Chapter 4
Chapter Four
“Let’s go back to Eric’s place,” Emma said once they were seated in the Jeep.
“Why?” Matthias asked. They’d already searched the house and found nothing.
“I’m exhausted. We can settle into his guest room, get some rest, and figure out what to do next.”
“Eric’s guest room?” Matthias knew Emma and Eric were longtime friends, and that she stayed with him when she came back here, but that was Emma. Alone. As a couple, the idea of making themselves at home, especially in Eric’s absence, felt… uncomfortable.
“He won’t mind,” she said.
“But I do.”
He felt her gaze on him as he focused on the road. “Eric knows we sleep together,” she said, “and he heartily approves.”
“I’d just rather stay somewhere else.”
“Where? I want to stay close to home. The nearest hotel is almost twenty miles away.”
Matthias thought as he drove. “How do you feel about camping?”
“What do you mean?”
“Have you ever been camping?”
“You do know where I’m currently residing, right?”
He snorted. In Erie, she lived in a seventeen-foot travel trailer at Sara’s Campground, a local landmark. “I don’t mean in a camper. I mean in a tent.”
“Yeah. I have.”
“Okay.” He thumbed over his shoulder. “I have one in the back along with a couple of sleeping bags. We can park on your farm and set up camp.” When she didn’t immediately reply, he added, “Or we can sleep in your old barn. The cots are already there.”
“The tent will be good.”
* * *
They stopped at a sandwich shop drive-through for lunch and ordered extra for later.
At a Dollar General, they bought bottled water, a Styrofoam cooler, and some bagged ice.
Then Matthias drove them back to Emma’s farm and parked on the graveled apron in front of the barn.
They ate while sitting on the edge of the cargo compartment, the tailgate door open.
Emma gazed wistfully at the fields beyond the barn. Instead of the acres of overripe grass waving in the breeze, she pictured grazing Holsteins, stretches of corn, and mown patches where hay had been harvested.
“You okay?” Matthias asked.
She turned to look at the concern creasing his face. “I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine. Maybe a hotel would be better.”
“No, this is good.”
“Or if you really want to go back to Eric’s place—”
She leaned over, resting her head on his shoulder. “Honestly, this is perfect. I haven’t spent a night on my own family property in way too long. Besides, I’m glad I can share it with you.”
He put an arm around her, and she melted against him. After several moments of silence, he said, “We haven’t really talked about what happened with Sonny Jones this morning.”
Emma straightened. “I’d forgotten what a pig he could be.”
“I would use a stronger term to describe him, but I don’t mean that. Do you think the signature was Nell’s?”
Emma pictured the signed agreement. “No doubt about it.”
“So, it looks like Eric did negotiate the contract.”
“I can’t believe he would make a deal like that without consulting me.” She crumpled her sandwich wrappers and stuffed them back in the takeout bag. “Where on earth are they?” Her mind ran rampant with nightmarish thoughts.
Matthias added his trash to the bag and shifted to face her. “Let’s think about it. Why would Eric take off and leave his phone behind?”
“He wouldn’t.”
“But he did. What would make him leave without it?”
One of Emma’s dark thoughts settled to the front of her mind. “Someone made him leave.”
“You mean Nell?”
“No. I mean… he was taken. Forcibly.”
Matthias didn’t answer for a couple of beats, then said, “Kidnapped?”
“Maybe.”
“By whom?”
Emma hopped down from the Jeep and paced a few feet away, her gaze still on the fields. “I can’t even imagine.”
“I know I already asked you this, but I have to ask again.”
She pivoted to him.
“Is it possible that Eric took Nell to Ohio? To Zeke’s funeral?”
“He would have told me. And he would’ve taken his phone.”
Matthias’s gaze shifted past Emma, looking toward the same fields she’d been studying a minute ago.
In the silence, she considered his suggestion.
Had Eric and Nell simply driven to Cleveland to attend her boyfriend’s memorial service?
Except for the lack of notification and the forgotten phone, it was entirely possible.
Maybe that was it. Eric merely forgot his phone.
