THE PHONE BESIDE HIS bed rang five times before Edward finally climbed out of a deep sleep to answer it. “Yes?” he said over a long yawn.
“I thought you’d be awake by now.”
Edward sat up in bed trying to shake off the sleep. It was 9:30 am. “Irving? Where the hell have you been?”
“Long story. Anyway, what’s so important?”
“Where are you right now? Did you get that note I left at your house?”
“I’m at the lab. Haven’t been home in a couple of days. Like I said, it’s a long story. Again, what’s so important?”
“I need you to test something for me.”
“You do realize it’s Sunday?”
Edward stared at the phone and shook his head. “Since you’re already at your lab, maybe you won’t mind doing me a favor?”
There was a moment’s silence before Irving answered. “I guess I’ve got nothing better to do today. When can you get here?”
Edward had already left his bed and was in the washroom. He looked in the mirror and slid his hand across his face trying to decide if he could go without shaving. “I’ve got to shave, shower, have a bite to eat and drive there. Three hours top”
“What is it you want me to test?” Irving inquired.
“It’s best I explain when I’m there. Irving, is everything okay? You don’t sound like your chipper self.”
“You’ve heard the saying, ‘Life’s a bitch and then you die’? Well, I’m in the bitch stage. Talk to you when you get here.” And he hung up.”
To save time, Edward showered and shaved at the same time.
The previous evening’s barbecue for Blackwell and the other political and business dignitaries had gone better than Edward could have hoped for, especially without Karen to co-host it with him. Without the support of Charlotte and Nadia, and eventually Janet, who arrived later, he knew that he would have been the proverbial fish out of water. Once all the guests had gone, the four of them had sat around and talked about the new responsibilities Janet would be taking on should she be elected as the new provincial Member of Legislature for the district. They also discussed the pictures Hobbs had given to Edward. Constable Dickenson had wanted to keep the pictures, but Edward had been reluctant to do that because as far as he knew, these were the only copies, and he didn’t want them getting lost. After some haranguing, Edward convinced Dickenson to scan them onto his computer. At first, he had been hesitant to tell Dickenson the source of the photos since he wanted to shield Hobbs from involvement. But, after push came to shove, he relented.
Edward had been excited for Janet. He enjoyed how energized she had become as she relayed all the work and responsibilities that lay ahead, as if it were fun. Though not his idea of fun, Edward didn’t mind being roped into helping her. It wasn’t just because she was a friend; he knew she was the right person to represent their district.
As midnight approached, Janet, who had not wanted her Camaro to turn into a pumpkin, offered to drive Nadia and Charlotte home. Charlotte had passed on Janet’s offer and decided instead to stay behind and help Edward clean up the dishes and put everything back into some semblance of order.
Charlotte had stayed the night, setting up temporary residence in the living room on the pulled-out futon. Dressed and famished, Edward tapped lightly on his bedroom door. He hoped if Charlotte was awake, she would give him the all-clear so that he could carry on through to the kitchen for breakfast. He opened the door slightly. “Charlotte?” The smell of bacon cooking and movement in the kitchen assured him that she was already up.
“Good morning, Chippy. Coffee?” she called out.
“Absolutely.” Jauntily, he made his way to the kitchen to join her.
“How do you want your eggs?” she asked.
“Sunny side up.”
“I love the smell of bacon and how it sizzles and curls up.”
“Me too. Damn hard to resist," he admitted. A rather loud gurgling sound erupted in his stomach.
Fifteen minutes later the two of them sat across from each other at the kitchen table, hungrily devouring the stack of toast, eggs and bacon. “This is great! Thank you, Charlotte,” he said as he maneuvered an unbroken egg from his plate onto his slice of toast. “Charlotte, I’ve never known anyone who takes honey in their coffee.”
“And, your point?” she asked, soaking up the remains of the yolk from her plate with her toast.
“I guess nothing.”
“What can I say, I’m unique.” Chewing on a small section of her toast, she washed it down with coffee.
“You are that,” he replied.
“When are you meeting Irving?” she asked, sliding her tongue across her teeth to remove errant pieces of toast.
“How do you know I’m meeting Irving?” He popped the egg and toast into his mouth and chomped down.
“Well, aren’t you?” Charlotte passed him paper serviettes to clean up the egg yolk that dripped from the corners of his mouth. “Caveman.”
He put the used ball of serviettes on his plate. “So, how did you know?”
“Deduction. You’ve tried numerous times to contact him. You got a phone call, and you rushed off to the shower. So, unless there’s a woman in your life I’m not aware of, then it had to be him.” She reached into her pant pocket and pulled out the two sample envelopes he had given her yesterday, pushing them across the table to him. “You’re going to need these, then. How long do you think it will take to find out what the white stuff is in these envelopes?”
Aimlessly, he shuffled the envelopes from one hand to the other. “I’m thinking by the end of the day.”
