Mortal Crimes: 7 Novels of Suspense (213 page)

“It’s not that easy,” Logan said, stopping him.

“Why not? If you know where she is, we just need to—”

“Dad, she’s on a plane.”

“A plane?” his father said, as if the word was foreign to him. “An airplane?”

“Yes.”

“Where’s she going?”

“The flight plan says Tokyo.”

“Tokyo?” His dad sank onto one of the beds and sat there for a moment, staring at the floor, before he turned his gaze back to his son. “Why did you let her get on?”

“She didn’t get aboard by herself. Someone put her there.”

“And you just let this happen? You should have grabbed her.”

“It wasn’t exactly an option at the time, okay?” Logan paused, trying very hard not to let his own frustration show. “At least we know she’s still alive. And, for the moment, we also know exactly where she is.”

“You mean in a
plane
, above the
ocean
?”

“Yes,” Logan said, ignoring his father’s tone.

Harp looked defeated, like he’d let down Tooney, and there was nothing he could do to make it right.

Logan sat down beside him. “You wanted me to find her and bring her back. Dad, that’s still what I’m going to do.”

“Do you think you really can?”

The answer that came immediately to mind was, “I don’t know,” but instead he said, “I’m not going to stop until I do.”

Neither of them spoke for a few seconds.

Finally, Logan said, “Wherever she’s gone, Dad, I’m going to have to follow her.”

“Well, that’s not a problem,” his father replied, grabbing onto the thread of hope Logan had given him. “I told you we’d cover all costs.”

“I’ll need cash. A few grand at least, and that’s not counting the plane ticket.”

“The boys and I will go to the bank tomorrow.”

“You should probably do it first thing,” Logan said. “I’ll need to leave as soon as I can.”

“For Tokyo?” his dad asked.

“That, I don’t know yet.”

Harp gave his son a smile, then said, “Thanks, Logan. I’m glad you’re here, and I know you’ll do the best you can.”

I hope so.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

THE ADDRESS DEBBIE Midwin had given Logan was to the same building in which he’d questioned Mr. Williams and Mr. Dean. But that wasn’t a surprise.

He parked in the lot directly across from it this time, and knocked on the door.

A few moments later, a smiling woman of about forty-five opened it. She was short, maybe five-three at best, and dressed in jeans and a green sweater. By her demeanor, it could have just as easily been 1:00 p.m. as 1:00 a.m.

“Mr. Cole?” she asked.

Logan nodded, smiling. “You must be Ms. Midwin.”

“Just call me Debbie. Come in, come in.”

As soon as he was inside, she shut the door.

“I want to thank you for meeting with me this late,” he said. “I know it’s a huge inconvenience.”

She shook her head dismissively. “Not at all. You’d be surprised at how many late nights we put in here.”

As she led him from the reception area into the back room, he heard something moving around. “Is someone else here?”

She smiled. “Just Roger. Roger, come here.” A few seconds later, a golden retriever ran up and nuzzled Debbie’s hand.

When he saw Logan, he ambled over. “Hey, Roger. How you doing?”

The dog sniffed his fingers, then gave them an experimental lick. After that, they were fast friends.

Debbie pointed at the door to the airfield. “The plane’s in a hangar nearby. We just need to—”

“I was thinking we could discuss business first,” Logan said. “If you don’t mind.”

She turned back. “Of course. Whatever you’d like.”

She motioned to a desk in the middle of the room. After they were both seated, Logan let her give him what he assumed was her normal sales pitch.

Finishing up, she said, “As you can imagine, we deal with a lot of people looking for discretion. For that reason, we never discuss our client list with anyone. In our case, less publicity means better business.”

“I certainly can appreciate that. Tell me, do you fly just domestically? Or…?”

She looked momentarily confused. “Didn’t you say you wanted to go to New York?”

“Yes. On this trip. I was thinking more long term.”

“Oh, sure.” She smiled. “We’ll fly anywhere our clients need to go, except war zones and that kind of thing, of course.” She let out a little laugh. “We’re all about customer service, but we’re not fighter pilots.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to be.” He paused for a second. “My client might need to fly to Japan later in the month. Is that doable for you?”

“As a matter of fact, we have an aircraft making that very trip as we speak.”

“Oh, that’s good to know,” he said, fake-surprised, then chuckled. “So you have a client going to Japan, huh?”

“Well, through Japan, anyway.”

He let the subject drop, and asked if she could run up an estimate of what the New York trip would cost his client.

“No problem,” she said, then pulled a keyboard out from under her computer terminal.

When people typed passwords into their computers, they generally checked to make sure whoever was with them wasn’t looking. But when they did the actual typing, they would focus either on the keyboard or the screen. Logan was petting the dog’s head when Debbie did her check, but as soon as she looked away, he moved his gaze just enough so he could see which keys she tapped to unlock her computer: roger1207. He figured the numbers must be the dog’s birthday.

