Authors: Fern Michaels

Deadline (16 page)

BOOK: Deadline

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Chapter 16

T
he three women were quiet as they traveled back to the beach house. Sophie hadn't told Ida or Mavis about her vision, but they suspected something had occurred. As they had finished laying out Mr. Frank, Mavis had asked Sophie twice what had happened at the reading for Mrs. Leigh. Sophie told her she didn't want to talk about it at the moment, but would; she just needed a bit of time. They'd accepted her decision without question.

“Sophie, let's listen to the radio. There may be news of Chris,” Mavis said in her sugary-sweet voice, which was really starting to grate on Sophie's nerves.

Sophie didn't want anything to taint her vision, no verbal or visual influences. Any media was out of the question. So much for allowing her time to muse over tonight's events. “I guess I can tell you now since waiting won't change the outcome, or at least I don't think so.”

“Stop being so damn dramatic, Sophia.” Ida used her given name, something she only did when she was in one of her I-am-queen moods.

“Kiss my butt, Ida. I'm not the drama queen here.” Sophie made the turnoff to the beach house. Maybe she should wait until they were inside. That way, she would only have to tell her story once. Yes, that was what she would do. Toots could advise her, and Goebel, she couldn't forget him. Damn, she was falling for that big teddy bear of a man and wasn't sure if she liked the idea or not. Men were trouble. She knew that from her experience with Walter. She also knew not all men were drunkards and wife beaters. She smiled. Goebel was truly one of a kind.

Mavis reached for the radio button. Before she could push it in, Sophie placed her hand on top of Mavis's. “I don't want to listen to the news now. What I have to tell you could be influenced by a news report, and I don't want to be sidetracked. Let's wait until we're at the beach house. I promise I will tell you what happened tonight. I just want to wait so I do not have to tell the story twice.”

“Oh, of course. I'm sorry! I just thought there might be some news,” Mavis singsonged again.

“I hope whatever it is you have to say is worth hearing. Something tells me you're up to no good,” Ida sniped.

“Don't start, Ida, okay?” Sophie turned into the driveway and saw that Toot's red T-Bird was there. Goebel was back from his investigation. Her heart warmed just thinking about him.

Shifting into
PARK
, Sophie removed the keys, and hit the unlock button so Ida and Mavis could exit the car. “I'm not saying another word to you until we're inside and I've had at least two cigarettes and a cup of coffee.” Sophie hefted her small frame out of the large Escalade, then clicked the
LOCK
button as soon as Mavis and Ida had closed their doors.

The women hurried inside, where they found Toots and Abby sitting at the table. Sophie was the first to comment. “Where's Goebel? I thought he was here. Your hot wheels are parked out in the drive.” She always referred to Toots's small sports car as a Hot Wheels toy.

“He went for a walk, said he wanted to see the moonlight and feel the sand. He hasn't been gone that long,” Toots said. “Abby made a fresh pot of coffee. Who's up for some late-night caffeine?”

“Thank you, Toots, but I think I will just have a glass of mineral water. All that caffeine keeps me awake at night.” As Mavis walked over to place a kiss on Abby's cheek, she saw Coco and Chester huddled in the corner. She located her water in the refrigerator, then sat in the chair beside Toots.

Ida rinsed her coffee cup, filled it with juice, then joined them. “Sophie is bursting at the seams with news, or so she says. She experienced something tonight but wouldn't tell me or Mavis, insisting we should wait so she would only have to tell her story once. I for one want to know what's so important.”

Sophie listened to Ida run her mouth. She filled her cup with the hot brown liquid, grabbed a package of Marlboros, and headed for the deck. “I'm going to puff. Want to join me, Toots?”

“Not now. Abby hates the smell. You go ahead; we'll wait.”

Sophie stepped outside, lit up, took a few drags off her smoke, then popped inside a minute later. “Okay, that'll hold me for a while.”

“Soph, I wish you and Mom would stop smoking. It's gross, and it stinks.” Abby waved her hand in front of her face.

“I will, Abby. Someday.” Sophie slid into the chair across from Toots. “But not today. Soon, though, I promise.”

“I'm dying to know what happened with Mrs. Leigh's reading. Please, don't keep us in suspense any longer,” Toots said.

Sophie nodded, and took a drink of coffee. “Why don't I wait until Goebel returns? I'm sure he'll want to hear this, too?”

As if on cue, the glass doors opened. With his shoes in one hand and keys dangling in the other, Goebel entered the kitchen. All eyes focused on him. “You gals okay?” Concern etched across his rugged face.

Sophie perked up, her eyes shining with delight. “Yes and no. We need to talk; you arrived just in time. I was telling the girls I didn't want to repeat this story if I didn't have to. You want coffee?” Sophie jumped out of her chair before Goebel could say yes or no.

