Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107766 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107766 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Josie looked like she was about to argue but then closed her mouth, nodding. Zach got out of the car and jogged over to the unmarked vehicle and asked the officer to keep an eye on Josie while he went to talk to the professor for a few minutes. The officer agreed, and Zach walked to the house and quickly up the steps to the front door and rapped loudly. When there was no answer, he rapped again, with even more force. He knew the bastard was home. The officer surveilling his house would have known if he’d left. Zach saw the curtain shift slightly and moved to the window. “Professor, I need to talk to you,” he yelled through the glass.
“Set up an interview with my lawyer, Detective,” he called back. “I refuse to talk to you without counsel present.”
Motherfucker. “I just have a couple of quick questions about—”
“Talk to my lawyer,” he repeated. “Or bring a warrant.” The curtain shifted again, and Zach saw the man’s form moving away, back into the recesses of his house.
Zach splayed his hands and beat once on the wooden front door. “Bastard!”
When he got back behind the wheel, his muscles were tense. Josie didn’t say anything, obviously surmising what had happened. He picked up his cell phone and dialed Alicia Merrick’s number next. She didn’t answer, and when Zach called the police detail who was watching her, they told him she was in the grocery store. “Go in and get her for me, would you?”
The officer told Zach he’d have Ms. Merrick call him back as soon as possible, and Zach thanked him, clicking over to the other line when he saw that Jimmy was calling. “Called every firm on the list, and not one of them has a Cooper Hart or a Charlie Hart working there,” he said. “I also called the UC admissions office, and there is no record of anyone by either name ever having attended their school.”
Zach hung up. “Fuck,” he murmured. He told Josie what Jimmy had said.
“He never went to UC? Why…why would he say he did?”
“Josie, I don’t know, but something is very wrong here.”
Her eyes were so haunted, and Zach was tempted to pull over and comfort her, but they didn’t have time. They needed to figure out what the fuck was going on and hopefully save Reagan from the same fate as the other girls they’d found shackled and starved.
“You said Cooper worked at a coffee shop nine years ago?”
Josie seemed to come back to the present. “Yeah. Right near campus. Reagan and I used to go in there a lot.”
“Why don’t we go talk to them, see if anyone there still talks to him? It’s better than waiting.”
They drove to the area near the campus that had restaurants, a few clothing shops and other businesses college students frequented. The coffee shop buzzed with activity on a weekday at three p.m., and when they entered, Zach moved to the front of the line as college students in need of caffeine gave him dirty looks. He showed his badge to the young barista and requested a manager. She nodded, eyes wide as she walked quickly to the back and then came out a moment later, telling Zach the manager would be right with them. They took a seat at the one empty high-top table near the back, and a few minutes later, an older black woman emerged. Josie recognized her. “She used to work here when Cooper did,” she told Zach.
The woman approached them, holding out her hand to Zach first and then to Josie. “Detective? I’m Susannah Washington. What can I do for you?”
Susannah sat down at the third seat, and Zach explained what they wanted. She looked pensive. “I do remember him. Real handsome guy. All the girls giggled and flirted with him, and he flirted right back, even though I think he dated the guy next door. I’d have to contact the owner to forward employee records from nine years ago. We don’t keep that kind of information in the store, and we got a new computer system five years ago. But I can do that right away.”
“That’d be great,” Zach said. “The sooner the better. You did know him as Cooper, though?”
“Yeah. But I think that was his middle name. First name was just an initial. C, I think? Maybe R? I don’t remember, exactly, and I just don’t remember his last name. Hart doesn’t sound right, but I can’t say why. But the guy he dated? Ron? He still works at the sandwich shop next door. He owns the place now. If I were you, I’d go talk to him.” Zach thanked her, handing over his card so the records could be emailed to him.
When Zach and Josie entered the sandwich shop next door, a bell tinkled over the door. The place wasn’t quite as crowded as the coffee shop, but it still hummed with activity, kids with laptops taking up the round tables, the looks on their faces focused, intense.