Barely Legal

69

Councilman Ross called his daughter. It went to voice mail. He left a message. “Melanie, it’s Dad. Call me back as soon as you get this.”

He hung up and called his secretary. “I need to speak to Melanie. She’s not answering her phone. Call the hospital, find out when she went to work and when she gets off. Leave a message for her. If you get her on the phone, I need to speak to her immediately.”

“Yes, sir.”

She called back in ten minutes. “She didn’t come in today.”

“At all?”

“No. No one’s seen her since last night. She was supposed to be on shift today but never showed. I left messages in case she does come in, but she’s not there.”

Councilman Ross hung up and hurried down the street to the little diner where he and Herbie had had lunch. Herbie was in a booth with David and Stone Barrington. They asked him to join them, but he waved it away.

“I have to talk to Herb.”

Herbie got up from his seat. The councilman practically pulled him outside.

“What’s up?” Herbie said.

“Melanie’s missing.”

“What?”

“I just got a phone call saying she won’t be home until we lose the case. And if we win the case, she won’t be home at all.”

“You mean Taperelli has got her?”

“That’s what it looks like. She’s not answering her phone, and she didn’t show up for work.”

“We’ve got to go to the police.”

“They’ll kill her if we do.”

“Stone Barrington’s friends with the police commissioner. They can be discreet.”

“The police framed my son. Do you think they wouldn’t know?”

“What do you want to do?”

“They said to lose the case.”

“Do you want your son in jail?”

“Of course I don’t want my son in jail.”

“Okay, so we don’t finish the case. They’re not going to hurt her until the case is over.”

“Yes, but it has to be soon. If we stall, they’ll hurt her.”

Herbie exhaled noisily and thought that over. “Okay. That’s the situation. We can’t finish the case, and we can’t stall.”

“That’s what I’ve been telling you,” Councilman Ross said. “How are you going to handle that?”

Herbie smiled grimly. “Just watch me.”