Emma didn’t believe it, but she preferred the option to thinking he’d been kidnapped.
“I’ve changed my mind. I want to go back to Eric’s house.
I want to use his computer and get more details about the funeral. ”
Matthias held up his phone. “I’ve got it right here.” He thumbed the screen. “The service was a couple of hours ago.”
She retrieved her own phone from her pocket and keyed in the number for Nell she’d copied from Eric’s contact list. The call went straight to voicemail. “Nell, this is Emma. Please call me. I’m worried about you and Eric.” She crossed her arms and looked at Matthias. “We could drive to Cleveland—”
He stopped her with a firm shake of his head. “And do what? If they’re there, we don’t know where they’re staying. Or they might be headed home, and we’d pass them going the other way.”
She hated that he was right. Then another idea struck her. “Do you know any cops in Cleveland? Someone you could call and have them look into whether Eric and Nell were at the funeral?”
Matthias seemed on the verge of shutting her down again but looked away for a moment, thinking. “I don’t know anyone there offhand. Cassie might.”
Detective Sergeant Cassie Malone, Matthias’s partner, was currently on medical leave after being shot and left for dead. Emma knew she should tell him no—let Cassie rest—but she couldn’t. Not when Nell’s safety was in question.
“Before I disturb her, let me call the funeral home.” He tapped his phone’s screen and listened.
“This is Detective Honeywell with the Erie City Police,” he said in a tone that let Emma know he was speaking to a machine.
“I understand you’re handling the arrangements for Ezekiel Allen Dyson.
I’m trying to locate two people who may be attending the service, Eric Baker and Nell Anderson.
I’d appreciate a call if you have any information regarding either of these individuals. ” Matthias left his number and hung up.
“You made it sound like they’re in trouble with the police.”
“I want them to think it’s urgent. Otherwise, they might not call back until tomorrow or later.”
“Makes sense.” Emma tilted her head. “Cassie?”
He gave one nod and again thumbed his phone. A few moments later, he said, “Hey, partner. How are you and Shawn doing?”
Shawn, her husband, had also been seriously injured a little over a week ago in a shooting at his veterinary clinic.
“Good,” Matthias said. “Glad to hear it. Hey, do you happen to know any law enforcement officers in or around Cleveland?”
Emma could hear Cassie’s muffled reply but couldn’t make out her words.
Matthias gave his partner a quick rundown of what was going on before asking her to call in a favor. She must’ve agreed, because he thanked her and ended the call. “Cassie knows a cop in Akron. She’s going to call him and will let me know if she learns anything.”
Emma sighed. “I guess that’s the best I can hope for.”
He stood and closed the distance between them.
“Let’s settle in here for now and wait to hear from Cassie or the funeral home.
You can show me around your farm.” He shot a glance skyward, where the patches of blue had been swallowed by gathering clouds.
“Before the rain starts again. Then we’ll get a good night’s sleep.
Tomorrow, I promise, we’ll get to the bottom of this. ”
* * *
Heavy downpours pelted the tent fabric most of the night. Thunder and lightning repeatedly jarred them out of their sleep, but Sunday morning provided clear, rain-washed air and a vivid blue sky overhead.
There had been no replies to either of Matthias’s phone calls.
In dire need of caffeine, he gave in to Emma’s request to go back to Eric’s house. Emma insisted on searching the place from the basement to the second floor again, but everything, including Eric’s phone, was exactly as they’d left it yesterday. Her note hadn’t been touched.
Matthias led the way to the kitchen where he took advantage of the fancy coffee machine and handed her the first cup.
Then he toasted a couple of bagels he found stashed in the fridge, smeared them with cream cheese, and joined her at the massive island.
She stared at her breakfast without taking a bite.
“Now what?” she finally asked. “You said we’d get to the bottom of it today. How do we do that? Call Cassie again?”
“If she hasn’t called us, she doesn’t have anything to report.”
“Then what’s next?”
“I’ll make some more phone calls.” He didn’t want to tell her they would be to the hospitals and morgue.
