Page 78 of The Attercop

“I noticed that, too,” Gary replied, “but there are a couple of numbers that have been called more frequently than the others in recent weeks.”

“I’ll look into those ones first. I’ll let you know what comes up…if anything,” Charlie said, dejectedly.

Sam put his hand on Charlie’s shoulder. “I’m not giving up, and neither should you. Okay? He’s only been gone for a day. We’ll find him, I promise.”

“Sure,” Charlie replied. He turned away. “I’m going to get started on these phone records.”

“Come on, Sam,” Gary said. “Why don’t we leave Charlie to his work. You and I can go get some food. Can we bring you anything back, Charlie?”

“Sure. Whatever you’re having.”

The second Gary and Sam left, Charlie went to his computer with the list. He started with the first of the two most frequently called numbers and did a reverse lookup on it. It was unlisted. On a whim, he called the number. The call went immediately to voicemail.

“Thanks for calling. I can’t come to the phone right now. Please leave a message at the tone.”

The voice was smooth and rich—possibly a woman’s. Charlie felt like he’d heard it before, but he couldn’t place it. Someone from his past? He decided to leave a message.

“Hi. This is Charlie Watts from Declan Hunt Investigations calling in regards to Jules Slate. I’m trying to locate her and I’m hoping that you can help. Would you please give me a call at…” he recited the office number, then hung up.

Charlie picked the next most frequently called number on the list, and followed the same routine. This time, a reverse lookup yielded a hit. Charlie swore under his breath. Thenumber belonged to Tyler Chipping, the person he had been investigating in January—the person he had gotten fired from his job—the person who had attacked him outside the office on a wintry night earlier this year. Charlie’s heart raced.

The fastest way to nail down someone young was to look up their social media accounts. Charlie did a quick search and located Tyler’s Facebook page—a page Charlie hadn’t visited for some time. Tyler’s friends list was more highly populated than the last time he’d looked at it. Charlie scrolled through the photos attached to the page and spotted a familiar face, but one with a surprising name—Julie Chipping. The image associated with her account was a photo of Jules.

One click took him to Julie’s page. A quick scroll down and Charlie found what he was looking for. There was a photo of Julie and Tyler. The caption read,Me and Ty, the best brother a girl could have. Anything for you, Bro!

Charlie was pissed at himself. Why hadn’t he done an online image search for Jules’ picture in the first place? It was what he’d done in the past when looking into a person. He hadn’t taken Jules’ case seriously and look what had happened. All this time they’d been looking for someone who had a grudge against Declan. Instead, maybe they should have been looking for someone who hated Charlie.

Did Tyler and Julie kidnap Declan to get back at me?

Then a memory flashed through Charlie’s brain. He had accessed Tyler’s work computer during the previous investigation, and had discovered a large stash of images and articles about Declan. At the time, Charlie and Declan had brushed it off as a harmless fixation.

Maybe not so harmless now.

Charlie went back to Tyler’s picture on his Facebook page. He compared it to the CCTV images of the man at Bar-None who’d beaten up Angel. With different clothing and facial hair, it couldbe Tyler. But if itwashim, what was the Monarch Holdings connection?

Charlie rechecked the results of the reverse lookup on Tyler’s number and found an address on the fourteenth floor of a condo tower in Northwest Calgary.

He grabbed the phone and called Gary’s number.

“Hey, Charlie. What’s up?”

“The phone records paid off. I think I’ve got a lead on Declan. There’s a guy, Tyler Chipping—he had a grudge against me and a creepy fixation with Declan. More than that, I found out that he’s Jules’ brother. I’ve got an address for him. What do we do?”

Gary paused on the other end of the line. “I’ll get a police unit to go over there. We can meet up with them and see if this Tyler guy’s at home. Give me the address and we’ll see you over there.”

“We need to get there fast,” Charlie said.

“I know, Charlie,” Gary replied. “Meet us at the front door of the building. Do not, I repeat, do not enter the building without police presence. Understand?”

“I promise.”

Charlie ran to his car. He spun out of the parking lot and grasped the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles turned white.

By the time Charlie got to Tyler’s building, a police cruiser was waiting in front, along with Sam and Gary. There was a young officer standing beside the car. Gary made a quick introduction. “Craig Smith, this is Charlie Watts.”

The young officer just nodded.

“Okay,” Gary started. “This is the way this is going down…”