Robert B Parker
Thin Air
For Joan: still the taste of wine
Prologue
He had brought several silk scarves with him in a shopping bag and had used them to gag her and to bind her hands and feet.
"The silk is gentle," he had said to her. "It will not cut you as rope would."
Now she lay helpless, full of fear and anger at her helplessness, on a mattress in the back of an old yellow Ford van, and he drove. As he drove he played with the radio until he found a country-western station.
"Here it is, Angel-90 FM, Rock Country, remember?"
If she raised her head, Lisa could see through the front windshield. The tops of trees went by, and poles and power lines. No buildings. So she wasn't in the city now.
"God, how long's it been, Lees? Ten months and six days. Nearly a year. Man, it's been a hard year but now it's over. We're together. "
The van hit a pothole and Lisa bounced uncomfortably on the mattress on the floor of the van. The gag in her mouth was soaked with her saliva; she knew she was drooling a little.
"And that's all that matters," he said. "Whatever happened, happened, and it's over. Now it's all ahead of us. Now we're together."
The van had slowed. They were in traffic. She could hear it, and the van braked often, making her slide around on the mattress. It seemed like a brand-new mattress. Had he bought it for this? Like he'd bought the silk scarves? The van halted altogether. Through the windshield she could see the cab of a trailer truck beside them. If she could only wriggle forward a little maybe the truck driver would see her. But she couldn't.
He had looped a rope through her bound ankles and tied it to a ring in the van floor. She was anchored where she was. Traffic started again. The radio played, he sang along with it. The traffic stopped. He turned while they were standing and aimed an ancient video camera at her over the seat.
"Got to get this on tape, our first time together again."
She heard the camera whir. "Look up, Angel, at the camera."
She buried her face in the mattress. The camera whirred for another moment. Then it stopped and the van started up again.
Chapter 1
I was hitting the heavy
feet up on the desk. Belson stared at the pictures.
"My wife's gone," he said.
"Where?"
"I don't know."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"Has she left you?" I said.
"I don't know. She's gone. Just disappeared. You know?"
Belson kept his gaze riveted on Henry's wall.
"Tell me about it," I said.
"You know my wife?"
"Yeah, sure. Susan and I were at the wedding."
"Her name's Lisa."
I nodded.
"Second wife, you know."
"Yeah. I know that, Frank."
"And she's a lot younger, and too good looking for me, anyway."
"You think she left you," I said.
"She wouldn't do that. She wouldn't go off without a word."
"You think something happened to her?"
"I checked every hospital in New England," Belson said. "I got a missing person report on the wire all over the Northeast. I called every cop I know personally, told them to look out for her. They'll pay attention. She's a cop's wife."
He turned again and stared out at the exercise room again. Henry's office was silent.
"She could take care of herself. She's been around."
"You and she been having trouble?" I said.
His back still to me, he shook his head.
"You want me to look for her?"
He was motionless. I waited. Finally he spoke. "No. I can do that. We don't find her soon, I'll take time off," he said. "I know how to look."
I nodded.
"What's her maiden name?" I said.
"St. Claire."
"She got family somewhere?"
Belson turned and looked straight at me for the first time.
"I don't want to talk about it," he said.
I nodded. Belson stared out at the people exercising in their variegated spandex. Sometimes I thought it was like golf; people did it so they could wear the clothes. But then I noticed that most people looked funny in the clothes and decided I was wrong. Or most of them knew themselves but slightly. The silence in Henry's office was stifling. I waited. Belson stared.
Finally, I said, "You don't want to talk about it, Frank, and you don't want me to help you look, how come you came here and told me about it?"
He stared silently for another time, then he spoke without turning.
"Happened to you," he said. "Ten, twelve years ago."
"Susan left for a while," I said.
"She told you she was going."
"She left a note," I said.
Belson stared silently through the window. The exercisers were exercising, and the trainers were training, but I knew Belson wasn't looking at them. He wasn't looking at anything.
"She came back," he said.
"So to speak," I said. "We worked it out."
"Lisa didn't leave no note," Belson said.
Anything I could think of to say about that was not encouraging.
"When I find her I'll ask her about that," he said. He turned finally and looked straight at me. "Thanks for your time," he said and went out the office door.
It was dark when the van stopped. She could hear a radio playing somewhere and a dog barking. He got out of the car and came around and opened the van doors. She wriggled into a sitting position. The camera light was bright in her eyes. The camera whirred.