Thankfully, she didn’t ask. “I want to go back to the construction site,” she said.
“Why? It’s Sunday. There isn’t going to be anyone around.”
“I know. That’s why I want to go today. I need to take another look at what Sonny’s doing there before I give him a hard ‘no’ on the sale.”
Matthias couldn’t resist grinning. “I think ripping up the sales agreement leaves little doubt that you aren’t going through with it.”
She broke off a piece of the bagel and stared at it, her expression clearly uncomfortable. “If it was up to me, yeah. Definite hard no. But I’ve been thinking. Nell does want to sell. Eric had mentioned she’s trying to make a clean break from the past.”
Matthias hated what he had to say next. “Have you considered that she’s using again and wants the money to feed her habit?”
She popped the chunk of cream cheese-coated bagel into her mouth instead of replying, but from her expression, he could tell she had indeed considered it.
“Then why do you want to go back out to the construction site?”
She chewed and swallowed. “Sonny said they met at his office. Nell never saw how he’s going to tear up our farm. Our home. I’m going to take some pictures to show her.”
Matthias wanted to point out that tearing up property was exactly what developers did, but now wasn’t the time.
“If I show her what ‘developing’ our property really means,” Emma said, “I know I can change her mind.”
Not if she plans to spend the money on drugs, he thought, but Emma needed something to do to keep her from feeling so helpless. “All right,” he said. “Tell you what. I have those phone calls to make. I’m going to use Eric’s computer to look up some information while you finish eating. Okay?”
“What kind of information?”
“Police information. I told you I would get to the bottom of Eric’s disappearance. That’s what I intend to do.”
Either she suspected who he planned to call, or she didn’t want to know—or both—but she nodded her agreement. He left her there, retreated into Eric’s office, and softly closed the door.
He made his first inquiry and was relieved when no one matching Eric’s or Nell’s descriptions had gone through the morgue within the last few days.
Next, he phoned the two closest hospitals, Washington and Canonsburg, where he hit a roadblock.
Neither would release information to an out-of-town cop without a court order.
He’d expected as much but had hoped he could at least get a confirmation or denial based on descriptions alone. No such luck.
Before he could look up the next number on his list, his phone buzzed. According to the screen, the incoming call was from Ohio. “Detective Honeywell,” he answered.
“Detective, this is Roberta from Lakeview Funeral Home in Cleveland. You called regarding yesterday’s service for Ezekial Dyson?”
“Yes. Thank you for getting back to me.”
“I’m afraid I don’t have any information on the two people you mentioned. We don’t take names of guests beyond having them sign the memorial book, and we’ve already turned that over to the family.”
“Could you or one of your staff possibly have noticed these two?” He gave her a general description of Nell and Eric.
“I’m sorry. No. I oversaw the service myself. The Dyson family is well loved in the community, and their son’s untimely death drew a large number of friends paying their respects. The couple you mention could very well have been here, but I can’t say for sure.”
Matthias thanked her again, hung up, and moved on.
The Pennsylvania State Police Troop B headquarters was his next call.
After identifying himself and explaining the situation, he was transferred twice before reaching a cooperative trooper.
He stated they didn’t have any accident or criminal reports involving Nell or Eric, but he promised to let Matthias know if he heard anything.
A soft rap came at the door as Matthias ended the final call. He rose and opened it to find an anxious Emma.
“I finished tidying up the kitchen,” she said, looking past him toward the computer. “Did you learn anything?”
“The good news is no. There are no reports of them being involved in an accident or any criminal activities. I couldn’t get the hospitals to release information without a court order.”
She visibly relaxed. “I would hope Nell has me listed as an emergency contact in her phone. I know Eric does, but…”
Matthias finished the sentence. “His phone is here.”
“Right.”
“The trooper I spoke with has my number and will call if he hears anything. A woman from the funeral home got back to me but couldn’t say one way or the other if Nell and Eric were in attendance.”
“I guess that’s all we can do for now.” She gave him a weak smile. “Let’s go look at big piles of dirt.”