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

fast getaway, or otherwise abandoned her home. I also found nothing to suggest she or anyone else still lived there. The wastebaskets were empty.
    There were three bedrooms on the second floor and the next was used as an office. A long, sleek desk crossed one end of the room, with wall-to-wall filing drawers behind it. Low bookcases lined the remaining walls, jammed with eye-catching titles like
Handbook For Chemical Engineers, Reactive Mass Inhibitors, Fluid Compressive Dynamics,
and
Advanced Polymer Thermodynamics
. Framed photographs of Jacob or Amy and Jacob together lined the tops of the bookcases. The boy in the entry had grown into a tall, gangly young man who towered over his mother. One picture showed Amy holding a tray of oversizedbrownies. She was surrounded by Jacob and his friends in what appeared to be their high school newspaper office. Another showed a teenage Jacob and a pretty young girl posed with Amy in front of the house. Jacob and the girl were decked out in tuxedo and gown, and were probably heading off to their senior prom. Jacob was beaming. Amy was smiling, too, but something about her was sad. Maybe she was one of those people who always looked sad even when they were not.
    Amy’s desk was as neat and uncluttered as her dresser and nightstands. A digital phone, two oversized monitors, and a state-of-the-art wireless keyboard and mouse sat perfectly aligned on a pristine surface. The monitors were off. A dark blue binder titled DEPARTMENT OF NAVY BIDDING REQUIREMENTS sat squared beside the keyboard. My desk was a dump site of paper clips, bills, receipts, Post-it pads, notes, more bills, magazines I kept meaning to toss, invoices, used napkins, take-out menus, and stains. Her desk contained none of those things. It was as if someone had gotten rid of the day-to-day evidence of her life and activities.
    Something about the desk bothered me.
    I sat and touched the keyboard. The monitors didn’t respond. They powered up when I turned them on, but the screens showed only a bright blue field. I looked under and around her desk. I found all the necessary system components except for the brain that tied them together. Amy’s computer was missing.
    I said, “Hmm.”
    Detectives said things like this when they were suspicious.
    I checked her phone next. The phone had a dial tone, so I tried to bring up the incoming and outgoing call logs. The logs were empty. So was the handset’s phone book. Either the phone was brand-new and had never been used or someone had erased the logs.
    I took out my phone and called Meryl Lawrence.
    “I’m in her home. Can you talk?”
    “I can talk. Did you find something?”
    Her voice was quiet and guarded. As if she thought the walls were listening. From what she told me about her security division, they probably were.
    “Maybe. You were in her house last week, right?”
    “Yes. I’ve been there three times since we got her email. Why?”
    “Was her computer here?”
    “I was looking for Amy. I didn’t look at her computer.”
    “Her computer is missing. Did you take it?”
    Her voice was cool and surprised.
    “Excuse me?”
    “Did you take her computer?”
    “What’s wrong with you? I wouldn’t take her computer.”
    “You might if you wanted your security division to get into her email.”
    “No, I did not take her computer.”
    “I had to ask. She probably uses a laptop and takes it everywhere.”
    “So find where she is and you’ll find the computer. She’s with that damned man.”
    I didn’t want her to get started on the boyfriend.
    “One more thing. When you were here, did you use her phone?”
    “Why are you asking about phones?”
    “Maybe make a call on her phone or hit redial to see who she called or anything like that?”
    “No. I’m not that smart. If I’d thought of it, I would have. Did you find the bastard’s number?”
    “I didn’t find numbers. The phone logs were erased.”
    “Can you get them from the phone