Page 61 of The Burnt
Charlie pressed on. “Mr Griffin believed that Milo had made friends with another boy. Do you know who he was?”
“No.”
“With all of your resources,” Charlie persisted, “you never tracked down the boy Milo was seeing?”
“I don’t think Milo saw this other boy often. I suspect it was the few times that he snuck away from school when I wasn’t watching him. Milo was good at keeping secrets.”
Charlie sensed he was lying. “One last thing. Do you remember the night that Milo disappeared?”
“That was ten years ago.”
“Ten years this week,” Charlie clarified. “Were you here at the house?”
Tom paused. “I was. As I recall, I told the police that after dinner I went to my quarters. I didn’t like to hang around when Simon and Milo were having a fight.”
“Do you remember what they were fighting about?”
“No. It was personal and had nothing to do with me,” he said instantly.
“And Milo left later that evening?”
“Apparently so. Simon banged on my door to tell me his Bentley was gone.”
“Gone? Like stolen? From the gated drive?”
Tom nodded. “We both knew that Milo had taken it.”
“But he was fifteen,” Charlie said. “He only would have had his learner’s permit.”
“He was probably a better driver at fifteen than his father ever was. Look—I trained him how to drive when he was thirteen. He needed to be able to protect himself. There was always the chance that someone might try to kidnap him to get control over Simon. I wanted him to have every advantage in a situation like that.”
Charlie paused. “I guess that makes sense. So Milo borrowed his father’s car. Where did he go?”
“I tracked the car to the airport,” Tom replied. “Simon insisted on putting tracking devices in all of his vehicles as soon as the technology was available. I have no idea where Milo ended up. We checked all outgoing flights and his identification wasn’t associated with any passenger.”
“He just vanished?”
“He did…or someone else made him disappear.”
Tom’s phone rang. “I’m sorry, I have to take this. It’s business.” He got up from the couch and yelled out, “Jasmine, can you open the gate for Mr Watts so he can get back to Calgary?”
As Charlie made his way to the foyer, Tom went into another room and closed the door. Jasmine appeared. She pressed a button on a panel by the front entrance and said, “I’ll close the gate once you’re through.”
Charlie quickly headed back to The Beast and texted Declan.
Be back in a few hours. Found out a few interesting things. Tracked down the boy who delivered the note and one other thing, Simon’s right-hand man has a camelhair coat. Possible connection to Katherine’s mystery man?
Chapter Twenty-Six
Declan walked up the stairs to the office carrying a paper bag from Gwen’s. Mrs B was still at her desk, tidying up before she left for the day.
“What are you doing here so late?” he asked.
“Avoiding getting home too early. My sister Irene has her weekly knitting circle at the apartment every Wednesday and if I have to put up with those old biddies again…”
“You do realise that you’re probably older than some of those ‘old biddies’.”
She glowered at him. “You’ve obviously never experienced what needles and wool can do to a middle-aged woman. It’s enough to make you want to choke them with their own yarn. Whinge, whine, complain…” she muttered as she packed her belongings in her bag and went off to get her coat.
