at his sides, his face inches away from Donner’s. “You’re clear in my book on the missing boy, Paul. Bank on this though. Anything in this area that happens even close to you, and I’ll bring Demon along for another look see. Understand?”
Donner looked down at the dog and then turned his head and nodded.
Outside, Mike put a hand on Denny’s shoulder. “Did you get that on my iPad?”
“Yeah, Mike. That guy was creepy.”
“Arf!” Demon agreed.
An hour later, they had worked their way through six of the names including Donner. Denny relayed their progress to Laura along with the Donner video clip. Demon had found nothing on the next five after Donner to even growl at. The men had been cooperative from the start, each one penitent for even being on the list. They sat quietly for a moment in the car while Denny caught up transmitting where they were, and the next address on the list.
“I had an uncle and aunt that lived at Sandev Mobile Home Park,” Denny said, looking up from his notebook computer. “That’s the one a few blocks up from Heron Bay, right?”
Tom nodded from the driver’s seat. “Gary Moseley, led and distributed for a child pornography ring, based out of Hayward. He works s
ecurity over at the waste treatment plant. Mosely got off work at seven this morning and claims to have went home where he lives alone in a small trailer at Sandev. I’ve been over there before twice to pick him up for a lineup. His parents live up in Berkeley. The Dad’s a lawyer and his Mommy teaches women’s studies at Berzerkely. Whenever he’s rounded up, they fly into the station on their broomsticks to express outrage and solidarity with poor little Gary. The pornography ring was a studies project for a book he was writing on the porno industry. The jury didn’t see it that way and gave him enough prison time to finish his literary masterpiece.”
“Did he?” Mike asked.
Tom started the Chevy. “Hell no. Believe me, Mike, he’s no author writing an expose. The stuff they found on his computers was so sick it made the jury ill. Not to mention the couple hundred grand a year he was taking in on his lucrative research project. He was questioned, but they don’t figure he could have slipped into a position at Corvallis to take Jimmy before his class. Mosely would have been my first stop for a line-up. He’s only about Denny’s height and just about as noticeable.”
“Thanks a lot,” Denny piped up from the backseat. “So, if he carried a book bag, wore jeans and a hoodie, and hunched up, people might even think he was a student.”
“Yeah kid, but it still would be tough for him to have been there in time. We’ll check him out. The guy I want to have a look at after Gary lives only a mile away from him near Lewelling. He’s probably a better bet than Gary, but we’re running out of list.”
Fifteen minutes later, Tom parked in front of a small beat up mobile home trailer. The lights were out. Mike let Demon out. Before they could walk up to the door, Demon buzzed around the small lot and trailer, a continuous growl issuing from his throat. With Denny beginning to take video, Tom and Mike walked over near where Demon had ended his scout of the property by knocking over a recyclables bin, partially filled with bottles, cans, and cardboard. Demon tore open a shopping bag, inside filled with paper rubbish. A dark gray hoodie and a pair of gloves fell out on the ground.
Demon (The Mike Rawlins Series Book 1) Page 21