“Use your imagination, Henri. Surprise us.”
They would pay more, of course, for additional contracted services, and after a while the prospect of more money softened the edges of Henri's bad mood without touching the core of his contempt for the Peepers.
They wanted more?
So be it.
By the time his second cup of coffee was finished, he had mapped out a new plan. He dug a wireless phone out of his pocket and began making calls.
Chapter 9
That night snow fell lightly on Levon and Barbara McDaniels's house in Cascade Township, a wooded suburb of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Inside their efficient but cozy three-bedroom brick home, the two boys slept deeply under their quilts.
Down the hall, Levon and Barbara lay back-to-back, soles touching across the invisible divide of their Sleep Number bed, their twenty-five-year connection seemingly unbroken even in sleep.
Barbara's night table was stacked with magazines and half-read paperbacks, folders of tests and memos, a crowd of vitamin supplements around her bottle of green tea. Don't worry about it, Levon, and please don't touch anything. I know where everything is.
Levon's nightstand favored his left brain to Barb's right: his neat stack of annual reports, annotated copy of Against All Reason, pen and notepad, and a platoon of electronics – phones, laptop, weather clock – all lined up four inches from the table's edge, plugged into a power strip behind the lamp.
The snowfall had wrapped the house in a white silence – and then a ringing phone jarred Levon awake. His heartbeat boomed, and his mind reeled in instant panic. What was happening?
Again the phone rang, and this time Levon made a grab for the landline.
He glanced at the clock, which read 3:14 a.m., and wondered who the hell would be calling at this hour. And then he knew. It was Kim. She was five hours behind them. He figured she'd gotten that mixed up somehow.
“Kim? Honey?” Levon said into the mouthpiece.
“Kim is gone,” said the male voice in Levon's ear.
Levon's chest tightened, and he couldn't catch his breath. Was he having a heart attack? “Sorry? What did you say?”
Barb sat up in bed, turned on the light.
“Levon?” she said. “What is it?”
Levon held up a hand. Give me a second. “Who is this?” he asked, rubbing his chest to ease the pain.
“I only have a minute, so listen carefully. I'm calling from Hawaii. Kim's disappeared.” ”.”
Levon's fear filled him from scalp to toes with a cold terror. He clung to the phone, hearing the echo of the man's voice: “”.”
It made no sense.
“I don't get you. Is she hurt?”
No answer.
“Hello?”
“Are you listening to what I'm saying, Mr. McDaniels?”
“Yes. Who is this speaking, please?”
“I can only tell you once.”
Levon pulled at the neck of his T-shirt, trying to decide what to think. Was the man a liar, or telling the truth? He knew his name, phone number, that Kim was in Hawaii. How did he know all that?
Barb was asking him, “What's happening? Levon, is this about Kim?”
“Kim didn't show up at the shoot yesterday morning,” said the caller. “The magazine is keeping it quiet. Crossing their fingers. Hoping she'll come back.”
“Have the police been called? Has someone called the police?”
“I'm hanging up now,” said the caller. “But if I were you, I'd get on the next plane to Maui. You and Barbara.”
“Wait! Please, wait. How do you know she's missing?”
“Because I did it, sir. I saw her. I liked her. I took her. Have a nice day.”
Chapter 10
What do you want? Tell me what you want!”
There was a click in Levon's ear followed by a dial tone. He toggled the directory button, read “Unknown” where there should have been a caller ID.
Barb was pulling at his arm. “Levon! Tell me! What's happened?”
Barb liked to say that she was the flamethrower in the family and that he was the fireman – and those roles had become fixed over time. So Levon began to tell Barb what the caller had said, strained the fear out of his voice, kept to the facts.
Barb's face reflected the terror leaping inside his own mind like a bonfire. Her voice came through to him as if from a far distance. “Did you believe him? Did he say where she was? Did he say what happened? My God, what are we talking about?”
“All he said is she's gone?”
“She never goes anywhere without her cell,” Barb said, starting now to gasp for breath, her asthma kicking in.
Levon bolted out of bed, knocked things off Barb's night table, spilling pills and papers all over the carpet. He picked the inhaler out of the jumble, handed it to Barb, watched her take in a long pull.
Tears ran down her face.
He reached out his arms for her, and she went to him, cried into his chest, “Please? just call her.”
Levon snatched the phone off the blanket, punched in Kim's number, counted out the interminable rings, two, then three, looking at the clock, doing the math. It was just after ten at night in Hawaii.
Then Kim's voice was in his ear.
“Kim!” he shouted.
Barb clapped her hands over her face in relief – but Levon realized his mistake.
“It's only a message,” he said to Barb, hearing Kim's recorded voice. “Leave your name and number and I'll call you back. Byeeee.”
“Kim, it's Dad. Are you okay? We'd like to hear from you. Don't worry about the time. Just call. Everybody here is fine. Love you, honey. Dad.”
Barb was crying. “Oh, my God, Oh, my God,” she repeated as she balled up the comforter, pressing it to her face.
“We don't know anything, Barb,” he said. “He could be some moron with a sick sense of humor -”
“Oh, God, Levon. Try her hotel room.”
Sitting at the edge of the bed, staring down at the nubby carpet between his feet, Levon called information. He jotted down the number, disconnected the line, then dialed the Wailea Princess in Maui.
When the operator came on, he asked for Kim McDaniels, got five distant rings in a room four thousand miles away, and then a machine answered. “Please leave a message for the occupant of Room Three-fourteen. Or press zero for the operator.”
Levon's chest pains were back and he was short of breath. He said into the mouthpiece, “Kim, call Mom and Dad. It's important.” He stabbed the 0 button until the lilting voice of the hotel operator came back on the line.
He asked the operator to ring Carol Sweeney's room, the booker from the modeling agency, who'd accompanied Kim to Hawaii and was supposed to be there as her chaperone.
There was no answer in Carol's room, either. Levon left a message: “Carol, this is Levon McDaniels, Kim's dad. Please call when you get this. Don't worry about the time. We're up. Here's my cell phone number?”
Then he got the operator again.
“We need help,” he said. “Please connect me to the manager. This is an emergency.”
Chapter 11
Levon Mcdaniels was square-jawed, just over six feet, a muscular 165 pounds. He had always been known as a straight shooter, decisive, thoughtful, a good leader, but sitting in his red boxers, holding a dinky cordless phone that didn't connect to Kim – he felt nauseated and powerless.
As he waited for hotel security to go to Kim's room and report back to the manager, Levon's imagination fired off images of his daughter, hurt, or the captive of some freaking maniac who was planning God only knew what.
Time passed, probably only a few minutes, but Levon imagined himself rocketing across the Pacific Ocean, bounding up the stairs of the hotel, and kicking open Kim's door. Seeing her peacefully asleep, her phone switched off.