Page 47 of More than a Memory

Then she carefully packaged up her feelings, placed them in the proverbial box, and shelved them.

* * *

Sam was just getting back into his truck after a farm call when his phone dinged. He assumed it was his sister or Gabe, so he almost went into shock to see that Darcy had finally responded to one of his many text messages. To say he was happy about it was an understatement. He whooped out loud.

“Well, I’ll be damned, there is hope after all,” he said to himself.

He had to remind himself that this was a small baby step and it wouldn’t do any good to push the river. He knew he had to give her time and space. Not too much, though. He couldn’t let her forget about him. Smiling, he put his truck in gear and headed to his next call.

22

Darcy’s new client, Mitch, and his friend Gina had gone on a road trip to search for Liam, Gina’s lover, the previous weekend, but it had been a bust. The pair had moved to a different location, knowing that, by now, Gina’s husband, Conrad, would be well aware that she had skipped out on him.

Darcy had insisted that Gina purchase a new phone that couldn’t be traced back to her. Darcy kept Gina’s old phone, in case Liam tried to contact her. She decided to turn it on to look for any messages that may have come in and was startled to see that, indeed, there had been a message delivered since she last checked.

Liam: Where are you? I need to meet with you as soon as possible.

Pretending to be Gina, Darcy quickly responded.

Gina (Darcy): How do I know that this is you, Liam? I’m scared. Are you OK? Where are YOU?????

She waited impatiently for several minutes, with no immediate response forthcoming. She decided to keep the text information to herself for the moment, to see if she received a reply, but she would need some information from Gina about Liam that no one else would know so that she could verify that he was the one on the other end.

She turned off the phone for the time being so it couldn’t be traced and slipped it into her backpack. Darcy had an appointment to meet with Liam’s brother at noon, so she headed home to let the dogs out and to pick up Fannie for the excursion.

After packing her lunch, water, chocolate, and doggie snick-snacks, she hit the road. According to her GPS, she had about a 90-minute drive ahead of her. She turned on her iTunes to classic country hits and let the music entertain her as she headed down the road.

About an hour into her trip, Mitch called, and Darcy told him about the text from Liam’s phone number. She asked him to get Gina to come up with something that most people would not know about Liam, some personal revelation she was privy to. Darcy would give her a little time to think about it and then call back after her meeting with Liam’s brother, Heath.

When they arrived at Heath’s place, Darcy and Fannie had been shown to the living room, where they sat across from their host, Fannie’s head resting on Darcy’s feet. Like Liam, Heath had served in the Army, and both had been based at Fort Bragg. Heath had also served part of his enlisted time in Iraq. After sharing a little about himself, he got up to put on a pot of coffee. Returning with two steaming mugs, he again took a seat facing her.

“I saw some real dark shit there. Still haunts me three years later. I’m proud to have served my country, but I often wonder why we ever went into Iraq in the first place. There is real evil in this world. I hope my brother didn’t survive to inadvertently run right into it again. He was just getting his life together after a tough transition into civilian life,” Heath said worriedly.

“We’re hoping maybe you can provide some information that can help us find him and make sure he is OK,” Darcy shared. “I mentioned that Gina Cohen and he are friends, and she is very worried that he met with some trouble. When she went to check on him, his place had been ransacked and there was blood all over the bedroom. When she checked a few days later, it had been cleaned up. That kind of leaves us scratching our heads.”

“It doesn’t make much sense,” he agreed. “Yeah, I know all about Gina. I’ve never met her, but she’s all Liam could talk about. He had big dreams of whisking her far away from that asshole she’s married to. I tried to warn him about getting involved with a married woman, but he was head-over-heels in love with her and felt it was his duty to protect her.”

“A man of honor, it seems,” Darcy said admiringly.

“Yes, that, or stupid. I don’t really mean that, he’s definitely one of the good guys,” Heath said.

“So, tell me, when was the last time you spoke with Liam?”

“About two weeks ago, give or take.”

“How long was it before you realized that he’d gone missing?”

“Well, we don’t talk every day, so it was after a few texts and leaving several voice mails that he never responded to that I began to wonder what was up. I’d say about a week ago.”

“I’m going to be honest with you, there’s a chance he met with some foul play. First there was the blood at his house, then the fact that no one has heard from him since then. After I was called in to help locate Liam, I discovered that the Cohen house was under surveillance, so we’re sure that Gina’s husband, Conrad, was aware of their affair. He probably accepted this arrangement until there was talk of her leaving him for your brother. That would, more than likely, be intolerable for someone like Mr. Cohen.”

“So, you think something bad has happened to Liam, don’t you?” he asked, becoming increasingly agitated.

“I’m not trying to scare you, but we do feel there is some urgency to this matter,” she answered calmly. “In your recent conversations, did Liam say or imply that he was worried about anything or that he was in any kind of trouble?”

“No, nothing that was obvious. He had mentioned a few times lately that his job was getting to him, I assumed it was because of the conflict of interest, you know, with him and Gina, but maybe there was more to it.” He pinched the bridge of his nose as he lowered his head. “Hell, sometimes I can be pretty oblivious.”

“You can’t beat yourself up. Most of us are doing the best we can. We’re often so busy living that we miss the subtleties. Do you have any idea who he might try to get help from if he were on the run?” she asked.