Innocent Monster by Reed Farrel Coleman

Author:Reed Farrel Coleman
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781935562207
Publisher: Adams Media
Published: 2011-06-01T05:00:00+00:00

NINETEEN

When I got back to my apartment, there were several sheets of paper sitting in the bin of my fax machine. Apparently the promise of cash money had motivated Devo and Brian Doyle to burn the midnight and pre-dawn oil. PIs are like actors. No matter how good times are, they don’t tend to turn down paying jobs. I scanned the faxes, but put them aside to call McKenna. On the ride over, I figured out how to play it to keep Sarah’s name out of it. My guess was that even if McKenna didn’t totally buy it, he would be too busy to realize it or care.

“Almost four weeks,” Sarah said, but time was fluid and its viscosity was dependent upon your point of view. To McKenna it was an eternity. To the kidnapper—that’s what this was, a kidnapping—it might not seem that long. If the fifty grand wasn’t enough, Sashi might still be alive. Her continued good health would be in his best interest. On the other hand, if he panicked or if he decided to quit while he was ahead, she was dead and all the machinations of all the other players were moot. If Sashi were still alive, I couldn’t imagine what the month in captivity felt like.

When I got McKenna on the phone, he sounded upbeat. I thought he might somehow have gotten word of the ransom demand and payoff. I was wrong. He had other morbidly good news.

“The teddy bear that was left in your car was hers, Sashi’s,” he said. “The parents IDed it. The kid’s beagle had chewed its leg up a little bit when she was younger and the teeth marks were there. We’re running DNA tests now to confirm it.”

“They didn’t notice the teddy bear was gone all this time?”

“Guess not.”

“I got something for you too.”

“What?”

“It’s a guess, but I think I know what they’ve been hiding from us.”

“What’s that?”

“My bet is there was a ransom demand.”

“Get the fuck out of here! The kid was swiped, they paid ransom money, and what, it slipped their minds?”

“I think they were scared, McKenna. What if they’d already called you when they got the demand? It doesn’t take much to figure out why they’d keep this between them.”

“Bullshit.”

“Go talk to them and see if I’m not right. I feel it in my kishkas.”

“Are you kidding me? If I acted on every gut feeling I had, I’d still be riding around in a fucking patrol car or giving out speeding tickets on the LIE.”

“I’m an investigator too, remember? I got a feeling and it couldn’t hurt to confront them with it like you already know it’s true.”

“You got a point, Prager. Even if you’re wrong, it might shake ‘em up a little and get them to give up what they’ve really been hiding. Maybe between that and the shit we get from the bear and your car, we can finally make some progress.”

“At this point, it’s worth a try, right?”

“Okay, all right. I’ll let you know how it goes.

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