Runner

'No.'

'Have you even tried?'

'Of course. She left her apartment a month ago and hasn't been back. No one has heard from her.'

'That's it? You knocked on her door and talked to her friends?'

Richard took a moment to decide. There were a hundred reasons not to tell him any more than he had to, but there was no way to get rid of him without meeting each of his insinuations with an answer. 'I've done a lot more than that. I hired some professionals to develop their own leads and find her for me.'

Andy Beale cocked his head as though he had heard a sound in the distance that he couldn't quite identify. 'Well, that's interesting. Who?'

'They've done some work for us before, and they've done it well, so I trust them. They're security specialists.'

'I didn't ask what they were. I said, 'Who?''

'The head man is named Steve Demming. He has a crew of three other men and two women.'

'Women? That sounds sensible. It ought to reassure her if they find her.'

'That's what I think. And they will find her.'

'But they don't have her.'

'Not yet.'

Andy Beale looked at his son with new interest. 'So how are they going about it?'

'I just got off the phone with Steve. He's offering a reward and distributing photographs of her. He's also using the Internet to get people to e-mail him if they see her. He has his own sources.' He saw the unchanged look of curiosity on Andy Beale's face, and knew what his father was going to say before he said it.

'That's pretty convenient for you, having somebody else do it all?'

'I've been running credit checks on her every day to see if she uses a credit card or anything. So far, she hasn't. There's a skip-tracing company that I've occasionally used to find tenants who skip owing rent. I've got them searching the big commercial databases for any sign of her.'

'She's been gone for over a month. How much cash could a girl like that have—a week's worth? After that she couldn't buy a meal or fill up at a gas station without the credit bureaus noticing. She's got to be with somebody.'

The conversation had moved from the uncomfortable to the excruciating for Richard, but he could not think of a way to change the subject. He tried retreating behind a haze of vagueness. 'Well, we'll see.'

'Yeah. You damned well ought to see. Somebody's helping that girl, probably putting her up and paying her bills and signing for things so she doesn't leave a trail. Everything you're doing only works if she's alone, and she isn't. You must have some idea of who the guys are she might know well enough. You were fucking her for six months or so. Who else was?'

Richard felt his cheeks heating up. 'Nobody. She was a virgin when she came to work here. And after that I was with her all the time.'

'A secretary, about half your age, who had never been with anybody else. She wasn't exactly a difficult girl to impress, was she? Wasn't that a little too easy even for you?'

'She was a pretty, young girl, good-natured and unmarried. I work very long, hard hours, in case your spies hadn't mentioned it. I'm not out very often where I might meet a lot of women.'

'Yeah, I know. You're a regular monk. One way or another, you found her and got her to sleep with you. But somebody besides you is taking care of her right now. Don't you think you ought to be curious about who the guy is?'

'It's not a man. It's a woman.'

'What woman? Her mother? A sister? Just trace her the way you would Christine.'

'My man Steve says it's a pro—a detective or a bodyguard or something. The night they found Christine in Buffalo this woman broke one guy's knee and ran into another one with her car. I don't know much more than that, but we're assuming she's keeping Christine out of sight for now.'

'This isn't normal,' said Andy. 'Are you sure your man Steve isn't just full of shit?'

'He's not. Why would you say that?'

'Where the hell would a girl like Christine get to know somebody like that?'

'We don't know that yet, either.'

'What do you know about her relatives? Her parents?'

'Her mother died when she was a kid. Her father's in jail. He's serving a ten-year sentence for embezzling money from the company where he worked. She also has a stepmother and a half sister and brother she hates. The stepmother ended up with all the father's money and threw Christine out of the house when she was sixteen.'

'It's the father, then. You've got to go see the father.'

'In jail?'

'If that's where he is, that's where you see him.'

'Why would I do that? He's not hiding her.'

Andy Beale's expression showed his frustration and hopelessness. He didn't seem to see any point in raising his voice, or to have enough energy to do it. He blew out a breath and said carefully, 'Christine is a kid. Somebody found this woman professional for her and hired her. The wicked stepmother didn't do it. The father is the most likely one. He's also sitting twenty-four hours a day in the best place there is for making contacts who know women who break legs and run over people. Maybe he talked to somebody in prison who could get in touch with the woman on the outside. From what you just said, of all the people Christine knows, the only one she's going to talk to again for sure is her father.'

'And?'

'If you want to get a message to her, he's the one you have to leave it with.'

'What am I supposed to say to him—that I knocked up his sweet little daughter, but he should be my buddy and help me out?'

'I said to get a message to the girl. You tell him you're in love with her. There was a spat, just a misunderstanding, and she got hurt feelings and ran out on you.'

'Do I tell him I was her boss?'

'You tell him everything that will make him think you're a reasonable prospect for his daughter. You're not only her boss, but also the future owner of the company, a rich, successful guy. You're worried about her, you miss her, and you want to marry her.' He glared at Richard with irritation. 'Sometimes I think you're not a regular person, Richard. You're like some kind of lizard or fish or something, and you don't feel what other people feel. You have to make some kind of leap of imagination so you can figure out what to tell them to make them feel the way you want.'

'What am I trying to get from him?'

'Maybe he hired this woman pro, and you can get him to let something slip about her. The least you want him to do is pass your message on to Christine. You want him to help you get her back. A twenty-year-old girl who was sleeping with you might think hearing from you is good news. But the father first. You need him on your side. If he's showing signs that he might think you're good news, too, then ask him for permission to marry his daughter.'

'Why would I ask some jailbird for permission to do anything?'

'There. That's what I'm talking about. You've got to put yourself in this man's place. Yes, he's in jail. He's feeling guilty because being there made him unable to protect his daughter, so she got chucked out on the street. He wants to believe you, because it would mean everything worked out all right. She found a nice, steady, prosperous guy who loves her. So you help him believe in you. If he does, he'll try to get her to give you a chance.'

'Why should she listen to him?'

Andy Beale studied him for a moment. 'The more I think about this, the more I think you're not right for this. Forget I said to see him. I'll do it for you.'

'I didn't say I wouldn't do it.'

'No,' said Andy Beale. 'But you probably shouldn't. We get one chance with this guy, and you'd probably fuck it up. I'll just let you know what happened.'

'Whatever.' Richard shrugged and leaned back in his chair.