Once the estimate was printed out and in Logan’s possession, she said, “Shall we see the plane now?”

“Absolutely.”

The dog led the way, running ahead, stopping until they caught up, then running ahead again. They were almost to the hangar when Logan shot his hand into his pants pocket and pulled out his phone.

“Sorry,” he said to Debbie. “This should only take a second.” He pretended to hit a button, then moved the phone to his ear. As he spoke, Roger loped over, and nuzzled his hand. “Hello?….Yeah, I’m here now….What? But I thought….Are you sure that’s what Tom wants?….Okay. Okay. No problem.” He hung up his fake call, grimacing.

Debbie took a step toward him. “Everything okay?”

Logan ran his hand over Roger’s head, then said, “Well, no, actually. I’m
so
embarrassed. My client’s changed his mind, and decided not to go. I feel horrible for having made you come out at this time of night, but it looks like we won’t need a plane in the morning after all.” He closed his eyes for a second. “It’s not the first time he’s done this, so I guess I should have expected it. I’m really sorry.”

“No, no. Don’t worry about it,” she said. “It happens more often than you’d guess. At least you know about us now. I could still show you the plane, if you’d like.”

“I’ve taken up too much of your time already. But I guarantee you when the Japan trip comes up, you’ll be at the top of my call list. I owe you that much.”

“We’d definitely appreciate the business.”

He let her show him out, gave the dog a final pat, then apologized again as she locked the front door behind them. Not surprisingly, she was parked in the same lot Logan was.

Logan got into his El Camino, started it up, then pulled out his phone and pretended to be talking again. He didn’t know if he was getting good at it or not, but he did seem to be doing a lot of talking to dead air that night. As Debbie drove by, he gave them a wave, then slipped the phone back in his pocket once they were out of sight.

Three minutes later, he was sitting at Debbie’s desk, typing in roger1207. In no time, he found the file for the charter flight Elyse was on. Interestingly enough, the client—Mr. Robert Andrews—had stated that he and his associates were escorting the sick daughter of a businessman home. Only home wasn’t Tokyo. That was merely a fuel stop.

Home was Bangkok, Thailand.

The country right next door to Burma.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

THE FIRST FLIGHT Logan could fly out on was at 12:55 p.m. on Cathay Pacific. There’d be a plane change in Hong Kong, and by the time he reached Bangkok, it would be nearly midnight the following day. In the best of circumstances, he would be at least fourteen hours behind the people who had Elyse, but he thought it prudent to assume the difference would be closer to sixteen.

Would that be too late? As much as he tried not to think that way, the thought did keep creeping in.

His father was true to his word. He and his friends came to Logan’s motel room before he left and gave him an envelope containing five thousand dollars in cash.

“If you need more,” his dad told him, “just let me know. I expect you to check in every day, too.”

“Don’t,” Logan said. “I’m not going to stop whatever I might be doing just to let you know what’s going on.”

“I didn’t mean that, but—”

“Dad, please. If I can, I’ll call. If I can’t, I won’t.”

Harp was going to say something else, but Barney put a hand on his shoulder. “Do what you need to do, Logan.”

Logan nodded his thanks.

“And just in case,” Barney said, handing him a small bottle. “Sleeping pills for your flight.”

On the way out, Logan stopped by Tooney’s room. Elyse’s grandfather was sitting on the bed, his packed bag on the floor near the door. As soon as Logan left for the airport, he and the others were all heading back to Cambria.

“Are you doing okay?” Logan asked, sitting down beside him.

“I’m happy she’s still alive, but…am still worried.”

“I’ll…I’ll bring her back.”

Tooney looked at Logan and tried to smile. “I know you will.”

Logan patted him on the arm, then stood up. “I gotta go.”

“Thank you, Logan,” he whispered. “Thank you.”

Logan didn’t know what to say, so he simply nodded and left.

Outside, Dev was waiting next to the El Camino, ready to drive Logan to the airport, then take his car back up the coast.

“Thanks for all the help,” Logan said once they were on the road.

Dev shrugged like it was no big deal. “I assume you just want us to hold on to everyone?”

Logan hesitated. “Eventually we’re going to want to turn them over to the police, but I don’t want to do that yet. Let’s see if I can learn anything that can help us out first.”

“Okay.”

“That is, unless your people do mind.”

“They don’t mind.”

They fell silent for several blocks.

“Dev, I need to ask you for a little more help,” Logan said. “I’m hoping someone you know might have contacts in Bangkok who can assist me. Probably someone who—”

He stopped as Dev pulled a piece of paper out of his shirt pocket, and handed it to him.

“What’s this?”

“What you just asked for,” Dev said. “A phone number. When you get there, call it.”

“A friend of yours?”

“A friend of a friend.”