Gone(40)

“And the threats started coming. The phone would ring, two, three times a night. No one would be there. Sometimes he saw people moving around outside of the house, watching.”

“Where is your brother now?”

She looked at him, as if he should already know. And, Rondeau felt, maybe he did.

“Dead,” Tamika said.

“I’m sorry to hear that.” He didn’t press for details. Instead he sought the connection. “Now help me to understand why you think any of this has to do with the missing family.”

Her eyes locked on him. “People go missing round here all the time. Forest rangers and search parties are out regularly, seems to me. But many never get found. Sure, people get lost, there are six million acres in the Adirondack Park. But when I read about the missing family this morning, I saw where it said the man, the father, was a filmmaker.”

The press were certainly making hay. Rondeau waited. He stepped from one foot to the other, trying to get his circulation going. He wished he’d brought a warmer jacket.

“There was a filmmaking group up around here about a year ago. And then again a couple weeks ago. They were in the woods.”

That made him stand still.

“And,” Tamika said, “their name: Kemp. Addison Kemp is my neighbor — or, what you’d call a neighbor, even though she’s a couple miles away, over on the next property. Her property is where the entrance is.”

“The entrance . . .”

“To the underground facility.”

*

He moved back towards Tamika’s house, in the lead now, half walking, half running. He took out his phone as he made his way through the woods. He had six missed calls — he’d been too numb to feel the phone’s vibration. He went into the settings to put the ringer on. As he fiddled with it, his foot caught a root and he fell forward, the phone flying from his grip.

Tamika helped him up. “You okay? Mr. Rondeau?”

He got to his feet and nodded. “Lost my phone.”

The two of them bent down and swept their hands through the leaves. He needed to talk to Addison Kemp right away — he had all he needed to confront her, all the right questions for the polygraph. If there was any truth to this, she was the key to it. Her behavior, the wrong footage, and now she’d omitted mentioning her brother was filming out here.

“Dammit,” Rondeau said, staring into the leaves.

“Here,” Tamika said, holding up his phone. “Got it.”

They got moving again. He kept a better watch on his footing as he scrolled through his data to find Addison Kemp’s cell phone number. He tapped the screen to call her. He didn’t notice the icon for service had a strike through it again until the call failed to connect.

He couldn’t catch a break.

“You have a landline at the house?”

“I do.” She was the one panting now, trying to keep up. Rondeau no longer felt tired. He no longer felt cold. He broke into a full run.





CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR / Addison Kemp’s House

Rondeau’s Chevy bumped over the dirt road out of Tamika Levitt’s property. Millard was squished against the door, Tamika in the middle. She braced herself, a palm flat against the ceiling, and said, “Whoa, daddy.”

“Sorry.” Rondeau wrestled with the wheel and got them back onto the main route. He roared up to speed until Tamika said, “There, right there.”

Another dirt road marked Private Drive.

“How far does this one go back?”

“Farther than mine.”

Wonderful. Didn’t these people ever think to pave anything? Probably would ruin the rustic vibe, he figured. Or, it was too expensive. He only cared because it was slowing him down. And because he was furious.

Addison Kemp had already been cleared from the hospital. Her blood and tissue samples were on their way to the lab in Albany. She wasn’t answering her cell. Brit Silas said she’d thought the woman was headed back to the motel, but a deputy had swung around to find her car gone.

He’d blown it.

Rondeau barreled onto the new dirt road, already going twenty miles an hour, wheels chirping as they took the turn. He felt like things were slipping through his fingers. He blamed himself for every questionable decision, and yet here he was — the mailbox blurred past, Kemp on the side of it. He pushed the truck to thirty as they climbed a steep, rocky section of the road. The incline was severe; Rondeau had to downshift. The tires spun as the truck lurched forward, keeping the momentum going.

“Ever come out here?” he asked Tamika.

“I’ve been to Addie’s a couple times, yeah.”

“And the two of you have spoken about the underground facility?”

“We have. But it’s not something that comes up a lot.”

“What was the context when it last came up? How long ago?”

“That she didn’t think much of it. If it got her a deal on the house, so be it. Her plot is thirty-eight acres, and the entrance is on state land beyond that. She wouldn’t be able to find it if she tried.”

Rondeau snapped a look at her. “Then how are we going to find it?”

“What do you think was in the box? A map.”

“Where is the map now?”

Tamika tapped her forehead. “Right here.” She dropped her hand and scowled. “Ain’t you gonna call somebody? Backup, and that?”