Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (this book - Book 3)
The road from the airport ran straight and flat, contrasting with Beth’s memories of Colorado. She had visited the state several times for family ski trips, and remembered immense mountains and windy roads hugging the sides of cliffs. Now, the mountains loomed miles away in the distance.
As if reading her thoughts, Jack said, “We’re in a valley here. The mountains start about 15 miles to the west.”
Beth nodded. “Tell me what Eric was up to. Anything unusual going on with him? I know he does freelance work. What was he working on?”
“Eric was Eric,” Jack said, shrugging his shoulders as he kept both hands on the wheel. “We didn’t always know what he was doing. He’s made quite a name for himself in the programming field, starting while he was still in school. He sometimes gets hired by developers all over the country to do remote work, for projects where he has to sign an NDA.”
“NDA?” Beth asked.
“Nondisclosure agreement. An NDA means he wasn’t allowed to talk about his work — at all — for some of those projects. It’s how some tech companies keep stuff secret, especially when their workforce is spread all over.”
“Did he tell you anything about his current job?”
“Not a thing,” Jack answered, frustration in his voice. “We thought maybe his laptop might tell us something, since he did all his work on it, but we didn’t find it in his car at the garage, and it’s not at our place. I’m not sure we could access it anyway, since I’m sure he encrypted it.”
“Hmmm,” Beth murmured. She would bet Stanley could get into the laptop, if she found the device.
“Where’s his car now?”
“Parked at the city garage. We didn’t move it after searching it. We figured if the police ever get involved, they’d want the car where he left it.”
“Anything else? Anything unusual about his life?”
“The only unusual thing was the meeting he was going to when he disappeared. The one we didn’t press him about, that I mentioned to you on the phone. It was out of character for him, because he usually was a homebody.”
“What’s he been interested in since college?”
“Not much, really.” Ross offered. “Baseball. He’s really into the statistics. Beyond that, just politics. And that’s a recent interest.”
“How recent?” Beth asked, turning in her seat so she could see Ross.
Ross didn’t speak for a moment as he considered the question.
“I guess he got into it during our senior year, and then his interest picked up after graduation. It seemed like a natural fit for him with his love of statistics. All those polls. That’s really the kind of thing he gets into.”
“Was he involved in any campaigns or anything like that? Or did he take part in anything online?”
“None of that,” Ross replied. “Just an interest. I doubt it has anything to do with his disappearance.”
“Let’s not write it off,” she said. “You never know what secrets people keep. That and the laptop are worth looking into.”
As they continued down the road, an illumination rose in the sky ahead and to her right. It appeared like magic, since the sky had been dark a short while earlier. As they got closer, a large facility came into view, lighting up the night sky. Three massive buildings sat a hundred yards or more back from the road. A chain-link fence with barbed wire at the top surrounded the place, and light posts ran the perimeter.
“What’s that place?” she asked.
“That’s WarTech,” Jack answered. “They’re the biggest employer around here. They’ve had a great year, by all the media reports.” Ross spoke with pride in his voice, almost like he was defending the reputation of his small town.
“The local economy must love them,” Beth said. As she finished her comment, they passed the end of the complex and the lights faded into the distance behind them.
“Definitely,” Jack answered. “They pretty much own the town. Personally, I think it goes a bit too far. It’s almost like everybody, including the local government, is afraid to do anything to upset the company. Like not biting the hand that feeds you, taken to the extreme.”
Beth noticed more lights straight ahead of them, and another grouping of lights ahead and to the right, although they were still too far to make out any details. The lights were getting closer and more dense.
“What’s ahead?” she asked.
“There’s a crossroads ahead,” Jack replied. “If we hang a right, it takes you through the middle of town. To the left goes to the middle of nowhere. But we’re going to go straight, which will take us to our apartment complex. The complex used to be housing for ArangoSoft employees a few years back, but the company sold the place when it laid off a bunch of employees. A developer turned them into townhomes and made out quite well when WarTech’s business started taking off. Our neighbors are an interesting mix of computer programmer types, scientists, and weapons developers.”
After proceeding straight through the intersection, they approached the lights of the apartment complex. Four two-story stucco buildings appeared in a long row, with many doors on the ground level. Balconies, cluttered with grills and furniture, filled the second floor. The place looked like it had started out very utilitarian, until humans had littered it with their possessions.
