Justice for the Missing by Phillip Davis

Author:Phillip Davis [Davis, Phillip]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Peppermint Lightning Press
Published: 2020-08-14T22:00:00+00:00

18

The Usual

The expression on her son’s face was priceless as she strolled down the driveway to get in the sedan that had pulled up. She’d looked at her phone, looked at the face of the driver, and the license plate on his car, then up at her son who looked for all the world like he’d seen a spacecraft abduct his elderly mother.

Rose waved, smiled, and shouted, “I won’t be long. I’m going to visit the girls,” and hopped in the back of the car.

Sitting in a booth at a diner with her grandson a few minutes later, she said, “Oh, Matthew, you should have seen it. I’d have paid double the fare just to see that face.”

“And you didn’t tell him where you were going?”

“Nope. I said I was going to see the girls. He doesn’t know who they are, or if there are any ‘girls.’ He just knew he couldn’t argue with me because I was already gone.”

Matt smiled and shook his head. “Grandma, you’re a trip.”

“I know. It’s one of the reasons you love me.”

“It is indeed.”

Matt tucked another syrup-drenched forkful of pancakes into his mouth and sipped his coffee. Grandma Rose cut into the steak portion of the steak and eggs she’d ordered. “So, kiddo, tell me what’s going on. You sounded shaken when you called. You okay? What’s this weirdness you were getting at?”

Matthew took grandma back to the disappearing squirrel, walked her through the messages from Woodrow Wilson, the visit from Roger, the research, the sticky note in the book, and the private messages he’d sent members of The Order. He tried to recall every detail and present everything in precisely the right order. If grandma could help, he needed her to have all the information he had.

“Hmm,” she said and wiped her lips with her napkin. She had said little as he was telling the story. She asked him to clarify one or two things or to repeat some detail, but otherwise, she’d just listened, her eyes fixed intently on him, her brow creased in concentration. “What does Dianne think of all this?”

“At first she thought it was all a hoax, though neither one of us could explain why someone would pull it or what the endgame was. Now, I’m not sure. She thinks I’ve gone too far. She thinks I’m cracking up, becoming a conspiracy nut, chasing ghosts. I don’t know. My guess is it won’t be long before she hands me the number for a grief counselor so I can ‘process my loss of Rick in a healthy way.’”

“I can understand where she’s coming from, Matthew. If it wasn’t happening to you, but someone told you about all this, wouldn’t you think they were a couple pancakes short of a stack?”

“Is that what you think?”

“Not at all. Listen. I’ve been around long enough to know the truth is often stranger than fiction as they say. I also know you’re a levelheaded kid. So, I tend to think whatever this is, it’s not the creation of some part of your mind that misses your friend and needs an explanation.

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