Page 25 of The Business Trip

“If she’s anywhere at or near that house, we’ll find her and we’ll set her free,” Lucy reassured me. I marveled at her confidence. “Let’s just get our boots on the ground and see.”

On the plane, we managed to convince an urban-hipster type to switch seats so that Lucy and I could sit together, and as soon as we reached cruising altitude, she popped open her laptop on the tray table.

Lucy wanted to make a list of every day since Steph had left and the corresponding information we had gathered. She began typing and reading aloud.

—Thursday: Stephanie posted a picture on Facebook from the News Coverage Summit.

—Friday: Robert texted her a picture of Fred sitting on the chair licking his paw. That was when she said she met a guy and would be going to Atlanta with him.

—Saturday: She texted Robert to say that they were at the airport.

—Sunday: She reported that he wanted to stay in all day so they could get to know each other.

—Monday: Bruce texted her about work, and she wrote back asking him to cancel all meetings and then became snarky with him. She sent him a voice memo too.

—Monday: She texted Robert pictures and the voice memo, starting with Trent’s condo, then the lattes, Centennial Park, his station, and the Hot-lanta mug.

—Monday: She asked Lucy to change the meeting with “Mark R.” and then got a bit nasty about it.

—Monday night: For the first time, she expressed fear about Trent in a text to Robert.

—Tuesday: She was texting about a brother she didn’t have and just a short time later told Robert Trent was going to kill her. Then silence, the 9-1-1 call Robert had made, which, according to the police, had yielded absolutely nothing.

—Wednesday: Her phone pinged at Trent’s house.

It was all just mind-bogglingly strange and horrifyingly scary. But as we sat there staring at it, a new thought came into my mind.

That night at my place when Steph told me that she would be willing to endure a disease, a few nights in the woods, or afriendly kidnapper to get her son back in her corner. This wasn’t some giant cat and mouse game, was it? Was Trent the friendly kidnapper? Could she possibly have staged this to make Evan worry for a while and then return triumphantly?

Glancing over at Lucy, I wondered if I should tell her, but this tidbit felt too personal for a coworker. Lucy was so young and she was on Steph’s staff. She would be shocked to hear it. Yet as I turned my head to look out the window at the clouds, I wondered if I wasn’t being played for a fool here.

CHAPTER 23Robert

One Week After the Flight

We landed and headed to ground transportation. I called up an Uber and punched in the dreaded address: 4240 Horizon Lane. The condo was just twenty minutes from the airport. We waited inside the terminal for the Uber to arrive.

Lucy was looking at her phone and stepped away to take a phone call. When she hung up, she walked back to me and opened her mouth to talk, but nothing came out. Fear began to climb my neck.

“What, Lucy, what?”

Still without speaking, she motioned for me to sit. I kept my eyes on her face the entire time as I did so.

“Robert,” she finally stammered. “That was Dave. He said a GM friend of his called him. Apparently, word is getting out in the news community that a news director named Trent in Atlanta is in jail. For something awful. And Dave’s friend said it involves another news director, a female.”

Lucy’s eyes filled with tears. I felt mine instinctively do the same. Jail? That sounded a lot more serious than staging a fake kidnapping with someone.

I gulped and looked down at the airport floor, the noise of the busy terminal around me. There was a din of voices, a child cried, a couple was reuniting and sharing kisses, the carousels were moving at a mechanical churn, and a robotic woman’s voice came over the loudspeaker directing people to the right baggage pickup for their flight.

“Come on, Robert,” she said finally. “It’s not over until it’s over. I won’t believe it until someone proves it. And Dave’s friend didn’t have the name of the victim yet. Let’s get over to Horizon Lane.”

I stood up in a trancelike state and followed her. Our Uber was only two minutes out now, so we stood in silence on the curb waiting. Luckily the driver was quiet and serious, without any music on. It was just what we needed. Complete and total silence. As we got closer, the driver finally spoke up.

“Lots of cop cars, I can only get a block away.”

“That’s fine,” Lucy said. I was glad she seemed to be taking the lead in getting things done. I still had not spoken a word since the airport.

We climbed out to find two squad cars blocking the street and a bunch of neighbors milling about whispering to one another. We set our bags on the ground and stood there, trying to assess what we could.

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