He laughed. “You're darn right I do.”

She brought the pot to the table, along with a cup. “Sit,” Sophie ordered. Goebel did as she commanded.

“Now I know why I like this man,” she teased. “He follows orders well.”

Ida cleared her throat and rolled her eyes. “Wonderful, Sophia. Just wonderful! Let's stop flirting and get on with it. I want to go upstairs. I'm tired. It's been a long day.”

“Okay. Ida's right. It has been a long day, and she and Mavis had their hands full this evening.” Sophie directed her gaze at Ida. A huge grin spread across her face at the memory of the man at the funeral home. Not that he was dead, but what the girls had to deal with above and beyond the usual. She wasn't going to say anything to Toots or Abby, at least not yet. Chris was top priority.

Mavis's face turned white, Ida's matched her bright pink hair. “Not now, Sophie,” Ida ordered. “Just get on with it.”

“I agree. Spit it out. We need to stop screwing around. This is important,” Toots said, sobering them all up to their current reality. “Tell us what happened.”

“I've never experienced anything like this before.” Sophie paused. “It scared me. I had to wait a while before I could do the reading. The woman was a bitch. Well, sort of, just a tad on the weird side. She didn't introduce herself, hadn't a clue what manners are.” Sophie looked at Ida. “I know what you're going to say.

“As I was about to start placing the tarot cards, I became so dizzy I was sure I would pass out. Obviously, I didn't, but I kid you not ... I had a vision. I saw a brilliant white light, then an incredibly bright shade of red. It blew me away because this woman was waiting for me to start turning the cards, and I was in the midst of this ... this experience. I'm not sure how long it lasted, and at first I couldn't figure out what the images were. Frankly, for a minute or two, I thought I was about to lose it, but I didn't. I ran out to the car without much of an explanation. Then I sat there a good long time until I figured out what I had been seeing.”

“And?” Ida hissed.

“I'm sure what I saw was a red car covered with a mountain of snow.”

Chapter 17

“
T
hat fits with the information I just received. One of the reasons I turned around and came back. I had a colleague run a check on Chris's phone records. He was able to locate the last phone call made from that number. The last possible tower that could have recorded a ping was a tower five hours away from here. If the information I have is correct, and I have no reason to believe it isn't, Chris is somewhere just southeast of Lake Tahoe,” Goebel informed the others. “Do any of you know if he has a GPS tracking device on his cell phone?”

“I'm sure he does. I just can't believe he's in Lake Tahoe. What would he be doing in that area?” Abby asked, then remembered Chris's friend Steve, who was staying at Chris's condo. “Chris has a friend staying in his condo, and I'm sure he knows where Chris is.” Abby took her cell phone out of her pocket. “I'm going to call Chris's house. Maybe Steve will answer and tell me where the heck Chris took off to, though he swore he didn't know when I asked him. I'm not sure I believe him now.”

Quickly, she punched in his home phone number, and paced back and forth. Several rings later, Abby was greeted by Chris's overly cheerful voice. “Hey, I'm not here. Sorry, peeps. Call my cell.” His answering machine. She clicked the
END
button on her phone.

“Nothing. I don't even know if Steve's still there. Maybe I need to take another drive over to Chris's condo and question that guy again. I can't believe Chris could leave, let someone stay in his condo, and not tell them where he was going. What do you think, Goebel?”

“It can't hurt.”

“Should we call the police, check to see if there have been any accidents in that area? Maybe Chris is in a car somewhere and needs help. Maybe he's stranded.” Toots's voice was laced with new worry.

“Sophie, you said you saw something red in your vision, right?” Abby questioned.

“Yes, a very bright red. It had little sparkles in it, almost like there was a gold-colored glitter mixed in with the paint. And the snow, wouldn't that mean something, Goebel? If he's in the Lake Tahoe area, he could be at one of those damned ski resorts. Stuck without phone reception.” Sophie was excited. Maybe her vision really did mean something, maybe she and Chris were connected psychically.

Abby yanked her phone out of her pocket. She placed her hand over the mouthpiece. “I'm calling one of my sources at the police department. Give me a minute.” She stepped outside on the deck.

Now in full-blown investigator mode, Goebel asked, “Do any of you know if Chris has any friends in the area? Any business he might have had? A reason for being in the Nevada area?”

“Chris has friends all over the country. If he had business to attend, I don't know that he would've told anyone, especially me. He's a grown man. He comes and goes as he pleases,” Toots explained. She'd never had a reason to question Chris's business practices, and now she wished she had been a bit more nosy. In a motherly way, of course.

“I think we can work with the cell phone. I should be able to pinpoint his exact location. I just need to make a couple more calls. Cross your fingers he has a GPS locator on his phone.”

