Little Girl Gone

“The last person she knows of. There was obviously someone else, because I didn’t do it.”

“So you are saying you were there.”

“Absolutely.”

“And why was that?”

Logan could hear his father’s voice in his head. Involving the police would be exactly the wrong thing to do…trust me. And Tooney’s after he’d been attacked. I beg you. Say nothing.

As much as he thought he should tell Detective Baker what was going on, he felt he should let Tooney know first. So he said, “The guy who lived there, Aaron Hughes, he’s dating the granddaughter of a friend of mine.”

“Another friend, huh?”

Logan hesitated. “The same friend, actually.”

“Well, that makes things easy.”

“I can’t help the truth.”

“You still haven’t told me why you were there?”

“My friend’s been concerned about his granddaughter,” Logan said, trying to keep things as close to reality as possible. “He’s her nearest relative, so he feels responsible. He wanted me to check on her, check out her friends, and make sure she’s not having any problems.”

“You some kind of private detective?”

“Not at all. I’m just someone helping a friend.”

“So, you went to the house…”

“To see if I could talk to her boyfriend.”

“My witness says you were there around midnight. That’s kind of late for a chat, isn’t it?”

“Not for a kid his age.”

“Did he know you were coming?”

“I tried calling, but was sent straight to his voice mail.”

“So that meant it was okay to go inside his house and check?” he asked.

“No,” Logan said, calmly. “I knocked, a couple times. Then I glanced through the window and noticed that it looked empty inside. Not exactly what I expected. I tried the knob. It was unlocked, so then I went in to check.”

“Do you try people’s doorknobs often?”

“It just seemed to me there was a good chance no one lived there anymore, so if I could look inside, I could confirm that. Which is exactly what I did.”

“You weren’t planting some kind of device to burn the place down?”

“No. I had never heard of Aaron Hughes until yesterday. Last night was the first time I’d even been to his place. I was only doing a favor for a friend. One that did not include burning down a house.”

“Who, exactly, is this friend?”

Logan didn’t know how many times they went through everything—three? four?—before Detective Baker finally let him call his father. As they were going through things for yet again, an officer came in and whispered something in Detective Baker’s ear. The detective then excused himself and left the room. Logan assumed that the WAMO splinter group had arrived.

His concern now was that Tooney would say something that didn’t back up his story, but it turned out the reason the detective had left the room had nothing to do with Tooney or his dad at all.

Baker walked back in with several pieces of paper that looked fresh from the printer. He took his chair again, placing the papers face down on the table between them.

“Mr. Harper, you have a bit of a history.”

Outwardly, Logan remained calm, but inside his guard went up tenfold.

“Mind telling me about it?” the detective asked.

“My history is none of your business. It has nothing to do with what happened at the house, because I have nothing to do with what happened at the house.”

The detective turned the papers over, but held them up so that Logan couldn’t see what was on them. “Seems you had some problems with the Pentagon.”

“I never had any problems with the Pentagon.”

“That’s not what it says here.”

“Then whatever you’re looking at isn’t correct.”

Detective Baker’s gaze moved back and forth across the page. “Hmmm, I guess you’re right. Your problem wasn’t officially with the Pentagon. It was with a company called Forbus Systems International. Looks like you were charged with embezzlement. Oh, and there was talk of a manslaughter charge.”

“‘A,’ there was no manslaughter charge,” Logan said, fighting hard to keep his cool. “And, ‘B,’ the