Little Girl Gone - By Battles, Brett Page 0,30

getting some info for a friend. That’s all.”

“And the stolen car?”

“I told you, unrelated. It dinged my dad’s car in a parking lot. But if it was stolen there’s not much we can do about it.” They both knew he was lying, but if Ruth was ever asked about it, she could honestly repeat what Logan had just told her. “So…Burma?”

The pause went on for several seconds. He could imagine her shaking her head in resignation as she finally spoke. “As far as I know we don’t have much going on in that part of the world at the moment. A little contract work in Singapore, emergency response training, but that’s it.”

“You still get the daily brief, right?” The daily brief was a breakdown of what was happening in the world by country and region. Forbus wanted its top people kept up-to-date in case an opportunity suddenly presented itself.

“Hell, Logan. I don’t really pay that much attention to Burma. As far as I remember, it’s pretty much the same as always. A group of old, asshole generals not wanting to relinquish the power they don’t deserve. Nothing stands out, though. No new protests or anything.”

Logan hesitated, then said, “I need another favor. I need the latest Burma assessment.”

“Are you serious?”

“I wouldn’t ask you if I wasn’t.”

“I hate you sometimes, Logan Harper.”

“Is that a yes?”

“That’s a maybe.”

“Thank you, Ruth. I mean it.”

He pulled into the motel parking lot a few minutes later, and saw that the cars the Cambria contingent had ridden down in were all there. He called his dad.

“What room are you in?”

“Thirty-five.”

“I’ll be right there.”

Dev and Ken were standing just outside his father’s door like they were protecting the Oval Office.

“Everything all right?” Logan asked.

“Everything’s fine,” Dev said, then knocked on the door.

“Good. Thanks for being here for them.”

“Always like to help a friend.”

A moment later, Barney opened the door and let Logan in.

Tooney and his father were sitting on one of the two beds while Jerry stood nearby.

“We were going to order some Chinese,” Jerry said. “Want some?”

“We need to talk.”

“Did you speak with Elyse’s friends?” Tooney asked.

“I talked to Lara, but…” Logan hesitated only a second. There was no use sugar coating it. “Anthony’s dead.”

Stunned silence.

“Did you say dead?” his dad finally asked.

“Lara gave me his address. Said that he was supposed to have had dinner with Elyse the night before last, so I went over there. I found him in his apartment.”

“How did you get in if he was already dead?” Barney asked.

“I just did.”

“Did someone kill him?” Jerry asked.

“The way it looks, he shot himself through the head.”

Harp leaned back, surprised again. “Suicide?”

“That’s the impression.”

“What do you mean ‘impression’?” he asked.

“With everything that’s been going on, I’m not willing to believe suicide yet.”

“So what do you think might have happened?” Jerry asked.

“I don’t know. Could be he did kill himself. But if he did have dinner with Elyse, he would have been one of the last people to see her before she disappeared. Maybe he was with her when they grabbed her. Wrong place, wrong time.”

“Oh, no, no,” Tooney said, burying his eyes in the palm of his hand. “We should have called the police yesterday.”

“I don’t think it would have made a difference,” Logan told him. “I’m pretty sure he was shot before that guy even came to the café to try to kill you.”

“But the police are going to know now anyway, aren’t they?” Barney said. “You must have called them after you found the body.”

Logan hesitated. “No. I didn’t.”

“No?” his dad said.

“They almost got Tooney,” Logan said. “They probably did kill Anthony. The first sign that anyone tries to involve the authorities, I think you might be right. Whoever has Elyse will kill her, too. As far as Anthony goes, the police will know, but it can’t come from me. Not if you still want me to find Elyse.”

“We can’t just let him lie there, can we?” Barney asked.

Logan shook his head. “No, we can’t.” He walked over to the front door and opened it. “Dev, can you come in here for a minute?”

“Sure,” the ex-marine said.

Once they had rejoined the others, Logan asked his dad, “How much does Dev know?”

Harp shrugged. “Maybe not all the details, but pretty much everything.”

Good, Logan thought. It would save him some time.

Vets who’d seen serious action usually went one of two ways: they’d either wall off what they’d gone through and tried to forget, or they remembered and gravitated to others they’d served with