The Chemist

Shouldn’t Alex feel better that the dog was okay? Part of her must have been hoping that she was wrong, that she’d overreacted. That it was just a mistake.

When she walked back into the living room, Val was on the floor with the dog. Einstein was curled in her lap with his head on her shoulder, and Daniel knelt beside them.

Val looked up at her, still wearing the hard-doll face. “Now is when you get to say I told you so.”

“Do you need help getting out of here?” Alex asked.

“I’ve had to disappear before. It’s been a while, but that’s not something you forget.”

Alex nodded. “I’m sorry, Val.”

“Me, too,” Val responded. “Do you think… are you going to take the dog?”

Alex blinked in surprise. “Yes.”

“Oh.” Val pressed her face into Einstein’s fur. “Gimme a minute.” Her voice came out muffled.

“Sure,” Alex said. They had a few hours. This location was the last thing Kevin would give up. He’d sent the dog back to warn them. He was fighting for them.

Besides, she still had one unlikely avenue of information, and she should probably check that out while she had access to a high-speed Internet connection. She went to the computer on the island.

Carston had been pretty tight-lipped up till now, but maybe he’d finally give something away. At the least, she should be able to construe the approximate time Kevin had been taken. Surely there would be a call to mark that. Maybe some travel. Carston was the expert on this front, not Deavers.

The tracker was an easy check. Carston’s vehicle was at his office, as usual for a workday. He might have taken another car, though. She checked the sound feed – Carston was in the office. She scrolled back to listen to his conversations.

Here was something telling. Carston had been in the office for a while – usually he got in at six, but there was activity beginning around three thirty a.m. She wanted to kick herself for not checking backward on the recording before heading out this morning.

His first call was short. Just “I’m here” and “What’s the status?” It wasn’t hard to draw conclusions from that. Someone had woken Carston up with the news and he’d headed to the office. With zero traffic, it would only have taken him ten minutes to make the drive. Factor in throwing some clothes on, brushing teeth, et cetera, and the call could have come in anywhere from two thirty to three fifteen.

She looked at the clock on her computer, calculating how long they’d had Kevin. They would have had to subdue him in the beginning, then wait for him to be fully cognizant if they’d knocked him out. Then they’d have to decide on a course of action and bring in a specialist…

Was that Carston’s second call? At three forty-five, Carston had dialed out.

“What’s the play?… I don’t like it… Fine, fine, if that’s the best option… What?… You know how I feel about it… Like you say, it’s your problem… I want updates.”

He never said much, and the words had probably a thousand possible interpretations, but she couldn’t help applying her own.

No, Kevin wasn’t dead.

There was a long stretch of silence. Typing, pacing, breathing; that was all. No calls. It didn’t sound like he left the room once. She could almost hear Carston’s anxiety and it made her more anxious than she already was. Where were his updates? Was he getting them in e-mails?

Maybe they were lucky. Maybe the specialist had to be brought in from a distance. Maybe Kevin was just being held, anticipating. That was one face of the game, and she’d played the card before – let the subject wait, visualize, panic. Let him lose the fight in his own head before it began.

Not likely, in this case. They knew Daniel was alive. They’d suspect he had other help here in the city. They would not want to give Kevin’s confederates time to escape.

The clock was ticking for Carston and Deavers, too. They’d made the call. They’d heard her pick up, then disconnect. She hadn’t called back to see if it was an accidental dial. The phone was ditched. They would guess the partner was already running.

Like she should be.

Alex came out of her intense reverie, realizing for the first time that Daniel was perched on the stool beside her, watching the reactions play across her face. Val was leaning against the counter by the sink, Einstein at her feet, also watching.

“Just a little longer,” she told them, scrubbing through the long silence in Carston’s office. She didn’t want to miss anything, but she couldn’t afford to listen through the empty spaces in real time.

She paused when his voice began, and then carefully backed up. He’d dialed out again. The tone of his voice was one hundred eighty degrees from what it had been. It was such a shift it jarred her. She wondered if she’d somehow messed up the program and pulled up an earlier recording.

It was his kindly-grandpa voice.

“I didn’t wake you, did I? How did you sleep? Yes, sorry, I have a small emergency on my plate. I had to come into the office… No, don’t cancel the plans. Take Livvy to the zoo. It’s going to get hotter tomorrow… You know I don’t have a choice in these things, Erin. I am sorry I can’t be there today, but there’s nothing I can do about it… Livvy will have a great time without me. She can tell me all about it tonight at dinner. Take lots of pictures… I can’t make any promises, but I hope to be free by dinnertime… That’s not fair… Yes, I remember that I told you this would be a light week, but you know how the job works, honey. No guarantees.”