“She has a funny way of showing it,” Gran grunted.
“If he loves her back it’s all the more reason for him to walk out on her,” Chase said.
“I don’t know,” said Odelia. “There’s something funny going on. What are the odds of two people to go missing in the space of two days? Very slim, I should say.”
“Three people,” said Gran. “You forgot about the little boy.”
“Four, if you add Chief Alec,” said Chase.
Odelia took out her phone and tried her uncle’s cell again. Straight to voicemail, just like all the previous times she’d tried him. So if he had been abducted by aliens, which seemed to be Gran’s grand theory, the aliens weren’t picking up the phone either.
They’d arrived at the house where the August family lived, and Gran had taken her Duffer out of her purse and was munching on it again. “Want a bite?” she asked.
“No, thanks,” said Odelia.
They rang the bell, and after the requisite introductions, they were invited in. The August home was a modest one-story structure, and judging from the stack of Missing Person flyers in the hallway, and people coming and going to pick them up, the search for the missing boy was in full swing. They took a seat in the living room, and while Chase made the introductions, Odelia picked up a flyer and studied the kid’s face. Nicky August looked about eight, with a gap-toothed smile and a freckled nose. She felt her heart sink at the thought of what could possibly have happened to him.
“If I told him once, I told him a million times,” said Alma, the boy’s mother. “Never stray too far from home. But you know what boys are like. They get caught up in whatever game they’re playing, and before you know it they’re out on the street, chasing a ball, or chasing a car, thinking they’re Superman or Batman or whatever.”
“So he was playing in the backyard…” Chase prompted, jotting down notes.
“He and Jay were kicking the ball around, and then next thing I know I look through the kitchen window and they’re gone. For a moment I simply couldn’t breathe. You can’t imagine what it feels like, Detective. One moment they were there, and the next… poof! Gone! I looked everywhere, and when I didn’t see them of course I ran into the street, and then rang the neighbors’ house and the house across the street and all the other houses but no one had seen them. They had simply vanished. Like smoke.”
“No cars that you thought looked suspicious?” asked Chase. “Or someone driving past the house the last couple of days that you never saw before in the neighborhood?”
“No, nothing like that,” said the woman’s husband Mark.
“You said he was playing with… Jay?” asked Odelia with a frown. “So who’s Jay?”
“Oh, Jay is Nicky’s best friend,” said Alma. “They’ve been besties since first grade. Always together. We’re very lucky that Nicky found a good friend like him, because in kindergarten he wasn’t very social, and never really bonded with anyone.”
“Nicky is a single child, you see,” said Mark. “After we had him, we tried but…”
“He was a miracle baby,” said Alma. “I didn’t even think I could get pregnant. The doctors had told us to stop trying, and maybe adopt, so when I got pregnant it took me a while to realize what was happening, and so when Nicky was born we were both over the moon, of course. We tried for a second one, but I guess one miracle was enough.”
“So that’s why we were so happy when Nicky found Jay. He’s like the brother he never had. Always together, never a cross word.”
“But… we haven’t received a report about a Jay missing,” said Chase.
“Probably because Jay’s folks are out of town,” said Alma.
“When they’re away—and they often are—Jay stays with his aunt,” said Mark.
“We called her last night, to tell her about what happened, but she didn’t seem overly concerned.”
“She seems to think Nicky and Jay ran into town to go to the movies or to the mall.”
“We told her Nicky wouldn’t do that. He wouldn’t just go off on his own. But she laughed and said we didn’t know Nicky as well as she did, and then hung up on us.”
“So there’s another little boy missing, and we weren’t even told?” said Chase with a frown.
“Is it possible that they did go into town?” asked Gran. “That they did go to the movies? Boys being boys, I mean.”
Both parents shook their heads decidedly.“No way,” said Alma. “Nicky knows not to do that.”
“We’ve always been very protective of him,” Mark explained.
“Maybe a little overprotective,” Nicky’s mother added.
“We were so happy when we had him, and also afraid of losing him, that he knows not to run off without telling us and scaring us half to death in the process.”
“No, ma’am,” said Alma decidedly. “Someone took our boy. Just took him like that.”
Chapter 27
Colin Duffer watched the angry crowd that had gathered outside his shop with concern. He didn’t like the crowd, even though he knew he should. The crowd irked him, but at the same time the crowd also showed that their strategy, once deemed so risky and outrageous, had won through to success in spite of the odds.
“I hate those people,” he said.
His brother, watching the mob scene with an air of detachment, retorted,“Don’t hate them. Love them. They are our customers, Colin. Our hapless, dimwitted customers, and they’re all crazy about our product.”
“Yeah, so crazy that they’re about to knock out our windows and drag us out into the street so they can beat us up.”
“Nah, they’ll never go that far. Though it would be a testament to their enthusiasm for the Duffer.”
Colin sighed.“You do realize we’re losing money, don’t you? And not making it?”
“As soon as we’re fully stocked on Duffers again we’ll be swimming in cash, buddy. It’ll be like printing money, and we don’t even have to go through the tedious process of installing a printing press and becoming counterfeiters. All we have to do is create more Duffers. Easy as pie. Or sausage.”
“So what’s taking so long?”
“Technical issues. Our technicians are working on it. When you move to a fully automated production process there’s always kinks to be ironed out at first. But as soon as everything is up to speed we’ll be able to crank out twice as many Duffers as before.”
“We should never have built that new plant,” Colin grumbled. “We were doing fine.”
“You can’t stop progress, little brother. Or have you forgotten about the Chinese?”
“Setting up a production line in China shouldn’t pose a problem,” Colin admitted.
“Though we’ll have to tweak the formula, of course.”
“Of course,” Colin agreed.
“We did a blind taste test in Beijing last week.”
“And?”
“They loved it! Absolutely loved the Duffer!”
“Do you think we could try the Chinese formula over here?”
“Why not? But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s stick to the tried and true for now.”
“For now,” Colin agreed. They both stared at the seething masses protesting on the sidewalk, then Colin said, “Did I tell you that a reporter dropped by the house earlier?”
“No, you didn’t. What did she want?”
“Oh, the usual. The history of the Duffer, for a puff piece in theGazette.”
“Soon there will be puff pieces in theTimes,Good Housekeeping,USA Today…”
“Do you really think all this exposure is a good idea?”
“A good idea! It’s free publicity, bro. And besides, all publicity is good publicity. So keep the bloodhounds from the press coming, and we’ll keep serving them Duffers.”
But as Colin watched the mob shouting slogans about bringing the Duffer back, he couldn’t help experiencing those niggling doubts playing havoc with his nervous system.
Chris might be the glass-half-full kind of guy, but he wasn’t. He also knew the tremendous risks they had taken—and were still taking. Then again, every successful business person took risks. Their father had taken the same risks, and their grandfather before him. Their current risks might be a little bigger than theirs, but the rewards they’d reap would have made papa and grandpapa proud. At least if they managed to get the new Duffer into stores. If not, that mob would destroy them as soon as praise them.