Page 44 of The Missing Couple

Charly froze.

Billie turned around. Charly followed his move.

“You any relation to the Rolling Stones lead man?”

Billie laughed. “Not to my knowledge.”

“Too bad, man, he’s a badass.”

Charly waited to do an about-face when Billie did. They walked to the SUV, climbed in and headed back to the road. “Good move offering the reward. Perry will be spreading the news all over town.”

“I just hope he decides he’d rather have the money than to keep a secret.”

Charly turned fully toward him, studied his profile. “You believe he knows something?”

“He didn’t ask any questions about the situation,” Billie pointed out as he navigated the SUV back toward town.

“Which possibly means he already knew all there was to know.”

“That was the impression I got.” Billie braked for an intersection. “Most people would be curious about the details. He wasn’t curious at all, which tells me he already knows something.”

“Wow.” Charly leaned more deeply into her seat. “That makes total sense.” She turned to Billie again. “I’ll bet as soon as we left he made a call to Kerrick to find out why he didn’t mention talking to us.”

“Or,” Billie suggested, “why he didn’t mention there was a reward.”

“Kerrick will be furious that we didn’t tell him.” She was starting to like this investigator gig more and more.

“And,” Billie went on, “he’ll wonder if we didn’t because we believe he’s involved. If my read on Hillard is accurate, his buddy Kerrick will be worried that ten thousand dollars might buy his friend’s loyalty.”

“I get it. You’re creating friction in the ranks. Prompting action from the players.”

“Exactly.” He flashed her a grin that made her heart beat faster. “Now we go on to the next friend of Kerrick Rogers and then the next one after that until his concern for keeping his secrets is more than he can contain.”

“He’ll do something and that will…” She shrugged. “Maybe give us information we don’t have now.”

“It will certainly confirm our suspicions about Rogers. He’ll inform whoever is over him in the network and that will cause a reaction.”

Made total sense. The simplicity of it had her anxious for the next step.

“As much as I dislike Kerrick,” Charly admitted, “I wouldn’t have believed he would do something like this.”

“If our suspicions are correct,” Billie explained, “Rogers may have been involved in this sort of thing for a long time. Maybe longer than we know. But my impression at this point is that he’s a low-level player. We need him to prompt someone higher up. That’s how we find Briana and Martin.”

Charly hoped that happened soon. The longer the couple was missing… Well, she didn’t have to imagine the rest. She knew what would happen.

The Boat Fixer

AL-79, 10:15 a.m.

FINN GRAYSON HAD three employees and not one of them knew where he was. But all three agreed that he’d left only five or so minutes before they arrived and no one had any idea where he’d gone.

Billie left his card and a request that Finn call him as soon as possible regarding the missing couple. He went to great lengths to include as much information as possible, including the hefty reward. All eyes had been on him when he and Charly walked out of the repair shop.

“What now?” she asked as she climbed back into the passenger seat.

“Now we drive back by Hillard’s place and see if he has a visitor.”

“You think he called Finn and they’re having an emergency meeting.” Charly’s pulse sped up. They could be getting close.