Single mother, Tamara had told him, lived alone with her two pre-school children, worked off and on for a firm of architects in the city. Child support from her ex-husband paid most of the bills. Like her brother, she seemed to be a model citizen.
He went up and rang the bell. The fog here was numbing cold, like vapor off dry ice, and heavy with the smell of salt. He stood hunched, hands in the pockets of his suit coat, until the door opened.
She was attractive in a thin-boned way, her hair clipped short, her eyes big and liquidy brown. She said, politely enough but with an edge, “If you’re selling something, you can turn right around and walk away. I’m not interested.”
“I’m not a salesman.” He showed her his ID. “I’m here about your brother Aaron.”
Her manner changed instantly. “Oh Lord,” she said, “is he all right?”
“As far as I know.”
“Has he … done something?”
“I’m not investigating him,” Runyon said. “Could we talk inside? Pretty cold out here.”
She let him into a living room cluttered with children’s toys. Kid voices, interspersed with shrieks of laughter, rose and fell from another room at the rear. She said automatically, “I’m sorry, it’s a mess in here.” Then, “If you’re not investigating Aaron, then who …?”
“A friend of his, Brian Youngblood. Do you know him?”
“Met the man, but I don’t really know him. He seems like a nice person … What kind of trouble is he in?”
“I can’t answer that, Mrs. Lucas.”
“But you think Aaron knows?”
“Yes. Have you seen or talked to your brother in the past few days?”
“No. Aaron and I … we’re not close. He has his life and I have mine. I haven’t seen him in months. But he—”
One of the kids let out a scream. She said, “Now what? Excuse me,” and hurried out of the room. Runyon took a short turn around it, but there was nothing in there for him.
She was back inside of three minutes. “Kids,” she said, but with a motherly affection. Then she said, “Aaron called me last night.”
“Oh? Any particular reason?”
“I don’t know, I wasn’t here. Nobody was here. The kids were with a neighbor and I was out with a friend and I had my cell phone on voice mail. He left a message.”
“Did you call him back?”
“Not last night. I … didn’t get home until very late. I tried this morning, but he didn’t answer at his apartment and he wasn’t at work and his cell was off.”
“What did his message say?”
“Just that he needed to talk to me. He sounded … funny.”
“Funny?”
“Not like himself. Upset or worried … shook up.”
“Is the message still on your voice mail?”
“… Should be. I don’t think I erased it. You want to hear it?”
“If you wouldn’t mind.”
She went and got her cell phone and played the message. It was a good quality unit; the voice and the inflections were clear.
“Sis, this is Aaron. I know it’s been a while but … I need to talk to you. I really need to talk. If you’re listening, pick up.” A few seconds of humming silence. “Oh God. I don’t think I can stand any more of this without … Look, call me back as soon as you get this, okay? It’s really important.”
“He does sound funny, doesn’t he?” Shari Lucas said.
Runyon said thinly, “Yes, he does.”
“He’s involved in Brian’s trouble. That’s it, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know,” he lied. “But I’ll find out. Do you have a key to his apartment?”
She blinked at him. “A key? Why would you want—”
“Please, Mrs. Lucas. Do you have a key?”
“No. I never had need for one … Oh, sweet Jesus, you don’t think something’s happened to him?”
He pasted on a reassuring smile, pressed one of his business cards into her hand. “Do something for me, okay? Call Aaron’s friends, see if you can locate him. And call me right away if you do. Will you do that?”
“All right, but … Can’t you give me some idea of what this is all about?”
No, he couldn’t. What he’d just begun to realize about her brother and Brian Youngblood had shaken him a little; it would knock her down. He said he’d call her later, or Aaron would, and got out of there as fast as he could without scaring her any more than she already was.
22
The damn cell phone started in again as I was driving to work Friday morning. I was on the curvy part of Upper Market and I had to wait for a break in traffic in order to pull over into curb space.