Split Second

"Not necessarily. You can't possibly account for the whereabouts of everybody back then. Hell, Jorst could have been throwing rocks at City Hall in L.A., and we'd never be able to prove it. And finding anybody to talk about it might well be impossible. And if there's nothing in the public record, poof, that's it."

King nodded. "What you say is completely logical. But we still need to check it out. It'll cost us nothing but time."

"Yeah," said Michelle. "But I've got a bad feeling we're running out of that really fast."

55

King and Michelle slept over at a motel near Atticus and arrived back at Wrightsburg the next morning. Parks was waiting at King's house.

"Have you heard from Joan?" King asked him. "I tried last night but there was no answer."

"I talked to her yesterday evening. She found out something about Bob Scott from the stuff I brought." He told the pair about the warrant in Tennessee.

"If it's the same Bob Scott, then maybe he can lead us somewhere and get some of these questions answered," said King.

"Call Joan again, and we'll map out how we're going to play this."

King dialed Joan's number but there was still no answer. Then he called the main number for the inn where she was staying. As he listened to the front desk person, his face grew pale and he felt his knees weaken. He slammed down the phone and shouted, "Damn it!"

Parks and Michelle both stared at him.

"Sean, what is it?" she asked quietly.

King shook his head in disbelief. "It's Joan," he said. "She's been kidnapped."

Joan had been staying in a cottage set in the rear grounds of the Cedars Inn. Her purse and phone were on the floor of her room.The tray of food was untouched. The pair of shoes she'd been wearing the day before were lying on the floor; the heel of one of the shoes was broken off. The cottage had a rear door that opened to an area where a car could have been parked and Joan taken out without anyone seeing anything. When King, Michelle and Parks arrived, Chief Williams was there with some of his men, taking statements and collecting the scant evidence available.

The room attendant who'd set out to bring her food had been thoroughly questioned. He was a young man, employed at the inn for a couple of years, and was visibly shaken by what had happened. He explained that as he was bringing the food to Joan's cottage, a young woman approached him. After confirming that the food was for Joan, she identified herself as Joan's sister just arrived for a visit and said she wanted to surprise her sibling by delivering the food herself. It had all seemed innocent enough. And the girl was very pretty and had given him a twenty-dollar bill for his troubles. He'd turned over the tray and gone back to the inn. That was all he knew.

Chief Williams came up to them. "Damn it, I'm running all over the place with murders and kidnappings. This was a peaceful place not too long ago."

With the chief's permission they took the box of Bob Scott's materials Joan had been going through, and the three held a quick conference in the parking lot. Parks repeated verbatim the discussion he'd had with Joan.

"She must have been snatched pretty soon after I hung up with her. She filled me in on Bob Scott. I said Scott certainly could have turned traitor, and he would have been a perfect mole for anybody plotting to kill Ritter, although I know you're not convinced he did it. We were going to wait for you two to get back from your meeting with Kate Ramsey before planning our next steps."

King walked over and looked at Joan's BMW while Parks went inside to speak to Chief Williams. The police had already searched the car and found nothing.

Michelle walked over to him, put a hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"I should have seen this coming," he answered.

"How? You're not psychic."

"We'd talked to a lot of people. Mildred Martin was murdered right after we were with her. It's not a stretch that they'd go after Joan."

"Oryou! And what were you supposed to do, baby-sit her? I don't know the woman all that well, but I don't think she would have stood for that."

"I didn't even try, Michelle. I wasn't concerned about her safety. And now…?"

"We still have a shot at finding her. Alive."

"No disrespect, but our track record for finding people alive isn't too good."

Parks returned. "Look, I'm going to get a fix on this Bob Scott in Tennessee, and if it's the same guy, we're going down there with a bunch of folks and have us a talk. You can join us if you want."

"We want," answered Michelle for them both.

56

While Parks went off to investigate Bob Scott, Michelle and King returned to King's home. Michelle made lunch for them both but then couldn't find him. She finally spotted him sitting on the dock and joined him there.

"I made some soup and sandwiches. I'm not a big domestic type, but they're edible."

"Thanks," he said absently. "I'll be up in a minute."

Michelle sat down next to him. "Still thinking about Joan?"

He looked over at her and then shrugged.