WHEN THEY STOPPED TO COOL DOWN and relax for a while at Helen’s Cybercafé midway through the afternoon, Isabel took refuge from Nick in the bathroom, which offered a multitude of pleasures as far as she was concerned.
She would take a sorely needed break from the renewed tension between them. She would refresh herself, wash off some of the sweat and city grime. What was really called for was a full shower—as if he would let her go somewhere to take one. While here, she also planned to get hold of her father and demand an answer to the big question Louise’s message had raised in her mind.
To that end, she retrieved her cell phone and placed the call to his office, all the while rehearsing how she would approach it. When he wanted to be, her father could be an impenetrable wall.
“McNulty here.”
“Hey, Danny, it’s Isabel. I need to speak to my father.”
“Sorry, Isabel, the senator had an appointment outside the office. He didn’t say when he’d be back.”
Jeff Enger’s assistant wasn’t exactly in the loop, Isabel knew, thinking it odd that he was in her father’s office alone. Now what?
“Hey, is this about Louise?” Danny asked.
“Sort of, yes.”
His buoyant tone flattened when he asked, “Then you didn’t find her?”
“Not yet, though I have some hopes for tonight. That’s what I wanted to tell my father.” At least it was part of what she wanted to talk to him about. “Maybe you can give him a message for me.”
“Sure thing. I have a pad and I’m already writing. So you might be able to find Louise later….”
“Maybe. She was seen at a place called Club Undercover the other night. The staff will be watching for her, and the owner will call me if anyone spots her.”
And she and Nick had agreed to canvas the vicinity—just in case she popped up at Eye-Candy or one of the local cafés. It was about the only thing they had agreed on.
“Maybe this will be it, then,” Danny murmured so softly that she had to strain to hear. “We can only hope.”
“Right,” Isabel agreed. “We can hope.”
Finding Louise would just be the beginning of the battle. Then she would have to overcome her sister’s objections, whatever they might be, and talk her into coming home. Or at least to someplace where Isabel could keep her safe.
Frustrated that she hadn’t been able to talk to her father and quiz him about Louise’s message, she said, “Danny, would you add something to that missive? Ask my father to call me. Tell him that it’s important, that there’s something Louise said to me that I need him to explain.”
Silence at the other end.
“Danny?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m here. Just writing,” he said. “Anything I can help you with?”
“No. I mean, thanks, but my father is the one who needs to do the talking.”
The question was—would he?
8
NICK FINISHED CHECKING his e-mail and logged out. Thankfully, the messages had been personal—nothing professional he had to deal with just yet. He was relieved that Isabel had not yet come out of the bathroom to see him at the computer. With all the rules he’d imposed on her, she would undoubtedly accuse him of cheating.
And, of course, she would be right. He didn’t know too many runaways with access to e-mail.
About to get his coffee, he saw Helen coming around the counter, a cup in each hand.
“For you and your lady,” she said, setting them at a table.
“I told you—”
“I know what you told me.” Helen slid into a chair. “But I trust my eyes more than empty words. You still have a thing for her, bucko.”
“And you have a great imagination,” he hedged, sitting opposite Helen.
“Do I? She looked exhausted when you two dragged in here. And you looked pretty pleased with yourself. It seems to me you’re putting her through her paces. And you’re doing that because you don’t care anything about her?”
“I just want her to know what’s it like to be a scared kid on the run without many resources. Well, as much as she can know, since she has backup. She can always go home or use her ATM card as she threatened to do,” he said in disgust.
Helen’s green eyes widened. “Fascinating.”
“What is?”
“How bad you’ve got it. Nick Novak, the original one-night stand, is hammered! What the heck did she do to you, anyway, that she’s got you so tied up in knots?”
Before he had to come up with some bogus answer to appease his nosy friend, he spotted Isabel cutting across the café.
So all he said was “I want her to get something out of this experience, Helen. I want her to do something to cut away at the problem.” And as Isabel drew closer, he added, “And here she is now.”
Isabel frowned. “Were you two talking about me?”
“Just wondering what was taking you so long,” Nick said.
“I was enjoying the running water. The warm running water.” Sitting next to him, she muttered, “But I would enjoy a shower a whole lot more.”
“Sorry, can’t help you there,” Helen said with a smile. “But I can offer you coffee as a pick-me-up.”
“Thanks.” Isabel picked up the cup and grinned at her.
And Nick felt his gut tighten.
For a moment, she reminded him of the old Isabel. The one who used to let down her guard only with him. He’d seen that in her earlier in the park when they’d laughed over old times, and here it was again with Helen. He wondered how often she had a reason to laugh, to relax, to be the Isabel she could be when not under her father’s influence. Not often enough, he was certain.
And when she learned what he’d been hiding from her, would she ever smile that way at him again?
“DEATH IS PRECIOUS…death wraps its arms around us…death is the ultimate fantasy…”
The things he had to put up with to find the little bitch!
An undulating sea of teenagers, some sitting, some standing on the dance floor crowding the stage, bobbed their heads as the young poetess dressed in black made dire predictions while he tried to gain entrance to Club Undercover, thanks to the lead Isabel had so thoughtfully provided with her phone call.
