Читать книгу Gone Missing - Camy Tang - Страница 11

THREE

Why would Fiona disappear after talking to Martin? As far as Clay knew, they were still on comfortable terms. Maybe not chummy, but not at odds with each other. And Martin wouldn’t do anything to hurt Fiona, no matter what he’d done to Clay.

The memories, more bitter than medicine, burned his tongue and throat, and he swallowed to get them out of his system. Even after all these years, it still made him react as if his stepfather’s utter rejection of him had happened yesterday.

“Her father?” Rufus said. Clay had forgotten he was still there. “Now that’s interesting. Fiona never seemed happy when she talked about her daddy. And she certainly wasn’t happy that man had come to talk to her that day.”

Joslyn had been shocked when Clay had said the man was Martin, but now she looked thoughtful. “Can you remember anything else?” she asked Rufus.

He pursed his mouth, but then shook his head. “Sorry, I didn’t hear anything that they said, and that’s about all I saw.”

Joslyn handed him her business card. “If you remember anything else, give us a call.”

“Sure thing.”

As they headed out of the museum, Clay said, “You didn’t seem surprised that Fiona and Martin hadn’t seemed very friendly that day. Fiona had always been pretty close to him.”

Joslyn tilted her head. “Well, she was closer to Martin when I first knew her, but, especially just before she left Los Angeles, he seemed to annoy her or upset her more often. She never wanted to talk about him. I guess in the past two years, they never healed the breach.”

“He must have said something to her to make her upset. But he can’t possibly have anything to do with her disappearance. He wouldn’t hurt her.”

“But the fact is that sometime after he spoke to her, she went missing.”

“If she were in danger from Martin, he’d have taken her at the museum, and he wouldn’t have bothered to speak to her first.” Clay sighed. “Plus I have a hard time believing Fiona would be involved in anything shady that Martin might be doing.” He remembered his last big argument with Fiona in Chicago, and the reason she’d moved away from him.

“He might have helped her leave. If she was in trouble and he could help, she’d accept it.”

He remembered Fiona’s thready voice during their phone conversation. “The thing is, if she were safe with Martin, she wouldn’t have asked us for help. My phone call and your postcard happened after she disappeared.”

“Maybe it wasn’t her?”

“It sure sounded like her. I knew her voice immediately.”

Joslyn blew out a breath. “And the handwriting on that postcard was pretty close to hers. I recognized it.”

Clay rubbed his forehead. He knew what he had to do, but didn’t like being forced to approach Martin again, like a servant asking for a favor. “I have Martin’s extension at his office. I’ll give him a call and ask about Fiona.”

The look Joslyn gave him implied that she understood what he hadn’t said, saw the emotions churning in his gut whenever he thought of Martin. But she also understood, as much as he did, that Fiona came first.

There was a small hallway off the front foyer of the museum that offered them some privacy, so he headed there and pulled out his cell phone. He found Martin’s phone number and dialed.

He tasted acid at the back of his throat as the phone rang. When a man’s voice answered, he almost couldn’t speak and had to swallow before he said, “Martin? This is Clay.”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Crowley’s not available at this time. This is his assistant. May I help you?”

Clay felt both relief and frustration. “Please ask him to call his stepson as soon as possible. It’s about Fiona.” He gave his phone number, but he had a feeling Martin wouldn’t call him back. Not to be dramatic, but simply because to Martin, Clay didn’t matter.

When he hung up, Joslyn asked, “He wasn’t in?”

“I left a message, but Martin doesn’t always return my calls.” Actually, Martin almost never returned his calls.

“He might since this is about Fiona.”

“But if he’s involved in all this, he’s not going to want to talk to us.”

She sighed. “I’m afraid you’re right.”

They exited the front double doors of the museum into the bright sunlight, and the heat slapped him like a ten-foot wave. Clay had to pause to adjust to the change in temperature. That’s when he saw it.

Just a slight movement from the farthest end of the parking lot stretched out in front of them. Clay squinted in that direction, but didn’t see the movement again.

He’d lost the men following them, hadn’t he?

“What is it?” Joslyn’s voice was low but sharp. Her eyes also scanned the parking lot.

