arms. He turned his head toward Hotwire. “This had better be good.”
“I chased down the leads Josie uncovered and followed up on the suggestions Claire made at dinner. Someone is definitely using the deceased veteran’s name to live under.”
“Where?” Josie asked.
“You were right…Nevada. In a sparsely populated area south of Reno.”
“That sounds like Dad.”
“I made plane reservations for tomorrow, but we’ve got to do something about Claire. She needs to stay somewhere else for the duration.”
“You’re leaving tomorrow?” Claire came into the room and pushed her glasses up on her nose, looking at Josie with that vague look she got when she was concentrating on a new program.
“We think my dad’s in Nevada. We have to check it out.”
“And you need to stay somewhere else for a while,” Hotwire added.
“Why?”
“The house has been compromised. You won’t be safe staying here alone,” Josie replied. “Will that be all right?”
Claire bit her lip and didn’t meet Josie’s eyes, but she nodded. “Sure. I’ll get packed tonight and leave in the morning.”
“Where are you going to stay?” Josie asked.
“Don’t worry about it. There are plenty of places I can go.”
Josie didn’t like the vague answer. “Are you sure? You haven’t had anyone over since you moved in, and the only time you go out is to visit the old people in the nursing home where you work, or volunteer at the shelters downtown. I don’t want you staying in one of them while we’re gone.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Hotwire said, sounding meaner than Josie had ever heard him.
“We can rent her a hotel suite,” Daniel suggested.
“No, thank you.” Claire smiled at Josie. “That won’t be necessary, believe me. I’ll stay at the nursing home. They’ve got several empty beds right now, and the staff likes me.”
She sounded surprised by the fact, but Josie wasn’t. Claire was an angel to the old people, and the staff all loved her for it.
“You’re going to live in a nursing home?” Hotwire demanded, not sounding appreciably more pleased by that idea than Claire sleeping in a shelter.
“I’ve stayed in worse places. Much worse if you want the truth. Staying with Essie or one of the other old ladies won’t be a problem for me at all, and as long as you don’t mind me borrowing your computer for a while longer, I can keep up with my classes.”
“That’s not a problem.” He looked at Josie. “What about your classes?”
“I’m not carrying a full course load this summer like Claire is. I’ll catch up later, and if I can’t, finding my dad is more important than passing a couple of computer classes, but Claire shouldn’t have to make that choice. None of this is her problem.”
“Standing by my friends is not a problem,” Claire said, her voice firm with purpose.
Hotwire insisted on seeing Claire settled into her new accommodations before informing Josie and Daniel he’d booked flights for only the two of them. “Someone should stay here in case the bad guys come back and try to break in again. Besides, I can use the time to investigate those fanatics in the Rockies that have possession of your laptop.”
“You sure you can handle it?” Daniel asked.
“On my worst day.”
“Then why did you make Claire leave?” Josie asked.
“She could be at risk if they did come back, and she’d be a distraction even if they didn’t.”
“I thought there was something going on there.”
Hotwire frowned. “Nothing’s going on.”
“But you want her,” Daniel said bluntly.
“Yes. I’m not going to have her, though. Did you know she’s a pacifist and a vegetarian?” Hotwire asked, sounding as if he didn’t know what to make of either of those facts.
“She’s also a crack programmer and has design skills that are going to outshine Andy Grove’s one day.”
Hotwire just shook his head.
The pale yellow stucco house was listed as belonging to Andrew Taylor, but Daniel didn’t doubt the dusty jeep in the driveway was registered to Tyler McCall.
“That’s Dad’s jeep,” Josie confirmed as Daniel parked their rental car behind it and cut off the engine.
The Oregon license plate had been carefully smudged with dirt so as to be unreadable, but this close the distinctive image of Mt. Hood between the letters could be made out.
Hot, still air hit him, the minute Daniel opened his car door, compromising the air-conditioned interior. Nevada was no hotter than a lot of places he’d been, but its desert sun was strong and bright, shimmering on the sand like liquid air.
Josie came around the car, and they went together to the front door. There was no answer to their first knock, or their second.
She pushed the doorbell, and a muted chime sounded through the thick wooden door.
“Dad, it’s me! Open up.” At the continued lack of response, her brows knit in a frown. “Either he’s not here, or he’s pretending not to be.”
With Tyler, either was possible. “Let’s take a look around back.”
“Watch for electronic eyes. Dad isn’t going to have a safe house without some heavy-duty security features, and I don’t want to deal with triggering one of his traps.”
Daniel agreed and tread carefully as they made their way around to the back of the house. He almost missed the first eye hidden behind a scrub bush against one wall, but spotted the second soon after. He avoided them both. The back patio’s weathered brick was devoid of outdoor furniture or any sign of life.
Josie made a sound of disgust as she looked around. “Well, that netted us nothing.”
The sliding glass door to the interior was covered with a privacy curtain so they couldn’t see into the house, and all the back windows had interior shutters, which were closed.
“We’ll have to go inside,” Daniel said, eyeing the subtle signs of Tyler’s security system.
It took almost thirty minutes to disable it and break into the house. When they did, the sparsely furnished southwestern-style home was empty.
“Where could he have gone without the jeep? This house isn’t exactly on a bus line.”
“Maybe we should be asking who he went with.”
Josie’s features tightened. “Or more importantly, did he go of his own accord?”
“There’s no reason to believe he didn’t. There are no signs of a struggle, and we only discovered this place because you’d read the journals. What are the chances his enemies know about it, too?”
She smiled briefly. “Knowing my dad’s penchant for privacy, very small, but where the heck is he?”
Daniel didn’t bother answering the rhetorical question, but started searching through drawers in the kitchen. Josie joined him and when their search revealed nothing useful, they moved to the other rooms, looking in every conceivable place for an indication Tyler had even been there.
There was nothing. He’d made a clean sweep of the place before leaving.
Josie picked up the phone. “I’m going to try redial. It’s the last thing I can think of.”
“Good idea.”
She pressed the button and listened. Her soft green eyes lit with satisfaction as the phone was picked up at the other end.
Then she said, “This is Andrew Taylor’s secretary. I’m calling to confirm his return ticket to Reno.” She waited, listening to the other person speaking. “No return ticket? But I’m supposed to pick him up at the airport. Perhaps you can find his ticket under his card number.” She read off a credit card number Hotwire had identified as belonging to Andrew Taylor of Nevada. “Hmm…What flights are available for return tomorrow?…Yes, I see. Let me call him on his cell and ask which one he’d prefer. Thanks. Oh, is there any way we can link this ticket to his
