Barb was asking him, “What's happening? Levon, is this about Kim?”
“Kim didn't show up at the shoot yesterday morning,” said the caller. “The magazine is keeping it quiet. Crossing their fingers. Hoping she'll come back.”
“Have the police been called? Has someone called the police?”
“I'm hanging up now,” said the caller. “But if I were you, I'd get on the next plane to Maui. You and Barbara.”
“Wait! Please, wait. How do you know she's missing?”
“Because I did it, sir. I saw her. I liked her. I took her. Have a nice day.”
Chapter 10
What do you want? Tell me what you want!”
There was a click in Levon's ear followed by a dial tone. He toggled the directory button, read “Unknown” where there should have been a caller ID.
Barb was pulling at his arm. “Levon! Tell me! What's happened?”
Barb liked to say that she was the flamethrower in the family and that he was the fireman – and those roles had become fixed over time. So Levon began to tell Barb what the caller had said, strained the fear out of his voice, kept to the facts.
Barb's face reflected the terror leaping inside his own mind like a bonfire. Her voice came through to him as if from a far distance. “Did you believe him? Did he say where she was? Did he say what happened? My God, what are we talking about?”
“All he said is she's gone?”
“She never goes anywhere without her cell,” Barb said, starting now to gasp for breath, her asthma kicking in.
Levon bolted out of bed, knocked things off Barb's night table, spilling pills and papers all over the carpet. He picked the inhaler out of the jumble, handed it to Barb, watched her take in a long pull.
Tears ran down her face.
He reached out his arms for her, and she went to him, cried into his chest, “Please? just call her.”