Undisclosed (17 page)

“What day is it today?” he said over his shoulder.

“Monday.”

“Monday, you say? Well then, he’ll be home at five and back out by eleven.” He then disappeared into his house, closing the door behind him without uttering another word.

“Well that gives us forty-five minutes to take a look around,” Jayde said.

Travis grasped her arm. “If he knows anything, you think he’s going to stop here with us lurking outside? I have a better idea.”

* * * * *

They parked their bikes just beyond the east vehicle access portal and waited. There were only three known ways in and out of Los Alamos Laboratories; one was off Pajarito Corridor and the others were from the east and west of Jemez Road. Over the years, Travis had tagged along with his mother when they had dropped his father off before school, the few times his truck had to go into the shop. The main east side was where he had become accustomed to seeing his father and the doctor come out each day.

“Why do you continue to hunt?”

She looked off into the distance. “I already told you, it’s who we are.”

“No, it not. You have a choice.”

“Would you stand by, Travis? If you knew you could protect others?”

Travis turned back, thinking about what she said.

Los Alamos Lab ran like clockwork and so did those who worked there. From where they were they had a clear view of multiple security booths and the cars coming in and out. He was used to seeing the protective force all kit out in military gear performing their routine checks with bomb-sniffing dogs as people went in and out of the facility. This much he did know—they didn’t mess around and for good reason; the Lab was one of only two labs in the entire country designated to work on nuclear weapons, among other things.

Moments later, a silver Acura passed through the access point and made its way up the road, heading in their direction. Travis immediately recognized the car.

“There he is,” Travis muttered.

Jayde observed the vehicle as it pulled by them among a host of other employees who were finishing up their shifts.

They waited until he had passed before starting their bikes. The bikes rumbled to life like jackhammers. They eased their way out into the line of traffic, all the while keeping an eye on his car from a few vehicles behind. They made their way through the streets of Los Alamos.

The Acura pulled into a gas station just off Diamond Avenue. Travis and Jayde followed a few seconds after, stopping to one side. Dr. Evans was already out filling up his car. Travis shut off his bike and waited for him to finish paying before he approached him. A few moments later he emerged.

“Dr. Evans.”

The doctor turned to him. “Travis?”

Travis immediately cut to the chase.

“Doctor, where’s my father?”

Dr. Evans screwed his face up. “I thought you knew. He’s out of state.”

“No, he’s not, and I think you know that.”

“What? What are you suggesting?”

“I’m not suggesting anything. I think you know—the men—from the Lab?”

“I don’t know what you’re getting at and frankly I don’t have the time either.” Dr. Evans shuffled quickly back towards his car.

Travis hesitated for a moment. If anyone knew where his father was, it had to be him and he wasn’t going to let this opportunity slip by.

“What is the Edin project?”

Dr. Evans abruptly stopped and stiffened. He spun around, looking at him suspiciously with narrowed eyes as if passing judgment, determining carefully the next words he would utter.

“Where did you hear that?”

“What is it?” Travis asked.

The doctor scrutinized Travis so thoroughly that he began to wonder if it had been a wise choice to mention it.

He walked back without a word, stopping a few steps from Travis. Travis could see Jayde out of the side of his eye getting off her bike.

The doctor sighed. “You know where I live?”

Travis said, “Yeah.”

A man came out of the station looking in their direction. He had a phone up to his ear. Dr. Evans moved closer, a concerned expression spread across his face as if at any moment someone was about to pounce on him. He scanned the area, wary of continuing the discussion in public.

“It’s not safe to speak here. Meet me there tonight—ten o’clock,” he whispered. And with that he turned on his heels and scurried back to his vehicle.

Travis walked silently back to the bikes. It was the first time he had felt any sense of hope, any sense of making progress, since the night his father was taken.

“So?”

“He wants to see me at ten o’clock tonight, at his home.”

“Right, well, I’ll let the others know and we’ll join you.”

“I’m going alone.”

She turned. “You’re what?”

Travis grabbed his helmet from his bike. “I have one shot to find out where my father is. Dr. Evans worked alongside my father and I sure don’t want it going south because Mason, or one of you, decides to take matters into your own hands. I’m not prepared to risk that.” He forced his helmet over his head and straddled his bike.

“Oh, but you’re prepared to walk into a situation that for all we know could be deadly?”

He had no illusions that it was going to be easy, it wasn’t likely going to be a simple in an out, but he had little to go on and even more reason now to find his father. Could going in alone really yield results? Would he really find out where his father was? It was too much to hope for, but it was something and that was enough.

“I’ll wear the device if it makes you happy. Right now, I gotta go.”

Jayde shook her head and let out a sigh of exasperation. “Why do I get the feeling you’re withholding something from me?”

“I guess you’ll have to trust me,” Travis mumbled beneath his helmet as he twisted the key in the ignition, “or you could read my mind.” Their eyes locked for a moment, and Travis wondered if she really could read his mind. He only wished he could know hers.

Chapter Sixteen

Travis had just turned onto Canyon Road when he heard the familiar sound of a siren. Snatching a glance in his mirror, he saw a patrol car behind him.
Ah, not again!
He drifted his bike to a halt on the side of the dusty road and lifted up his visor, fixing his gaze on the officer who had exited the vehicle was making his way towards him. It was Officer Davis.

“Travis.”