“Excuse me, sir,” the purple-haired hostess said, stepping in front of him. “This is one of our early teen nights. We don’t serve alcohol until after ten.”
“No problem, it’s not a drink I’m looking for.”
The hostess frowned at him and he figured she was winding up to object to his going in, maybe thinking he liked little girls.
Yeah, right. If she only had a clue about his true intentions.
But forcing a smile, he said, “Listen, I’m just looking for my cousin’s daughter. She sat for my kids yesterday and now the little one’s Binky is missing—a stuffed bunny with floppy ears,” he explained. “He drove me crazy crying for it, kept me up all night. I thought she might know where it is. The kid will never get to sleep without the damn Binky.” Seeing the hostess was almost convinced that he was telling the truth, he added, “Look, if you need ID or something…”
“No, of course not. Go ahead.”
Smooth, he thought as she stepped aside and he sidled in looking for Louise.
He edged around the dance floor and kept his focus shifting for the brat. It wasn’t until he was nearly around the room that he looked back and spotted her coming in. Another girl with bright red hair waved Louise over.
“I rise, my wings spread…” the poetess went on as he backed off and found a seat “…and I soar toward the light…only to be engulfed…in its flames!”
He watched Louise’s friend shove a glass of what looked like cola at her. She sat there, pretending interest in the performance. And though she fingered the rim of the glass, she didn’t pick it up to drink.
He’d never seen her look so unhappy, and just for a moment, he pitied her. She was only a kid who knew too much.
But the last was the important part
that he needed to keep in mind. And pity would only confuse the issue.
Trying to decide what to do now, he saw his opportunity when the girl onstage stopped, the audience applauded, and Louise rose and threaded her way toward the rest rooms.
He sauntered after her to the area off to one side of the club. By the time she exited the ladies’ room a few minutes later, he was so tense he was ready to pop a few of those pills burning a hole in his pocket.
He didn’t need the pills, he told himself.
Hooking the brat under the arm, he spoke close to her ear. “Come over here with me, Louise. We need to talk.”
Clearly shocked that he’d caught up to her, she let herself be pulled farther from the noise. And witnesses.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded to know.
“Trying to talk some sense into you.”
“I have nothing to say to you…you…you liar!”
“Look, things don’t have to be like this. Promise you won’t tell anyone what you know and everything will be okay.”
“Just leave me alone or you’ll be sorry.”
“Is that a threat? ’Cause if that’s a threat, I can make one of my own—”
“Isabel won’t let you hurt me!” Louise spat out in a low, angry tone. “I could tell whoever I want. You can’t do anything to us.”
He gripped her arm tighter. “I can take care of two as easily as one.”
“Let go!” she shrilled, jerking her arm, ineffectually trying to free herself. “Or the whole world is going to know about you!”
“Is there a problem?” a dark-haired young waiter asked.
“No, no problem,” he said, letting Louise go.
That’s all it took. Before he could stop her, she’d darted through the crowd and headed for the exit. He tried following but got tangled up in the noisy melee. Louise was fast and knew better than he how to maneuver through this crowd. She put too much distance between them for him to catch up.
He was still struggling to get loose of the crowd when he saw her fly out the entrance and start up the stairs.
Damn it!
She knew too much and she wouldn’t keep what she knew to herself forever. Young and hotheaded, she spoke before she thought. And when she spoke to the wrong person and the shit hit the media, everything would be ruined.
He couldn’t let that happen, not after the waiting game he’d been playing. He couldn’t let her talk.
Couldn’t let her live, really, he decided dispassionately.
Then, once he got rid of his biggest liability, he would be forced to reconsider Isabel and what she might do with what she knew. Or thought she knew, he amended, because she didn’t have the whole picture, not without a heart-to-heart with the brat.
Being an admitted political creature of the worst sort, he would do what he must, even if that meant ridding his world of both sisters.
HAVING GOTTEN A CALL from Gideon that one of his employees had spotted Louise, Isabel rushed down the stairs into Club Undercover, Nick at her heels. Leaving her backpack behind the hostess’s stand, she stopped just inside the entrance, her gaze sweeping over the young customers who populated the space. On stage, two teenagers in white face were miming a romantic tryst, and members of the audience were hooting and calling out dialogue for them.
“Do you see her?”
“No. But it’s difficult to see anyone up there,” she said, indicating the tables and booths that rose several levels above them.
“So what are we waiting for?” Nick asked, starting up one side of the raised seating area.
Isabel followed and got a closer look at every teenager in the house.
No Louise.
When they went full circle and ended up back on the main level, Nick asked, “Now what?”
Taking one last look around, she froze and gripped his arm. “Rosalyn!” she said. “Louise’s best friend. The girl who lives in this neighborhood and who Louise went to see. Over there.”
As quickly as the crowd would let them pass, they crossed to the table where the redhead’s focus was on a cute boy with curly blond hair. The redhead turned, and as she connected with Isabel, her eyes widened and her sappy lovesick smile faded.
“Isabel, hi.”
