Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (this book - Book 3)
Beth spent a few moments calming Jack, telling him to take deep breaths. Once he settled down, she turned to her questions.
“When did you last see Eric?” she asked, craning her head to the side to peak down the hall toward Conner. He sat still, not touching his food, and tapping the table with his fingers. Beth cringed.
“He left our place around nine o’clock last night,” Jack answered. “I remember thinking it was odd, him going out that late. We had finished playing Madden, and he said he had to go meet someone.”
“Did he say who?”
“No. He seemed nervous, so we thought he might have a date. We didn’t press him, though. We kind of have an unwritten agreement not to bring it up, after the bad luck we’ve had with women.”
“Did he at least tell you where he was going?
“He said downtown. Nothing more. We found his car sitting on the top level of the parking garage on Dawson Boulevard.”
“Any sign of foul play?” she asked.
“You mean aside from the fact that he just left his car there, and none of us have heard from him?”
“Yes, aside from that.”
“No, nothing. The car doesn’t look like anybody has messed with it.”
Beth breathed easier. Perhaps Jack was overreacting to an innocent situation.
“Maybe he met someone,” Beth suggested. “I know it’s not like him, but it’s not out of the realm of possibility.
“No way,” Jack replied. “We were supposed to have a meeting this morning to pitch our app to a potential buyer. There’s no way he would’ve missed that, even for a girl.”
“You’re sure?” Beth asked. She hesitated, almost afraid to say the next words. “As long as I’ve known him, he hasn’t had much going on in the romance department.”
“Beth, trust me. Ross and I are in the same boat, and would jump at the chance to date a great girl, but none of us would have missed this meeting. We cooked up a new app that could really be something big. This meeting was our chance to show it off and make some headway with it. And it’s all about baseball stats, which he loves.”
“Okay, okay, so he didn’t hook up with somebody,” Beth said. “Any other possibilities? I know his parents died a few years ago, but he’s got some family, right? A stepsister or something, if I recall? Perhaps there was a family emergency.”
“His stepsister is barely a step removed from being an acquaintance. His stepdad died soon after his mom did, and the stepsister has a family of her own. She and Eric aren’t close at all.”
Beth remembered when Eric visited his stepsister’s family over winter break during their senior year, and hadn’t seemed excited about it. The two of them seemed to view their relationship as one of obligation — something they did because their late parents would have wanted them to. Beyond his stepsister, he had one uncle who had died years earlier.
“Have you at least checked with the stepsister?” Beth asked.
“No, but I’ll call her once I get off the phone with you, just in case. I’m sure I can track her down.”
“Good,” Beth replied. “What exactly did the police say?”
“To come back in two days if he hasn’t turned up. They played down the whole thing, and said that a huge percentage of these turn out to be nothing. Like I said, that’s why we called you. Maybe you know some buzzwords or something we can use to get their attention. You’re good at knowing how to talk to people, right? You wrote that big series on the gun lobby, where you got that badass gun dealer and some legislators to talk to you. And then there was that one with the energy company. You still do that, right?”
Beth hesitated. “Yes and no,” she replied. “I still write for Radiance, but I’ve moved into… less exciting pieces now.”
A month earlier, after Sapphire Angel had saved the President of the United States and found worldwide stardom, Beth had decided she needed less drama and fanfare in at least one part of her life, so she had asked her publisher to move her from investigative pieces to lifestyle stories.
“Oh,” Jack said quietly. “How about your boyfriend? Does he have any tips?”
“He works for a state agency. I’ll ask him, but I doubt he can be much help.” Conner’s style — direct and somewhat brash — would never work for Jack and Ross.
“Oh,” Jack answered, his voice dropping and oozing despair. Beth’s heart dropped, too, almost feeling his pain come through the phone.
“What’s the nearest airport to you?” she asked, as a familiar longing to help stirred within her.
“Nearest airport?” Jack asked. “Do you think he flew out somewhere, so you want to check the records?”
“No, although that’s a good point. I’ll see if Conner can look into it. But I asked because I’m coming out there.”
Jack remained silent for a moment. “Are you sure?” he asked, his voice full of emotion, as if he were feeling hope for the first time. “I mean, that would be awesome, but that’s not why I called.”
She was sure. The timing was terrible, but she couldn’t abandon Jack and Ross to handle this on her own. Her relationship with Conner would have to take a back seat again, as would further investigation into the origins of her powers.
“I’m glad you called,” she said. “The police won’t do anything for a couple of days at least, and I remember reading that these first several hours are crucial. And I still remember a thing or two about this sort of thing. So what’s the nearest airport?”
“The nearest one is in Meachville. It’s a little regional thing. Or you could fly into Denver or another bigger airport, but they’re several hours away by car. It could still be quicker depending on the connections.”
