The Ex Who Glowed in the Dark (Charley's Ghost) (11 page)

Amanda shut the door behind the girls.

Ross’ gaze lingered on the closed door for a moment before he turned to Amanda. “After we find Grant I think I’m going to kill you.”

Jake nodded. “I’ll help.”

Yeah, Charley didn’t need to worry about anything going on between Jake and her.

Chapter Nine

Jake moved across the room and sat down at the table with his ubiquitous pen and notebook. “Let’s sum up what we’ve got so far.”

Dawson brought up a blank Word document screen.

Amanda started to sit directly across from Dawson, next to Jake. But would that be obvious?

Obvious
? She frowned at her choice of words. Why shouldn’t she sit next to him? Not like she was contemplating sitting in his lap.

Nevertheless, she sat next to Dawson, a chair away from Jake. Ross took the seat between them.

Charley sat cross legged in the middle of the table, his expression pleased and happy. “Good choice of seats. Detective Daggett’s really ticked off at you. You don’t want to get too close to him.”

Amanda looked away from Charley and focused on the screen of Dawson’s laptop. “Write this down.
Stolen license plate with a Kansas City connection.” 

Jake was making notes and nodding, agreeing with her. A small thing, perhaps, but it was better than not agreeing with her. “The plates were not necessarily stolen,” he said. “The new owner may have just thrown them away when he got the car retagged in Kansas City. But why the double switch? Why change plates with Hannah’s car rather than just use the discarded Missouri plates? Did they not realize that it would be easy for us to track both plates?”

“They knew that,” Ross said. “They’re technically savvy. They went to a lot of trouble to get phony plates and then to add another layer to the deception by switching the plates. My take on the license plate thing, they’re just buying time, diverting attention away from themselves, making it as difficult as possible for us to track them so they’ll have time to get away. They’re detail-oriented and clever, but the trouble they went to in order to confuse us is overkill. They’re trying too hard. I don’t think they’re professionals.”

Dawson looked up from his typing and frowned. “So you’re saying amateurs have my brother? What does that mean?”

“Amateur criminals,” Jake said. “That’s good for us. They’re trying really hard to cover all the bases, but if they haven’t done this before, they may miss something, something we can use to find them.”

Ross nodded. “They’re counting on you not getting professional help, Dawson. But you did, and that gives us an edge.”

Amanda thought it sounded like the boys were feeding Dawson a load of malarkey to make him feel better, but that was not necessarily a bad thing. Dawson had aged ten years in the past twelve hours. He needed some hope. “Maybe those people in the van were following Sunny and me because they thought I might be going to get professional help.”

“That’s a possibility,” Jake said. “Are you sure they were following you, that they didn’t just happen to be going in the same direction?”

“I’m sure,” Charley said. “I saw them following you all the way from your shop.”

“I’m pretty sure. I saw them in my rearview mirror several times all the way from the shop.” Lying to Jake was much easier than lying to Sunny. He just kind of invited it, suggesting that she didn’t know the difference between a van going in the same direction and a van that was following her. Of course, it had been Charley who’d noticed, not her. But that was immaterial.

“I see.” Jake drummed his fingers on the tabletop as if in thought. “If they weren’t following you but were just going toward Wagon Wheel Park, that could mean we were right about the area where Grant’s being held. If they were following you—” He shrugged. “Then all we know is that they were following you. We have no idea why. So are you absolutely certain you saw them behind you when you were leaving your shop?”

Amanda looked at Charley. She had only his word that the people were following her, and if he was wrong, they could miss a lead on the case.

Charley spread his arms, hands out. “I’m certain, okay? I know what you’re thinking, but I can’t lie now, remember? Whatever I say, you can take it as gospel.”

Amanda looked up toward the ceiling, half expecting a crash of thunder and lightning as the word
gospel
came out of Charley’s mouth. When it didn’t happen, she straightened and looked Daggett in the eye. “I’m sure. Either they were following me, or they just happened to be in the vicinity of my motorcycle shop when Sunny and I rode out and going in the same direction all the way out of town.”

“Maybe they followed you because they saw you were heading in the direction of where they were holding Grant,” Dawson suggested. “Maybe they wanted to find out how much you knew.”

“That’s also a possibility,” Jake admitted.

“I’m not convinced that Hannah isn’t involved,” Dawson said. “She’s got long blond hair, and the license plate on the van belongs to her. I’ll see what else I can find out about her.”

“I’ll check her out tomorrow,” Ross said, “but I don’t think she’s a part of this.”

Jake laughed. “Yeah, of course you believe a beautiful woman who thinks you’re cute is innocent. But you’re only going to be able to check her out on the computer. No point in trying to check her out personally after what our friend here told her about us.”

“I wasn’t thinking!” Amanda lifted her hands in the same defensive posture Charley had used earlier. “I just meant that you two are partners, like cop partners. But as soon as I said it, I realized I shouldn’t be implying you’re cops so I tried to fix it and that’s when I said—”

“Keep talking, Amanda.” Charley regarded her with a smiling, satisfied expression. “I don’t have to worry about Detective Daggett hitting on you now. He’ll never speak to you again and neither
will this other guy.”

Dawson looked up from his laptop. “You told Hannah that Jake and Ross were partners?” For the first time during the course of that long day, a smile tilted the corners of his mouth.

“Exactly!” Amanda exclaimed, relieved at Dawson’s attitude. “It’s funny. One day you’ll all tell this story and laugh about it.”

Jake and Ross both looked at her dubiously.

“We could fast forward through time and start laughing about it now,” she suggested.

Jake returned his attention to his notebook.
“Moving on to Nick. We need to get a last name for him.”

“
Farner,” Amanda said.

“Good. And a first name for his grandmother. Then we need to check out his story.”

