to it than that, but that was all Tooney had said.
The girl hesitated for a moment, then her eyes narrowed. “What about Elyse?”
As if mirroring her, the look on the face of the tall kid beside her grew suddenly serious.
“Maybe we could talk alone for a moment?” Logan suggested.
“I don’t think so.”
“I’m only trying to find her.”
“Well, you’re not going to find her here,” the guy told Logan, drawing to his full height. “Now I think maybe you should just leave.”
It had been a few years, but Logan had taken down men a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier, so the kid didn’t scare him.
“Did I say something wrong?” he asked.
“You’re giving Angie the creeps, okay?”
Keeping his voice calm and disarming, Logan said, “Look, I’m a friend of Elyse’s grandfather. He asked me to—”
“I don’t care who you say you are,” the guy said.
He started to close the door, but Logan pushed it back open.
“Buddy, there’s no reason to be rude,” he told the kid.
Several people rushed over from inside, and soon there were two more girls and another guy standing behind Angie.
“What’s going on?” one of them asked.
The plaid shorts guy was staring at Logan. “You leave now, or I call the cops.”
The only explanation Logan could come up with for the guy’s reaction was that he was grandstanding for the girls. “I’m not trying to cause a problem, I just want to ask a few questions.”
“All right, I’ve had enough.” The kid stepped out of the doorway and into Logan’s personal space. “Get the hell out of—”
Logan could see the fist coming from about two blocks away. As it sailed toward him, he easily guided it upward with his hand, then slipped under the kid’s arm, whacking his shoulder into the idiot’s chest.
The kid’s feet flew out from under him, and he landed, ass first, on the walkway. Shoving him all the way onto his back, Logan placed his leg across the boy’s clavicle, then stared down at him.
“If I lean forward just a little bit, that bone’s going to snap in two, and that’s going to screw you up for quite a while. Do you want that?”
The kid shook his head.
Logan took a look at the doorway. The others were still standing there, their eyes wide in surprise. To the kid he said, “How about we start over? Why don’t you tell me your name?”
A pause, then, “Ryan.”
“All right, Ryan. Here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to answer a few questions for me, okay?”
Ryan nodded. “Okay.”
Logan didn’t move. “Are you going to invite me in? It would be a lot better to sit down than do it like this, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, uh, please, let’s go inside.”
“Thanks, Ryan. Now I’m going to get up. So don’t try anything stupid. Again, I mean.”
7
The apartment’s décor screamed college student—a hand-me-down couch, mismatched chairs and tables, and a stack of empty pizza boxes near the kitchen. There was even a leopard print beanbag chair in the corner.
Logan made sure everyone was seated before he pulled over one of the chairs from the dining table and joined them. There was no denying that he was feeling a little annoyed. Not just with Ryan and Angie, but with himself, too. He couldn’t figure out what he’d done to cause their reaction.
Putting on his best nonthreatening smile, he started off by getting the names of the other three. The girls were Maria and Joan, roommates in the apartment directly below Elyse and Angie’s place. The guy’s name was Kenny. He was Maria’s boyfriend, and lived a few miles away.
Still smiling, Logan repeated who he was and why he was there. Joan and Maria seemed to be the first to relax. Kenny was still a bit guarded, but Logan could tell he was also coming around. Angie and Ryan, though, continued to look unhappy.
“You all know Elyse?” Logan asked, focusing most of his attention on Joan, Maria and Kenny.
“Sure,” Maria said. The other two nodded beside her. “She’s a friend of ours.”
“Do you really know Elyse’s grandfather?” Angie asked, more of an accusation than a question.
“I really do.”
“What does she call him?” Joan asked. Unlike Angie, she seemed to genuinely want to hear the answer, and give him a chance.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I’ve never met her before. But back home we all call him Tooney.”
“Yes,” she said. “Grandpa Tooney.”
“You could have just guessed that,” Ryan said.
Glancing at each of them in turn, Logan said, “Look, she was supposed to