The Promise: An Elvis Cole and Joe Pike Novel by Robert Crais Read Free Book Online Page A

isn’t your fault.”
    She frowned as if she hated me for saying it and started her car.
    “You have her key and alarm code and you have her address. Please get out and do something to earn the money.”
    I got out of her car. It was twelve minutes before eight. I had been looking for Amy Breslyn for less than twelve hours. Meryl Lawrence drove away. I drove away, too.
    The clock was ticking for both of us.

7
    A MY B RESLYN lived in a yellow two-story Mediterranean with a red tile roof near the southern edge of Hancock Park. Hers wasn’t the wealthiest part of Hancock Park, but the homes were built in the twenties for well-to-do people and still suggested affluence. Bird-of-paradise plants framed her windows and a narrow drive sloped up the lawn to a garage in her backyard. A blue-and-yellow security sign stood beside the drive. Armed response.
    I parked at the curb across the street and studied the house. A family once hired me to find a retired surgeon named Harold Jessler. Dr. Jessler had been missing for nine days, during which his brother, two sisters, his daughter, his son, and his ex-wife repeatedly phoned and visited his house. Their calls were not returned and Jessler was never home. They feared he had grown ill and wandered away, but Dr. Jessler answered the door when I knocked. I asked why he openedthe door for me but hid from his family. His answer was simple. He didn’t want to see them.
    Amy’s house was beautifully maintained and the lawn was neatly trimmed. Newspapers weren’t piled on the drive. She could have been inside counting money or watching TV, but probably not. Most people who embezzle four hundred sixty thousand dollars have a plan and the plan usually includes leaving the country.
    I was getting out of my car when Meryl Lawrence called.
    “Did you go to her house?”
    “Yes. I just got here.”
    “Did you find anything?”
    “I just got here.”
    I hung up. If Amy was hiding from Meryl Lawrence, I couldn’t blame her.
    I waited for two women to pass on the sidewalk, then went to the door. No one answered, so I let myself in. The alarm went off but stopped when I entered the code.
    “Ms. Breslyn? Is anyone home?”
    Nada.
    The entry was spacious and warm, with white plaster walls, a Spanish tile floor, and heavy oak trim stained dark as dried blood. A living room opened to the right and a formal dining room opened to the left. A stair facing the door climbed to the second floor. A large framed photograph of a boy faced me from the wall. It was the first thing anyone would see when they entered. The boy looked to be eight or nine years old, with pale skin, chubby cheeks, and a crown of curly dark hair. This would be Jacob.
    “Anyone here? Hello?”
    I locked the front door, reset the alarm, and took a fast tour tomake sure I was alone. Amy’s house was neat, clean, and as orderly as an empty hotel. No overturned furniture, splashes of blood, or ransom notes suggested foul play. Dr. Jessler had been hiding under his bed, but Amy Breslyn wasn’t. When I was satisfied no one was home, I checked the garage. Her car was gone, but this didn’t mean she was on the run or even out of town. For all I knew, she was at Starbucks.
    I searched the second floor first and began in her bedroom. The bed was crisply made. Clothes weren’t strewn about or dangling from open drawers. The ebony nightstands bracing the bed and their matching dresser were uncluttered and showroom clean, and the dresser was filled with orderly stacks of neatly folded clothes. There were also no travel brochures, love notes, or pictures of men taped to the mirror. So much for easy clues.
    The same obsessive neatness and order were evidenced in her closet and bath. Her clothes were organized by type and color, and neatly hung or shelved. Two black Tumi suitcases stood at the rear of the closet. The bathroom contained ample supplies of toothbrushes and toiletries, and no evidence she had packed for a romantic getaway, made a