Jennifer Apodaca - Samantha Shaw 04 - Batteries Required by Jennifer Apodaca Read Free Book Online

he began sliding into becoming the loser he was today.
    I stormed over the dead grass to the passenger side of the truck.
    Gabe came up behind me. “You OK?” His voice was soft.
    I leaned my back against the cold door. “I don’t think Hugh did anything to Angel. He might trash the house, but he doesn’t have the guts to face Angel.”
    “Not himself, I agree with that. There were no visible cuts on him so I doubt it’s his blood on that dish towel in Angel’s house. But Hugh strikes me as the type to hire someone. Or he could have gotten involved with the wrong person and they went after Angel for some reason.”
    “It could be Angel’s blood.” I hated even saying the words.
    Gabe looked at me. “Possible, but we don’t know. Do you buy that story about his wife being on a trip with her mother?”
    I shook my head. “I don’t know. She might have left him.”
    “Think, Sam. Let’s say this latest career setback with being turned down for the private patrol license caused his wife to leave, and Hugh blames Angel for that. What would he do?”
    I rubbed my forehead, trying to think. Hugh hated looking bad. He blamed Angel when he couldn’t pass the bar. He found a way to have the lab reports changed so he couldn’t be blamed for not having children. And eventually, he proved his manhood by banging a dumb, young girl. “Nothing violent, I don’t think.” So what would he do? I dropped my hand and looked at Gabe. “But he would try to make Angel look bad. Blame her. Be able to say, ‘See, she’s a bitch or she’s crazy.’”
    Gabe nodded. “I’ll see if I can find out what he was doing at Daystar. I’ll probably have another face-to-face with Hugh after I have some information, so I can tell if he’s lying or not.”
    I put my hands flat against the door of the truck behind my hips. “You scared him bad enough that I think he’s telling more truth than lies.”
    “Maybe. It all depends what the stakes are for Hugh.”
    God, I was scared. “You mean he might be more afraid of someone or something else?”
    Gabe shrugged.
    My head throbbed behind my eyes. “What now?”
    Gabe leaned over me, putting his hands on the truck over my head. “You have to hold it together, Sam. You know Angel the best. You have to think like her. Things like how would she react to Hugh being pissed about losing his chance at that license? If Hugh went over and yelled at Angel or threatened her, what would she do?”
    Easy question. “Tell him to go to hell. That he got what he deserved. And threatening her with a lawsuit? She would have laughed in his face.”
    “Pissing him off more,” Gabe pointed out.
    “Maybe. Angel isn’t afraid like that. But what do we do now?”
    “Keep figuring out what happened. First, we’ll go home and see if Barney and the boys had any luck getting ahold of Rick or anyone else in the Silky Men. Then we’ll go back over to Angel’s house and start talking to her neighbors. We’re going to try and reconstruct her exact moves.”
     
     
    Monday mornings suck. This Monday morning sucked worse than usual. Dragging myself out of bed, I hit the shower and tried to convince myself that I’d had a nightmare and Angel wasn’t really missing.
    But by the time I got the boys off to school and into my car for the drive to work, I had to face it. Angel was missing.
    While driving to the office, I went over everything. Grandpa and the boys hadn’t gotten any answer at Rick’s house, or from any of the other guys. Gabe and I had talked to Angel’s neighbors, but they hadn’t noticed anything unusual. We had gone to Rick’s house and he still wasn’t home. Then Gabe had spent a few hours doing surveillance on Hugh, but Hugh never left his house.
    Today, Gabe and I were going to head out to Daystar and see what we could pick up of Angel’s trail there.
    But first, I was going to work while Gabe got a few hours’ sleep. I needed to keep busy. I pulled into the row of parking spaces