“I thought I saw...I don’t know what I saw.”

“How could they have found us?” Deep in thought, she began lightly rubbing a strange-shaped scar above her left eye. It seemed she wasn’t aware she was doing it. “Maybe your rental car...I’ll have to check it.”

“Check what?”

“Maybe they put a tracker on your car or mine when we were at Fiona’s office.”

“That’s kind of high-tech. Then again, if they’re the same guys who rigged Fiona’s house, I guess I believe they could do it.” Clay kept sweeping his gaze over the parking lot even as they headed to his car.

“Don’t unlock it just yet.” Joslyn began circling the car, checking the rims, finally dropping onto the sizzling asphalt to check the underside of the vehicle. “I don’t see anything.”

Clay hadn’t stopped looking around, but they were the only ones moving around out here. The other cars in the lot seemed empty, and he couldn’t see the white Taurus, although many of the cars were white. He’d noticed that about Phoenix—lots of white and light-colored cars, probably to combat the heat. “Let’s get out of here.”

The inside of the car was a furnace and he cranked up the air-conditioning.

“Even if we don’t know for sure that they followed us here, we should take precautions,” she said.

“Like what?”

“Maybe there’s a tracker on our clothes. Or maybe they found a way to clone one of our cell phones, and that’s how they’re trailing us.”

“People can do that?”

“It takes special equipment, but yeah.”

And men who had access to explosives might have access to that kind of equipment. “Okay, so where to?” He backed out of the parking stall.

“The nearest mall.”

Clay kept an eye out behind them as they drove, but he couldn’t spot a tail if there was one. He had done his fair share of tailing people back in his mob henchman days, but even then, he hadn’t been great at noticing them following him. How ironic that he could have used some of his criminal skills now. Still, he didn’t regret getting out of that life, paying his dues. He just wished he could feel as though he had finally settled that debt.

There was a mall a few miles away that looked rather new, with a cluster of golden-red buildings rising up at the side of a freeway, surrounded by empty lots of stone and dirt. “Is this good?” he asked.

“Yes. We don’t want anything too upscale. They may not have the burner phones we need.”

They walked through the outdoor mall until they found a phone kiosk, and Joslyn bought several burner cell phones.

“We need that many?” Clay asked.

“You never know.” After Joslyn had paid using cash, they walked away and she said, “Plus, I noticed the kiosk didn’t seem to keep good records. If anyone knows we went here, they might have a hard time figuring out which phones we bought, and their numbers.”

“That’s good thinking.” He’d had to find people for his bosses every so often, but it had never been an intricate business like this, and he’d never had to try not to be found.

The next stop was clothes shopping, so they could replace the ones they were wearing, just in case they were being tracked that way. There wasn’t an all-in-one clothing shop at this mall, so they went to a men’s store first. “I can’t just get athletic shorts and a T-shirt?” he asked her.

“If we need to talk to people, they’ll respond better if you’re better-clothed.”

“I don’t need a suit, do I?” Clay inwardly groaned. He wasn’t uncomfortable wearing a suit, but in this heat, it would be torture, even though all of the places had air-conditioning.

Joslyn’s eyes twinkled like chips of amber, as if she could guess what he was thinking. “No. Just something that doesn’t look like you just played basketball with the fellas.”

He found some khaki shorts and a short-sleeved polo shirt, which he wore out of the store, and carried his old clothes in a bag. He caught Joslyn looking at him appreciatively as he stood in line to pay. When she saw he had noticed, she blushed and turned away.

Other women had given him double takes often enough for him not to be embarrassed by it, especially since he’d grown stronger and dropped some of his body fat through his training at his local mixed martial arts gym. But Joslyn’s glances somehow made him stand a little taller.

They headed to a women’s clothing store next. Clay scanned the faces in the crowd, and because of his height, he could see over most heads, but he didn’t notice anyone who looked like the men in the white Taurus. It was hard to tell if anyone was following them in the crowd since most people were going from store to store, like they were, so he saw several people more than once.

Clay was used to women who browsed slowly along the clothing racks, but Joslyn surprised him by glancing quickly over the clothes and grabbing an outfit similar to what she was wearing—khaki pants and a navy blue polo shirt.

