My Wife Is Missing(68)

“How about finding my wife. What’s our next move?”

“You got that list of friends and family? How many of them have you called?”

From the pocket of his jeans, Michael fished out a folded piece of paper. There were some fifty names on it, addresses too, mostly older friends and relatives he’d sourced from Harvey and Lucinda. Half the names were crossed out.

“I’ve gone over this list repeatedly and called every name we both knew. The rest don’t live anywhere near Ohio.”

Michael slid the paper over to Kennett, who studied it intently.

“Good detective work here, Mike,” Kennett said, as he scanned the list. “The job looks glamorous to outsiders, but really it’s a lot of gumshoe and tedium. I say call them all, even the ones living far away from here. They may know somebody you don’t, might give us a new lead.”

“Right,” Michael said. He took the list from Kennett, slipped it back into his pocket.

They finished their food, eating mostly in silence. Michael kept ruminating on Kennett’s keen interest in his past. Was it all just small talk? He couldn’t decide. But from experience, Michael knew the inherent risks that came with keeping secrets. Secrets had the potential to make even the most innocent things—a comment, a look, an innocuous gesture from another—feel like a threat.

A waitress, still light on her feet after Michael had seen her bounding about from table to table, stopped by to check on her customers.

“Anything else, boys?” she said in a singsong voice.

“All set,” said Michael. “Just the check, please.”

The waitress was about to leave when Kennett held up a finger.

“Hold on a sec,” he said. He sent her a flash of his badge. Michael watched some color slip from her face.

“My partner here is a trainee. Doesn’t quite have the moves down yet. We’re looking for someone,” Kennett said. “Wondering if she might have stopped in here with a couple of kids.” Kennett shifted his attention over to Michael. “Waitresses and waiters see more people and things than anyone, Mike. They know what’s up, so you should always make it a point to ask them.” To the waitress Kennett said, “ABT—always be teaching, that’s my motto.” He sent her one of his trademark playful winks before switching his focus back over to Michael.

“Got that picture, Mike?”

Michael pulled up the picture he knew Kennett was referring to and gave his phone to their waitress. She studied the image of his family intently for several moments while Michael studied her eyes. There he saw what he’d hoped for—a look of recognition.

“Yeah, she was in here at the start of my shift,” she said. “I didn’t take their order. Jeannie did, but she’s gone for the night.”

Michael’s whole face lit up, but Kennett maintained a neutral expression. Nothing could faze him.

“But the kids had dark hair,” said the waitress. “I noticed because it wasn’t a great dye job. I’m studying to be a hairdresser and I said to Jeannie, who the heck does that to their kids?”

“Someone who doesn’t want to be found,” Kennett answered dryly. “When did your shift start?”

“Five hours ago,” the waitress said.

“Okay, so we’re pretty far behind her. Did she happen to say where she might have been headed? Maybe said something to Jeannie?”

“My guess is they went to the hospital.”

Michael let out a gasp.

“Hospital? What was wrong?” he asked. A current of anxiety barreled up inside him.

The waitress returned a shrug. “I dunno,” she said. “It looked to me like the girl was having a hard time breathing.”

“Addie,” Michael whispered to himself.

“Thanks,” Kennett said, “you’ve been extremely helpful.” He was already looking at his phone instead of the waitress. “Pretty sure she’d have gone to Nationwide Children’s. Let’s go, Mike.”

Twenty minutes later, Michael and Kennett were face-to-face with the doctor who had treated Addie.

“They said they were going north to Toledo. I’m sorry, officer. We’re happy to help law enforcement with runaways and missing persons, but we don’t always get notified.”

“Right, not a worry, you’ve been really helpful,” said Kennett, parroting what he’d told the waitress not long ago.

“So what now?” Michael asked Kennett as the two made their way out of the hospital.

“Now, I guess we go to Toledo,” Kennett said. “I can give the police a more focused area to search. Maybe we get lucky.”

“Right,” said Michael, who wasn’t feeling nearly as optimistic. “Why the hell would Natalie go to Toledo? And why wouldn’t she take I-80 from New York? It’s more direct. Columbus is quite the detour.”

All Kennett could do was offer up a shrug.

“She told the Statie she was headed to Indianapolis, but she’d have to know that detail would get back to you. Could be she’s still trying to throw us off course, or maybe she has her reasons for heading north. Either way, it’s the best lead we got, so we gotta follow it.”

“I’m just glad Addie is okay.” Michael breathed out his relief. “But damn.” He shook his head in dismay. “Nat’s putting too much stress on the kids. We’ve got to find her before something really terrible happens.”