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Chapter Twelve


"They messed up my place, too, you know," Seth said under his breath. He was staring across the restaurant still, his eyes shifting warily, studying every person that walked through the door. He'd glance over at me every now and then, but for the most part I stared at the side of his head. He sighed. "What made you go in? After you saw it was a shambles?"

"I needed to find Emma," I answered. "And also to see the stove was off."

Seth raised an eyebrow. He shifted the gun on the table. "Are you sure Emma didn't get on a plane?" he asked.

"No," I answered, "But I am sure she was at the apartment. There's nobody else but you that knows about the ring, Seth. Just you, me, and her. It was one of the three of us that put it in that safe and I know I sure as hell didn't do it."

"So she was at the apartment." Seth rubbed his chin. "When you were in the alley, and you said you saw the blood on the brownstone at the end of the fire escape... Which way did they go?"

"I guess East. I ran West."

Seth tensed as a waitress approached, refilled his cup with coffee, then walked away again. He glanced at me, then back at the door. "Here's what gets me," he said. "How did she leave the ring?"

"What?"

"Well obviously she was alive when she left the ring. Just because the ring was there doesn't mean she's dead. It means she had probably cause to believe she would die. But when the ring was put into the safe, she was alive at that point. It's not like a hardened crimminal is going to listen if she was like 'you have to leave this here for my husband after you kill me'."

I nodded slowly. This was an obvious point, but one I hadn't really thought of yet.

Seth rubbed his chin. "So the assailants gave her cause to believe they'd kill her. But she must've got in the room before them or they wouldn't have given her time to put the ring in the safe."

"Unless they wanted the stuff in it and she just deposited the ring in there while getting it for them," I suggested.

"But the guy in the closet."

"So?"

"So he let you pull the ring out, then shot at you. Like the ring was bait."

I squinted across the table at Seth. "Bait?"

"Yeah. Like they knew you'd find it and planned to take you out afterwards."

"Why would they want me?"

Seth mused, "Any number of reasons... maybe you were getting too far involved, or maybe to get her to talk." He chewed the inside of his mouth thoughtfully, his eyes still focused away from me. His profile was perfectly carved, like a statue of a noble or something. "We were both supposed to get out of town, that was our orders. I wanted to go immediately, send someone for you and Beth, my girlfriend, but Em wouldn't leave until she'd gone for you herself. She refused. She said you wouldn't understand if we sent someone after you." He looked at me, an almost resentful tinge to his eye. "We were to go into hiding, there were specialists, trained in the art of disappearing; they were going to help us disappear. Em should've had back up at the airport, she should've had someone go with her to get you. I should've gone with her to get you." Seth punched the table, frustrated.

"Em doesn't do well with asking for help," I said supportively.

Seth sighed, "I know."

"She's never been good at it," I said, "She's too strong for that, you know?" I glanced at the door. I didn't know what Seth and I were watching for, but he had me tense about it now, like every person that stepped through it was a suspect. "Have you found Daniel Gregor?"

Seth shook his head, "I know she thought we were looking for a boy, but I still think we're wasting our time. We're looking for a body."

"Do you think Ian Mitchell did it?" I asked point blank.

Seth's eyes narrowed. "How do you know about Ian Mitchell?"

"Em told me," I lied.

Seth turned toward the door, grumbled a curse under his breath, then said, "Ian Mitchell's dead," he shook his head, he looked down at the table. "Killed. In his cell at the prison upstate." He sighed.

"By who?" I asked.

"We don't know," Seth replied.

"Emma said that it was obvious," I said, "When she left the apartment four days ago, she said it was obvious and she couldn't believe she hadn't seen it before."

Seth shook his head, "Emma had this crazy hunch ---" His cellphone buzzed and interrupted us. He pulled it out and stared down at the face of it for a long moment. Then answered it, "Lombowski."

I stared at his gun as he spoke in a low voice.

"Yes... yes... no... There's no substantial evidence to point to that," he paused, listening. "I don't think we should jump it too soon.... Yes. Yes, sir. I'll be there." He hung up, and looked at me. "I need to go. But Jared, I think you need to go back to Nashville."

"What? Why? What about Emma? I need to help you find Emma."

"Leave finding Emma up to me and to the precinct," he said, "She wanted you safe above all else, and she chose Nashville for a reason. That's where her agent is based."

"Her agent?"

"The expert helping her disappear."

"Right."

"Agent Brackett."

"Okay. How do I find this Agent Brackett?"

"That's all I know about her. Call the precinct." He stood up.

"Are you sure I can't help you?" I asked.

"You aren't trained for this stuff, man," Seth replied regretfully. "I know you wanna help, I respect that. I would too if I was in your position. But you gotta let me to do the legwork for you, okay? You gotta trust me, man."

I shifted in my seat, "Okay," I replied.

"I gotta go, Jared. Call me if you hear anything from her. I'm sure you'll be the first she'd call." Seth started to walk away.

"Stay safe," I said. "Please."

Seth turned back to me and tipped his hat - a red ball cap. His curly hair underneath was flat from the hat. "First flight out of here, Jared," he said, he turned, started walking away again.

"Wait," I said.

He paused, looked back.

"Emma's crazy hunch. What was it?"

Seth hesitated. "I'm sorry, man," he said, "That's classified."




I was hesitant to follow Seth's direction to go back to Nashville. Part of me wantd to follow him and try to figure out more about the case and find Emma myself. But he was probably right about it being better if he looked for Emma himself since he was trained and all that. I really was more likely to become a liability. I evidently was already the reason why Em wasn't safely with this Agent Brackett in Nashville, according to Seth. She'd wanted to come for me herself.

So I did, indeed, book the next flight out to Nashville and got myself to LaGuardia. It was at the airport, after checking my duffle bag and everything, sitting in the terminal waiting area, that I opened the folder of papers about the case an started flipping through them again. The pink star-shaped Post-it with that random phone number on it fell out and it landed on the floor at my feet. I picked it up. On the back was scrawled one word: Brackett.

"Well that makes that simple," I said, turning it over and staring at the phone number.

I pulled my cell phone out and dialed the number. It rang a couple times before it was answered.

"Brackett," said a woman's voice... a familiar woman's voice.

I racked my brain. Where had I heard that voice?

"Helloooo? Anyone there?" she sing-songed.

"Aiden?"

"Jared?"