“We could have just as easily given it to Constable Dickenson to test. It would have saved a two-hour drive to Brampton.”
Edward stopped what he was doing and glanced up at her. “You’re right, I could have.”
“I hear a ‘but’ in your answer.”
He took a long drink from his coffee mug before putting it down. “I can’t put my finger on it, but there’s something fishy about that guy. Let’s just leave at that. Probably it's my imagination getting the better of me, you know, especially after everything that’s happened to me.” He picked up the envelopes and tucked them into his shirt pocket. “Anyway, I trust Irving to find out what this is better than me or anyone else.”
“What about the scrapings from the effluent tap?” she asked.
“I forgot to ask Irving about that. He should already have it. I sent it by UPS a couple days back. Mind you, I wouldn’t hold my breath over it telling us much.” He lathered a piece of toast with raspberry jam and took a bite. He held up his mug. “Please.”
“No, you’ve got a long drive ahead of you.”
He tore off another piece from his toast and chewed it as he talked. “My bladder can handle it, if that’s what you’re getting at.” Mug in one hand, toast in the other, he ate on his way to the coffee pot by the stove. Charlotte’s eyes followed his trail of jam droppings and crusty bits to the counter.
“By the way, thanks for your help during last evening’s dinner party,” Edward said. “I think the Blackwells enjoyed its informality. After talking politics all day, he told me that it was nice to ratchet it down a few notches. Did you get any feedback from Sara?” He shoved the remaining toast into his mouth.
“She enjoyed the change of pace too. But I feel kind’a sorry for her.”
“In what way?”
“It can’t be easy being the wife of someone running for premier,” she replied.
“You mean the public scrutiny and all that?”
“I guess that’s what I mean.”
“Chuck’s been in politics a long time, Charlotte. I’m sure she’s learned the ropes by now. She’ll do just fine.” He filled his mug and held up the coffee pot. “Last offer.”
“Okay, then.” She held out her mug. “By the way, on another topic, where are the photos you showed Dickenson?”
He filled up her mug and placed the coffee pot on a table coaster. “Right here in my pocket.” He patted his front pant pocket and sat down beside her. “I thought I’d show them to Irving. Who knows—maybe he can add something. He’s lived in this neck of the woods for a while.”
“When are you going to call Shirley Cooper?” She raised her mug to her lips and quickly recoiled. “Boy! That’s hotter than I expected.”
“You okay?”
“I’ll live. I’ll just let it cool for a bit.”
“Her unlisted number is on the package of photos Hobbs gave me," he added. "I’m thinking once I’ve finished with Irving, I’ll call her and see if it’s all right to drop by today.”
“May I make a suggestion?”
“Shoot.”
“Have you put it on your iPhone yet?” Edward shook his head. “And, why not? For a smart guy you’re not always engaged. You just said her number is unlisted. If something should go amiss and you lost that number. Need I go further? Here, let me put it on mine as well, for further backup.”
After she was done, Charlotte picked up her mug and, sipping her coffee, perfunctorily perused the kitchen. Finally, her gaze came to rest on Edward. “You know, I think my stepsister has a crush on you.”
“Nadia? Don’t be silly.” he replied, brushing off her accusation.
“Silly or not, I thought you should know.” She debated whether to eat her final slice of toast. “I hope you told her to stop snooping around Accounting. I mean it, Edward. I don’t want her involved. I have a real bad feeling about all of this.” She discarded the toast onto her plate.
“We’ve already agreed on that. Drop it.”
The two of them sat quietly across from each other, until Edward stood up. He placed his mug on the table and headed into the living room.
“Where are you going?” she asked. But she received no reply.
When he returned, he placed a sheet of paper in front of her.
“What’s this?”
“That fell from one of the binders when you were trying to put the lot into Janet’s car. It must have happened when you tripped. After you left, Camilo noticed it lying on the ground and pointed it out to Garcia.”
“Oh! That’s not good.” She picked it up and gave it a cursory read.
“No, it isn’t,” he replied as he sat down beside her. “I told him it was just something for my weekly puzzle column in the Toronto Star, but I don’t think he believe me.”
“Why do you think he didn’t believe it? It looks like a lot of math gobbledygook to me.”
He shrugged. “Just a hunch, that’s all.”
“You want it in any special folder?”
“It fell out of the red binder.”
Briefly, she chewed on her bottom lip: “You sound concerned about Urquiza.”
“It’s only a gut thing. If you know anything about him, it doesn’t take long to realize he’s a very smart man—and he’s the boys’ uncle. If those two boys are caught up in this mess, well, it becomes difficult to exclude him.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time a parent—in this case an uncle—didn’t know what their kids were up to," she replied, waving the page in his face. "You know, one of those parental blind spots.”
“Perhaps, but somehow I doubt it," he said, gently taking the page from her and placing it on the table. "Urquiza strikes me as being too worldly to have one of those blind spots. Anyway, I hope this powder I have here in my pocket will be my ace in the hole.”
