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“Yes, ma’am.” He was young. Gauging by his physique, he availed himself of the club’s weight room often and for hours at a time. “Any word about Mr. Ford?”
“No. Which is why I’m here. Is anyone in there?”
“In the—?”
“The locker room, the locker room.” With impatience she thumped the countertop in beat with her words. “I need to go in there.” For good measure, she made her voice thready. “I want to check my husband’s locker. Maybe something he left in it will—”
“It was empty.”
“What?” Talia said with genuine dismay.
“Two detectives already came.”
“When?”
Todd scrunched up is face. “About an hour ago, I guess. They had the club manager open your husband’s locker. It was empty. Saw inside it myself.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but Gif stepped forward and laid a cautioning hand on her shoulder. “They explained that to her, Todd. Or tried to. Sergeants Locke and Menundez?”
“I never got their—”
“Was Special Agent Rudkowski with them?”
“The third guy? I think he was their boss.”
“Yes, he thinks so, too. They assured Mrs. Ford that her husband’s locker was empty, but she’s, uh, terribly distraught, as you can imagine. She insisted on checking it for herself. I volunteered to bring her.”
“You’re a detective, too?”
“Police chaplain.”
“Oh.”
“If it wouldn’t be too much trouble…”
“Well, sure. Sure.” The young attendant gave Gif a reassuring wink. “Of course you can go in, Mrs. Ford,” he said, speaking to her as though she were deranged. “I don’t think anyone’s in there. Weather’s keeping the golfers in the card room. But let me double-check. I’ll be right back.”
Gif commended her performance. Talia commended his. But as they left the country club, dejection settled over all four of them. Feeling dispirited down to his bones, Drex gave the responsibility of driving back to Gif, leaving him free to concentrate.
The abbreviated search of the house hadn’t yielded anything. The trip to the country club had been a bust. He had nothing to work with. Nothing. As before. As always. Jasper had left nothing behind to come back for. Except Talia.
He’d taken only a wedding photo and…and what?
He stirred, stilled, stirred again. “Talia, you and Jasper took roll-aboard suitcases to the airport, correct?”
“Yes.”
“One each?”
“Yes. To carry on.”
“Did you pack for him, or see what he packed?”
“No. By the time he came home from the club, I’d finished packing. I left our room to him and went down to the study to catch up on emails and business-related calls. I worked right up until time to leave for the airport.”
“Mike, in that security video showing Jasper getting into the taxi?”
“Yeah?”