He didn’t know why he did it, but his hand closed over hers as she lifted the hanger off the rack. “Wait. You’re not getting that, are you?”

She frowned at him. “Of course I am.”

“Look, I’m no fashion expert, but how about we get you something that matches what I’ve got?”

“It matches. Polo shirt, khakis.”

“Not for a girl. It makes you look like a sales clerk.”

“But it’s what you’re wearing.”

He couldn’t quite explain it, and he was muddling things up by trying, so he looked around, and then grabbed a sundress in light blue and brown. “How about this?”

She looked at him as if he’d grown two heads. “I don’t...wear dresses.”

He stared at her. “Ever?”

“Well, I’ve worn dresses, of course, but usually...” She looked flustered. “I don’t know, it’s just kind of...girly.”

“But you’re a girl.”

“I know that.” She glared at him.

He tried another tactic. “You said it yourself—if we talk to other people, they respond better if we’re better clothed. It’s less intimidating if we look like a couple. And we’d look more like a couple if you wear a dress rather than pants and a polo shirt.”

She knit her brows as if she wasn’t sure she quite believed him, but she took the dress and put it back. He was about to argue when she said, “It’s the wrong size.” She grabbed another one and headed to the changing rooms.

Clay blew out a breath. She was nothing like the other women he’d known. Joslyn seemed more masculine in some ways, carrying herself as if unaware of her body, and yet she was so beautiful.

She stepped out of the changing room, and despite the scowl on her face, the image of her in the sundress made his heart stop for a moment. Her collarbones rose above the modest neckline and her arms were bare, showing off her delicate bone structure. The skirt swirling above her knees floated around the curves of her figure.

“What is it?” She looked faintly alarmed.

“Nothing,” he said quickly. “You’re just...you look captivating.” The word was more romantic than he’d intended, but it just popped out, and it described exactly what she was.

Joslyn turned a deep red and looked away. It seemed as if she were struggling with some memory. Then she took a deep breath and seemed to regain her composure. “Is this fine?” Her voice was businesslike.

He couldn’t help it. He reached out to run the backs of his fingers down the side of her face.

She stilled, like a deer in the woods, her amber eyes wide. Her skin was soft, and the feel of it sent tingles up his hand, his forearm, his shoulder.

Then someone accidentally bumped into him from behind, and the moment was over.

“I’ll go pay for this.” She walked away before he could say anything.

Not that he could have said anything. That one touch had shaken him, and he wasn’t sure why or what to do about it.

Nothing. He was a man haunted by his past mistakes, and no woman would want to saddle herself with that.

They went to a shoe store to get new loafers for Clay and sandals for Joslyn, which were a far cry from the heavy Doc Martens she’d been wearing, but which matched the dress better and lengthened her legs even more. At the store, she was also able to get a new purse, as large as a tote bag.

“Do you really think we’ve got trackers on our clothes?” he asked as they walked back to the car.

“Better to be safe than sorry. We should probably throw them in the trash...” She stared at the parking stall. “Wasn’t our car here?” Instead of his gold-colored Nissan rental, a silver pickup truck stood in its spot.

“Maybe we’re on the wrong row.” He strode down a different one, but he was almost certain it was wrong. He remembered that they’d gotten out of the car and the section had led directly to the children’s clothing store at the edge of the mall.

They circled the lot, and Clay hit the button on the remote as he walked, but there was nothing. Finally they returned to the spot he’d thought he’d parked the rental.

There was no denying it. Someone had stolen his car.

* * *

“This is too coincidental.” Joslyn could only stare at the pickup truck. It must have parked in their spot right after their car had been taken.

“But what would anyone have to gain by stealing a rental car?” A muscle twitched in Clay’s jaw.

“I don’t know.”

Clay’s hands opened and closed into fists as he paced in front of the truck. The action reminded her a little of Tomas when he became angry, and she couldn’t stop the blip of panic at the sight.

God had protected her once, and she’d trusted that He’d protect her again, especially if she was careful about the situations she’d put herself into. But since coming to Phoenix and meeting Clay, the situation had gotten more and more unpredictable.

