CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX
“We need to get to the Abacos,” I said. “J.D.’s been gone two days. That can’t be good.”
“Does everybody agree that she’s probably there?” asked Jock.
Logan and I nodded.
“We’ve still got Doc’s plane,” I said.
Logan said, “If Doc is holding J.D. against her will, why would he allow you to use his plane?”
I hadn’t really thought about that one. I picked up the phone and dialed Fred Cassidy’s cell phone. When he answered, I said, “Are you in communication with Chaz Desmond?”
“No. I don’t think anybody knows where he is.”
“Who authorized you and the plane to stick around to help us?”
“That’d be Paul Macomber and the company’s lawyer, Harry Anderson.”
I hung up and called the offices of Desmond Engineering Consultants and asked to speak to Macomber. “I’m sorry, sir,” the receptionist said, “but he’s in Charlotte today.”
“Then may I speak to Mr. Anderson.”
“He’s out sick today.”
“Can you give me his home phone?”
“I’m sorry, sir, but it’s against our policy to give out home numbers.”
“He’s probably in the book,” I said. “Can you tell me what town he lives in?”
“No problem, sir. Decatur.”
“Decatur, huh? Thank you.”
I hung up, my pulse quickening. “There are a lot of suburbs around Atlanta,” I said, “so was it just a coincidence that Anderson lived in the town whose library computer generated the e-mail alerting me to Marsh LLC?”
Jock looked at me. “There are no coincidences, not in a case like this one. There are only a few people who know Doc hired you to look into his son’s murder. Anderson is one of them.”
He was using his fingers to tick off his points. “He lives in Decatur. He’s Desmond’s lawyer. He probably knows about Marsh LLC and the house in the Abacos. He’s been a close friend of Doc’s for many years. They’ve built a company together. He wouldn’t do anything against Doc’s interest unless he thought it was better for Doc if you knew about the house.”
“The answers are in Marsh Harbour,” I said. “Logan, you up for another trip to the islands?”
“Can I take my gun?”
“I think that’d be a good idea. I’ll call Cassidy and let him know where we’re going.”
I called Bill Lester as I was walking out the door. “Bill, Jock and I are on our way to the Bahamas. We have a lead on J.D.”
“Talk to me.”
“We think she’s safe and hiding out with some friends near Marsh Harbour.”
“You think she’s okay?”
“Yeah. She’s with Doc Desmond.”
“Okay. Keep me posted. I’ve found out something else that is very odd.”
“What’s up, Bill?”
“I followed up on the list of names you gave me. The Thanatos group. We know about Desmond, Brewster, and Fleming, but there were four more still alive. One of them owns a small garage in a town in North Dakota up by the Canadian border. His only son was shot to death a few months back. Another member of Team Charlie lives in Northern California. The sheriff there told me that there’d been no murders in the county in the last couple of years. I asked him if he knew the team member. He did. Then he told me that the guy’s daughter, an army officer, was murdered in Charlottesville, Virginia last month.”
“That pretty much seals it. Somebody is definitely targeting the children of the members of Team Charlie.”
“There’s more,” the chief said. “The other two men and their families have disappeared.”
“Shit. Are you sure?”
“Matt, J.D. had already talked to each of the cops I spoke to. They’d looked into this thing for her. They were kind of curious as to why I was calling them.”
“When did J.D. talk to them?”
“Sunday. The day before she disappeared.”