“If your friend Andy is right, and Thomas didn’t follow his planned path, I don't see that there’s much anyone can do, short of going down to South America and asking around. But even that would probably be a waste of time, especially since we don't even know for certain where he started his expedition.”
“But there’s got to be some way you can help!” Kaylin realized she was grasping at straws, but the thought of Thomas being in trouble and her doing nothing to help was more than she could bear.
“Kaylin, I want to help you, I really do, but we're just a local police department. We don't have any international connections, and even if we did, what would I tell them? A professor is missing in the Amazon? That happens all the time. What if they were to ask me for his itinerary, and I tell them we don't think he followed it, but we have this here clue…” Once again he held up the envelope and gave Kaylin a meaningful look.
“I understand.” She wished she could keep the disappointment from her voice. Gerard was a good man, and she knew he would do what he could. Unfortunately, in this situation, what he could do was not much. “I suppose I'll try the dean of his college, and maybe my congressman's office. I have to do something.” She rose from her chair, shook Gerard's hand, and thanked him for his help.
“I really wish I could do more for you, but my hands are tied. I will keep up the search for your friend Andy, though.”
She assured him that she understood, and gratefully accepted his offer of a police escort to a nearby hotel. He walked her out to the lobby and they made small talk for a few minutes, and she promised to drop by for dinner with him and his wife sometime soon. A young officer walked her out to her car and followed behind in his squad car. Her mind was abuzz with a swarm of confused thoughts and jumbled questions. What should she do next? Was Andy okay? Where was Thomas? And, perhaps most important, what should be her next move?
Jay Newman watched Gerard leave his office with the blonde and escort her down the hall. The moment they turned the corner, he looked around to make certain no one was watching. Certain he was in the clear, he hurried to Gerard’s office and tried the door. He was pleased to find it was unlocked, and he slipped inside and closed the door behind him.
A manila envelope lay on the desk. He had seen the girl carrying it when she entered the captain’s office. It must be the one to which the message had referred. Jay opened it and removed the single item it contained. He frowned. What was this and how could it be important? Not his problem. He laid it on his desk, snapped a couple of pictures with his iPhone, and slipped it back into the envelope.
Knowing time could be short, depending on how long Gerard took walking the girl out, he hurried back to the door. Easing it open, he peeked out, and was relieved to find that the hallway remained empty. Closing the door behind him, it occurred to him that he should have just stepped out of the office acting normally, as if he’d simply been looking for the captain and had not found him in his office. All of this cloak and dagger was not for him. If he hadn’t needed the money, he would never have agreed to help these guys.
“Detective!” Gerard’s voice boomed down the hall. “Are you looking for me?”
Newman was proud of how calmly he turned around to face Gerard who, despite nearing mandatory retirement, still could intimidate him with a mere glance. “Yes, Captain, I was just wondering if there was anything I could do to help you with that young woman’s situation.”
Gerard fixed him with an appraising look, but then his stony features cracked into a smile. “Don’t bother with that one. She’s all broken up over her missing boyfriend.”
“You mean the guy that was kidnapped?” Newman’s heart raced. Perhaps he could glean some useful information from this conversation, which could mean more cash, and hopefully being shut of these guys sooner.
“No, a different fellow. Went on a university field trip and got himself lost.” Gerard smirked. “College man. We’d all be better off if everyone had a mandatory tour of duty in the service after high school. It made a world of difference for me.”
Newman had heard Gerard’s pontifications on mandatory service more times than he cared to remember. He thanked the captain, reiterated his offer of help, which elicited another smirk from Gerard, and returned to his cubicle.
He wasted no time in sending the photos to his contact number, and wasn’t surprised when he received a response less than a minute later.
CALL
This was not a conversation he could risk having overheard. He hurried to a small, single-head restroom near the break room and locked the door. Inside, he turned on the water and retreated to the stall before making his call.
“You sent the wrong attachment.” Not so much as a hello. “What the hell is this picture you sent me, anyway?” The voice belonged to the man who had first contacted him with the business proposition.
“No, really, that’s it. That was the only thing in the envelope.”
“The next two words out of your mouth had better be ‘April Fool’ or else my employers are going to be very unhappy with both of us.”
“I’m serious.” Newman forced himself to remain calm, though his heart was racing. What kind of people had he gotten himself hooked up with? “That is what the girl turned over to my captain.”
“And you’re certain it was the right envelope?” Suspicion lay beneath every word. “If you’re messing with me, you won’t see one penny of the money. And that’s only if they take the news well. If they don’t…”
If I don’t get that money, certain other people are going to be after me, too. Either way, I’m toast, Newman thought. “I’m one hundred percent sure. I saw the girl take the envelope into the captain’s office.”
“Fine.” The caller gave an exasperated sigh. “What about the back? You didn’t send me a picture of the flip side.”
Newman froze. Had he even looked at the back? Surely he had taken a quick glance to see if anything was there. He must have looked at it, seen nothing, and just taken pictures of the front. In any case, he wasn’t going to tell this guy that he might have overlooked something that simple. No way was he going to make this fellow any angrier than he already was.
“The back was blank. What you’ve got right there is everything.” He held his breath, wondering what the reply would be, and what it might bode for his future well-being.
“All right, whatever. I don’t get why this thing is such a big deal, but that’s not for you and me to decide. We do need to make sure this is the real thing, and the girl didn’t pull some sort of switch on us. I’ll check her place. You find out if she might have decided to stay somewhere else.”
It was a good thing Newman was in the head, because he felt like he was going to throw up. He’d agreed to provide information, not help track down and interrogate innocent women. He hoped the man had nothing in mind more serious than interrogation. He swallowed hard. “I understand. Do you have her name?”
“Yeah, it’s Kaylin Maxwell.”
Thirty minutes and the walls were already closing in on Kaylin. She sipped a cup of hot tea, which was not bad for a complimentary hotel brand, and tried to relax. It was lunchtime, but she had little appetite.
Her conversation with Thomas’s dean had been a waste of time. The man claimed to have no connections in South America, but promised her he would “ask around.” The call to her congressman’s office was equally fruitless. She’d left a message with a skeptical-sounding aide, who asked that she email him with the details so he could look into it, whatever that meant.