Olivia met his eyes. “Thank you. We’ll try to be quick.”
Chapter Seventeen
Tuesday, September 21, 7:30 p.m.
Hi, Tom.” It was squealed by two pretty college girls outside the university gym, where David and Glenn had found David’s nephew Tom finishing basketball practice. Glenn’s head turned as he watched the girls’ heart-arresting, hip-swinging departure.
“Put your eyes back in your head, old man,” David said, amused. “I don’t carry a defib around on my back, you know.”
“Youth is wasted on the young,” Glenn grumbled and Tom chuckled.
“Sorry about that,” Tom said. “Let’s get away from the gym. Draws the groupies.”
David knew Tom was aware of his star-athlete status, but he was relieved that his nephew tried to stay humble.
“I don’t know,” Glenn said. “I kind of like drawing the groupies.”
Tom’s grin flashed as he led them down a sidewalk toward his dorm. “Me too.”
“As long as you only look,” David advised, as he always did. “Don’t touch.”
“I know, I know,” Tom said. “I’m not stupid, David.”
“Never thought you were.” He’d met Tom when the boy was fourteen and terrified. His mother, Caroline, had gone missing and Evie had just been rushed to a Chicago hospital, fighting for her life. Tom’s biological father, a true monster, had found them after Tom and Caroline had successfully remained hidden for years. David’s older brother, Max, in love with Caroline, had saved the day and later adopted Tom, loving him as if he’d always been a Hunter. They all did.
What David always remembered most about those horrible hours when they feared Caroline dead was the almost unnatural maturity Tom maintained. When the adults around him were losing it, Tom stayed calm, focused. Since then, David had watched him grow into a young man who made the family proud.
They stopped at a picnic table and Tom perched on it, propping one of his huge feet on his basketball. “So, beyond ogling girls, what brings you two here?”
David sat on the table, Glenn on the bench. “We need a hacker,” David said baldly.
Tom laughed, then sobered. “You’re serious.”
“Oh yeah.” David told him what happened and Tom paled.
“I had lunch with Grandma at the Deli and she never mentioned any of this.”
“It hadn’t happened yet,” David said. “It was at about two.”
“When she was back at your place.” Tom shook his head. “My God, if she’d been in your place and if that crazy guy had gone there.”
“Exactly,” Glenn said, all of his prior levity gone. “That’s why we’re here.”
“We want information on the Moss Web site,” David said. “Who designed, owns, maintains it. Who’s visited it. Do you have any geek friends who can help us?”
Tom nodded grimly. “Hell, yeah. You’re looking at him.”
David’s eyes widened. “You? No way.”
“Me.” He aimed a sidelong glance at David. “I told you I was bagging groceries last summer when I went home for summer break. And I did, part-time. The rest of the time I worked for Ethan. I actually worked for him the past few summers. He pays really well. I made double working for him compared to bagging groceries, in half the time. Sorry.”
David sighed. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Didn’t see much need to. Salt in the wound and all that.”
His shoulders sagged. “You knew?” Who hadn’t known he was in love with Dana?
“Sorry. It was kind of obvious. Only if you were looking, of course.”
David’s face heated. “Well, hell.”
Glenn cleared his throat. “I take it Ethan is the husband of the unrequited thing?”
David rolled his eyes, thoroughly embarrassed now. “Yes. God. Back to our point. You can find out all we want to know about the Moss Web site?”
“And nobody will even know I’ve been there.”
“What is this Ethan?” Glenn asked. “Some CIA spy guy?”
“Kind of,” David said uncomfortably. “Does network, shadowy, PI kind of stuff.”
“Ooh.” Glenn winced. “Tough competition.”
David scowled down at him. “Thank you.”
“Just getting back for the defib comment,” Glenn replied cheerfully. “So, young man, you won’t get caught?”
“Nope. I’ve got a study date at eight, but I’ll do it when I’m done and call you.”
“Thanks, kid.” David stood up and met his nephew’s solemn blue eyes. “You’re sure? I don’t want to drag you into anything dangerous. Your mother would kill me.”
“Everybody says that, but Mom wouldn’t. She was doing the dangerous work all those years, picking up families in bus stops in the middle of the night. Hiding them from abusive dads.” He shrugged. “This is nothing compared to that.”
Glenn’s eyes had gone wide. “You have to tell me about this.”
“Unrequited Thing ran a secret shelter for battered women leaving their spouses,” David explained. “Caroline, Tom’s mother, was her right hand and Evie worked for her, too. Olivia’s sister, Mia, was also in on it, but more discreetly, being a cop. They gave lots of women new starts-new IDs, job skills. Even money.”
“And what did you do?” Glenn asked.
David smiled, but sadly. “I fixed the roof, her car, and anything else that broke.”
“I see,” Glenn said, quietly now, and David thought he probably did.
“Who’s watching Grandma?” Tom asked.
“Noah and Evie.” David’s brows lifted. “And I’ve got news.”
Tom’s face broke into the high-wattage grin that made college girls swoon. “Noah finally popped the question, huh?”
“Yeah. And Evie’s smiling.”
Tom’s grin dimmed and he swallowed hard. “Good. That’s good.” Abruptly he hopped off the table and took off, waving good-bye over his shoulder. “I’ll call you.”
David watched him go, once again feeling his own eyes sting.
“And?” Glenn asked. “That was?”
“Family,” David said thickly. “Evie is Tom’s oldest friend. They grew up together, in Unrequited Thing’s shelter. Her happiness has been on his wish list for a long time.”
“Does Unrequited Thing have a name, son?” Glenn asked gently.
“Dana,” David said, then smiled. “I used to dread hearing her name after she married Ethan, dreaded saying it even more.”
“And now?”
“Now… it’s okay.”
“Sounds like this Dana was dedicated to serving others.”
“She was, to the exclusion of everything else. Used to make me nuts, her going after those families in the middle of the night at the bus station in downtown Chicago. Sometimes the husbands would come after her, threaten her, but she didn’t seem to care if she lived or died. But that was then.”
“What changed?”
“She met Ethan. Figured out that there was more to life than…” He stopped, then sighed. “Than helping other people.”
“At the exclusion of everything else,” Glenn murmured.
“I bet you think you’re pretty clever, old man.”
“Yep.” Glenn stood, stretched his back. “I do.”
Tuesday, September 21, 7:40 p.m.
It didn’t take long to find Joel’s shoes. They were in his closet, under a pile of dirty laundry. “Kane,” Olivia said. She held up one of the shoes, sniffed it, then turned it over. “Smells like smoke and looks like glue.”
“Then he was there,” Mr. Fischer said faintly. He stood in the doorway. Mrs. Fischer had stayed in the living room with the rabbi. Olivia couldn’t say she blamed her.
“It looks like it, sir.”
“I don’t see any pill bottles,” Kane said, looking through Joel’s drawers and under his mattress. “CSU can search for residue, but…” He let the thought trail. Usually a kid who did drugs left some evidence behind in his room and Kane was good at finding it.
“Did he ever stay anywhere else?” Olivia asked Mr. Fischer.