“I’ll figure it out and shoot you an email with my itinerary.”
“Okay. Beth,” he said, and his voice cracked. “I don’t know what to say, because I’m not good with wishy-washy stuff, but thanks.”
“No problem,” she said, her voice cracking, too, almost as if his emotion filled her. “Listen, I really need to get going and get started on this. I’ll keep in touch.”
Beth ended the call and hurried back to the table. Their food sat on the table and she guessed, by Conner’s frown, it had been there for several minutes. As Beth sat across from him, he looked at her with a blank expression.
“Sorry,” she said with a cringe.
“So what’s up?” he asked. “Bad news in Colorado?”
Beth took a deep breath, and put both of her palms down on the table in front of her.
“This is really bad timing,” she said. “I had planned to tell you that the next two weeks were going to be all about us. You’re right about how I’ve been acting, and I wanted to show you that things could be different.”
“But?”
“But then I got that phone call. And now I have to leave for a little while.”
“Leave, as in leave town?”
“Yes. Eric has gone missing, and it sounds like a bad situation. I can help, so I’m going to Colorado.”
“Missing? As in… how?”
“He didn’t come home last night, and Ross and Jack found his car at a parking garage.”
Conner slumped back in his seat and cocked his head with a “You’ve got to be kidding me” look.
“He’s a guy, and he hooked up,” he said as he threw his hands up at his side. He shook his head in disbelief. “You’re going out there for some dude who didn’t come home for one night?”
Beth’s face flashed red, and she set her jaw as she glared at Conner. “I’m glad to see you’re so concerned.”
“If I thought the guy was really in danger, I’d be concerned. He’s not. He’s with a girl.”
“No, Conner, he’s not. Didn’t you say yourself that none of those guys would ever find a girl? He didn’t hook up. He even missed an important meeting this morning, and Jack and Ross haven’t heard from him.”
Beth studied Conner’s reaction. He wasn’t convinced, but she was angry enough she didn’t care. She was going to Colorado regardless of what he thought. She dismissed the idea of asking him for help.
“What’s that they say about blind squirrels?” he said. “Any of those guys would jump at the first chance to hook up with a girl. You’re going out there for no reason, other than to avoid our issues.”
She balled her fists in frustration. One of her good friends might be in trouble, and Conner wasn’t trying to understand her point of view.
“I’m sorry you don’t get this,” she said after taking a deep breath. “I’m not running from our problems. I really did plan on telling you it would be be different. This is bad timing. You act like I want this to happen.”
Her thoughts turned to her life as Sapphire Angel, and how trouble and coincidences seemed to find her.
“I don’t know,” Conner said, shaking his head. “I was already thinking we might need to take some time off, to figure out what we both want out of this relationship. This development makes that decision easy.”
Beth recoiled as if he had slapped her. “Damnit, Conner,” she said, her voice trembling. “We need just the opposite, since we just started dating. But if that’s what you want, then so be it.”
“If we need just the opposite, then stay,” he replied in a softer tone. “Let’s work on us. You don’t always have to save everyone.”
She stared at him, as his words reminded her of what her late boyfriend always told her, even before she became Sapphire Angel. You don’t always need to butt in when you see someone who needs help.
“I can’t stay,” she murmured, as her shoulders sagged. “I need to do this.”
Conner pursed his lips and nodded. “Okay, then,” he said, as he raised a hand to motion for the check. Within seconds, the cute waitress brought it over, smiling and not taking her eyes off him.
A few minutes later he had paid, and they left the diner in silence. When they were in the parking lot, he called over the top of his car toward her.
“Let me know when you get there safely.”
She nodded, but didn’t speak before getting in her car and starting the engine. Her mind was a jumble of emotions as she drove off. One month. They had been dating just over a month, and they were fighting already. This was supposed to be the stage of the relationship where everything was perfect.
Beth wondered if it was their chemistry, or if it was her. More specifically, she wondered if it was Sapphire Angel. This was her first relationship since donning her costume, and it wasn’t off to a good start.
End of Chapter 6
Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (this book - Book 3)
Whooooo! Cracks are startin’ to form, y’all! John, it ain’t looking good!
I was wondering why Conner couldn’t just come along as well, and then he started talking down the whole situation like the cops that Jack initially went to first, and then I was like.....”Yeah, no.”
Or maybe this is just a whole reverse psychology thing to try and break her until she ultimately reveals her secret, and then he just casually goes “Yeah, I knew the whole time”, or something to that effect. Wouldn’t that be hilarious?
I’m also guessing that Conner’s probably gonna change his mind and go to Colorado himself some time into the mission to offer his assistance. I want Finn’s to be a real location so badly.....even though I’d have no one to go there with.....
On to the next chapter!