“What now?” Travis droned. He really wasn’t in the mood for a lecture on road etiquette and he was pretty sure that he wasn’t speeding—which would have been a first. He willed his heart to maintain a calm beat.
Had the doctor called the police on him?
He already had his license and registration in hand; he knew the drill.

The officer looked over the bike. “I see you got your bike fixed.”

“Really, is that why you stopped me?” Travis said.

He usually had a smart-aleck remark for the officer, but he preferred to skip it and keep this quick.

“I don’t need that, I just need you to come down the station. I have a few questions I need to ask you about your father.”

“Can’t we do that here?”

“No, I need to show you something.”

That didn’t sound good. It was a bad sign. And after several run-ins with the men from the Lab, who knew if they weren’t also deep inside the police organization. He didn’t like the idea, not one bit.

“You think we could do this another time? I have a shift I have to cover at my mom’s store.”

“Ah, this won’t take long, and I’ve already spoken to your mother. She said it would be okay.”

Travis groaned. He paused for a moment, thinking of any other excuse he could come up with, but he had nothing. “I guess I’ll follow?”

“I’ll do the following. I’ll meet you there,” Office Davis replied.

He obviously didn’t trust Travis, though Travis couldn’t blame him. It wouldn’t be the first time that he had been in trouble with the law or the first time he’d chosen to take them on a wild goose chase.

* * * * *

Office Davis tapped his pen on the desk repeatedly. He was skimming through some papers inside a folder. A picture of him and his family in a park was perched tidily on the table. Everything had its place; there was nothing in the room that was in disarray.

“So what’s this all about?” Travis inquired.

“What can you tell me about the night you had the accident in your father’s truck?”

“Not much … I remember bits and pieces—lights, medics and then waking up in the hospital.”

“Before that?”

Travis tried not to squirm in his chair but he knew what he’d been told. He also was fully aware of what had taken place, but right now he couldn’t see how it would serve him to say any different. Maybe what everyone believed was better than the truth, at least for the time being.

“I was working at the store, I don’t really remember much after that,” he said. “I thought you already knew this.”

Leaning back in his chair, Officer Davis took a long pull on his cup of coffee. “I was one of several officers on scene that night and since that night something isn’t quite adding up,” he said looking at Travis suspiciously. “You see, everything about that accident’s damage resembles a collision—not someone losing control of a vehicle—but there’s no evidence to support that another vehicle was involved. No other tire marks, no broken parts except the truck’s and no paint on the truck, and yet what’s even more peculiar is the way the door had been torn off. Do you know anything about that?” He threw a photo of his dad’s truck in front of him, its door completely gone, along with another showing the door only.

Travis felt his pulse quicken as he looked down at them. He shook his head, looking back up at him. “Nothing.”

The officer continued tapping his pen against the desk, his eyes fixed on Travis. He dropped it and walked over to a cork board on the wall. It was filled with a thick layer of flyers, faces of missing people, even a few locals that Travis recognized.

Without turning around he continued, “Do you know how many people go missing just in the United States every year?”

“No.”

While his mouth answered, his mind was in turmoil. He stared at the officer’s back, hoping to register something, anything that would reassure him that he was buying it. He was used to covering his tracks with his parents, but this was different. Police always made him feel as though they knew something he didn’t. As if they were baiting him, luring him into saying something he shouldn’t.
Any minute now, they’ll be strapping me into a lie detector device and asking all manner of questions.
Officer Davis returned to his seat, picked up the picture frame of his family and stared intently at it.

“Over eight hundred thousand.” He glanced up at Travis. “And that doesn’t even include those who are not reported missing.”

Travis was certain that he was attempting to get a reaction out of him—he had, but he wasn’t going to show it. One thing he had learned was to never lose eye contact, remain as still as possible. People who lied looked away, shuffled in their seat, breathed heavily—at least that’s what he read in one of the many books his mother had in her store.

“Crazy world,” Travis said, using the moment to adjust himself in his chair.

Officer Davis’s gaze returned to the photo in his hand, but his eyes look distant, like someone lost in thought.

“I wasn’t aware you had a family.”

He nodded. “Yes, once.”

There was a clear sadness to his reply. Travis was silent for a moment, formulating what he should say. It felt awkward, and he wished he could retrace his steps and not have mentioned his family.

“Can I—”

Officer Davis interjected before he had time to finish. “Five years ago, I was working the day shift. They were on their way out to my wife’s mother in San Pedro. I got a call of a car abandoned on the side of the 502 a few days later. Usual protocol, we have to tag it, and if it’s been sitting there for longer than seventy-two hours, it’s towed.” He stopped speaking suddenly. “The car was ours, my wife and daughter were nowhere to be found. All their belongings, everything was still in the car, the doors were locked and the keys were still in the ignition.”

“Did you find them?” Travis asked.

Officer Davis sighed and took a swig of his coffee. He shook his head. “No.”

Travis wondered how he had never heard about this before. Word tended to travel pretty fast around this town, but he hadn’t caught even a hint of this. Certainly his father had never mentioned it. Though it would explain the unusual amount of stacks of flyers of missing people pasted across Officer Davis’s wall and his over interest in what had been declared an accident. He felt bad about it, and yet he felt even more bad about what he was about to say next, but it was time to break the silence.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Travis said. “I don’t mean to change the subject but can I go now?”

As if snapping out of a trance, the officer replied, “Yeah, yes, you’re free to go.”

Travis jumped up and made his way to the door.

“One last thing.”

Travis held his breath as he turned back.