Page 2 of Missing

Doug

Iclicked save and just like that—I made my last alimony payment to my ex-wife.

The judge back home in Chicago had granted my ex five years of payments, one for every year we’d been married, citing the economic hardship of moving back home to Colorado and starting over. Jane made sure her attorney added how emotionally difficult it was for her to support an airman who was “married to the military” and never around to meet her needs.

I wanted to call bullshit, but my attorney advised against it.

Jane had loved being an Air Force wife, at least in the beginning, but her tune changed when we learned I was sterile after months of trying, and failing, to conceive. She couldn’t tell the judge she wanted to leave me because I couldn’t have kids; that would make her sound insensitive and wouldn’t get her the sympathy, or alimony check, she wanted.

I need a coffee. I got up from my desk at Sheppard & Sons Investigations and went to the lobby to ask Meg if she wanted anything from Grannie’s. Poor kid was elbow deep in paperwork after being gone for two weeks.

Meg didn’t just work at SSI, the company her husband had started with his father and brother, she was now officially a Sheppard. They had started SSI after a family tragedy left Jamie, the oldest, a widower. John was lucky to be working with his sons, even if their reasons for starting SSI were heartbreaking.

I was supposed to join my family’s business. My father had wanted me to go to law school and join his firm, but I never wanted to be an attorney. My older sister had, and she was their favorite child because of it. Not only had she joined the family business, she’d given them the grandkids I couldn’t.

I was supposed to be his heir and provide him with a grandson to carry on the family legacy.

Finding out I couldn’t pass on the family name, made our already strained relationship worse. He’d expected me to follow in his footsteps, like he had his father’s, and to someday hand the reins to my son. But I’d disappointed him, and my mom, on both accounts.

I gravitated towards computers and gaming in middle school and before long I recognized that I didn’t share his vision of my future. My passion was computers, and I wanted to make a career out of it.

I’ll never forget the day I told him I wanted to change careers. I was in junior high, young enough I hadn’t started on a careerpath yet, and met with my guidance counselor. When she’d asked what I wanted to do, my answer was: I have to go to law school. She was a good counselor and questioned my use of the words, “have to”. She eventually got me to admit I didn’t want to go to law school and encouraged me to take classes and join after school clubs that would help me find my calling.

My father was furious. He’d screamed at me as he stomped around his home office. His final threat was to tell me he wouldn’t pay for college unless I went to law school.

I’d found the courage to stand up to him and claim my future. The rift it had created between us still existed.

I hadn’t wanted to disappoint him, but I didn’t want to be a lawyer and couldn’t imagine living every day hating my career. The rift I created when I stood up to him still existed.

I’m grateful I did.

I never regretted my choice to join the Air Force (USAF), and despite leaving active duty earlier than I’d intended because Jane gave me an ultimatum, I didn’t regret getting out. I’d earned a debt-free bachelor’s degree in computer science while I served and put it to good use working with law enforcement in Chicago, before moving to Texas and joining SSI.

I’ve come a long way since high school.

I was a shy, awkward, tech geek in high school, and unlike my friends, I couldn’t put my head down and hide. I’d reached my full height by my sophomore year and being a gangly six-foot-four red-head meant I couldn’t hide anywhere.

My life changed when I met an Air Force recruiter at one of the college fairs at school. It sounded like a perfect fit, and I enlisted the day I turned eighteen, with a delayed start date so I could graduate. I started basic training three weeks after graduation and never looked back.

The AF had paid me well to use my tech skills, travel the world, and get in shape. Turns out, I liked going to the gym—justnot with cruel teenagers. Before long I added martial arts to my training routine. In three years, I went from being a tall skinny geek all the girls teased to being a tall, muscled, highly trained, badass geek in a uniform that no one made fun of.

I walked out of the office I shared with Andrew Janerek, Jack’s best friend, laughing as I thought about it. Never in a million years would I have imagined being a private investigator in Texas.

But here I am.

And happy about it too. Despite being a bit of the odd man out here at SSI (I was the only person who hadn’t known the Sheppards prior to getting hired) I felt right at home. Texas, and SSI, was the new start I’d needed to break me out of my post-divorce funk.

I was halfway across the large, open lobby when I was almost run over by Chase, an energetic five-year-old who, at forty-three inches, was a smidge over half my size.

Chapter 3

Beth

Chase ran in as soon as I opened the front door to the SSI office and made a beeline for Meg at the front desk. He was so focused on Meg he didn’t see Doug, which was insane because he was a six-foot-four wall of solid muscle. The top of Chase’s head barely reached Doug’s belt buckle.

“Hey Little Man.” Doug steadied Chase before getting down on one knee to talk to him. “Where’s the fire?” Doug held out his large fist and waited for Chase to bump it with his smaller one.

Chase giggled. “There’s no fire, Mr. Doug.” He looked over at Meg, who was holding back a laugh. “I want to give Auntie Meg a hug and talk to Uncle John.”

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