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“No, nothing like that.”
“When did you see her last?”
“About four hours ago. Can you get out an APB on her?”
“Yes. And I’ll phone the state police. Any idea what might have happened to her?”
Devine was about to accuse the entire Bing family including Guillaume, but didn’t think that would elicit extra effort from Harper to find Alex. “No. Call me if you hear or see anything.”
“What will you do?” asked Harper, but Devine had already ended the call.
Devine took a photo on his phone of the partially done picture and ran back to the main house. He had noted that various keys hung from a key holder in the kitchen. He found the key to Dak’s Harley and ran back out. Harper had had the motorcycle brought back here after Dak was shot. Devine pulled off the cover, fired up the bike, and first drove to the outbuildings on the possibility that Alex might have gone there for some reason, but they were all empty, except for the skittish gold-plated elvers in their tubs.
He tried calling her phone again, without luck. Then he phoned Campbell and told him what was happening. He gave his boss Alex’s phone number.
“See if you can track it and let me know,” he said. “As fast as you can!”
He drove aimlessly on the Harley for a few minutes while trying to get a handle on what had happened.
Shit. Diversion?
In combat the forces Devine was fighting against would often use diversionary tactics to achieve their tactical goals. The classic example was detonating a small bomb to draw in first responders and then setting off a second, larger explosive to kill as many Americans as possible.
The dinner invitation was a diversion. While I was filling my face and listening to bullshit from Guillaume, her uncle was snatching Alex.
But then Devine thought some more.Did I say or do anything that could have prompted their taking Alex?
Because it was a risk, a big one, to do so when they probably knew that Devine had no proof of anything that would harm them.
He went back over everything he’d said. Until he arrived at the answer and groaned.
You told her that you believed it wasn’t a stranger that attacked Alex. That it was someone she knew, and maybe knew well. And Guillaume figured the only way you could have known that was if Alex told you. So they know she’s starting to remember.
He turned the Harley around and hit the throttle.
CHAPTER
77
THE GATES TO THE BINGmansion did not open this time, so he nimbly scaled the fence and dropped down to the other side. The rain had lessened, but the black clouds and the approaching growls of thunder and flashes of lightning in the distance promised a hell of a storm in a short while.
The house was dark, the only illumination the landscape lights.
He looked in one of the windows but saw nothing helpful. He ran around to the side and found a wall encircling the entire rear of the property. He quickly scaled it and dropped to the grass. The rear grounds were impressive, with a pool, now winterized, a large fire pit, a putting green, tiered landscaping as the ground sloped toward the bluffs overlooking the ocean, and what looked to be a guesthouse that resembled the main house but in miniature.
He checked the guesthouse first. The door was locked but he quickly picked it. He found the place empty.
He tried to pick the back door of the main house, but the lock wouldn’t open. He went around to the front and tried to do the same thing, with the same result. Devine eyed the window next to the door. He tried to remember something. Yes, there had been an alarm pad next to the front door. He looked in the window and in the reflection of a mirror on the opposite wall he saw that the alarm was not on. He put his elbow through the window, reached in, and unlocked the door.
Breaking and entering, for a good cause. I doubt Harper will see it that way.
He stopped just past the foyer. He was waiting for Guillaume or maybe her brother to rush in, see him and the shattered glass, and call the police.
But no one came. He heard nothing except his own breathing.
This place would take a long time to search thoroughly. And he didn’t have time. He eyed stairs going up and stairs going down. He doubted they would have hidden Alex on the main level.
So up or down. Heaven was up, Hell was down.
