The Halo Effect

46

I went home, showered again, got dressed, made coffee, drank it, and it was still only ten o’clock. With two hours left before I was meeting Mitch and Dulcie, and nothing to fill them with, I went to the office.

There were messages on my machine, and as I listened, I made a list of whom I’d have to call back. The last one was from Elias, who sounded even more exhausted than the last time I’d heard from him. For a minute, I imagined him standing next to Noah. In their own way they were both attractive. But so different from each other. Elias was polished, every inch the corporate lawyer. I could have just as easily wound up making a fool of myself with someone like Elias, I thought. He’d have less reason to use me.

“Morgan, give me a call. I sent the police a ransom note early this morning. I know you told me not to. But something has to jump-start them into finding out where Cleo is.” Then he sighed. A beat of silence. In the silence I could hear what sounded like a voice on his television. It was a woman-or a young girl-crying.

The way I felt. The way Elias felt.

I thought about calling him back and urging him to tell the police he’d planted the note, and then I thought about calling Noah and telling him that when the note came he should ignore it. But I didn’t want to talk to Noah. Except I couldn’t keep that information to myself. With all they had to do, I couldn’t allow the police to be sent off on a wild-goose chase when they were trying to solve real cases.

I called the precinct house and left a message. The operator told me that Noah was in, that I could talk to him myself, but I said no, I just had a message for him. And dictated it to her.

“Tell him the ransom note is fake. That Elias Beecher sent it to him to get him to take Cleo’s disappearance more seriously.”

She read it back to me and then I hung up.

As it turned out, it was the only smart thing I did that day.