Little Girl Gone

on which direction they had come from, then pushed back down, and propelled himself under the floating island.

He used one arm to power his swim, and the other to search for Ryan. For the first few seconds, the only things he touched were stray vines dangling down below the mass. Then the back of his hand knocked against something definitely not vine-like. As he turned his wrist to get a better angle on it, it pulled away, but not before he got the impression he’d come in contact with a leg.

His lungs weren’t burning yet, but he was quite a ways under the vines, so he needed to make sure he saved enough time to swim back to open water. He decided to allow himself fifteen more seconds, then reached out again to see if Ryan was still nearby.

Once more he found one of a leg, but instead of kicking him off again, Ryan let him grab hold this time, then pulled his leg up in a tuck, bringing Logan to him. Logan was about to let go, worried that Ryan was just drawing him in so he could kick him in the head, but then Ryan grabbed desperately at his wrist, and seemed to be urging Logan to pull him.

Logan did, but was only able to move him a foot before Ryan stopped with a jerk. He tried again, but the result was the same.

Heat slowly began building at the bottom of Logan’s lungs. Ignoring it, he swum in closer, and felt along Ryan’s torso and up to his shoulders. That’s when he discovered what was wrong.

Ryan’s arm was entangled in the vines.

Logan ran his hands rapidly across them, attempting to find a way to free him.

Suddenly Ryan began thrashing. Logan began working faster, pulling at the vines, and ripping them from underneath.

Ryan jerked. Once. Twice. Then he stopped moving completely.

Logan kept at it even as his lungs began screaming to stop what he was doing and get to the surface.

He yanked on a clump of vines, then suddenly Ryan’s arm fell free.

Quickly he grabbed Ryan around the shoulders, then swam out from under the vegetation, and up to the river’s surface. As soon as his head broke through the water, he sucked in as much air as he could.

“Daeng!” he yelled. “Over here.”

He couldn’t see the boat, but he knew it had to be nearby.

“Daeng!”

He propped Ryan’s head on his shoulder, painfully aware he wasn’t breathing. Not far away he heard the longboat’s motor kick in. As soon as Daeng pulled beside him, they got Ryan onto the boat, then Logan flopped in after him.

Logan had learned CPR in the Army, and had unfortunately been in the position to have utilized it more than once. Starting in on Ryan, he was hopeful because of the kid’s age and physical condition that he could bring him back. But after nearly ten minutes, he realized it was no use.

Ryan was dead.

Daeng waited a few seconds, then said, “Let’s put him back in the water.”

“The water? Why?” Logan asked.

“You’re after the girl, not him. If someone sees you with the body and the police find out, they’re going to ask questions. You’ll be detained. Can you afford that?”

No, Logan thought. It was just like with Anthony. He would have to let someone else deal with it.

Carefully, they rolled the body over the side, and dumped Ryan into the Chao Phraya. Logan heard Daeng whispering under his breath, then realized that he was praying. He thought maybe he should do the same, too, but no prayer came to mind.

When he looked at the river again, Ryan was gone.

29

Though Logan and Daeng had narrowed down the part of the riverfront where Elyse was most likely being held, they still had no idea of her exact location. They decided their best bet was to encircle the area with watchers—two crews in longboats “fishing” on the river, and ten other men scattered in an arc on the landside. Daeng thought he could drum up maybe four to six additional men that could roam the area, and try to pick up leads from the people who lived in the neighborhood.

As much as Logan didn’t want to, the thing he needed to do was get a few hours of sleep. Daeng promised to call the instant anything happened, then dropped him off in front of his hotel.

Though it was the phone that woke Logan four hours later, it wasn’t Daeng on the other end. It was Ruth.

“Where exactly are you?”

“Huh?” Logan said, still half-asleep. “What are you talking about?”

“You left the country, didn’t you?”

“Is that a problem?” Before she could reply, he said, “Wait. Just give me a second.” He pulled himself out of bed, and carried the phone into the bathroom where he splashed some water on his face. Once he felt his brain starting to work again, he put the phone back to his ear. “What’s going on, Ruth?”

“I had an…unexpected conversation this afternoon.” It was still Friday evening in New York.

“Unexpected?”