Jack slowed and turned left into a large parking lot filled with dozens of cars. He found a spot located two rows away from the building to the far right. As they exited the vehicle and grabbed Beth’s bag, she again felt the bite of the cold Colorado air.
The doors and balconies she had seen from a distance belonged to individual units. Jack and Ross led her to the third door from the right. Jack waved a key fob against a pad by the door, and the door unlocked with a click. He pushed the door open, stretching to hold it for her so she could duck inside and get out of the cold.
Once they were all safely inside, Ross heaved the door closed and leaned up against it, as if the cold air were a monster from which they were escaping. They all rubbed their hands and basked in the warmth.
They stood in a hallway extending toward a living room in the back of the condo. A small kitchen stood ahead and to the right, and to her left a set of stairs ascended over a powder room.
Jack led her up the stairs, past two bedrooms and a bathroom, to Eric’s room at the end of the hall. Eric’s room wouldn’t win any style points, but it would do. There was a queen-sized bed, a dresser, a nightstand, and a desk. The furniture was constructed from light colored wood, and had a utilitarian feel to it, like what might be in a cheap motel.
The surface of the desk was empty, reminding her of Eric’s meticulous organization. The other furniture was also bare, and the walls were empty, except for a framed collection of baseball cards and two lonely photographs. One photograph depicted the front campus of their university, while the other showed Beth, Eric, Jack, and Ross crowded together, smiling. They stood on top of a cliff, with a valley opening behind and below them.
A sense of melancholy came over Beth as her eyes moved among the items in the room. It reminded her of Eric’s room in college, since much of the furniture was the same. As she heard Jack and Ross behind her, she remembered the real reason she was here.
“Is there somewhere we can sit down to go over some things?” Beth asked.
Two minutes later they sat around a small table in the kitchen. A book, “The Underdog — the Life of Socrates Chappelle,” sat in the middle of the table. The cover depicted a photograph of the senator, standing next to a German Shepherd, amid pine trees covered by snow. Senator Chappelle was either a big man or the German Shepherd was unusually small. The senator’s dark hair was streaked with gray at his temples, and his face was distinctive, with a large and pronounced bone structure. His friendly smile matched his warm eyes.
Ross noticed her gaze, and said, “Eric is a big fan of the senator. He had just started reading that book.”
Beth nodded and reached into her bag, grabbing her iPad and calling up a map of the area. Ross and Jack spent the next several minutes familiarizing her with the town’s gridlike layout, and pointing out the location of the police station and the parking garage.
“Do you think I could borrow your car, Jack? I want to check out a few things downtown.”
Jack and Ross exchanged glances.
“Why don’t we go with you?” Jack asked.
Beth had anticipated his question. Even without knowing the area, she could accomplish more without Jack and Ross. And although she wasn’t expecting any trouble, she wanted to to be able to transform into her superheroine persona if need be.
“I think it’s better if you stay here, in case Eric shows up, or somebody else comes by. Plus, we might have a busy few days ahead of us, so we should take turns resting. Let me take the lead for now, and when I get worn out, you guys can pick up the slack. You can help me out by emailing me a photo of Eric’s car, if you have one.”
Jack and Ross exchanged looks before giving reluctant nods.
“Just promise us you’ll stay in the immediate downtown,” Jack said. “Wynton is safe, so long as you stay in the main downtown area.”
“I promise,” Beth replied, giving them her best smile of reassurance.
“All right,” Jack said, sighing a bit as he dug into his pocket for his keys. He found them and slid them across the table to her. “I’ll find a photo of his car and text it to you.”
“Thanks. And don’t worry,” she said. “I’ll be fine.”
They spent a few more minutes talking, with Jack and Ross describing the town and some of its establishments. But then it was off to bed, to be ready for a day that might decide Eric’s fate.
Other links:
Sapphire Angel, Superheroine (Book 1)
Power Play (Book 2)
Deconstruction (this book - Book 3)
Oh, she’s DEFINITELY going to be fine. Looks like it’s time to check out the area. I have a feeling Senator Chappelle is more than just a simple government official/Eric’s idol. Beth’s insanely good at asking the right questions and coming up with plans on the fly; then again, I guess those skills just come naturally when you’re a reporter for a living. It makes me rather envious. And she’s not even real. 😤
The power of good writing, I guess. Got a few more minutes of free time, maybe I’ll read up to Chapter 10.