Dawson’s expression again became grim. “Check out Hannah, check out Nick. That takes time. We may not have time.”

Jake laid a hand on his arm. “The clock isn’t ticking yet. The kidnappers haven’t given us a deadline. Ross and I are going to go home and get a little sleep,
then we’ll get back on this early tomorrow. Both of you need to get some sleep too.”

“He’s right,” Amanda admitted. “I’m so tired I can’t think straight.”

Jake arched an eyebrow. “You hit that stage a few minutes ago when you introduced us to Nick.”

Great.
She had a smart-mouthed ghost and a smart-mouthed detective to deal with.

*~*~*

“Amanda! Wake up! Do you hear me? Get up!”

Charley.
Of course it was Charley. Who else would be demanding that she wake from her pleasant dream?

“Go ’way,” she grumbled, then came suddenly wide awake as Charley’s words brought back memories of crashing her motorcycle and Charley trying to wake her. Déjà vu!

But she wasn’t lying on the ground in her motorcycle gear. She was lying on her bed having a wonderful dream of riding her motorcycle and hearing wind chimes. Not possible, of course, since the helmet and the engine noise would block out any such sound, but it had been a pleasant dream.

“I won’t go away. I couldn’t even if I wanted to. Get up. Dawson’s calling you.”

That explained the wind chimes. Her cell phone ring tone. Amanda shot up from the bed and grabbed the phone. “Dawson?”

“I fell asleep and just now checked my e-mail. It’s them. They sent instructions. I have to get the program to them before six o’clock today. That gives us only fourteen hours to find it!”

Amanda looked at the clock. Four a.m. Still dark outside. She suppressed a yawn. “I’ll be right there.” With a six-pack of Coke and some decent tea.

She turned a sleepy gaze on Charley. “Do not follow me into the shower.”

He widened his eyes in feigned innocence. “Of course not.”

She didn’t believe him but there was nothing she could do about it. She couldn’t shower with all her clothes on.

Half an hour later she arrived at Dawson’s apartment and pounded up the stairs in her biker boots. As she sprang onto the third floor landing, Brendan Matthews, clad in a shiny silver helmet and matching jacket, burst from his apartment clutching a large, strange gun with coiled wires dangling from it.

Amanda stopped in her tracks, sucking in her breath, her hand going automatically to her purse. Damn! She’d left the apartment in such a rush, she’d forgotten her gun. “Brendan! I’m Dawson’s friend, Amanda! Don’t shoot!”

Brendan lowered the gun and straightened his glasses. “Amanda? Oh, yeah. I remember. They took Dawson’s brother. I heard you and thought they were coming back.”

Was he talking about the aliens again? Or maybe he’d actually heard the people when they came to take Grant although yesterday he’d said he’d never even seen the boy. “Did they make a noise like I did just now when I came up the stairs?”

Brendan frowned and rubbed the side of his nose. “Yes,” he finally said. “They did sound like that except their armor rattled and clanked.”

“Did you come out and see them like you came out and saw me just now?”

Brendan edged back into his apartment, his eyes wide behind his glasses. “Oh, no. I didn’t see them. I didn’t see anybody.”

Amanda darted forward and wedged her foot in the door before he could close it. “You saw them, didn’t you? You saw the people who took Grant!”

“No!” Brendan lifted the gun again, and Amanda removed her foot from the door.

“Please! You need to tell us what you saw!”

But the door closed firmly in her face.

“He knows something,” Charley said.

Amanda nodded. “But I’m not sure we can pull it out of his tangled brain. I need to tell Jake and Ross.” She took her cell phone from her purse.

“Why would you tell them? They were rude to you. Just tell Dawson.”

Amanda looked at the door of 3D. “I don’t think so. If I tell Dawson, he’ll go nuts. Remember how he acted with Nick and then again with Hannah when he thought they were involved?” She shook her head. “We need professional help.”

“It’s too early. Your cop will still be sleeping. You don’t want to wake him up.”

“Sure I do. Why should Detective Daggett get any more sleep than I got?” She punched in the number on her cell phone.

Chapter Ten

Dawson, sporting a day’s growth of beard and bloodshot eyes, answered Amanda’s knock. He had a can of Red Bull in one hand and from the way he twitched, Amanda suspected it was not his first.

“How many of those have you had?”

He stepped back to allow her to enter. “Three. I went down to the all night convenience store on the corner and got some. I never had one before, but today I need to wake up and be alert so I can find the code they want.” He closed and locked the door behind her.

“I don’t suppose you’ve had anything to eat,” she said.

“I’m not hungry.” He was talking very fast, nothing like his usual precise, unhurried speech.

“I am. I just talked to Daggett, and he’s on his way over with food. You need calories to get your brain cells working. I brought Cokes and some Harney and Sons Hot Cinnamon Spice Tea. You may not need any since you have your caffeine-on-steroids drink, but I do.”

“Detective Daggett’s coming back? He can’t help now. We’re on deadline. We failed to find Grant. Now we just need to find the code so I can give it to them.”

Amanda popped open a Coke, stored the rest in the refrigerator, set the box of tea on the counter and went to sit at the table where Dawson still had three laptops going. “Show me the e-mail.”

He turned one of the screens toward her.

From: [email protected]

To: [email protected]

Copy the code to a thumb drive and deliver that thumb drive to locker 232 at the Fitness 4 You Club on Preston Road before 6:00 p.m. today. After we have verified the code, your brother will be returned to you unharmed. If you fail to do so or if you give us the incorrect code, we will excise one of your brother’s fingers for every hour you delay. At midnight we will slit his throat and throw his body into a dumpster.

Do not attempt to attach a tracking device. Do not attempt to change the code like your father did. Anything of this nature will result in the removal of more fingers, all of which we will deliver to you.