Long Road to Mercy (Atlee Pine, #1)(52)

“Okay, I understand that. I’m looking for Ben Priest because he disappeared when he was in Arizona. That’s where I’m assigned.”

“Oh my God. Do you have any idea what happened to him?”

Pine pulled back her hair to reveal the wound she’d suffered when the Explorer had hit the tree.

“I was with him when he was abducted. I was almost killed, too. I don’t like it when people abduct other people. I like it even less when people try to kill me.”

The blood drained from Renfro’s face. “Oh my God, you poor thing.”

“So any help you can give me would be much appreciated.”

“Absolutely. With Ben my thought was, is he some sort of spy? I mean he’s obviously brilliant and knows all these languages. And he looks sort of like James Bond, right? I’ve seen him in a tux. God, if I were twenty years younger, I might make a run at him. Hell, ten years younger. Jeffery’s brilliant and makes a ton of money, but he’s the spitting image of Don Rickles.”

“Okay. Did he ever invite you to his place?”

Renfro looked puzzled. “Now that you mention it, no. Wait, I take that back. I’ve had drinks in his backyard.”

“But never in the house?”

“No. I guess I never thought about that. I mean, he was a guy. And I always liked to do the parties at my place. And maybe his house was a mess. He was a bachelor, after all.” She paused. “He was, wasn’t he? I never saw any women over there. Wait, is he gay? That would really depress four of my girlfriends. And me too, quite frankly.”

“Not that we know of. Anything he ever said that struck you as odd?”

Renfro drank her coffee and mulled over this query. “Odd how?”

“No particular way. Just your impression.”

“Well, there was something. I was having a dinner party outside. This was not that long ago.”

“Okay, what happened?”

“Well, Ben was his charming self, regaling the guests with some story about traveling overseas.”

“Did you catch where?”

“Not exactly. Let me think. He said something about inadvertently crossing a border and that he was lucky to get back unscathed.”

“Go on.”

“Now I remember. He said one of the Stans. I wasn’t sure what he was talking about. Stan who?”

“One of the Stans. Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan. Used to be part of the Soviet Union. Central Asia.”

“Oh, right. I guess that does make sense. Hey, what can I say? I went to college to find a husband. Well, he said that the world really was unpredictable and you just never knew what was going to happen. I asked him if he was talking about anything specifically.”

“What did he say?”

“He said, ‘I would have to wait and see.’”

“How did you take that?”

“Well, then he laughed and drank down his wine, pinched my arm in a playful way, and told me not to listen to him. That he was just kidding around. Too much booze. But the thing was the party hadn’t been going on that long. That was only his second glass.”

“Did you ever know him to do that before?”

“No, not really. I mean not in that way. He seemed, well, anxious. I remember catching a glimpse of him just staring off into space. He never did that before at my parties. He was always right in the center of things regaling people. It was odd.”

Pine next took out her phone and showed her the digital sketch that Jennifer Yazzie had done.

“Have you seen this man around before? With Priest?”

Renfro studied the picture. “You know, he does looks familiar.”

“How?”

Renfro leaned back in her chair and let the sunlight hit her face. “I’m not a good sleeper, never have been. My mother was an insomniac, and I’m convinced I got that from her.” She leaned forward and cupped her hands around her coffee.

“It was, oh, maybe one in the morning. I was upstairs. I’d just gotten back from the kitchen with a cup of tea. I was looking out the window onto the street. The moon was out and it was really as clear as day. A car pulled down the street and stopped in front of Ben’s house.”

“What kind of car? A cab?”

“No. It was a regular car. I guess these days it could have been an Uber or something like that. Anyway, a guy gets out. He goes around to the rear of the car. The driver had popped the trunk. He pulled out his bag. And when he did that, he sort of reflexively gazed up, and I got a real good look at him.” She tapped Pine’s phone. “And he looked a lot like that guy.”

“Did he go into Priest’s home?”

“The door opened. Someone was there. The man passed through and the door closed.”

“You think it was Priest?”

“I couldn’t see the person, really. But who else would it have been?”

“Did you ever see the man again?”

“No.”

“And when was this?”

“I can tell you exactly, because Jeffery was gone on a business trip. It was ten days ago.”

The woman glanced up at Pine, who was staring off.

“Does that help you?” asked Renfro.

“Yeah, it does.”

“If he is a spy, maybe, I don’t know, our enemies have him,” she said breathlessly.