Once she was gone, I said, “Are you the Ted?”

“That’s me,” he said. “What can I do for you?”

“I’m a reporter for the Promise Falls Standard,” I said. “The police, Detective Duckworth, he told me he was speaking to someone here about that woman who’s gone missing. Would that be you?”

“One and the same,” he said with a lilt in his voice. The suggestion that he was about to be interviewed had brightened him.

“So this woman, Jan Harwood, she was in here?”

“I’m as sure it was her as I am that you’re standing right there,” he said.

“And you called the police? Or were they in touch with you?”

“Well,” he said, slipping off the stool and leaning across the counter, “I saw her on the news the night before, them saying she was missing, and right away I recognized her.”

“Wow,” I said, making notes in the pad I’d taken from my pocket. “But how could you recognize someone who was just in here for a minute?”

“Normally, you’d be right about that,” he said. “But she was pretty chatty, gave me a chance to get a good look at her. Nice-looking lady, too.”

Jan? Chatty?

“What did she have to say?”

“That she was up here for a drive with her husband.”

“She just came out and said that?”

“Well, first, she said how beautiful it was up here, that she’d never been to Lake George before, and I said are you staying somewhere up around here, and she said no, she was just up for a drive with her husband.”

That all sounded plausible. Some friendly conversation. Why was Duckworth trying to make that sound like more than it was?

“So then what?” I asked. “She bought something and left?”

“She bought some drinks, I remember that. Can’t say what they were off the top of my head. An iced tea, I think.”

“And then she was gone?”

“She asked me if there was any interesting things to do around here. Something fun.”

“Something fun?”

“Aren’t you going to write all this down?” Ted asked.

I realized I hadn’t been taking notes. I smiled and said, “Don’t worry, I’ll remember the good stuff.”

“I just don’t want to be misquoted or anything.”

“Don’t worry about that. So what did she mean, something fun?”

“She wondered if there was something to do around here, because her husband had brought her up on a little car trip, and she was wondering why. She thought maybe he was planning to surprise her with something.”

“Did she give any other reason why they were up this way? Like, I don’t know, that they were meeting someone?”

Ted thought about that. “I don’t think so. Just that her husband had brought her up this way and wouldn’t tell her why.”

I set my notepad and pen on the counter and didn’t ask anything else for a moment. Ted was confused.

“There a problem?”

“Why are you lying, Ted?” I asked.

“What’s that?”

“I asked why you’re lying.”

“What the hell are you talking about? I’m telling you the truth. I’m telling you the same thing I told the police.”

“I don’t think so,” I said. “I think you’re making this up.”

“Are you some kind of nut? She was here, standing right where you are. Only two days ago.”

“I believe she was here, but I don’t believe she said those things to you. Did someone pay you to tell the police those things? Is that what’s going on?”

“Who the hell are you, anyway?”

“I told you. I’m a reporter, and I don’t like it when people try to jerk me around,” I said.

“For fuck’s sake,” Ted said, “if you don’t believe me, get the police to show you the tape.”

“Tape?”

“Okay, I call it tape, but it’s on a disc or digital or some kind of shit like that. But look.” He pointed over his shoulder. A small camera hung from a bracket that was bolted to the wall. “We got sound, too. It’s not great, but you listen close you can hear what people say. I got robbed pretty bad here back in 2007, asshole even took a shot that went right past my ear and into the wall back here. That’s when I got the camera and the microphone.”

“It’s all recorded?” I said.

“Ask the cops. They came up here earlier today, made a copy of it. Why the hell are you accusing me of lying?”

“Why would she say those things?” I said. But I was talking to myself, not Ted.

I grabbed my notepad, slipped it back into my jacket, and started heading for the door.

Ted called out, “When’s this going to be in the paper?”

I was shaking my head, looking down as I went out the door, trying to come up with a reason why Jan would have told someone she didn’t know why I’d brought her up here. Why she would have said I was planning some kind of surprise for her. It made sense that Jan wouldn’t have told a stranger we’d taken a run up here so I could meet a confidential source. That would have been just plain dumb. But to actually start up a conversation for the purpose of saying those things-what the hell was that about?

Maybe, had I not been so preoccupied, I would have had some inkling that Welland, Elmont Sebastian’s ex-con driver, was waiting to ambush me the moment I came outside.

TWENTY-EIGHT

Welland grabbed hold of me by my jacket and threw me up against the wall of Ted’s Lakeview General Store hard enough to knock the wind out of me.

“What the-”

It was all I managed to say before Welland had his face in mine. “Hey, Mr. Harwood,” he said. As I tried to catch my breath I couldn’t help noticing his was hot and smelled of onions.

“Get your hands off me,” I said. Welland’s arms, like a couple of shock absorbers, had me pinned to the building.

“Mr. Sebastian was hoping,” he said with exaggerated politeness, “you might be able to have a word with him.”

I glanced over and saw the limo only a few feet away, the motor running, the tinted windows all in the up position. I’d have to take Welland’s word that his boss was in there.

“I said get your fucking hands off me,” I said to Welland, still holding me against the building.

Welland, not letting up, said, “Let me ask you something.”

I said nothing.

“Some guys, guys like you, can actually go their whole lives and never actually have to prove themselves. You know what I mean? I’m talking in a man-to-man context.” He said that last word with pride. “You ever had to do that? Or was the last time you were in a fight when you were six years old?”

I still said nothing. The door opened and Ted stuck his head out. “Everything okay out here?”

Welland shot him a look. “Get lost, old man.”

Ted went back inside.

Welland eased off on me, but placed a viselike grip on my arm and led me to the limo. He opened the back door and shoved me through the opening.

Elmont Sebastian sat on the far side of the thickly padded leather seat. In his hand was a Mars bar, the wrapper peeled back on it like it was a banana. I pulled my leg out of the way just in time to keep Welland from closing the door on it.

“Mr. Harwood, a pleasure,” Sebastian said.

Welland came around the car and got behind the wheel. He put the car in drive and sped out of the lot so fast I felt myself thrown back into the seat.

“I think they call this kidnapping,” I said.

Sebastian grinned. “Don’t be ridiculous,” he said, chewing. “This is a business meeting.”

“I never saw you following me,” I said. “Big car like this is kind of hard to disguise.”

Sebastian nodded. “We were a couple of miles back.”

“Then how did you-”

“We were sloppy last time, having you followed up here with one car, which, to your credit, you spotted. So this time, we used several to keep track of you. I brought in a few of my other staff. When you have a network of institutions such as mine, you have access to a large and varied workforce. Most of them know how to drive. Some of them probably took their driver’s test in stolen cars.” He chuckled at his own joke. “Anyway, once you stopped here again, that information was relayed to me.”