Disturbance

FIFTY-TWO

Pete called, patched through by Pappy. He was a little more subdued, which made Frank suspicious.

“What’s gone wrong?” Frank asked.

“I’ve got some bad news.”

Frank drew in a breath.

“No, sorry, not that. I mean-nothing about Irene. But, well, you already know we are trying to track down Roderick Beignet.”

“If you’re going to tell me he managed to ride his bike all the way into town without getting caught by the LPPD, I’m not surprised.”

“You’re mad at me for that last call, bitching at you when you’ve got so much else on your mind. I get it. And I’m sorry. Seriously. If it’s any consolation, Rachel ripped me a new one over that.”

“Rachel knows as well as I do that you don’t do well under pressure.”

“Har-har. I will take that to be an acceptance of my apology.”

“So what about Roderick?”

“Still looking. He ditched the bike in the mountains, must have had a car nearby, because it doesn’t sound as if he was in the kind of shape that would let him go long distances on foot. We went to the address the DMV has on file, and no one was home. People in the neighborhood say they rarely see him anymore. But he does have a motorcycle. We’ll find him.” He paused. “I talked Jake into running DNA on the guy.”

“You have a sample?”

“Oh, yeah. We got a warrant and looked around the place.”

“Thanks-glad you did. What about Quinn?”

Pete sighed.

Frank waited.

“He’s in the wind.”

“Fuck me. You have got to be shitting me. You let that son of a bitch out of your sight?”

“I can’t be everywhere at once. You’re the one playing God, not me.”

“You know I meant the PD, not you personally.”

“Oh, well, in that case, yes. You wouldn’t think we could lose track of a guy in a hospital, but we did. As you know, patients have the right to leave a hospital and refuse care-even against the docs’ advice-so they couldn’t hold him against his will. He checked himself out before we even decided to send the detail. Apparently he never went home, because whenever we stop by, one of his attorneys answers the door and tells us Mr. Moore isn’t in and unless we want to get a warrant or press charges… you can guess the rest.”

He broke off to have an argument with Rachel, then said, “Rachel sends her love, and says not to pay any attention to me, but I told her you don’t anyway, so there you have it.”

“Thanks for the update, Pete. I’ll let you know if-Well, I’ll let you know.”

Pete was atypically silent, then he said, in a much different tone of voice, “You are going to find her. I know you will.” He cleared his throat, then said, “That lunatic you married is nowhere near finished making my life miserable, let alone yours.”

There was indecipherable shouting in the background, then Pete said, “No need to schedule an ass kicking for that remark, my wife’s gonna take care of that for you before you get home. Keep me updated.”

The call ended. Travis and Jack sat up in the pilot’s and copilot’s seats, so he couldn’t see their faces, but he could see Ben’s. His friend was studying him. After a moment, Ben said, “You think your text messenger is Donovan, right?”

“Right, unless Kai wanted me to check on his mom. That’s a possibility.”

“Possible Violet’s in on it?”

“Possible, not probable. Not probable for Kai to have sent the text, either-he was in the mountains while the car was being parked near my house, so he would have needed to use someone else to leave a message taped to the beach stairs and so on. He couldn’t do it without Donovan’s cooperation.”

“So if it’s Donovan, why didn’t he give you the info on the vehicle Parrish is using now? Why not just text the plate number and let you put out an APB?”

“I’ve thought about that. Several possibilities. One is that he didn’t have that information at a time he was free to send a text. Another is that he can’t-perhaps as far as Parrish is concerned, he’s served his purpose. In that case, chances are he’s already dead.”

“Another possibility is that this is a trap.”

“Yes. Another is that Violet was telling the truth, and Parrish has some kind of hold over Donovan.”

“It must be one hell of a hold. I mean, beyond Parrish being his father. What would it take to get you to do what he’s done so far?”

Frank had no answer for that. He was spared trying to come up with one when Jack said, “There! Up ahead!”

They all saw it then. A green Subaru Forester. On the roof, someone had placed a set of dots and dashes that seemed to have been cut from a roll of white duct tape:

…– -…

SOS.