Page 33 of More than a Memory
“About a week after that, Gina, obviously upset, asks me to drive her to a residence some distance away that I’ve accompanied her to several times in the past. I don’t ask questions, but I was certain that it was this guy’s house, the guy she has been seeing. She gets out and asks me to wait. After about twenty minutes, she comes rushing out and tells me to ‘step on it,’ so we hightail it out of there. She’s crying and shit, and I’m trying to get her to talk to me, you know? We have a friendship and an understanding after all these years of hanging out together. I care about her,” he shrugged.
“She’s visibly upset, you know, and begins to pour out her pent-up feelings, and once the dam broke there was no stopping her. She said that she and this dude, Liam is his name, Liam Anderson, had been fighting the last time she saw him, and that she had not been able to get ahold of him since. She told me that they were in love and had been arguing about her leaving Conrad to go off with him. She said she had been calling and texting every day since their fight with no response from him, which was totally out of character,” he paused.
“Go on … I’m listening. I still don’t get why this would make you a target,” Darcy said.
“Well, here’s the thing … when she came running out of his house, she was freaked out, ranting that there was blood everywhere. She had a key and had let herself in. After calling for him and getting no response, she went looking. When she got to his bedroom, it looked like there had been a struggle. She saw a lot of blood, but he wasn’t there.”
“Are you sure that you didn’t decide to take matters into your own hands and go one step further to scare him off?” Darcy asked.
“NO! Nothing like that! Listen, after I chased the dude off, and I saw how miserable she was, I really felt bad for interfering. Gina is my friend and I care about her. She’s married to a man who is wealthy beyond belief. She can have any material thing that she wants, but she is incredibly lonely. I feel sorry for her.”
“I began to snoop around a little to see what I could find out about Liam’s disappearance. I couldn’t shake the guilt, like it was my fault that Gina was suffering. Shortly after I began to investigate, I noticed that I was being followed. One morning, I came out to find a note on my windshield warning me to let it go or I would regret it. So, the other night, when I was heading home from Gina’s, a Hummer rode up on my ass and tried to run me off the road. They rammed me and then hit my back bumper, and I spun out and skidded into a field. Fortunately for me, a car was coming from the opposite direction and the Hummer sped off. The car approaching saw me go off the road and stopped to help. I’ll admit that it could have just been a scare tactic, but I’m not embarrassed to confess that I’m pretty spooked. That’s why I need to turn this over to an expert, and that’s where you come in,” he finished.
“She’s still not heard from Liam, I take it?” Darcy inquired.
“No, she hasn’t.”
“After they tried to run me off the road, I decided to call you,” he said. “One more thing. At Gina’s insistence, and against my better judgment, we went back to Liam’s place several days later and it had been cleaned up … as in no blood and nothing tossed. It was like it had never happened, but still no trace of him.” He went on. “We wiped down the doorknobs and anything she thought she might have touched, in case it turned out that he had met with an unfortunate end. If he was the one to clean it up, that would be a welcome relief. It’s just strange that he seemed to vanish into thin air,” he said.
“Well, this is getting more complicated by the second,” Darcy commented dryly.
“Look, I know how this must sound, but all I want you to do is to locate this guy and let me know where he is so I can make things right. I need to know that he is OK and that I didn’t ruin his and Gina’s chances. In the meantime, I’m hoping that if it seems like I have given up on pursuing him, that I will no longer have a target printed on my back!”
“Well, I may agree to take on the case, but I need to talk to Gina before I do. Is that possible?” she asked.
“Yes, we can arrange that. Tomorrow, her husband will be leaving again for another extended ‘business’ trip, so we can set it up for the afternoon, if that works for you?”
“Yes. What time?”
“He leaves before noon, so how about you come to her house around one o’clock,” he offered. “They live in a gated community, so you’ll have to tell the guard you’re there to see Gina Cohen. I’ll make sure you’re on the list. Here, let me write down the address for you.” He grabbed a notepad from Darcy’s desk and hastily scribbled down the information for her.
“As in Conrad Cohen, the tech giant?” Darcy asked, referring to a well-known Fortune 500 IT company.
“One and the same,” he said, nodding his head.
“I’m beginning to get the picture,” Darcy said.
“Yes, well, you can at least understand why I was hired.”
“One more thing, have you told Gina about your conversation with Liam?”
“Yes, I confessed. She was upset with me at first, but she came around. She understood that I was just trying to keep my job.”
“Listen, Mitch, I probably don’t need to say this, but be very careful. There could be more than meets the eye here. Just saying,” Darcy warned.
He patted his hip. “I have my trusted Glock. Don’t worry, I’m on it. I’m being hyper-vigilant. See you tomorrow, and, Darcy, thanks.”
“No promises, but you’re welcome!” she said shutting the door behind him.
* * *
That was certainly an interesting meeting, thought Darcy. Very intriguing indeed. And, as an additional bonus, it had successfully distracted her from thinking about Sam, and for that she was grateful. She could feel that familiar adrenalin rush she got when she was on the scent. She opened the new file and began recording every detail she could remember from her meeting with Mitch. She had a feeling about this one, and, if her gut proved right and she decided to take the case, she would have to proceed very cautiously.
She made a few phone calls, the last to check in on Jessica Ward. The children’s visitations had been going smoothly. Jared had been compliant after the prior incident. Darcy was keeping her fingers crossed that he would continue to behave, but she didn’t have much faith in that happening. Oh well, she couldn’t control anything, so she may as well let it go until she was needed again. Despite Darcy’s friendly warning, Jessica naively believed Jared had accepted his circumstances, and who was Darcy to burst her bubble. She would leave that to Jared.
16
Sam had a long and busy day ahead of him. Mondays always seemed to be like that. In addition to his scheduled appointments, he had been called out on an emergency at the break of dawn. A horse had become tangled up in a barbed wire fence and had sustained injuries trying to break free. He hated barbed wire for that reason. He was also the vet on-call for that evening, which sometimes meant being up most of the night.