Yet a part of her seemed to sense that while Tomas had let his temper get out of control, Clay wouldn’t cross that line.

Then again, she’d been wrong about Tomas. How could she know that she wouldn’t be wrong about Clay?

“Let’s get a cab to Fiona’s workplace, since my car is there,” she said.

Clay blew out a long breath and put his hands on his hips, then his back lost that stiffness and he turned to her with an expression still frustrated, but calmer. “You’re right. I’ll call them now. And I have to call the rental company, too.”

Joslyn was surprised she hadn’t had to do more than suggest it. Tomas would have said... But Clay wasn’t Tomas, was he?

In that clothing store, the way he’d looked at her had made her feel...

She hadn’t been attracted to a man in a long time. Her last relationship had been so disastrous that she had walled off her heart and her senses. But now it seemed she was changing, and she wasn’t sure she wanted it that way. She still felt vulnerable after all she’d lost.

She closed her mind to that thought. She couldn’t think about her losses, because then the pain would grip her again and it would take too much time and effort to make it let go.

Her eyes refocused on Clay, who was on the phone with a cab company. Fiona had spoken warmly, although a bit sadly, about her brother. She could see aspects of Fiona in Clay, their friendliness to others, their protectiveness. And like Fiona, Clay made Joslyn think differently about herself.

At the clothing store, he had made her feel feminine. She was used to being around men because of her major in software engineering, but even the women she met had been tomboyish like her.

But not Fiona. She’d tried to get Joslyn out of her shell, going out more, interacting with other people more.

Clay had pulled her even further out, shattering her habit of thinking of herself as “one of the guys.” He’d had difficulty in explaining why, but he’d wanted her to wear that dress. And she didn’t understand why she’d listened to him.

After all, Tomas had done the same thing—bought her dresses, told her she was beautiful. Since that episode in her life, she’d retreated to her old fashion sense, which consisted of pants and shirts, practical garments that were similar to what the other engineers wore. So why had she listened to Clay about the sundress? Wasn’t this a bad thing?

Luckily she’d brought her side flashbang gun holster with her on this trip, so she hadn’t had to worry about a visible gun harness for her firearm. She’d only recently gotten her Concealed Carry Permit, since she started working for the O’Neill Agency.

Clay hung up. “The cab should be here in a few minutes. And the rental company said they’d file the police report since they have GPS tracking on the car.”

“Speaking of trackers, since we’re dumping our clothes, maybe we should ditch our cell phones, too, in case they managed to put a tracker in them or clone them.”

“No, wait,” Clay said. “Let’s keep our cell phones for a little while.”

“We should at least dismantle them so they can’t trace the GPS—”

“No, keep them on. I have an idea.”

But before she could tell him, the cab arrived. It drove them to Fiona’s company parking lot so she could pick up her car. When the cab had left, Joslyn asked, “What now?”

“Let’s go to my hotel.”

“But the men after us will know you’ll go back there.”

“It’s what I’m hoping for,” Clay said.

She looked at him strangely. “Does this have to do with the cell phones?”

“Yup. Let’s go.”

His hotel was close to Fiona’s house, which was unfortunately halfway across town, so it took them the better part of an hour before they were finally pulling into the hotel parking lot. There were a couple police squad cars parked outside the front doors. Clay’s shoulders were bunched as he saw them. Joslyn wondered if it was a throwback to his time working for that mob family. He certainly wouldn’t have been happy to see the police back then.

However, as she drove past the squad cars, there was suddenly loud shouting. She instinctively hit the brakes.

Then they were surrounded by police officers. Joslyn glanced at Clay, but he had the same perplexed look. “What do we do?” she asked.

“Get out of the car, I guess.”

She turned off the engine and slowly got out of the car. Clay opened the passenger side door and cautiously stood up, his hands raised.

And instantly the officers were slamming him face-first against the side of the car and slapping handcuffs on him.

“What’s going on?” Joslyn said. The officers weren’t bothering with her.

“Clay Ashton, you’re under arrest,” one officer said.

“For what?” he demanded.

“A hit-and-run accident. You put a kid in the hospital.”