Nico turned around to see if she was up and ready to come after him again, instead he saw her curled up in a fetal position with her eyes closed. He glanced at Keane, who stared at him with an odd look in his eye. Nico sat down and whispered, “What?”
Keane’s lips kicked up at the corner. He didn’t say a word and shook his head, but his grin widened.
Nico glared at his buddy for a moment and then said, “Have you gotten anywhere with those names?”
“Friends, no connection to anything suspicious. No records, not even traffic tickets for most cases.”
“Let’s start on the people in the group.”
“I’ve already taken off one name.”
“Good.” Nico said. “One of the guys quit, Steve Darwin, who was Australian.”
“Good. Contact him.”
Nico went through the Mavericks databases and did a quick search. There didn’t appear to be anything outside of a couple arrests for public conduct at a big rally. Nico did find a phone number. After he dialed it, he stepped outside in the backyard, so he wouldn’t disturb Charlotte. When a voice answered, he questioned if this was the Steve Darwin of the GA group. “Yes. Who’s this?”
He identified himself as a friend of Charlotte’s. “We’re investigating a kidnapping that happened in Australia. It’s brought us into the activist realm,” he said. “And we’re wondering if you have any knowledge of death threats sent or assaults. Maybe even other kidnappings.”
“I don’t have anything to do with that life anymore,” he said. “I was diagnosed with cancer a year ago. That’s been my life since I left. What’s going on?”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Nico gave a brief description on the recent events. “She was not scheduled to go at all, but the actual organizer said that she was put down due to an error between her assistant and the organizers. But then everybody was fairly adamant that she go, even though she hadn’t booked it.”
“That’s because normally I go every year,” he said. “And this year I couldn’t go. So they switched out me for her. I may have mentioned that she could go in my place, and I probably completely forgot to even mention it to her. I’ve been a little overwhelmed with my own world. For that, I owe her an apology.”
“And I’m sure she’d like to get it,” he said. “She’s pretty unnerved after showing up and then never making the keynote speech.”
“I heard about that,” he said. “I don’t have a clue who would be involved in the kidnapping though. We’ve had dissidents at every rally. Sometimes we think it’s private citizens. Sometimes though it makes you wonder if some of these big chemical companies and industrial mills and whatnot aren’t following the rules and instead are putting people in to cause trouble. But to kidnap someone? I don’t know. That seems a bit far-fetched to me.”
“So you’ve never had anything like that happen at one of these rallies before?”
“No, nothing like that at all.”
“Well, if you think of anything, please call me and let me know.” With that, he walked inside and quickly shared the information with Keane.
“That’s a complete change of life direction,” Keane said. “In his case, it’s quite understandable though.”
“Exactly. And it explains why he walked away.”
“And Charlotte wants to go in a different direction, which is also understandable, and somebody else is probably quite eager to step into her place.”
“Would that somebody have her kidnapped, with no intention of killing her, just to take over her spot?”
“Seems far-fetched,” Keane said. “But again I don’t have a clue what these people are like. We would think the violence wasn’t the way that they operated, but …”
“It’s also possible they hired somebody to do the job, and the orders either got confused or somebody got a little too eager.”
“Still seems far-fetched.”
They got up several times and refilled their coffee cups until the pot was gone and worked their way through every name on the list. Finally Nico shut the lid on his laptop and said, “I’ve got nothing. Absolutely nothing.”
“I know,” Keane said. The two of them stared at each other for a long moment. Just then came a rap on the front door. They looked at each other and immediately bolted. With Keane on the opposite side of the door and Nico standing near the doorknob, he pulled open the door to see a man standing there and frowning at him.
“Nico?”
“Yes, who’s calling? Who are you?” Nico asked. But then he knew. He recognized the facial features. “I presume you can come in.”
“Well, it doesn’t make much difference now if I’m in or out,” he said. “But, yes, inside would probably be better.”
He let in the man. Introduced him to Keane. “And your name?”
He took a slow, deep breath, and said, “My name is Joshua, a name I haven’t used in many years.” He looked around. “Is Charlotte here?”
“She’s on the couch, sleeping,” Nico said. “Come on through this way.” He led the way to find Charlotte sitting up, slowly rubbing the sleep from her eyes. When she saw the stranger, she bolted to her feet, coming awake almost instantly. She walked over, then frowned at him, and asked, “Who are you, and why are you here?”
A slow grin came across the stranger’s face. “Well,” he said, “I heard that maybe somebody was interested in meeting me.” The two men waited to see if she finally understood. But, when she didn’t, Joshua said, “My name—I haven’t used it in a long time though—that you would know me by is Joshua.”
She stared at him in shock. “Joshua?” Her gaze was searching as she studied the man in front of her.
He nodded slowly. “Remember me?”
Chapter 10
Charlotte stared at the man in front of her, but her brain didn’t want to compute. “Seriously, my brother Joshua?”
He gave her that