“We need to talk away from the noise.”
Sighing, the girl whispered something in her date’s ear, then got up and moved toward the entrance.
Isabel barely waited until she’d stepped foot in the club’s foyer before she turned on the redhead. “Okay, Rosalyn, start talking!” Used to dealing with her own teenage sister, she took on the same stern persona that she sometimes had to with Louise. “You said you didn’t know where my sister was, but people saw you together tonight.”
Sometimes a stretch of the truth went a long way. The bluff worked. Rosalyn visibly caved.
“All right, I did see her,” the girl admitted, “but only for a few minutes. I don’t know where she is now, honest. Lulu called me earlier and said she needed to see me.”
“So she met you here like she wanted. What did she tell you?”
“Tell me?” Rosalyn’s forehead creased in a frown. “I don’t get it.”
So Rosalyn didn’t know, which probably meant Louise hadn’t told anyone.
Relieved that she didn’t have the situation with her father to deal with just yet, Isabel said, “I just was wondering what you talked about.”
“Not about where she was staying if that’s what you mean,” Rosalyn assured her. “We didn’t even have time to talk. She said she had to go to the ladies’ room and the next thing I know I see her running out the door.”
Isabel started. “Running? Why?”
The girl shrugged. “I, uh, was kind of busy. I just figured she wanted to leave, is all. That was maybe ten minutes ago.”
“I missed my sister by a mere ten minutes.” The breath whooshed out of her. “Oh, my God.”
Nick put an arm around Isabel and steadied her. “Are you sure she won’t be back?” he asked Rosalyn.
“I don’t know!” The girl drew herself together. “Look, I don’t know why she left or where she went or if she’ll be back. I’m going back to my date before he finds himself a new girl!”
Isabel freed herself of Nick’s support and stopped her from escaping. “Rosalyn, wait. I’m sorry I came on so strong, but you must know I’m sick with worry about Louise.”
The girl softened her stance. “I told her to go home, honest, Isabel, but I don’t think she will. If she calls again, I—I’ll see if I can find out where she’s holed up.”
“Thank you.”
If she has a place to stay.
Isabel closed her eyes against the thought, and once more felt Nick’s hand on her shoulder.
Isabel opened her eyes. Rather than running back to her date, Rosalyn was still standing there, wavering.
“I, um, was thinking…it didn’t occur to me before, but we used to hang out at this place and pretend we were alone on an adventure. We’d tell each other wild stories. Once last year when Lulu got in trouble with your dad, she threatened to run away and hide there until he was sorry he was so mean.”
“Where?”
“About a mile from here in Bucktown, on the incline by the railroad tracks, there’s this little storage shed. At least there used to be. I don’t even know if it’s still there with all the new construction going on.”
She explained how to find the opening and how to get up the incline that led to it. The railroad was pretty well inaccessible or fenced off to keep vagrants—or kids—from walking along the tracks that were raised fifteen or twenty feet above street level.
“We’ll check it out, Rosalyn. Thanks,” Nick said.
“Really,” Isabel added. “Thank you.”
No sooner had the girl left them than Isabel turned to Nick. “A lousy ten minutes. Can you believe it?” She stepped into his arms as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “She must have been leaving just as Gideon called.”
His arms encircled her, and Isabel had to steel herself so that she didn’t cry. They had another place to check, so there was reason to hope. Still, she stayed put just for a moment, remembering Nick holding her like this in the old days, after she’d fought with her father about seeing him.
Emotions high, she wished they were somewhere private, somewhere she could lose herself in him as she had the night before. Even now, even when the pain of not knowing if she would be reunited with Louise was so sharp, she wanted Nick, and it was more than business for her. She could pretend all she liked, but the truth was, she needed him for more than finding her sister.
Unsure of how long they stood like that, her trembling against Nick’s rock-solid strength, him supporting her as if he actually cared, she gradually became aware of Gideon’s presence. From the way Nick stiffened slightly, he did, too.
“I’m sorry,” Gideon said to Isabel. “If I could have detained your sister and locked her in my office without bringing the authorities down on me, I would have.”
Tearing herself out of Nick’s embrace, Isabel wrapped her arms around herself, as if she could choke away the longings that suddenly threatened to consume her.
“You couldn’t have done that,” she told the club owner. “Louise wouldn’t have gone quietly.”
Isabel took a normal breath with difficulty. Everything was becoming too much for her. Losing Louise had been tough enough on her emotions. Finding Nick had made things worse. Now she felt as if she were teetering on a tightrope without a safety net.
“Come into my office,” Gideon suggested. “Maybe I can figure out what happened.” He stopped to speak to Mags. Isabel heard him saying, “Ask the staff if anyone saw anything going on with the girl.”
Mags repeated the request over the mike attached to the earphones that she and the wait staff all wore.
By the time they got into his office, the telephone was ringing. Gideon answered and listened a moment. Then he said, “Okay, send him in here,” and hung up. He turned to them. “A waiter named Todd saw Louise arguing with a man.”
When Todd entered the office and was questioned about the encounter, however, he wasn’t able to offer them anything in the way of a description.
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