Long Road to Mercy (Atlee Pine, #1)(15)
Pine could hear the man start to sob.
She said firmly, “No, Mr. Priest. No, that’s not why I’m calling. I’m investigating your brother’s disappearance, but we haven’t found him yet. For all we know he’s still very much alive.”
She listened as his breaths slowed.
He barked, “You scared the holy crap out of me. Why are you calling this late?”
“I apologize for that, but in a situation like this time can be of the essence. You told one of my colleagues that your brother worked at Capricorn Consultants?”
“That’s right. He does.”
“They’re a Beltway firm?”
“Yes!”
“Do you have an address and contact info for them?”
Now Priest hesitated. “Contact info?”
“Or an address.”
“I…I don’t have that information. I just recall my brother telling me that’s where he worked.”
“When was that?”
The tone turned from gruff to suspicious. “Why is this so important? He went missing at the Grand Canyon, not on the DC Beltway.”
“The thing is, I looked them up, but I can’t find a firm by that name located in the DC area.”
Silence. Then: “I…I think it was about six months ago when he told me.”
“So, he never took you to his office?”
“No.”
“Did he ever talk to you about his work?”
“He…he would make that joke, you know, the usual one when dealing with…stuff around DC.”
“You mean, ‘he could tell you, but then he’d have to kill you’?”
“Exactly.”
“Okay.”
“Agent Pine, what is going on?”
“I’m not sure right now. Could you fill me in on your brother’s background? Education, early life, family, that sort of thing.”
“I already told the other guy.”
“It would really help if you told me, too.”
A long sigh was followed by, “We were mostly raised on the East Coast, but we moved around a lot. Our father was in the Navy. Retired as an 0-7.”
“Rear admiral, lower half.”
“Yes, that’s right. Were you a Navy brat?”
“No, but I have friends who were. What else?”
“Ben was, I mean, is, my younger brother. We have two older sisters. Ben lives in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. One sister lives in Florida, and the other near Syracuse.”
“I understand your brother isn’t married.”
“No, he never took the plunge. His work was his life.”
“Education?”
“Georgetown. Undergrad and grad.”
“Political science?”
“Yeah, how’d you know?”
“Lucky guess. Can you give me his home address?”
“Look, I want to cooperate, but it just occurred to me that I don’t actually know if you are who you say you are.”
“Colson Lambert from the U.S. Park Service contacted you before. I can give you my badge number and a phone number to call at the Bureau to confirm I’m an agent with them. You can call me back on this number tomorrow, if you like.”
Priest didn’t say anything right away. “No, I guess it’s okay. I mean, why would you be calling me if you weren’t with the FBI, right?”
I can think of a few reasons, Pine thought to herself. But she told Priest none of them.
He gave her his brother’s home address.
“So, no word from Ben?”
“No. Look, I asked this Lambert guy if I should fly out.”
“I think you need to stay where you are. Anything develops I’ll call you immediately. And feel free to call me with any questions or concerns. Or if you think of anything that might be helpful.”
“Do you think this has to do with Ben’s work?”
“I can’t say that it doesn’t. At least not right now.”
“Do you think he’s dead?”
“I don’t think anything. We don’t know enough. But just to cover the obvious angle, did your brother have any enemies?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Okay. Have you talked to your sisters?”
“No, should I?”
“Yes. Just in case he might have contacted them.”
“Oh, right. I hadn’t thought of that. But I think he would contact me before them. We don’t live very far away from each other.”
“Still, just in case. You don’t have to alert them to anything being wrong. Just casually ask if they’ve heard from their brother.”
“Okay, I’ll do that. And let you know if they have.”
“Thanks, Mr. Priest. I appreciate it.”
“Do you think you’ll find Ben?”
“I’m going to give it my best shot. One more thing. Do you have a recent photo of your brother you can send me?”
“I do. My wife’s birthday party last month. It’s me, my wife, and Ben. I’ll email it.”
“Great.” She gave him her email and then clicked off.
A minute went by and then the photo dropped into her inbox.