gone on a trip he would have called her so she wouldn’t worry. Something was wrong. She hoped he had not had a heart attack. She worried that he was in a hospital somewhere.
Sarah had met the neighbors who lived on either side of her father. They were both friendly with Ernie, but neither one knew where he was. Sarah decided to drive home and ask Bob if he thought they should file a missing-person report.
Part II
The Key
Chapter Sixteen
Dana got a seat on a red-eye out of Seattle. She tried to sleep on the cross-country flight but she couldn’t stop thinking about the way she’d been played. Why hadn’t she seen that Laurent’s story was ridiculous? The obvious answer was the twenty-five grand. It wasn’t logical to think that someone would pay that much money to play a joke on her. But someone had paid her twenty-five thousand dollars, and the Seattle actors another twenty thousand, to make sure that she would run around in circles for a week. A person would only pay that much to send her on a wild-goose chase if they were going to make a hell of a lot more money if the prank was successful.
A cab let Dana off at her house an hour before the sun rose on Thursday morning. She dropped her duffel bag in the entryway and was about to turn on the lights when her instincts told her that something was wrong. She looked around. At first, nothing seemed amiss. Then it dawned on her that there should have been mail lying on the mat under the mail slot.
Dana closed the door quietly, took out her gun, and looked around the living room. Nothing. She slid around the wall into the kitchen and again sensed that something was wrong. It took a moment before she figured out what was bothering her. When she’d left for Seattle, all four chairs had been pushed in at the kitchen table, but one of the chairs was a few inches away from the table now. She surveyed the kitchen slowly. Nothing else was out of place.
Dana took a deep breath and edged down the hall, hugging the wall on the same side as the bedroom door. When she reached her destination, Dana crouched low to make a smaller target and spun into the room. Her eyes had adjusted to the dark and she could make out a shape on the far side of the bed. In one smooth motion, Dana flipped the light switch and aimed her gun.
Jake Teeny rolled on his side and squinted at her for a moment. Then he flashed a sleepy grin.
“I didn’t know you were into role-playing. What are we doing, the lady cop and the handcuffed prisoner? Personally, I prefer woman in chains and the sex-crazed warden.”
Dana expelled a breath and the hand holding the gun dropped to her side.
“Why are you home?” she asked, angry at Jake for scaring her, and angrier at herself for almost shooting her lover.
“It’s great seeing you, too.”
It occurred to Dana that she should be happy that Jake was home and safe.
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t expecting you for two more weeks and I thought someone had broken in.”
“I left a message on the machine. Didn’t you get it?”
“No. I’ve been out of town on a really weird assignment.”
“Oh?”
“I’m too beat to talk about it now, and I’m really glad you’re home, but why aren’t you freezing your ass off in the Arctic?”
“The whole expedition was a disaster,” Jake said as he sat up and leaned against the headboard. “There was bad weather, then one of the scientists broke his leg.”
“Did you get some good pictures?”
“Yeah, but I don’t think they’ll publish an article, so the magazine probably won’t use them.”
“Maybe you can put them together for a show.”
“Maybe.”
Dana put her gun on the end table, dragged herself across the bed, and kissed Jake.
“I missed you,” Dana said.
“I’m glad,” Jake said as he nuzzled her neck.
Dana laughed. “Down, boy. I was on a red-eye—I smell, and I haven’t slept a wink in twenty-four hours—so I’ll take a rain check on the sex until the morning.”
“Nuts.”
“I plan to make it up to you, so you’d better get plenty of rest, because you’re going to need it when I wake up.”
Dana and Jake slept until a little before noon and were still in bed at twelve forty-five. They made love again in the shower. Then Jake headed for the kitchen so he could start breakfast,