Goebel removed his cell phone from his pocket. He punched in a number, then walked out to the deck, where Abby was trying to hook up with her police department source.

Toots had a flash of the two of them working together. A pair of private investigators. Both knew the business. With Abby's reporter instinct and Goebel's experience and contacts, they would make a formidable team. A tabloid, a bakery in Charleston, and a private investigation firm. She could follow in Warren Buffett's footsteps and become a pillar of American enterprise. It was something Toots could give serious thought to later.

As soon as Goebel stepped out, Abby came back inside. Toots knew immediately something was wrong from the look on her face. “You heard something about Chris?” Her stomach did a flip-flop, and her heart pounded so hard she thought it would burst in her chest. She inhaled through her nose, then exhaled, slowing her heart rate.

“No. I just remembered that Laura Leigh has a bright red Toyota Prius. The license plate is
IMASTAR
. Tell me that's not conceit.”

Sophie perked up. “I knew my vision was real. I am
not
cracking up. Thank you, Big Man upstairs!” Sophie raised her fist high in the air, then genuflected.

“No one questioned whether your vision was real or not,” Toots said. “I've witnessed what you can do, and if you say you had a vision, then you had a vision.”

Abby appeared as though she'd had the wind knocked out of her. She slumped on a kitchen chair. “I think Chris and Laura Leigh are holed up together. I think they did go snow skiing. I can't figure out why Chris's car was towed into his mechanic's, but I'm sure he has a good explanation for that. Maybe he was following Laura, and he actually had car trouble. Knowing that little tart owns a red car, the pings from the cell phone towers, then add all of that with Sophie's vision, I don't see how anyone could reach any conclusion other than that Chris and Laura are having a little ski vacation/minirendezvous. I'm sure they're not listening to the news.”

“Abby, stop right now! You will drive yourself crazy. Goebel will find him, then we can get to the bottom of this. I know he's in trouble, but I don't think it's anything that will put him behind bars. Let's just be patient,” Toots said, even though she was anything but patient herself. She knew the scenario Abby was imagining, and she did not want her hurt in any way, shape, or form.

“It's going on five days, Mother. The media are swooping down on this story like vultures.” Abby caught her faux pas. “The national media. Television.
E!, Entertainment Tonight, Inside Edition.
”

“
The Informer
is a national media outlet, too, Abby. Don't you have your top reporters hanging out at Laura's apartment and those two nightclubs she and Chris frequented?”

Mavis decided to join in the conversation. She directed her attention to her goddaughter. “Is there anything I can do? Would you like a cup of herbal tea? It's quite calming, you know.”

“Thanks, but I'm good,” Abby said to Mavis.

“If you change your mind, just say the word.”

“You're so good to me. All of you,” Abby said.

Goebel chose that moment to come back in from the deck.

Abby looked at her three godmothers and her mother. “I don't know what I did to deserve you all, but I'm not going to question it. Now, Goebel, let's put this GPS technology to work.”

Goebel put his laptop on the table. His fingertips raced across the keyboard at lightning speed. He looked up for a moment. “If his cell plan has a service locator, I'll be able to find his location right now. Or pretty darn close. Some cell-phone providers have what they refer to as a family locator. Personally, I think it was designed to keep tabs on teenagers, but it's handy when you want to locate someone.”

As he turned his attention back to his laptop, his hands flew over the keyboard again. He stopped and watched as a satellite image filled the screen. “Look at this.” He pointed to an image of terrain. The image was green, brown, and blue. He tapped the arrow key, and the image cleared, showing an area of mountainous terrain.

Toots leaned over Goebel's shoulder to view the screen. “What does this mean?”

Goebel pointed to a tiny yellow flashing circle. “This tells me Chris's cell phone is GPS-enabled, and working.”

“What if his battery died? Would you still be able to track him?” Sophie asked.

“Yes. The tracking device is implanted inside certain phones. Doesn't matter if they're dead, or even turned off. You can track the phone number as long as the phone isn't damaged by water or fire, or destroyed by some other means.”

Ida finally spoke. “Then why can't you just drive to the place where the cell phone is?”

“I'm going to contact the local authorities, have them do what we in the business call a safety check. If all this technology works, we'll be able to solve this mystery within a matter of hours.”

“You think so?” Abby asked. “We've tried using this a couple times at the paper. Trying to follow a few A-list celebs. It never worked.”

“They probably have their cell numbers scrambled. There's a computer program that does that. I would expect a celebrity who doesn't want to be found would have used such a program,” Goebel explained.

“Makes sense,” Abby said.

“So what do we do now?” Toots asked Goebel.

“Once I contact the authorities, all we can do is wait to see what they find.”

BOOK: Deadline

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