She pulled her chair closer to him. “Ace in the hole? What are you talking about?”
"I need it to buy time. Rattray has set up a meeting for me to see Legal tomorrow, and I’d like to scuttle it.”
“Legal?”
“Rattray’s after the rights to my project. It seems that when I signed the contract to join KemKor, I waived any fiduciary rights to the patents for my filtering system. It takes effect tomorrow unless I can prove the company acquired those rights through coercion or through knowingly committing an illegal act. For example: if they promised me Building 3C for my system—which they did—but knowingly stalled or lied about its use for illegal purposes, then the rights to my system stay with me. Unless—and here’s the downer—I’m dead, and then it all reverts to the company.” He glanced at his watch. “I’ve got to get out of here. I’m already starting to run late.” Scurrying to the front door, his cell phone vibrated in his pocket. “Slocum here.”
“Mr. Slocum, this is Leonard Palladin.” Leonard was Blackwell’s point man for the campaign and chief administrative assistant.
“Good morning. Quite frankly, you couldn’t have called at a worse time. I’m on my way out. Could I call you back later?”
“No, that would be out of the question. As Jennifer’s godfather, Mr. Blackwell and his wife, Sara, wanted you to know before it hit the evening news.”
“You make it sound like the world is about to end.”
“For the Blackwells, it may possibly be just that.”
Edward walked back into the house and over to where Charlotte was sitting at the kitchen table. “I’m not sure I’m going to like the answer to this, but what’s happened?”
“Their daughter, Jennifer, never arrived home last night. The provincial police and your local police, led by a Constable Dickenson, have been on it since three this morning. Though foul play hasn’t officially been stated, it hasn’t been ruled out.”
Edward’s shoulders slumped as he let out a deep sigh. “What can I do?”
“At the moment, nothing; just hold tight. My number should have shown up on your cell. Use it if you have any questions.”
“I feel so helpless.” Edward felt as if his breath had been knocked out of him.
“At the moment we all do. Right now, we’ve got our fingers crossed hoping it’s just one of those bizarre things that teenagers do from time to time.”
“She wasn’t that kind of person,” he insisted.
“We know that, Mr. Slocum. I’ll keep in touch.”
Edward returned the cell phone to his pocket. His face was drawn and ashen. His head slung low, and he said nothing.
“Edward, what’s wrong?” Charlotte asked.
“Jennifer’s missing. She didn’t come home last night.” He circled the kitchen one way and then another before coming to rest opposite the window at the sink. “Needless-to-say, Chuck and Sara are beside themselves with worry. And, now, so am I."
She went to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Is there anything we can do?”
“Nothing. We just wait it out and leave it to the police.” Undoing her hands, he turned to face her. “Knowing Chuck as well as I do, I expect he blames himself.”
“Why would he do that?”
Shaking his head, he walked to the kitchen table and sat down. “Running for the premiership puts him and his family in the spotlight and makes them open to all kinds of nutcases who have an ax to grind or political cause to gain.”
“Are you thinking that Jennifer was snatched by a terrorist group or something?”
“Honestly, right now, I’m not thinking straight.” He combed his fingers through his hair.
“Didn’t she go to a dance last evening?”
“Yes.” His lips pinched together as he began to massage his neck. “If I remember correctly, she went with Andres. I think his brother, Camilo, drove them,” he added.
“Andres and Camilo?!”
He held up his hand. “Charlotte, I know where you’re heading with this. And, Paul’s been on it since two or three this morning. Needless to say, I expect after he had spoken with Chuck and Sara, he headed straight out to the farm to wake them up.”
Charlotte pressed her fists into either side of her waist. “And?” she queried.
“I don’t know any more.”
“Those two boys were here during the break-in, and now this. I don’t believe in coincidences,” she said.
Edward shrugged and shook his head. “Generally, neither do I, but what do you want me to say? That they’re guilty of something or other? I’m not going to do that unless I have proof.
Charlotte sat at the edge of the chair beside him. “Okay. I can see it’s a sensitive point with you. Let’s change the topic. Janet’s going to want to support Chuck and Sara in some way.”
“I’d suggest she call Leonard Palladin before she does anything.”
“Who’s he?”
“He’s the person I just spoke to. Everything goes through him now.” He gave her the phone number.
Charlotte said, “I’d better call Janet to pick me up. I’ll tell her what’s happened when she gets here. Right now, you’d better get going, or else Irving’s going to give up on you and leave.”
He glanced at the wall clock. “Damn, you’re right.” He scurried across the living room and picked up the keys to his car on the kitchen counter. “I’m outta here! Keep me abreast of things.”
“I don’t need to be reminded, Edward—it was my idea. Just you remember to keep your cell on. How do you ever manage to make it on your own?”
“Barely. Even less so since Karen has gone.”
“I guessed that,” she agreed.
Closing the door behind him, he thought, I’m lucky she’s back in my life. She’s a good friend.