Page 23 of Just for Him
“Maybe,” I said, feeling the rightness of it in my gut. “That makes more sense to me than the kid bringing trouble to his sister’s doorstep.”
“He’s right.”
Hannibal and I both looked at Lecter, surprised he had actually said something.
“All right. Let’s bring the kid in and hear what he’s got to say.”
My cell phone buzzed. I pulled it out and looked at the display. “Sorry, guys, I have to take this.”
I tapped the screen and put the phone up to my ear. “Haven? What’s up? Everything okay?”
“No,” she said, sounding slightly panicked. “It’s Joel. He’s gone.”
“What do you mean, Joel’s gone?”
Both detectives snapped their gazes my way.
“I mean, I got up to get a drink of water and he’s not here.”
“Maybe he just stepped out to grab some lunch or something.”
“No. His backpack’s gone and ...”
“And what?” I prompted.
“He left his apartment key on the kitchen table with a note that said, ‘I’m sorry’.” She exhaled. “And the hundred dollars I keep in the drawer for emergencies is gone, too.”
“Okay, hang tight. Let me see what I can find out, okay?”
I knew this looked bad for Joel, but my gut still told me things weren’t what they seemed.
“Give me a couple hours,” I told Hannibal and Lecter, who had been listening intently. “If we’re right and the diner hit was meant as a message, the kid might think he’s doing her a favor by blowing town.”
Hannibal nodded. “Makes sense. But if you find him, you have to bring him in. Guilty or not, he knows something.”
“Agreed.”
Instead of heading right to Haven’s, I decided to stop at the bus station first. It seemed to be the logical place for a seventeen-year-old with limited funds to go if he was trying to find the fastest way out of town.
My hunch paid off. I found him slouched in the corner, scowling and trying to look like a badass. He looked more like a lost kid to me.
I sat down beside him. “Haven’s worried about you.”
He shifted. “She’ll get over it.”
“She fought like hell to get you here, and you’re going to repay that by leaving her hanging?”
“It’s for the best.”
“Let me guess,” I said quietly. “You think you’re doing the noble thing. That by walking away, you’re taking the threat with you and keeping her safe. It doesn’t work like that, Joel. Slash doesn’t just let people walk away, not without sending a message. If the first message doesn’t get through, then he’ll send another, and another, until it does. Get me?”
“You can protect her.”
“I can,” I said slowly, “but I can’t be there all the time, and Slash isn’t going to just go away. I know he’s had people watching you, trying to keep you in line.”
His eyes widened.
“Yeah, I know. We’ve got surveillance camera footage of them following you home last night.”
