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“Afraid you’re out of luck. I’ve been a teetotaler these many moons.”
“You’re not serious.”
“I lost the urge to die.”
“Not all bad, I guess.” He had a way of looking at people as though he really saw them, and he turned that intensity on her. “I hear you’ve done well for yourself.”
“No complaints.” She’d built her career one client at a time, with no one to rely on but herself, and she was proud of that. “What about Mad Jack? Now that you’ve won the rock wars, what do you do for an encore?”
“The rock wars can’t ever be won. You know that. There’s always another album, another shot at the top of the charts, and, if that doesn’t happen, the inevitable reinvention.” He made his way to the edge of the pond, picked up a rock, and flung it far out into the pond, where it made a quiet splash. “I’d like to see Dean before I leave.”
“So you can reminisce about the good times? Lots of luck. He hates you almost as much as he hates me.”
“Then what are you doing here?”
“It’s a long story.” Something else she wouldn’t go into with him.
He turned back to her. “One big happy family, aren’t we?”
Before she could reply, a flashlight beam ricocheted toward them, and Blue shot out of the path. “Riley’s gone!”
To keep herself from falling mute again, Blue pretended Jack Patriot didn’t exist and focused only on April. “I’ve searched the house, the caravan, that mousy barn.” She shuddered. “She can’t have gone far.”
“How long has she been missing?” April said.
“Maybe half an hour. She said she wanted to finish her painting before she had to go. I went out to burn the trash like you showed me, and when I came back, she’d disappeared. I gave flashlights to the men who came with”—Mr. Patriot sounded ridiculous, and Jack too familiar—“with Riley’s father—and they’re looking now.”
“How could she do this?” Jack said. “She’s always been so quiet. She’s never caused any trouble.”
“She’s scared,” April told him. “Take my car and look along the lane.”
Jack agreed. After he set off, Blue and April searched the cottage then struck out for the farmhouse, where they found Jack’s entourage poking ineffectively around the garden while the lone woman sat on the back step, smoking a cigarette and talking on her cell. “There are a hundred places Riley could hide,” April said. “Assuming she’s still somewhere on the property.”
“Where else could she go?”
April searched the house again while Blue rechecked the caravan and toolshed. They met up on the front porch. “Nada.”
“She took her backpack,” April said.
Jack pulled up to the house and climbed out of April’s Saab. Blue retreated into the shadows so she didn’t embarrass herself in front of him again. Dean should be coping with this, not her.
“No sign of Riley,” Jack said as he approached the porch.
“I’ll bet she’s watching the house,” April said quietly. “Waiting for you to leave before she comes out.”
He shoved a hand through his wiry hair then glanced over at his bodyguards emerging from the barn. “We’ll leave. Then I’ll circle back on foot.”
Only after the cars had pulled away did Blue emerge from the corner. “Wherever she is, I’m sure she’s scared.”
April rubbed her temples. “Do you think we should call the police…the sheriff…whoever?”
“I don’t know. Riley’s hiding; she hasn’t been abducted, and if she sees a police car pull up…”
“That’s what worries me.”
Blue gazed into the darkness. “Let’s give her some time to think this through.”
Dean slowed as his headlights picked out a man walking down the side of the lane toward the farmhouse. He flicked on his high beams. The man turned and shielded his eyes. Dean looked closer. Mad Jack Patriot…
