Page 57 of Night Moves
“Is that guy ever going to call?” Drake jumped up from hours of research and paced the length of the workshop and back.
“He always keeps his word.” Clay crossed his arms and glared at Drake.
Fine. Clay was mad at Drake for questioning his friend. He’d get over it.
“His word said he’d have eyes on the cabin in an hour, and it’s going on three.” Drake took long strides, pausing to give his brother a frustrated look.
“Something must’ve come up, but he’ll call. Just be patient.”
“Not his strong suit.” Erik cocked his head. “In fact, not his suit at all.”
His brothers laughed. Okay. Fine. But Drake couldn’t find the humor right now. He was getting tired of trying to be patient. Gentry could be hightailing it out of there, and they wouldn’t know where to look next. Drake wanted to be able to give Natalie positive news when he went to the cabin, where she was spending time with the kids.
Clay’s phone finally sounded in a police car woop-woop siren ringtone.
“See.” Eyeing Drake, Clay picked it up and tapped the screen. “Putting you on speaker so my brothers can hear what you found.”
“Place was dark when I arrived.” The guy’s deep voice rumbled over the speaker. “Watched it for an hour then slipped inside.”
“You what?” Drake shouted.
“No one told me not to.”
Clay shrugged. “I asked for a drive-by. Didn’t think I needed to warn him to hang back.”
“You want my report or not,” Clay’s friend said.
“Of course,” Drake snapped.
“Ignore his attitude.” Clay fired Drake a chill-out look.
Drake ignored it and stared at the phone.
“There wasn’t a sign of anyone staying in the place,” the friend said. “Nothing in the fridge. Trash was empty. Beds made. Fireplace cleaned out. And the place smelled stale. No one’s been there in some time.”
“Thanks for checking it out,” Clay said.
Drake slashed a hand across his throat to tell Clay to end the call before the guy started asking questions.
Clay rolled his eyes. “We’ll let you know if we need you to drive by again.” He punched the disconnect button and looked at Drake. “Hey, man, relax. For all of our sakes.”
“So that was a bust.” Drake looked at his brothers. “Anyone else find an actionable lead?”
Erik shook his head. “He doesn’t have any other family or friends that I could find.”
“He and his wife are both kind of odd,” Clay said. “Nothing on the wife either. No social media accounts at all.”
Drake stopped at the end of the table littered with plates from the lasagna dinner their mom had delivered so they could keep working. “Not everyone embraces social media. But not counting law enforcement professionals most do.”
Drake ran through in his head everything he knew about this couple. “Willow told me her dad didn’t believe in women working. I wonder if he controlled Tracey’s social media too.”
“Maybe he controlled everything.” Clay rested his elbows on the table. “Like her clothes, etcetera. So she goes out in the afternoon in search of some freedom. Maybe does all the things he forbids.”
“Controlling her would fit with his personality.” Erik leaned back and yawned. He looked totally exhausted and despite the work he still had to do, the guy needed a nap.
“We need to take a break. It’s been a long day.” Drake locked gazes with Erik. “And you, little brother, need to hit the sack. I need your techie brain ready and raring to go.”
“You could be right.” He stood and stretched, Pong coming to his feet next to him. “I’ll grab a couple of hours and get back to it.”
